Now, our battery-powered portable high-resolution DAC/headphone amplifier is adorned with the Titanium Shadow tone, exuding timeless elegance with a touch of modern sophistication. The transformation goes beyond aesthetics. The hip-dac 3's sleek aluminum casing houses new features, designed to enhance your audio experience.
Two USB-C ports simplify cable management: one for audio and one for charging. A switch on the bottom activates iFi's iEMatch technology, which is optimized for high-sensitivity headphones and earphones, making it especially beneficial for your in-ear monitors (IEMs).
Inside, the device features circuit improvements, including new metal film capacitors for better frequency response. Plus, an updated version of iFi's GMT circuit, along with a new crystal oscillator, further reduces phase noise, giving you purer sound.
With its sleek, robust aluminum casing, the portable hip-dac 3 fits discreetly into a pocket or bag. Replaces the DAC and amplifier in smartphones, tablets, PCs and Macs. Simply connect via USB-C, plug in your favorite headphones and enjoy rich, dynamic sound.
iFi's expertise with the Burr-Brown chipset ensures optimal performance. However, a higher DAC stage involves more than just the DAC chip. A crucial element is the XMOS chip for processing digital audio inputs. The hip-dac 3 incorporates a 16-core XMOS microcontroller, programmed by iFi's in-house team to optimize sound quality and ensure seamless high-resolution pairing with the Burr-Brown DAC.
The hip-dac 3 features a true balanced circuit design, rare in its price range. This design minimizes signal distortion, resulting in purer, more captivating sound for your headphones.
The circuit incorporates high-quality components, including a custom iFi OV op-amp, a Texas Instruments low-noise power supply IC, and a premium analog volume potentiometer.
The amplification stage can supply up to 400 mW into a 32 ohm headphone load, making it compatible with a wide range of headphones. Additionally, it effectively drives high impedance headphones with an output voltage of 6.3V at 600 ohms from the balanced output.
The amplification stage has switchable gain, called PowerMatch, to ensure optimal power for the headphones you are using.
A switch on the bottom activates iFi's iEMatch technology, which optimizes the output for high-sensitivity headphones, especially in-ear monitors (IEMs). Reduces hiss, enhances detail and dynamic range, and improves volume control range.
XBass is a user-selectable feature that boosts bass without muddying the mids, ideal for headphones and open-back headphones. It works in the analog domain, avoiding alterations through DSP.
High-resolution PCM and DXD audio data are supported at sample rates up to 384 kHz, along with DSD from 2.8 MHz to 12.4 MHz (DSD64, 128 and 256).
It also supports full MQA decoding (the high-resolution streaming technology used by Tidal's "HiFi Plus" tier), which performs the entire "three-roll" decoding process (instead of just the final rollout to the way of an MQA "renderer").
On either side of the rotary volume control are a pair of LEDs that change color to indicate the format and sample rate of the incoming audio.
The hip-dac 3's USB-C input supports up to 32-bit/384kHz audio, backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and 2.0. Its asynchronous design ensures jitter-free data transfer. A separate USB-C charging port allows use while charging, preserving a pure audio signal path.
The hip-dac 3 provides two outputs: a 3.5mm jack for single-ended headphones and a 4.4mm balanced output for those with balanced connectivity, taking advantage of the device's differential amplifier design. The 3.5mm output uses iFi's S-Balanced circuitry, which minimizes crosstalk and distortion on single-ended connections.
The hip-dac 3's 2,200 mAh battery offers up to 12 hours of playback, varying depending on the volume and power needs of the headphones. Includes a USB-C OTG cable and a USB-A to USB-C cable.
