Once wired up, the Niffy replaces the internal sound system of your computer, phone or tablet with what the manufacturers claim (very likely correctly) will be a superior audio handling technology. Be aware that third-party cables are often designed on the assumption that you’ll be plugging a regular USB A connector into them (the sort that USB memory sticks use) and if the casing around the USB A end is too thick it won’t fit into the recess. But for a phone connection, you’ll need an official OTG (on the go) USB adapter. IFi provides a USB 3 cable that will take care of connecting to a computer. Note that this is an embedded plug, not a socket, so the cable you use to charge your phone won’t fit. The digital input is through a USB type A connector. Experiment shows that it still does appear to drain the phone battery, even if you follow the instructions to make sure the Niffy is turned on before the phone is connected. In theory, the Niffy’s battery should prevent it from draining power from your phone, providing-the manufacturers say-up to 10 hours playing time.
When connecting the Niffy to a computer or any device able to provide power, the recommendation is to make the USB connection before switching on. Amplifiers need electrical power (DACs do too) and this is drawn primarily from the USB input at the rear when it’s connected to a computer.īut the power is supplemented by a built-in rechargeable Lithium-polymer battery and this feature allows the device also to be used with something like a phone or a tablet, less able to provide external power. But What Does the iFi Niffy Really Do?Īt its simplest, you can think of the device as a DAC with a built-in pre-amplifier. We cover MQA in a separate Data Sheet here. And-most notably-the newest audio compression format, MQA. The Niffy can handle pretty much all of these. But if you’re new to digital audio, we have a Data Sheet on the various formats that might be worth a visit.
FLAC is similarly pre-decoded.Īpologies to audiophiles, who will, of course, know all this already. It’s this PCM stream that the Niffy will be turning into analogue. What actually happens is that the player app will be doing the MP3 conversion, generating a CD-like digital stream called PCM. Present the Niffy with an MP3 stream direct from your computer or phone and you may get an output but it won’t be recognisable as music. The iFi nano iDSD Black Label DAC (no, I really can’t go on spelling that out in full-let’s just call it the Nano iFi, or the Niffy) doesn’t list MP3 among its capabilities.
DSD decoding isn’t its only talent: it handles many other digital formats, including FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and the ubiquitous but now deprecated (by audiophiles) MP3. It’s a DAC (digital to analogue converter) that is capable of decoding DSD (Direct Stream Digital) and is pocket-sized (nano)-not much larger, in fact, than a box of kitchen matches. The iFi nano iDSD Black Label DAC is a device that packs most of its capabilities into its title. iFi focusses on the more affordable end of the hi-fi spectrum while drawing on the expertise and technologies of the mother-ship. IFI IS A SUBSIDIARY of the high-end (read “expensive”) audio vendor, Abbingdon Music Research. Even if some of the upper reaches of those specifications may be falling on deaf ears. You get a solid build and clean internals with an ambitious specification for a very decent price. If you want to explore the field of hi-res, this device is an excellent start (full disclosure: ours fell into our hands at the London launch towards the end of last year). Equipment like iFi’s new nano iDSDBlack Label DAC. This has opened up a new market for “hi-res” audio material and the equipment to play it on. Some audiophiles claim that even sounds above 20 kilohertz need to be recorded and reproduced, as their presence will have some kind of effect on the notes within our audible range. The range of human hearing is generally reckoned to be between 20Hz and 20kHz, spanning some seven octaves. My audiologist revealed that my hearing starts to fall off at 1kHz and is technically classed as “severe” above around 8kHz. M y credentials as a full-on audiophile, such as they might have been, were comprehensively blown at the beginning of this year. The UnRAID Story: The Prasanna Addendum.The UnRAID Story (Chapter 4): Time to Cache In.