ZEN CAN Balanced Desktop Headphone Amp and Preamp with 4.4mm Outputs (UK PIN)

I’ve had this for nearly 2 years now and the upgrade was worth every Penny I teamed this up with a moto m2 audio interface it had plenty of power for all my headphones, LCD X and Meze 99 Clasics and my cheapo cans K361 , all totally different headphones and all work together perfectly, the LCD X and Meze 99 Classics all run on the balance connector 4.4mm , best buy I have done in years

Was happy with my Zen but felt it struggled at higher volumes with my 250ohm 770's and i wasn't a fan of truebass and thought it was a bit much, went for this to improve both those things which it did, the xbass implementation sounds much better to me as opposed to the Zen and it handled higher volumes much better ( and so it should i guess) To really get the best out of this you'll need to connect it via a balanced cable to your DAC , if its the ZEN then be prepared to pay £70 or more for their cable or buy a cheaper one from Amazon like i did, the included analogue connection doesn't cut it imo and as both are balanced units although im not using balanced headphones the difference is noticeable. The unit also gets really hot, as stuff with Class A devices do. Be prepared to go on an upgrade path though once you get this, next you'll want balanced headphones to get the best out of it, then you'll realise that because you have balanced headphones you should upgrade the DAC and 12 months later you'll be sat listening to music on youtube with $1000 worth of audio equipment.

I've been running my Sennheiser HD660s through my PC motherboard's line-out, as well as a Behringer audio interface and I thought they sounded ok. However, I didn't like that the bass was a little mushy and the mids were rather over-powering. I thought that a 150 ohm set of headphones would be no match for the 600ohm my motherboard said it could handle. Apparently I was very wrong. I recently picked up the iFi Zen CAN amp and have it sat between the computer and my headphones using an RCA cable. I have the gain set to 18dB using a regular single-ended connection from my headphones (I haven't tried the balanced cables yet), the bass boost is on and it sounds incredible. The bass has tightened up, the highs are clear as daylight and the mids are wholesome. My musical tastes include everything from Dire Straits, Pink Floyd and middle-of-the-road rock, to industrial and thrash metal --Fear Factory, Pantera, Ministry etc. Everything sounds sublime. I'm now going through my whole music collection and hearing things in a whole new way.

Nice headphone amp, does the job well. The only thing that lets it down is the warmth in the bass boost is a little too subtle compared alongside the Zen Dac V2. Perhaps this will be addressed in the V2 version of the Zen Can? If that is the case , it would be an unbeatable piece of kit at this price point!!

The price is right for this little power house... Love it!! Not the best by any stretch, but it hits hard at value for money. Try to stack it with the Zen Dac and use a balanced cable to connect. Lots of features such as 4.4 balanced in and out. Bass boost and spacial audio are nice additions. Not as powerful as some of schiit offerings but bang for buck you probably won't beat this too easily... Good job IFI..

I consider myself a borderline audiophile. I appreciate a good product and like a nice sound. I don’t subscribe to buying overpriced cables that supposedly make my system sound better, instead looking for an understated, good value alternative. So I started my journey with ifi when I bought a hipdac2. I’d been a bit disappointed with my headphone experience and I was blown away by what a decent headphone amp could do. My home hifi amp doesn’t have a headphone socket (more audiophile nonsense) so I’d had to buy a headphone amp and despite it being from the manufacturer of the amp it was seriously disappointing. Having been so pleased with the hipdac2 I thought I’d try the ifi zen can. Well, it didn’t disappoint. My big headphone found a new lease of life. They’ve never sounded quite so good. The only fly in the ointment, and I’d like to think is a one off, my zen can didn’t come with a power supply, despite being listed with one. In all fairness the seller stepped up and having first got in touch with ifi then sent one out, although it did take a week to arrive which took the edge off the joy of a shiny new toy a little.

Great way to start your audiophile rabit hole, pair it with the amp, it's worth, I'm still using after years with my HD 6XX and hi-fi man Ananda, defo a great a value of money, also use it balanced.

Bought this amp because I was demoing the DT990's and the Sundaras and knew I needed an amp for the DT's. Ended up keeping the Sundaras and kept the amp too as I felt the bass sounded awesome with the XBass switch. Problem is I only just recently realised this amp squares off the sub bass. I was programming some 808's and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the clipping was coming from on the sub bass until I swapped the headphones into the direct out on my audio interface. Turned out it was the amp. Even on the lowest of the four gain settings I can only get rid of the squaring / soft clipping of the bass by having the volume super low. But if I plug them straight into my USB audio device (an SSL2) I can drive them to deafeningly loud volumes and the sub sounds like a pure sine wave through and through. Not sure if that's the amp in general as I no longer have any high impedance headphones to test with but at least for the Sundaras (and I assume any others that are around that ohmage) it turned out to be a bust. But yeah like I say - you don't need it at all if you have a USB interface. Just plug straight into the headphone out and they sound great.

Lo que estaba buscando muy buena calidad de sonido un extra de potencia para auriculares de 250 o 600 ohm.

Petit de taille mais grand de son, cet ampli-casque cache bien son jeu et mérite les éloges lus çà et là ! Après un nombre d’heures de rodage important, ce petit ampli développe un son d'une grande neutralité et retransmet parfaitement les enregistrements de qualité de la source branchée ! Des aigus aux graves, toutes les sonorités sont propres, sans déformation et sans artifices. Un régal pour le mélomane qui recherche un son naturel et fidèle à l’enregistrement. Les sonorités des instruments sont reproduites avec exactitude que cela soit une flûte, un violon, une contrebasse, de la batterie, des percussion ou des grosses caisses des tribus africaine, toute leur subtilité est perceptible et cela sans déformation, peut importe le niveau d'écoute. Et, petite cerise sur le gâteau, il en est de même pour les voix ! Quant à sa puissance d'amplification, elle est inversement proportionnelle à sa taille ! Il arrive, sans aucun souci, à fournir l'énergie nécessaire à mon casque orthoplanar Fostex T50RP mk3 et cela déjà avec un gain de 12db sur les 18db possibles ! Perso, je le laisse en permanence sur la fonction 3D qui, comme expliquée et promit dans les caractéristiques et différents tests, ne déforme pas les sons mais au contraire permet de bien mieux situer dans l'espace leurs placements. On retrouve l’impression de véritable scène ! Un délice pour les cages à miel ! Alors n'hésitez pas, pour un investissement pécuniaire honnête, vous pourrez vous faire vraiment plaisir !

Gut abgestimmter und durchdachter Headphone Amp. Impedanz meines High-end Kopfhörers liegt bei 38 Ohm. Glaube nicht was einige Reviews sagen. Da ist die Rede von Zuviel Crosstalk, oder „nicht geeignet für niedrigohmige Kopfhörer“. Das stimmt schlicht und einfach nicht. Dieser Amp macht Laune, klingt einfach saugut, macht süchtig, ist reines Class A mit speziellen Opamps, designed von Ifi selbst. Wenn man stressfrei hören möchte, und keine Aufmerksamkeit auf die benutzte Technik haben möchte, empfehle ich diesen Ifi Amp wärmstens. Der Klang ist dezent, dynamisch, niemals zu scharf oder zu hart, aber trotzdem detailreich, und im unteren Frequenzbereich gibt’s ordentlich Dampf, wenn die Aufnahme es abverlangt. Empfehlenswert als Upgrade ist der separat erhältliche Adapter Ifi iPower 2, der das Klangerlebnis nochmal verbessert. Ich bin begeistert, auch das Design finde ich sehr gelungen.

L'ho preso da circa 2 mesi e lo uso quotidianamente abbinato alle sennheiser hd600. Sono molto soddisfatto da questo amplificatore, sia in abbinamento allo streamer di rete(wiim pro) sia usandolo abbinato al dac/amp portatile dragonfly cobalt(comprato dopo). Il suono è molto dettagliato ma senza essere analitico. Dà una atmosfera leggermente più calda e piacevole rispetto a quando connetto le cuffie direttamente al Dragonfly, per qualche ragione che non so spiegare la musica suona più coinvolgente e sicuramente i bassi sono migliori. Ho provato anche a collegarlo ad un alimenatore lineare stabilizzato ma non ho notato alcuna differenza(ho effettuato 30 prove in cieco aiutato da mio fratello che cambiava l'alimenattore senza dirmi quale fosse e io dovevo dire se era uno o l'altro), quindi va bene quello fornito. Leggendo qualche commento on line c'è qualcuno che critica questo amplificatore ma sinceramente mi domando se lo abbiano davvero provato o se magari fossero modelli iniziali con qualche problema che è stato risolto successivamente... L'unico difetto che ha è un rumore di fondo (tipo ground loop) che si sente quando la sorgente è scollegata, ma che scompare non appena collego i cavetti rca alla sorgente(streamer,dac, ecc.), quindi boh non mi sembra qualcosa di rilevante. L'xbass funziona bene senza essere eccessivo(ma non lo uso perchè a me piace il suono così com'è), il 3d non lo userei di norma in quanto appiattisce il suono però è utilissimo per ascoltare brani dove uno strumento o la voce è presente solo a destra o sinistra(es. brani jazz di anni 50'-60'). Concluderei col fatto che una volta comprato il dragonfly pensavo di usare solo lui, rivendere l'ifi zen can e farmi qualche soldo, ma evidentemente rimarranno entrabi con me dato che quando sono seduto alla scrivania attacco sempre lo zen per il suono che mi piace di più!

Suveränt ljud för pengarna, X-Base knappen är magisk.