[BS5711]

At the time of filming the original idsd lineup review I didn't have a dummy load so wasn't able to do power testing yet.

An observation that I think is interesting, and I don’t want to be argumentative because I fully understand and agree calling out the misleading power figures.

Without expensive measuring equipment when you reviewed the Diablo against the Signature and Black Label you apparently had no reason to question the power figures despite your experience with all manner of gear. I think that says something about the actual power that is required form a headphone amplifier. You actually praised the Diablo for having punchy bass with low impedance and somewhat demanding planars. Again, not that I condone the misleading advertising.

Also worth noting is that in earlier discussion on the Diablo forum you tested the output into 300 ohms and found that into higher impedances the Diablo does output the stated voltage and power figures.

Not that it is justification of the exaggerated maximum power output into low impedances but the advertised output into high impedances is correct. My experience is that the Diablo (and presumably now the Diablo 2) actually outperforms some pretty decent desktop amplifiers with 300 ohm Sennheisers.

That wasn’t touched on in your recent review for balance against the overstated low impedance figures.

 

[GoldenSound]

An observation that I think is interesting, and I don’t want to be argumentative because I fully understand and agree calling out the misleading power figures.

Without expensive measuring equipment when you reviewed the Diablo against the Signature and Black Label you apparently had no reason to question the power figures despite your experience with all manner of gear. I think that says something about the actual power that is required form a headphone amplifier, again not that I condone the misleading advertising.

Also worth noting is that in earlier discussion on the Diablo forum you tested the output into 300 ohms and into higher impedances the Diablo does output the stated voltage and power figures.

Not that it is justification of the exaggerated maximum power output into low impedances but the advertised output into high impedances is correct. My experience is that the Diablo (and obviously now the Diablo 2) actually outperforms some pretty decent desktop amplifiers with 300 ohm Sennheisers.

That wasn’t touched on in your recent review for balance against the overstated low impedance figures.

The recent video did speak on this, that was the main reason for having the section discussing how much power is actually needed, as most people vastly overestimate what they require and/or misunderstand what might make one amp better/worse for driving difficult headphones.

There's also a standalone video with a bit more depth on the topic here:



The Diablo 2 video did explicitly say that it won't have any trouble driving difficult headphones.

 

[BS5711]

The recent video did speak on this, that was the main reason for having the section discussing how much power is actually needed, as most people vastly overestimate what they require and/or misunderstand what might make one amp better/worse for driving difficult headphones.

There's also a standalone video with a bit more depth on the topic here:



The Diablo 2 video did explicitly say that it won't have any trouble driving difficult headphones.

Sorry I was referring to the actual versus advertised power into 300 ohms and higher not being mentioned in your latest review, these figures I understand are correct.

You did of course mention real world driving power.

Just seems appropriate to provide a comment that the higher impedance outputs are as advertised (I believe that to be the case) if being so critical about the low impedance maximum figures. Maybe that just me ??

 

[flyte3333]

Maybe now someone like GoldenSound has mentioned the channel imbalance that has plagued iDSD since day original - maybe now @iFi audio will listen to the years of feedback

They already have a working solution to avoid crappy volume pot

 

[ozz007]

My review of the Diablo 2 is up:

This video is awesome thank you for the info.

 

[JonM78]

My review of the Diablo 2 is up:

Maybe you should start a series of testing amps like this for their manufacturer rated power versus actual power? Would be quite interesting...and eye opening.

 

[borkenarrou]

Maybe you should start a series of testing amps like this for their manufacturer rated power versus actual power? Would be quite interesting...and eye opening.

This will be good but it should not only be GoldenSound other reviewers should also bear the responsibiltiy to do these tests, he is a only a single guy, he probably tested the Diablo 2 because a portable device putting out 5 watts would raise anyone's eyebrows and extraordinary claim need extraordinary proof and he helped us all by finding the truth about it.

 

[ozz007]

This will be good but it should not only be GoldenSound other reviewers should also bear the responsibiltiy to do these tests, he is a only a single guy, he probably tested the Diablo 2 because a portable device putting out 5 watts would raise anyone's eyebrows and extraordinary claim need extraordinary proof and he helped us all by finding the truth about it.

That's why Goldenone is D man. Keep them honest Goldenone. Love his reviews.

 

[JonM78]

This will be good but it should not only be GoldenSound other reviewers should also bear the responsibiltiy to do these tests, he is a only a single guy, he probably tested the Diablo 2 because a portable device putting out 5 watts would raise anyone's eyebrows and extraordinary claim need extraordinary proof and he helped us all by finding the truth about it.

He's with The Headphone Show, a YouTube channel for Headphones.com. So there's a whole crew there (DMS, Resolve, Chrono, etc). So I am sure they would enjoy the potential of new content to explore.

 

[OneEyedHito]

Sorry I was referring to the actual versus advertised power into 300 ohms and higher not being mentioned in your latest review, these figures I understand are correct.

You did of course mention real world driving power.

Just seems appropriate to provide a comment that the higher impedance outputs are as advertised (I believe that to be the case) if being so critical about the low impedance maximum figures. Maybe that just me ??

The point is the dubiousness of the adverts including the balanced topology not being balanced, not stating where the adverts are correct. Adverts should be treated as correct and transparent from the start. Yes that’s just you.

Ifi makes great gear this will be a learning experience for them and they will be better for it, let’s hope other manufacturers take note of the technical expertise & capabilities of the “YouTube” reviewers that are just “shills”, MQA didn’t really learn a lesson or did they??

 

[BS5711]

The point is the dubiousness of the adverts including the balanced topology not being balanced, not stating where the adverts are correct. Adverts should be treated as correct and transparent from the start. Yes that’s just you.

Ifi makes great gear this will be a learning experience for them and they will be better for it, let’s hope other manufacturers take note of the technical expertise & capabilities of the “YouTube” reviewers that are just “shills”, MQA didn’t really learn a lesson or did they??

As I said, I totally understand that but stating where the Diablo does in fact live up to the advertised power output seems like a reasonable thing to do when fully half the review is dedicated to being critical of where it doesn’t meet the exaggerated power figures.

 

[Blackrao]

i expect headphones.com will remove all ifi products from there website like they did to another product they had an issue with in the past

 

[OneEyedHito]

i expect headphones.com will remove all ifi products from there website like they did to another product they had an issue with in the past. It also looks like ifi has 3 of the top 5 best sellers on there website

Why do you think they would do that, where does that make sense in running a distribution business to you?

 

[Blackrao]

Why do you think they would do that, where does that make sense in running a distribution business to you?

Reference to what happened in the past where they removed campfire audio products from their website. It makes sense because they done it in the past in support of their unbias reviewers https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/s9ns9a/good_on_headphonescom_for_sticking_up_to_their/

 

[OneEyedHito]

Reference to what happened in the past where they removed campfire audio products from their website. It makes sense because they done it in the past in support of their unbias reviewers https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/s9ns9a/good_on_headphonescom_for_sticking_up_to_their/

Thank you I wasn’t aware of that, I don’t read Reddit as a rule. Without actually reading all of that on Reddit, I would just say that I would be surprised if they pull their products when there’s not really a battle going on between Cameron or other headphones.com personalities and iFi. There hasn’t been a back-and-forth here with he said she said, or arguments, just tested facts.

I believe iFi makes great products, I’ve owned at least 10 items of theirs some over $3K in value. This in my opinion is more of a dog whistle to other mfgrs to be accurate. Cameron has done this similar level of testing and reporting for years. While his recent stuff has been with headphones.com, you can go to his website and see many many technical reviews of items over the years.

Back to the specific topic, if a grocer has to do a recall on a food product, they don’t pull all of the food that that manufacturer makes off of the shelf.