Texas Instruments low-noise ICs offer great unity-gain bandwidth, very low noise and distortion, high output drive capability, Common-mode and Power Supply Rejection Ratios of over 100 dB, wide maximum-output-swing bandwidths and high slew rates.

Whether listening at home with your speakers or at work with your headphones, connect the micro iDSD Black Label to your computer and instantly hear the quality of your music be taken to the next level.
Is the music from your headphones or speakers uninteresting or flat? Then the micro iDSD Black Label is for you.
It adds warmth, depth and smoothness to your favourites tunes. Put simply, your music will sound better than it ever has.
The micro iDSD Black Label is the world’s most powerful, battery-powered DAC and headphone amplifier, capable of unrivalled native playback in DSD, PCM and DXD file formats. Now with added MQA! And Roon tested!
And we added our optional ‘sonic enhancements’ to add that little bit extra to your listening…
XBass+® cleans and restores the bass to give you a richer, deeper sound and 3D+® opens up your music to create a live-concert atmosphere.
The headphone amplifier is a force to be reckoned with.
With 4,000mW, the micro iDSD Black Label can drive from the most sensitive IEMs up to the most power hungry headphones out there.
It comes with 3 power output settings so that it can be adjusted to work with any ear buds or headphones.
The micro iDSD Black Label has a battery life of up to 12 hours, and should your phone need a boost, the micro BL can charge it from 0% to 100% through the USB charging port on the side — not once, but twice!
And finally, we should mention the sleek black and orange design. She’s funky, fun and a flattering addition to any music lover’s system.
Panasonic OS-CON caps totaling 5,410uF give very-low Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR), excellent noise reduction capability and frequency response characteristics. In addition, OS-CONs have a long-life span and its ESR changes little even at low temperatures since the electrolyte is solid.
They are not often found in products costing <US$1000.
Hi-res audio support is state-of-the-art with True Native® playback. It handles PCM data to 32-bit/768kHz, DSD up to DSD512 and single and double speed DXD.
Thanks to the Burr-Brown DAC chip’s four-channel True Native design, PCM and DSD take separate pathways – this enables DSD, as well as PCM, to remain ‘bit-perfect’ in its native form right through to analogue conversion. This is not the case with all DAC devices from other brands – even if DSD compatibility is stated, many such DACs convert DSD signals to PCM.
The Burr-Brown True Native® chipset means file formats remain unchanged or ‘bit-perfect’. This means you are listening to music as the artist intended in the format in which it was recorded.
At iFi we use Burr Brown extensively in our products having selected it for its natural-sounding ‘musicality’ and True Native architecture. Our experience with this IC means we know how to make the most of it.
Listen to Master Quality Authenticated audio straight out of the box. Connect to Tidal Masters and check the option to stream MQA.
Our video tutorials on You Tube show you how.
Item | Description | Remarks |
Inputs/Outputs |
||
Inputs (rear) | USB 2.0 type A “OTG” Socket (with iPurifier® technology built-in) |
Compatible with computers (Apple/Win/Linux), iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android Devices, camera kit or USB-OTG cable required. (Full USB3.0 port compatible) |
Intelligent SPDIF® Coaxial | 3 Way combo SPDIF port (Coaxial In/Out; Optical In); Up to 192kHz PCM | |
SPDIF Optical | ||
Outputs (rear) | Audio RCA L+R | |
Intelligent SPDIF® Coaxial | Up to 192kHz PCM | |
Output (right side) | SmartPower® Socket | Fast charge all portable devices. Compliant with USB Battery Charging Standard 1.2 – 5V @ 1.5A |
Controls |
||
Controls (front) | ||
– HP Output | Audio 6.3mm Headphone Jack | |
– Volume with Power On/Off switch | Precision analogue volume control | <2dB Tracking error |
– 3.5mm Input | Auto disable the digital section when this is in use | |
– X-Bass® | On/Off | |
– 3D Holographic Sound® | On/Off | Auto-switching for Speakers® and Headphones® (two separate and distinct circuits) |
Controls (left side) | ||
– Power Mode | Turbo, Normal, Eco | Computer controlled power and gain scaling |
– Polarity | Normal/Inverted | |
– Filter | 3 positions, 6 filters | (see filter section below) |
Controls (bottom) | ||
– Line Direct/Preamplifier | Preamplifier function Enable/Disable, 0/9dB gain selectable | Fixed 2V or variable with up to 5V available |
– iEMatch® | Perfect-matching circuit for IEMs (eliminate hiss) | Off / High Sensitivity Headphone / Ultra Sensitivity Headphone |
DAC section |
||
DAC | Dual-core DSD, DXD, PCM DAC by Burr Brown | 2-DAC Chip; 4-Channel; 8-Signals, custom interleaving for maximum SNR |
Bit-Perfect DSD processing, Bit-Perfect PCM processing | ||
Clock | Ultra low jitter GMT computer controlled Femto Clock | RMS jitter 12kHz – 1MHz < 280 Femtoseconds |
Audio Formats | DSD 512/256/128/64 24.6/22.6/12.4/11.2/6.2/5.6/3.1/2.8 |
All native decoding, no internal hardware conversion |
DXD 2x/1x 768/705.6/384/352.8kHz |
All native decoding, no internal hardware conversion | |
PCM 768/705.6/384/352.8/192/176.4/96/88.2/ 48/44.1kHz |
All native decoding, no internal hardware conversion | |
Filters |
||
– PCM | Bit-Perfect Processing/Minimum Phase/Standard | Digital filters selectable |
– DSD | Extreme/Extended/Standard Range | Analogue filters selectable |
– DXD | Bit-Perfect Processing | Fixed analogue filter |
Specifications (DAC Section) |
||
Dynamic Range (Line) | >117db(A) | |
THD & N (0dBFS Line) | <0.003% | |
Output Voltage (Line) | >2V | |
Output Impedance (Zout) | < 240Ω | |
Jitter (correlated) | Below AP2 test set limit | |
Headphone Power Output |
||
HP Amp Output | Power (max) | Power (continuous.) |
– Turbo mode | 10.0V/4,000 mW @ 16 Ohm | >1560 mW @ 64 Ohm |
> 166 mW @ 600 Ohm | ||
– Normal mode | 5.5V/1,900 mW @ 16 Ohm | > 950 mW @ 32 Ohm |
> 100 mW @ 300 Ohm | ||
– Eco mode | 2.0V/500 mW @ 8 Ohm | > 250 mW @ 16 Ohm |
Specifications (Headamp Section) |
||
Dynamic Range (HP) | >115dB(A) (Eco Mode, 2V Out) | |
THD &N (HP 500mW/16R) | < 0.008% | |
Output Voltage (HP) | >8V (Turbo Mode) | |
Output Impedance (Zout) | <1Ω (iEMatch not engaged) | |
Maximum Output Power | 4,000mW @ 16 Ohm Load | when using sinewave testing the micro iDSD BL may engage protection circuits |
Continuous Output Power | 1,000mW @ 64 Ohm Load |
We’re working on it — check back soon!
DACs convert digital information, stored or streamed by computers, into music we can hear through speakers or headphones.
Every device that’s a source of digital sound has a built-in DAC (TVs, games consoles, CD players, phones, portable music players etc). Dedicated external DACs sound much better than standard DACs used in digital devices such as phones.
Native playback simply means that the file format has not been changed.
You wanted to listen in PCM, you’ll still be listening in PCM. The DAC does not change the format of the original file.
MP3 – this is the most popular format, every device in the world can use it.
DSD – Direct Stream Digital is a very high-quality audio format, better than CD quality. The higher the number (sample rate), the better the recording – DSD64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024.
PCM – Pulse Code Modulation is the most common format for CDs and DVDs.
DXD – Digital eXtreme Definition is a very high-quality PCM format. It was developed to edit hi-res (high quality) recordings recorded in DSD.
IEMs stands for In-Ear Monitors.
These fit inside your ear. You’ve been using them for years. You just called them something else.
You will also see these referred to as earphones, ear buds and CIEMs. CIEMs are Custom In-Ear Monitors – IEMs made specifically to fit your ear shape.
Gain is the amount of increase in audio signal strength. Gain is often expressed in decibels (dB).