ifi Audio Zen Can Headphone Amplifier / iPower X 5V Power Supply

This smart looking, sweet sounding little Headphone Amp is just the ticket if you want a better sound quality when you’re sat in front of the laptop on the office desk listening to your favourite streaming service. Able to drive most headphones with ease this pocket rocket comes in very good condition with its original box and accessories. Also included is an upgrade iPower X power supply unit.
ifi Say….
Fully-balanced. 1,600mW. Battleship headphone amplifier.
Laptops and smartphones have a really low power output of <1.0v. On a good set of headphones, you’re always running out of juice. You never get to really hear what they can do. Use a laptop, phone or DAC to feed your music to the ZEN CAN and connect your headphones. Pumping out 52x more power, now you’ll hear what you have been missing.
The ZEN CAN has trickle-down Class A discrete balanced circuitry from iFi audio’s US$1,699 flagship Pro iCAN. With 15.1v @300 Ohms on tap, it has serious power that will make even difficult-to-drive headphones thump to the beat.
Audio recordings are made for speakers and when played back on headphones, the sound is always driving you nuts by being only in your head. Our 3D special sound circuit solves this: Stereo image that is truly out of your head, in front with height, width & depth; Without colouration or loss of resolution; All analogue circuitry (i.e., without costly and complex digital signal manipulation)
Behind XBass is our active EQ circuit which meets a common gripe with headphones head-on, a lack of bass. Open-back headphones in particular, let all frequencies (especially those precious bass frequencies that the drivers generate so little of) leak freely out of the back instead of trapping and redirecting them back to your ears. XBass equalisation is a much more elegant solution to bass correction than seen elsewhere. It consists of active and passive components and its frequency response curve corrects their low-end response problems with precision.
Features:
Class A discrete output buffer from the flagship Pro iCAN using Op-Amp (OV2637A)
FET input avoids loading volume control – low distortion/noise
SE inputs (1M Ohm) ensures loading of the source so always in Class A operation
Output amplifier gain of four steps in +6dB perfect for headphone matching
Specification:
Inputs: 4.4mm Pentacon BAL – 4.0V nominal @ 0dBFS, 24 kOhm Zin; RCA L/R Socket SE – 2.0V nominal @ 0dBFS, 1 MegOhm Zin; 3.5mm Jack SE – 1.0V nominal @ 0dBFS, 1 MegOhm Zin
Max Output: Balanced – >15.1V/385 mW (@ 600 Ohm); >11.0V/1890 mW (@ 64 Ohm); Single Ended (S-E): >7.6V/196 mW (@ 300 Ohm); >7.2V/1600 mW (@ 32 Ohm)
Output Impedance (HP): BAL – <2 Ohms; S-E – <1 Ohm
Zout: Line out – <200 Ohms
THD & N: Balanced – < 0.0007% (4V out, 600 Ohm, 1kHz); S-E – <0.006% (@ 100 mW/1.27V 16 Ohm)
SNR: Balanced – >120dBA (@ 15.2V); S-E – >118dBA (@ 7.6V)
Max. Input: Balanced – 7.4V RMS; RCA – 3.8V RMS; 3.5mm – 1.92V RMS
Gain: 0dB, 6dB, 12dB and 18dB
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz (+0dB / -0.03dB)
Power consumption: No Signal – ~5W; Max Signal – ~13W
Input voltage: DC 5V/2.4A; AC 100 -240V; 50/60Hz
Dimensions: 160 (W) x 117 (D) x 35 (H) mm
Net weight: 515g

What Hi-Fi magazine summed up their 5* review of this headphone amp by saying….
“If you’re after an affordable injection of clarity and detail for your wired headphones, iFi has it in the Can.”

For a full review from Hi-Fi News please click here