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Ready to level up your audio setup for way better sound? Whether you're using a Mac, PC, smartphone or any other source device, the iFi Audio ZEN DAC will significantly improve what you're hearing, even if - especially if! -- you're using high end headphones. Tech expert and audio enthusiast Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ hooked up an iFi Audio ZEN DAC to his MacBook Pro then plugged in a pair of Beyerdynamic T1 headphones to test things out and the results are darn impressive...
Check out the ZEN DAC at https://amzn.to/2F7FhZn
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dramatically up your audio game with this device. let's check it out
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Dave Taylor here and I'm checking out this. this is the IFI Zen DAC and it's a relatively
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unassuming piece of electronics, but whatever source you're using to listen to your music
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this will make it sound way better. way better. so I listen a lot through my Mac system and
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generally speaking I just use my headphones and I have these you know little 3.5 millimeter jack
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and everything and in this case I actually have a brand new pair of the very nice Beyerdynamic
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t1 headphones. so these are really great headphones, but you really always want to
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give them the best possible audio source you can. right so that's where this comes in handy. now I
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can plug my headphones into the Mac directly, obviously not with this headphone jack on it
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but then I just actually get all the audio reproduction capabilities of my Mac system or
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PC or Linux whatever it is. and you know it's good, but these devices aren't really designed
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to give you the best possible audio reproduction. so they sound good. right even with great headphones
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they sound good. so that's where this comes in handy. this is basically a headphone amp. it
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supports high-res audio and it also works with, and there's a lot of acronyms, there's a lot of
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data that is really audiophile stuff. so it does PCM, DXD to 32-bit 384 kilohertz, DSD 256. you
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can download limoncello firmware onto your Mac or Linux machine and actually get the best possible
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reproduction. it does MQA which is master quality authenticated which is what Tidal uses. so if
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you've been listening to Tidal because you wanted to get that full rich sound that's way more than
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just coming off of a CD or something, then this is going to give you that in a way that your computer
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never really did that well. so all of that's terrific. now there are a lot of switches and buttons. so let me
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give you a tour and we'll talk about how that all foots together. so on the front, let me actually
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plug this in, so then you can see this lights up. you can just barely see it's actually a
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color code that affirms what type of audio it's processing and giving you. so that's actually a
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nice little bit of feedback. but on the front you have this power match which is super interesting
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now many headphones don't need this but for really high-end headphones you really want to have it
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perfectly match impedance. and this has a range this can work with 16 to 600 ohm outputs. so whatever
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kind of headphones or speakers or powered speakers you have, this can work with them. but if you can
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match impedance you're going to get the best sound. and that's what power match does. so power match
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actually will figure out and it'll get rid of that hiss that you sometimes have. so a really great test
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with all of these devices, plug everything in, turn everything on, put on your headphones, turn on your
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speaker really loud, but don't play anything. you shouldn't hear anything at all. it should be
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absolutely silent. if you're getting a background hiss or something, then that can often be an
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impedance issue. and that's where power match comes in handy. now next button over is one that
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I love. it's true bass. it is a bass boost system and it basically gives you more richer fuller bass
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it doesn't give you distortion. it doesn't tampen down anything. it doesn't change your higher-end
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signature. it just gives you a little more oomph on the bass. and for a lot of the music I listen
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to, that's a really good thing. so I'm a big fan of true bass. then this is a volume control which is
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nice. so basically it sidesteps the volume control on your source device, generally speaking
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and then on this side we have what they call unbalanced. and those are just standard headphone
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jacks. so this is actually a 6.3 millimeter or 1 quarter inch. you plug it in and now you're ready
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to listen. and then IFI has actually adapted what they call balance. this is kind of an interesting
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this is a new technology. this is the pentacon 4.4 millimeter balanced output. and what it is
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basically replacing is if you're like a real audio person or old school, you remember those XLR dual
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3-pin interconnects? that big ugly clumsy. that's what the 4.4 millimeter actually replaces. now I
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don't have any gear that I can test that with, but it is worth noting that they have that on the front
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and on the back. so depending on how you're going to use this, it gives you a lot of flexibility
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and while we're on the back I shall unplug this and I will give you the tour here. so you have a
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slider switch that's variable or fixed. then you have RCA out if that's your preferred way of doing
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it for for example a pair of speakers. and then you have your digital input and they're using this
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USB, can't remember exactly what they call it, but the rectangular USB connection. and the DAC
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actually includes this cable which is USB 3 on one end and that digital USB on the other. so you plug
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it in, you're good to go. I will note that if you're using a very modern device you might need
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a USB 3 to USB C adapter. not a huge crisis. this is literally like $3 on Amazon, so it's not a huge
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investment. and then finally you have DC input. so if you're using most audio sources I've used
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that are using USB also power that plug. but if you don't have that then you do have the option
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of plugging it into a wall adapter. so you know all of that's great. it's a complicated device
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but honestly once you get everything hooked up the way you want then you're probably not
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going to be paying attention to any of that and you're just going to be enjoying the music. so
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let's see we've talked about the pentacon 4.4 millimeter. we've talked about headphone output
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let me give you the front of it again. and power match matches your headphone impedance. true bass
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gives you this great bass boost. 16 to 600 ohm output. total harmonic distortion. ready for this
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0.005 percent. which means in essence you really there's no distortion at all. this is going to
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just help you get the full rich sound stage of the source music. and that's really what you want
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sound to noise ratio is 113 dba. what's dba? a weighted decibels. right again if you're an
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audiophile. if you're hardcore into this tech you'll understand that these specs are pretty sweet. now
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what's your use case? this is probably not something you're going to have in your laptop
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bag and use when you're hanging out at starbucks. but this could be perfect to have on your desk
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if you're at work and you just want to have the best possible sound then get good headphones
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plug them into this. plug this into your source mac pc whatever it is you have on your desktop
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plug it into your laptop and you are really good to go. and if you want a smaller one i actually
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also reviewed the ifi hip deck which is much smaller than this and that is designed to be
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portable and to go with you when you travel. so you might want to check out that review if you're
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looking for something that gives you that same huge audiophile jump without actually having to
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be quite this big. but honestly i find this to be an entirely reasonable size. you know the previous
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generation from ifi and their competitors are more like component stereo pieces where it's like you
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know big and square. so having this as they've worked more on their design it's really nice. it's
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a nice feel to it. it's aircraft grade aluminum. lots to like here. which of course well actually
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let me give you one more thing. let me give you the specs. so in terms of dimensions it's 4.6 inches
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by 4 inches by 1.1 inch and it is about 1.8 pounds. so again not really intended to be super portable
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but once you get it hooked up and set up then you're great to go. and so we get to sound. and i
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will tell you that like with these t1s the t1s already sound good right. if i just actually
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plug these into a music source like my mac system and i'm listening to tidal or even just listening
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to itunes or something then it's going to sound really nice. i mean nice headphones give you nice
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sound. but you don't realize how much you're missing until you actually add something like
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this that can do a lot more with the music. so what you get is you get a much bigger sound stage. you
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get much richer fuller music. this is the kind of device where you close your eyes and just enjoy the
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music. so arguably it is a productivity hampening device right. you're going to actually be less
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productive when like your favorite song comes on and you just hear it through this whole setup and
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you're like oh man i can't believe i'm streaming off my phone or off my computer and getting this
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like beautiful like studio level sound. it really gives you that extra boost. it's clean. it's
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precise. it's not adding any noise which of course you know you can get a really cheap amp and you
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can just make things louder. but making something louder doesn't make it sound better. it's just
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louder. this actually keeps that original sound balance. so as you make it louder it's just
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everything still sounds really really nice. i'm a huge fan in case you can't tell. i'm a huge fan
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of these sort of things and i love that they're getting smaller too. because this might be really
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great to have at your desk but i actually travel around a lot. maybe not right now but generally
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speaking i'm on the move all the time. so a lot of these smaller DAC units are really a great boon
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so that plus great headphones or really nice speakers or something can really make a difference
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it's really worth checking out. and for all of that and for all of my enthusiasm it's remarkably
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inexpensive. but before i get to the price let me ask if you can subscribe to my channel and leave
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me a comment. let me know. give me some feedback. how was this review? what do you wish i would have
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talked about or shown that i didn't? and finally we get to the price. this is the iFi Zen DAC
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pretty darn sweet device and it's $129.99 at amazon.com and i promise you whatever sound
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source you're using, whatever reproduction device you're using, headphones, speakers, whatever, this will make them sound better and you will be a happy person if that level of fidelity is
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something you want in your life. and you should if you're going to listen to any music at all. you
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should listen to it as best you can. right? because that's what the artists intended. so with that i'm
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going to plug everything back in and i'm going to like get my little headphone adapter back on here
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and plug this in and i'm going to get my music going. which means after all of that hullabaloo
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i'll catch you in my next video
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