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

After about a month of use, the ZEN CAN performance is exceed my expectation. Slightly bass boost and roll of high and still very details, a typical iFi sound signature. TLDR: very pleasant/enjoyment listening time.There are plenty of power to drive the most headphone on the market. The gain goes up by every 6db with 4 gain levels goes from 0 to 18. Most of my headphones have Impedance of 30 - 250 Ohm with Sound pressure level of 95 ~ 120 dB and can get plenty loud at only at +6db gain. The CAN also does not distorted my IEMS.Buttery smooth volume knob combined the entire case made out of metals do scream quality, except the rattling button make it feel cheap. Speaking of which my other complain about this button is that I have to press it in hard and hold it for half of a second for the CAN to turn on, not sure if this is a feature?The manufacture claim to use tech from higher end flagship product line which have some class A parts, this causing the unit to run very warm after a minutes or two and stay at high temperature until the power is off. There is no auto on/off and power saving mode that I know of. This will become a routine to manually turn the ZEN CAN on and off every time it needed.

Ifi states that it's normal for the ifi zen can to get warm/hot when it use. So I am not too worried. The amp is strong and the many gain switches help with different ohm powered headphones. The xbass and 3D bass switches also help with my closed back headphones and even my open back ones. Give some music a better sound and different sound. Old songs that lack bass or loudness I put the gain level one notch higher and for modern songs I lower the gain switch. This helps old music sound more modern. I have my ifi zen can paired with my ifi zen dac 2. I love it. Huge upgrade in sound, very fun amp. The only con is the fact the amp gets warm to fast.

My unit was shipped with an unbranded 5v/2.4a power adapter when the launch edition is supposed to ship with the iFI iPower 5v/2.5a power adapter. Thankfully, Amazon was able to credit me a partial refund so I could buy the real one that was supposed to come with it originally. However, I was only able to use this credit on items that are shipped AND sold by Amazon and the power adapter wasn't. I was fine with this because I was able to use that credit on something else that I wanted.At first, my Zen CAN sounded very comparable to my Zen DAC so I didn't think the power adapter made much of a difference. I then had the suspicion that the generic adapter wasn't powering the amp fully after getting a pair of DT 880 600Ω headphones. After finally deciding to get the iFI iPower adapter, this was definitely the case. There is a substantial difference in sound quality between the power adapters. It is very noticeable on all my headphones, but most noticeable on my DT880s. They are now getting the clean and full power that they should have been getting. There was also noticeable noise whenever cycling between the XBass and 3D settings that is now far less noticeable with the iFI adapter.I wanted to make a PSA that somehow this happened and that if this happened to anyone else they should 100% get the iFI iPower 5v/2.5a power supply it was originally supposed to come with if they were credited a partial refund. It was from a reputable seller who had a very positive feedback rating with a high number of ratings, more positive than iFI's store rating in fact. That being said, I would get it directly from iFI or their official store on Amazon (if they have it in stock) to avoid this potential issue. Otherwise, this amp is a fantastic choice at this price-point and is a worthy upgrade and addition to the Zen DAC.

In early July I got the iFi Zen DAC v2 along with Beyerdynamic DT-770 (250 ohm) headphones as my first headphone kit to begin to get back into serious music appreciation. While the Zen DAC could drive the headphones, you could tell that it was taxing the integrated amplifier circuit a bit to push them to moderate volume levels. The sounds was good, but it just didn't seem to reach the potential, and I hoped adding the iFi Zen CAN would be the solution, and I wasn't wrong.I received the Zen CAN early in August, along with an upgraded iFi 5v power supply and 4.4mm balanced interconnect cable to make sure I got the most out of it. Once it was set up, I tried the 4 different gain options, and while the 12db setting worked fine, I set it to 18db where the volume knob sits between 9:00 and 10:00 for "normal" listening levels. It has plenty of headroom at this setting and that's what one of the things I prefer in audio gear, headroom.As for the sound difference between the integrated amp in the DAC vs. the CAN, I wouldn't say it's night and day. There is a significant difference, especially with more power hungry headphones, and I could tell that the extra power opened up the sound to reach the potential on the DT-770s. To me, the CAN sounds just a bit on the "warm" side, which for the DT-770s is perfect since they tend to be "bright" and analytical. I can't really speak to the detail or sound stage since I don't (yet) have anything to compare and contrast, but I can say that the listening experience is very enjoyable.For me and my (first) setup, the iFi Zen Can is the perfect complement with the iFi Zen DAC v2 and the DT-770 headphones.