iFi Audio - hip-dac

This is surely a worthy product. Sound is nearly neutral with little warm. First I've tried this with my 1more dual driver earphones. The sound quality was really amazing but I was overwhelmed when I tried this with my newly bought headphone beyerdynamic dt990 edition 250 ohms. But whenever you play any high impedance headphone like this you have to switch on powermatch button. This is the first and only dac-amp combo I bought. I don't have any idea about other dacs or amplifiers but this thing is a pure happiness for me. This thing has enough amòunt of power but I am not sure that it can drive a extreme power hungry headphones like the beyerdynamic 600 ohms one with full potential. This is my first purchase of any costly audio equipment (yes u heard it correctly that it's a costly product for me) but this product didn't give any chance to regret. And one important thing u will get all the necessary connectors (for charging, and connecting with smartphone using type-c and also with laptop or desktop) within the box.

Got mine two days ago. Used it extensively for the past two days with different headphones and this is my review of the Hip Dac.
Unless paired with the right headphone, the Hip Dac is not at all neutral, atleast to my ears. With warm sounding headphones, they sound boomy and at times muddy. They make even the Audio Technica Ath R70X sound too warm, atleast to my ears. They make Shures 215 sound summery warm. This is not necessary a bad thing if you are a bass head. To my ears, they are amazing with bright sounding headphones like the Dt 770. So, it is very important to pair the Hip Dac with the right headphone. If paired with the right headphone, the Hip dac is very enjoyable. If you have a bright sounding headphone or if you are a bass head, you should consider getting the Hip Dac.
They do look really nice and hip with a solid build quality. One negative, the battery does not last very long.

This was my first foray in this DAC/AMP thing. I wanted to buy Schiit Magni+Modi but they were not available and Salim from HPZ suggested that this hip dac. I watched few reviews and almost every review was positive so went ahead with this.

I am using this ifi Hip DAC with my Hifiman Sundara. It has been almost two weeks now and the music feels more smoother and bright compared to when i plug my headphone directly into the 3.5mm connection of laptop. I am almost addicted to it. It identifies MQA format from TIDAL and the light turns purple (that is how I know it identifies)

The power match button drives the headphone a notch louder and most of the time I keep that volume between 40-50%.Xbass is on most of the times and it brings out the sub bass beautifully and clearly.

I would recommend it if you want a clean and bright sound from your computer or phone. It comes with one USB connector, one USB - Charger cable, and one USB - C connector cable.

The connection system is bit weird, it takes a USB female cable and USB-C is just for charging. I am getting around 4-5 hrs of play time after each charge. For iphone you have to buy a cable which could cost somewhere between 1000-1500 rs

If you are beginner and confused what to get, you should definitely get this one.

After coming from a disaster experience with the mojo(I like the sound but unreliable), I was looking for something with a warm sound signature to use while on the move. And the hip dac fits right in with its burr brown warm sounding dac and super portable size. The sound is incredible if you wanna rock out but not very analytical. But then that's not its purpose. I can't believe I am getting chord mojo sound (I think, I havent used it for a few months) at 1/3rd thr price. My first ifi audio gear and definitely many. Also they give you all the necessary connection peripherals in the box( I am looking at you chord😒) Would recommend it blindly at this price. Punches well above its weight

I am an ifi fan boy and this is my 3rd ifi product, I had owned ifi micro idsd and currently own the ifi micro idsd BL. If I already own the BL then why the hip DAC again, I wanted a pocket sized DAC that can bring in the ifi SQ. Does the hip DAC deliver for me?

TLDR rating :)

SQ: 5
Build: 5+
Battery: 3.5
Value for Money: 5
Overall: 4.5

Hip DAC lives up to the brand name when it comes to SQ, it offers a satisfactory punch with Hifiman Sundara (I am yet to try the 4.4mm balanced) and the rendition is smooth, you don't feel like wanting more unless you are spoiled by having a ifi micro idsd BL handy for comparison. It drives the Sennheiser HD650 to ear splitting volumes (both 3.5SE & balanced) and hip DAC has a neutral to warm signature for perfect synergy. I am sure everyone knows how well HD650 can scale with amps, so don’t come complaining about my statement here :)

To me the perfect pairing comes in the form of Yamaha MT-5 which is my recent find for a budget closed back! Smooth rendering of the ifi hip DAC without compromising on the speed and attack added with sufficient bottom end on tap when needed (Xbass) makes it a perfect compact DAC/Amp on the go for revealing monitoring cans like the Yamaha MT-5. Yamaha MT-5 also has a brilliant staging for a closed back and the combo makes every song & genre enjoyable, with MT-5 pairing I never felt anything lacking compared to ifi BL.

I am not an IEM fan and just have the Venture electronics BIE which did very well with the hip DAC with excellent staging and dynamics. Honestly I cannot understand some of the negative reviews about hip DAC, whilst my hip DAC was still on order I happened to stumble upon one famous reviewer’s comments about hip DAC, he mentioned the hip DAC as being warm and loose and has a rolled off high end, he in fact claimed hip DAC to be warmer than the Chord Mojo. Having owned the Chord Mojo I can confirm this is not the case with the hip DAC, the amp has been tuned for linear & smooth delivery throughout the frequency range while exhibiting proper attack on the transducers (ifi special IMHO) combining it with a perfect high end which delivers lot of details.
With such a brilliant package the caveat comes in the form of battery life and the way circuit has been designed, the data port and the charging port has been separated and there is no way hip DAC can work on USB power from a PC (as claimed by the supplied manual which now has been corrected in the online version) and it solely depends on battery power unlike ifi BL. This was a major disappointment for me, I was able to squeeze somewhere between 4 to 6 hours only when running on high gain (power match) and balanced with a combination of Sundara and HD 650, probably with an IEM you should be able to do more than 8 hours. The battery charge indicator is handy and it has three colours to show battery charge, though I wish it had four colours like Mojo

Red - less than 25%
Green - 25 to 75%
White - 75 to 100%

To sum it up except for battery life and battery circuit design hip DAC scores very high in terms of SQ and build quality at a very affordable price and it deserves a place in your back pack if you cannot afford or if you are not a fan of the entry level Android based DAPs in the market like me.

I use the Hip DAC with my MacBook and iPhone and it enhances the output a fair bit on both. In both cases, I have hardly ever needed to push the volume dial past 12 o'clock to get it loud enough on my Sennheiser HD 599s.

This unit gives the sound, across all genres of music, more definition, space, resolution and body. People have said the Hip DAC colours music slightly warm but I haven't really seen that - though in my defence, I'm no audiophile. I leave the bass boost off, though I do turn the Power Match on. (I believe you can leave it off for most high-sensitivity IEMs.) Turning Power Match on delivers a massive boost in sound quality and volume on the HD 599s for me.

I've taken off a star because I'm fairly sure I was sent a unit that was previously opened (if not also used). There was no plastic wrap anywhere, and the box was somewhat scuffed in the flap area.

Also, battery life is far from great. iFi claims ten-12 hours or so, but I get about half that or less. If you look at Head-Fi etc, you'll see this has been pretty much standard for all buyers.

Anyway, the good thing is, you can charge and use the DAC at the same time. Though at any given time, the unit will only draw power from its own battery (and not from external power), so basically you're keeping the battery power topped up if you charge it while using it.

A point of pain for iOS users is that you need to fork out 3k extra for an Apple CCK adapter (Lightning to USB-A female) to use this DAC with your phone or iPad. And since the adapter wire is short and squat, it's pretty unwieldy using your phone when you have the DAC hooked up to it. There will be cheaper alternatives out there, but you never know when those stop playing nice with Apple devices.

Good portable DAC with a warm sound signature. I'm using this with Sennheiser HD660s and TIDAL.

My first external DAC, my first purchase from HPZ. DAP - fiio x5lll, phone- OnePlus 7. Earphones - fiio fh1, sony mdr xb55, TRi4. I played muse, fleetwood Mac etc, the sub bass is beautifully pronounced. No hiss, volume is loud, I just can't pass 30% of it. Decodes MQA, need to buy UAPP app and MQA plugin, for MQA to work. App+ plugin costs 700 Rs from playstore. MQA setup is tricky. The vocals, instruments, bass are much clearer than the fiio x5lll DAP. Bass is punchy, not overpowering. I could hear instruments, which I couldn't in my bookshelves, powered by AVR. Wide soundstage, totally enjoyable and addictive. It's heavy and gets warm after 30 minutes of usage, battery lasts for 6-7 hours on my usage. The powermatch and bass boost buttons, really work wonders. Firmware should be updated to 5.3 and 5.3c version, for MQA to work. Overall I am satisfied and I thank HPZ, for making the product available. The guys at HPZ are responsive about queries to the product listed on their site. I appreciate it. Great job HPZ

You have not sent me the product yet. It’s still there in your warehouse. Thank you.