Is this the world's most diabolically expensive DAC? [iFi Diablo 2]
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Tuesday April 9, 2024
David Mellor
David Mellor is CEO and Course Director of Audio Masterclass. David has designed courses in audio education and training since 1986 and is the publisher and principal writer of Adventures In Audio.
How did you know I can’t afford it?
@driz77: $130,000? Bargain.
The new dCS DAC is $305,000.
@TonicFrank45: I've been listening to the Diablo 2 for about 2 months now and I'm thrilled with the little red devil. I previously had the ifi iDSD MICRO for over 5 years and it sounds very good, but the Diablo 2 takes it up a notch 👍
my current setup: IFI IDSD DIABLO 2
ASTELL & KERN KANN ALPHA
HIFIMAN ANANDA
CARDAS AUDIO PARSEC HEADPHONE CABLE
4.4MM TRRS SYMMETRICAL CABLE
@anthonyroach7974: Most powerful thing is the brain witch you can train to separate musical parts I can get a fabulously sound just with my apple iPad with the Spotify built in graphic maybe that’s because I’m a musician difference what musicians want all needed when we discovered distortion 😂😂😂😂😂😂
@ChiefExecutiveOrbiter: Nice autechre song
@Synthematix: I wouldnt pay £1300 for a new kidney never mind a dac, my educated guess is that dacs in the £300 range would be on par.
@kurt120032002: what a waste of time this video is. 15 min of spec sheet reading. just go on the webside and look at the product, you will save yourrself 10 min of your life. Maybe we will have a review on this product instead of spec story time, but I won't hold my breath.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @kurt120032002: Oh, you missed my interpretations of the specs. Oh dear, your loss.
@kurt120032002 replies to @kurt120032002: @AudioMasterclass no, I didn't missed it, that was the story time. Most of us are in the hobby for a decent period of time got other gear, we can interpret numbers on a spec sheet. What we did not know looking at the spec sheet is how this device actually sound, and 15 min later viewers still have no clue.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @kurt120032002: @kurt120032002 It seems then that my style of video doesn't suit your requirements. I have no plans on changing my style so I suggest that you avoid my channel. There, everyone's happy.
@Mattje8: £1299…. Someone show this guy dCS. His head will explode.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Mattje8: C'mon, as DAC prices go, dCS is midrange.
@guybrushtwood: I would argue that iem is the correct term when being used by a singer or musician to monitor their audio internally.
My argument may also be very incorrect 😅
@AudioMasterclass replies to @guybrushtwood: I'd say you are correct. However neither you nor I get to make the rules.
@guybrushtwood replies to @guybrushtwood: @AudioMasterclass or do we…
@ronaldmcdonald2456: No headphones here. Hate 'em. But your review was THOROUGHLY entertaining! Thanks, again😄
@ppanzer7243: A long time ago I Radio/TV Technician and i hat alot of costumers in HIFI audio. Mostely stupid guys who are paying alot of money for esoteric technology. It's looking pretty much tha same today. This was the reason for me to give up my job and looking für better chances with more salary. I'm still laughing about all those stupid poeple.
Once one guy told me that vinyl records have a frequency response of up to 75 KHz and so it is far better than tape wich is mostely limited to about 20 KHz.
Thanks for this video and go on!
@Kevinb1821: 1300 dollars ? I just have a topping e30 connected to a battery pack for power and I love the way it sounds. Will this actually give me noticeable sound improvement?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Kevinb1821: Depends what calibre audiophile you are. But even if you're Olympic standard, at ten times the price will it be ten times better?
@keithwan4028: Not worth it..
@AudioMasterclass replies to @keithwan4028: For someone struggling with rent, food, heating etc then not worth it. For someone with plenty of money to spend, they'll hardly notice the cost.
@DeezY-1119: ...and they didn't even bother to make it look decent. ugh
@davidchapman6557: Concerning a very wide frequency response someone once said, (I forget who unfortunately) “The wider you open the window, the more the muck flies in.”
@AudioMasterclass replies to @davidchapman6557: Yes I heard this back in the 70s or maybe even the 60s and it's not wrong.
@Bob.martens: ifi products are snake-oil, overpriced or both.
@JingoLoBa57: I don’t think Americans understand British humor. The jokes on you…
@copperheadviper7904 replies to @JingoLoBa57: No they don't understand. I'm Canadian and half Brit.. took me awhile... Now I watch UK tv mostly for the crack me up sarcastic humour.
@hartyewh1: It's output power claims are essentially false unless they've updated them on the site and it's essentially the same as the old Diablo.
@matyi1656: I like this DAC very much, it's awesome, so I decided not to buy it
@Pierre-Leloup: A marketting product with a dreadful staging, sorry Sir.
@Sound-Traveller: My cheap Loxjie D40 Pro has much better specs and sounds so much better than my Schiit Yggdrasil top of the range R2R, and yes it's maybe not as nice as this one but being smart is not always related to esthetics ;-)
@barlow2976: Colours, I like colours. I bought my used Mojo because it had colours. They're nice, I just don't remember what they mean. What's Betty's favourite colour?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @barlow2976: Betty's favourite colour is #cc294d Surely everyone knows that.
@barlow2976 replies to @barlow2976: @AudioMasterclass Only those who have glimpsed her lingerie that is. Excuse me, I'm going to have to go and check my frequency responses..
@djavoizkrsaful: It's looks like China cheap junk!
@Douglas_Blake_579 replies to @djavoizkrsaful: Looking at the board photo on the product website, I see about $15.00 worth of parts (in production quantities) and nothing whatsoever that stands out as new or even superior technology.
@vvsousa: Most things in hifi are not worth what they cost, to be good you just need to raise the price!
@Douglas_Blake_579 replies to @vvsousa: Cute story for you...
I used to work for a very large electronics company, in their fledgling computers division.
One day we got a shipment of "solar powered calculators" ... the first of their kind. They were advertising them as light activated with no batteries to worry about and selling them at $29.95 each. ... Nobody wanted them... litereally nobody!
Finally, after a gilding mistake that died one of the case backs gold during a spill, they hit on the idea to "up the game". The multiple skids of calculators were shipped out, the backs were removed and electroplated with a gold finish and they were repackaged in a flashy new box.
When we got them back they advertised them as "Executive Pocket Computers" and sold them for $249.99 each.... They sold out in 2 weeks.
Some people are such easy marks....
@barlow2976 replies to @vvsousa: @Douglas_Blake_579 Jackanory,Jackanory,Jackanory.... (Americans will need to Google that reference)
@vaughanrix7610: terrible unboxing music, but your'e very likable, so forgiven for your bad choice😂😂
@AudioMasterclass replies to @vaughanrix7610: Thank you for complimenting my music. The album will be coming out later this year.
@maidsandmuses: One day the folks at iFi will understand sarcasm and stop sending you equipment to review 😉
@nickmoranis2865: A pink doorstop. Lovely!
@nickmoranis2865: Most of us can afford it.
Most of us are not stupid enough to buy it.
Cheap Chinese nonsense.
@ChiefExecutiveOrbiter replies to @nickmoranis2865: Engineered in UK
@phpn99: Overpriced for its specs, for sure. Now, when it comes to ADC and DAC, in a perfect circuit (therefore, in theory) you should be able to perform the perfect encoding and reconstruction of a 22.05 kHz sine wave at Red Book spec CD Audio sample rate and word length. But reconstruction filters aren't perfect and they have a transition band that can be problematic, even if — indeed — we are talking of distortion phenomena at the very threshold or beyond the hearing abilities of most listeners. For this reason, and to alleviate the burden on having to realise near-perfect reconstruction filters, it's been deemed a good compromise (in terms of storage cost) to do ADC with an additional octave worth of wiggle room devoted to the transition band of the reconstruction filter. This compromise is 96 kHz ADC, and for good measure, extending the word length to 24 bits makes better accommodation of the human hearing's propensity to notice with more acuity, amplitude variations in quiet audio passages, than in loud passages. This non-linear perception is called mu-law and it is used in telephony systems as a companding mechanism that fits a better signal in a lower number of bits. It is often misunderstood that the intention of 24/96 digital audio is to reproduce ultrasonic (!) audio frequencies ; whereas in fact 24/96 is intended to provide a better signal processing margin for the audible range, which extends to 20 kHz in the best cases (most listeners can't hear a thing above 16 kHz). 24/96 also improves the recording and reproduction of low-frequency square waves, or wave shapes that have a lot of high-order harmonics. The ears (and loudspeakers !) will do their own low-pass filtering, but having a wee bit sharper impulse response is never a bad thing. The paradox is that, as long as you're not doing anything stupid, 24/96 is actually a cheaper way (save for storage) to achieve great audio reconstruction, than doing Red Book (16/44). As for the pipe dream of going all the way to 768 kHz, just because AKM, ESS and Burr-Brown chips can handle it ; we're well past the law of diminishing returns. Audiofools who claim they can hear this sort of stuff need counselling. Very high data rates in DAC chips were engineered to support DSD audio, but that's another story.
@artysanmobile: I’d love to see the 4 conductor 4.4mm jack become a widely used standard. Just what I’ve wished for many times on pro equipment to improve panel design.
@artysanmobile: Best unboxing ever.
@Lif-999: Over spec'ed, over hyped, overpriced and no doubt overlooked in double blind tests!
@Douglas_Blake_579: $1200 for a DAC? They've got to be kidding!!
@scottlowell493 replies to @Douglas_Blake_579: Back in the late 90's, a Bel Canto DAC cost that much. $2,319.30 in 2024 dollars. And you know something: a $199 DAC is just as good now.
@hartyewh1 replies to @Douglas_Blake_579: It's and amp as well.
@Douglas_Blake_579 replies to @Douglas_Blake_579: @hartyewh1
$1200 for a DAC/AMP? They've got to be kidding!
Don't be a sucker for a high price tag. Given the way companies prey upon Audiophiles with their overpriced junk, price is no longer any indication of quality.
@Douglas_Blake_579 replies to @Douglas_Blake_579: @scottlowell493
Yep ... only a fool pays more.
@diatonicdelirium1743 replies to @Douglas_Blake_579: There are some nice features...
I'd buy a Topping EX5 instead and get the same for about $300 except for the MEMS thingy.
@AudioAssassin: I have respect for 'iFi' because one of their devices solved a noise issue for me... but why in the sweet name of f**k would they not think to include a MIDI input ( including old-skool MIDI inputs)
@kalijasin: $130,000 for a dac? Sounds like a scam!
@AudioMasterclass replies to @kalijasin: https://msbtechnology.com/dacs/select-features/
@depafeo: I feel like having a raging drug habit would be cheaper than being an audiophile
@garymalone547 replies to @depafeo: Both is a challenge in my experience.
@anthonyroach7974 replies to @depafeo: So funny brill 😂😂😂
@NoahBershatsky: It’s garbage. I bought one from Bloom Audio, it had all sorts of interference from nearby RF in Bluetooth mode that it was unusable. Bloom Audio even charged me a restocking fee for the defective unit.
My advice? Get a FiiO Q15 instead.
@atoptip6193: Isn’t a real IEM a custom made earphone, made first by pouring a putty into your ear canal then molding a hard plastic version of it, that fits exactly? Many costing $1K and up? In any case that is what musicians use.
Since when did simple earbuds with a variety of rubber tips come to be called IEMs also? Those provide poor isolation and often fall out of the ear. Real IEMs never do. In fact you have to pry them out.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @atoptip6193: You raise a good point here, or rather build on mine. I suspect that nothing that either of us says will make any difference and whatever is called an IEM will be an IEM.
@garymalone547: Also I prefer eye fi to eye eff eye. Nearly got their hip flask DAC once. Looks cool.
@fiddlix: I would love to see you do a review of the FiiO Q15. $400 AKM equipped.
@NoahBershatsky replies to @fiddlix: Just got one yesterday, and I like it a lot! Worth the $400.
@fiddlix replies to @fiddlix: @NoahBershatsky I have had the FiiO Q15 for over a couple of months now and I couldn’t agree with you more. Definitely worth the $400.
@garymalone547: I had plenty of fun with portable DAC/amps on my headphone journey. Started with the legendary FiiO E07K . Always thought the Diablo was ridiculous.
@ant1kryst replies to @garymalone547: oh memories. mine was rubber banded to an ipod click wheel for the longest time. :D
@joshmartin8174: Isn’t this DAC being used by folks for their Hifi systems? (Not headphones)
@thenewyorkcityboy replies to @joshmartin8174: In a word, No. It's a portable, rechargeable DAC/headphone amp. There are no outputs for anything besides headphones.
@warrensnook: And yet another great review! Even though this is not the most expensive DAC on the market, it is probably the most controversial at the moment. Shhhhh 🤫😂
https://youtu.be/YEmdwJ9DIZ0?si=LqNQdf9xW9Y2zaOI
@AudioMasterclass replies to @warrensnook: I watched that video prior to making my own. He isn't wrong on the power output but it isn't just an iFi issue, its an industry issue. If one manufacturer measures their products in the most flattering way possible, then other manufactures have to compete or lose sales. I will make a video on power measurement at some point in the future.
@warrensnook replies to @warrensnook: @AudioMasterclassI agree that this is indeed an industry problem and quite common amongst many of the budget Aliexpress type manufacturers. However, for a premium brand such as iFi to engage in these unethical practices is much less common.
@thexfile.: Maybe your dog needs to hear the audio. 😄
@johnbrentford5513: Phil can hear 0.0000001% distortion.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @johnbrentford5513: Actually he can't hear much better than 0.003% but he hopes that will improve as he works on the resolution of his system.
@taidee replies to @johnbrentford5513: @AudioMasterclass 🤣🤣
@Lif-999 replies to @johnbrentford5513: No I can't! At my age I would struggle to hear distortion that is orders of magnitudes higher than that.
Oh, that Phil! Well, he is the standard that all other Phil's aspire to.
@diatonicdelirium1743 replies to @johnbrentford5513: @Lif-999Blasphemy!
The fact that you can't hear it doesn't make it OK for manufacturers to distort the signal.
@Lif-999 replies to @johnbrentford5513: @diatonicdelirium1743 It's a fair cop but society is to blame!
@rabit818: My kitty Lou Lou can hear 40 hz. Lou Lou is happy with my older Audio Alchemy.
@andywrollo2915: Ffs. So it's good sounding. For £1300 f that
@bengeorgeschannel6568: This is an excellent review of a product that may well be of interest to me once both of my ears are working properly. And you should consider releasing an album of your increasingly *rad* unboxing music on vinyl!!
@AudioMasterclass replies to @bengeorgeschannel6568: Don't worry, an album is in the works.
@SomberShroud: review the KPH40's
@stevengagnon4777: You are right...I can not afford it.
@GenjoKoan75: Sound is “good”? Most important quality warrants one word in the review?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @GenjoKoan75: Congratulations. You’ve got it.
@gracenotes5379 replies to @GenjoKoan75: As a self-proclaimed objectivist we should not expect David Mellor's review to extol the virtues of the Diabolo 2's "inner tone texture," etc. Hence, "the sound is good, objectively good." I mean, didn't you read the spec sheet?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @GenjoKoan75: Maybe I should change the name of my channel to 'The Objective Audiophile'. But would that be an oxymoron?
@ian-nz-2000 replies to @GenjoKoan75: @AudioMasterclassdefinitely!
@paulmcdonough9595: I’m sure it’s fine enough, but I can’t get past the appearance or the price for that matter. Ifi, “turbo” and “nitro” please!
@billhunt7862: Mr Mellor, This is off- topic and may not be appropriate in this reply area. Please consider exploring an HDMI to I²S converter. Source attributed to @anadialog “How to send high-res audio from a Bluray /SACD/DVD player to a DAC via HDMI“, at or near the 6:52 mark. My use is with the Apple TV HDMI output for conversion to digital audio coax, meanwhile allowing the HDMI to pass through to the television. The audio coax is connected to an external DAC and continues with RCA cables to a 7-band tone control to finally join with the AVR aux in. Thank you for all the cold spectrograph to spectrogram analysis warmed with charming wit.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @billhunt7862: I'm probably underappreciating the significance and complexity of this. All I know at the moment is that I have a rough-and-ready spare-room system sourced from an Amazon Fire stick going to a splitter box that passes HDMI to a computer monitor and separates out the audio to the amp. $19.99, or am I missing the point? https://amzn.to/3VSUJxP
@billhunt7862 replies to @billhunt7862: Mr Mellor, you seldom if ever miss the point. My point was off mark. The fool meets Sir George Henry Martin CBE. The foolishness displayed forever on the Internet. I had stumbled upon a blurred copy of a bad sketch written on a cocktail napkin with unclear directions. Your reply was that of a true gentleman.
@davidforeman1: it matches your glasses, too...
@AudioMasterclass replies to @davidforeman1: Audiophiles appreciate the importance of pairing one's DAC with one's spectacles.
@dragonfire61: I can't afford it? I beg to differ 😂
@DeezY-1119 replies to @dragonfire61: I have $1,200, too...but that doesn't change the fact that this thing is stupidly overpriced and looks like crap from an aesthetic viewpoint.
@oijans: For that price I'd also take a look at the FiiO K19
@tam8197 replies to @oijans: if youre spending that kind of money, go for the k9 essor akm version. half the price for nearly all the sound quality, spend the rest on dancing girls, lol. an incremental improvement for double the price is nuts, and typically hifi world. the latest thing though, got to have that latest thing 😂
@EricIolo: Hang on a sec! I just checked out the web page - TDK C0G (Class 1 ceramic) capacitors "They are pricey but are a perfect addition to our products." What's that's about? And this too. Panasonic OS-CON caps "They are not often found in products costing <US$1000" Who has written this?
@pgdh: What a cheap and nasty power supply!
@kurt120032002 replies to @pgdh: what a nasty imbecile you are. that is not the power supply , that is the charger. Power supply is battery powered. You can use 5000 Euro linear PSU and will sound exactly the same, but you and other 13 idiots, being dumber then a monkey can't seem the grasp the vast end extremele complex implications of "BATTERY POWERED".
@TheAlapalooza: those hand gestures 🤣🤣
@AudioAssassin replies to @TheAlapalooza: What's the problem? lol
@EricIolo: Alan Sugar is behind all of this - A mug's eyeful comes to mind!
@thenewyorkcityboy replies to @EricIolo: Bit unfair! Amstrad really was *diabolical*, but that's the only similarity! If you want a good example of a modern-day Mugs Eyeful, look no further than PYLE. The cheap audio man (or whatever his channel is called) reviewed one recently..."pro-style" handles on the front (for helping you lift the heft of its couple of pounds of premium-Chinesium build quality). Performance on-par with Amstrad.
@elmerjohnston8118: Great Review as usual, You are the Most entertaining reviewer I've ever come across on YouTube,
@earthoid: I don't use lossy Bluetooth for audio. Same for lossy MQA (I loved your finger wagging over the MQA symbol), but manufacturers have to add these "features" to make more sales. For me, I'll stick with my Ares II DAC and separate headphone amp for the rare occasions when I listen through headphones. Meanwhile my iFi hip-dac sits collecting dust.
@andymouse: Betty needs a throat lozenge....cheers
@AudioMasterclass replies to @andymouse: I've tried to get her to go to voice production and elocution lessons but she's very stubborn.
@obsprisma: Tempting device. 🤔
@AudioMasterclass replies to @obsprisma: If you have a spare £1299 that you don't otherwise need.
@ianorigbo7617: Looks nice😊