“iFi Nano iDSD LE: Light in price and weight but not performance…the Nano is a little gem of a device:” says Paul Rigby the Audiophile Man.

8 years ago

“Looking for a low cost, high value headphone amplifier/DAC?”

“The iDSD LE comes from the same design place as the Nano iDSD but without the SPDIF output, digital filter selection and runs any file up to DSD128/PCM384…what iFi terms as ‘True Native.’ That is, no conversion in PCM or – and this is the important one – DSD takes place within the chassis, maintaining the initial file quality…Based upon a Burr-Brown DAC chip, the click crystals are soured from AMR (i.e: military-grade temperature compensated master clock modules) plus AMR’s Zero Jitter Lite technology. DirectDrive also means that there are no output coupling capacitors. The company believes that sound is enhanced using this diagnosis method…Inside is a Lithium Polymer battery for eight hours of music play….Playing an MP3 version of Marvin Gaye’s Mercy Mercy Me, I was impressed by how the Nano approached the potential disaster that was this MP3 file. It used discipline. That is, it applied admirable focus and precision as well as a toolbox of low noise applications that gave this track excellent imagery in the structured soundstage. This meant that the reverb from the secondary percussion had genuine ambience while the bass guitar had a both heft and character. Instrumental separation gave the guitar time and space of perform while the lead vocal had a real sense of presence that allowed Gaye to offer emotion on this passionate track. Of course, the initial source track had very little information to speak of so it was all the more remarkable that the Nano could make any sense of it. A good start, therefore….I was impressed by the control over the bottom end…The Nano performed well here…For the price, the Nano performed incredibly well. The low noise approach to music play is a real and significant bonus that, along with its overall precision, gives you top quality music production from DXD and DSD at the very high end all the way down to lowly MP3. Super for hi-fi, computers and phones, the Nano is a little gem of a device.”