As the title says.
I’ve a small collection of headphones, none are difficult to drive, have three Beyerdynamics, of which I only use one often, and my mostly used currently would be the Hifiman 4xx.
Very happy with the sound I get out of them at about 50% volume on the Zen Air DAC (tried the Zen DAC 2 at first and then the Air and didn’t hear any difference between them to justify the €100 premium) but recently I’ve been wondering if it would be worth it to add the Zen Air Can to the setup and thus, getting a nice little iFi stack going.
On paper, the Zen Air Can would add plenty of power and a “balanced” output but would it be worth it, would I be getting anything of value ? And is Xspace worth it ? Haven’t found much being said online about it, at least not enough to form an opinion.
Please do keep in mind I am not really interested in other amps and I’ve limited myself to €100, which is the price of both the Zen Air DAC and the Zen Air Can.
Unless you plan on harder to drive cans in the future and the volume is fine for you maybe not. I have a Zen Can Signature 6XX and with the 6XX’s the XSpace does add a bit of well space to a fairly intimate headphone. It is done really well and doesn’t seem unnatural as the guys from iFi told me it was analog and not digital processing. They also hit the EQ for the 6XX’s dead on for my preference.
With more power, XSpace and XBass it is going to add to your setup with a few other options.
I do actually have in mind to get an upgrade soon, not sure if said upgrade will be harder to drive or not but I believe so.