I honestly can’t find fault with a device at this price point that can do as much as the Nano iDSD Black Label can. At $199 it is a bit of a steal to get IEMatch, decent levels of gain and power as well as a smooth analog type delivery with BitPerfect capability. Throwing in MQA is kind of like a selectively high-end cherry on a generally rather tasty cake.

If you have IEMs or even a wide range of medium efficiency headphones the Nano iDSD BL is a really smart entry-level choice for the price. It can handle both but with IEMatch it excels with today’s hyper-efficient IEMs which I suspect is where the majority of buyers will likely be.

It may well be the last release of the old iFi design ethos and superseded by the new X Series but the BL easily grabs our Bang For Buck award for 2018.

Oh golly, what an upgrade! It’s warm, smooth, detailed and punchy. Now, to be clear, I am using it with the tidal desktop app on a desktop computer in my office with an audioquest USB cable (iFi has the converter you need to get from USB-B to female USB-A right in the box), not in a portable mode. And so far I have just tried it with my office Grado SR325e’s and Tidal Hi-Fi (lossless) and Master- which the 5.30 firmware on my unit automatically recognizes and switches to MQA mode. (The current Tidal app automatically recognized IT as a MQA device too, and switched mode to outboard renderer by itself- how easy is that?) So I can’t say how it sounds with lesser sound sources. But as a desktop headphone front end it just sounds bloody marvelous for the price, much better than my old d/a. Which has already been tossed in a drawer where it will be living from now on. It’s small, unobtrusive, and well-built, with a very smooth volume control- which you NEED playing MQA since the Tidal app disables its own volume control when it detects an MQA sound device. If all you need to do is to drive headphones from a usb source this is an easy choice- the Nano has a number of iFi big brothers if you need more connections and choices. DO get the driver from iFi and install it first before connecting it to Windows 7 for the best installation experience.

With the Black Label you can drive pretty much everything… I had no headphone that I couldn’t drive with it.

iFi’s Nano iDSD Black Label is a brilliant headphone amp/DAC that offers serious sound quality in a very compact and affordable package- similarly priced rivals have far less functionality making it excellent value too. It is a wothy little brother to iFi’s also excellent Micro iDSD Black Label, but one whose distinctive S-Balanced amplifier and iEMatch circuitry give it a sonic appeal all its own. Go hear one. Soon.

Super happy with the BL Nano. I’ve come from a Dragonfly Red and this trumps it both in usage/flexibility, and sound (particularly the clear midrange and also the slightly fuller bass). I particularly love: the volume knob, which is smooth and easy to set (though probably too light if looking to use this in your pocket); the two outputs for different impedance headphones; the line out; MQA’s from Tidal sound great; the small form factor and build quality. This isn’t really a portable (as in walkaround) device, but I use it primarily at my home office desk and when working remotely e.g. from hotels, for which usage it’s absolutely perfect. I can also see the line out getting some heavy use. Really excellent and flexible little unit and I can’t imagine getting anything better for the money.