Virtues For All Your Devices

FOR Detailed, balanced sound; good battery life; versatile

AGAINST Lacks a little dynamic subtlety and timing

- 

iFi (pronounced as Eliza Doolittle might say “hi-fi”) isn’t alone on its mission to improve laptop sound for few pounds. The Cyrus soundKey (£100), Meridian Explorer 2 (£130), DragonFly Black (£90) and Red (£170), and a handful of others have already set out along this path.

But what’s less common is the tendency to extend that ambition to smartphone sound too. The Oppo HA-2 SE (£290) and Chord Mojo (£400) are designed to service both types of device, and iFi’s portable (battery-powered, pocket-sized) iPhone and Android-compatible nano iDSD BL (‘Black Label’) has followed suit.

Versatile DAC

The nano’s Burr-Brown True Native DAC can handle PCM files all the way up to 32-bit/384kHz (arguably more than you need), as well as DXD and DSD256 formats. It also supports MQA, extending playback to physical MQA files and Tidal Masters.