iFi ZEN CAN Balanced Desktop Headphone Amp and Preamp

I’ve had this for nearly 2 years now and the upgrade was worth every Penny I teamed this up with a moto m2 audio interface it had plenty of power for all my headphones, LCD X and Meze 99 Clasics and my cheapo cans K361 , all totally different headphones and all work together perfectly, the LCD X and Meze 99 Classics all run on the balance connector 4.4mm , best buy I have done in years

Was happy with my Zen but felt it struggled at higher volumes with my 250ohm 770's and i wasn't a fan of truebass and thought it was a bit much, went for this to improve both those things which it did, the xbass implementation sounds much better to me as opposed to the Zen and it handled higher volumes much better ( and so it should i guess) To really get the best out of this you'll need to connect it via a balanced cable to your DAC , if its the ZEN then be prepared to pay £70 or more for their cable or buy a cheaper one from Amazon like i did, the included analogue connection doesn't cut it imo and as both are balanced units although im not using balanced headphones the difference is noticeable. The unit also gets really hot, as stuff with Class A devices do. Be prepared to go on an upgrade path though once you get this, next you'll want balanced headphones to get the best out of it, then you'll realise that because you have balanced headphones you should upgrade the DAC and 12 months later you'll be sat listening to music on youtube with $1000 worth of audio equipment.

I've been running my Sennheiser HD660s through my PC motherboard's line-out, as well as a Behringer audio interface and I thought they sounded ok. However, I didn't like that the bass was a little mushy and the mids were rather over-powering. I thought that a 150 ohm set of headphones would be no match for the 600ohm my motherboard said it could handle. Apparently I was very wrong. I recently picked up the iFi Zen CAN amp and have it sat between the computer and my headphones using an RCA cable. I have the gain set to 18dB using a regular single-ended connection from my headphones (I haven't tried the balanced cables yet), the bass boost is on and it sounds incredible. The bass has tightened up, the highs are clear as daylight and the mids are wholesome. My musical tastes include everything from Dire Straits, Pink Floyd and middle-of-the-road rock, to industrial and thrash metal --Fear Factory, Pantera, Ministry etc. Everything sounds sublime. I'm now going through my whole music collection and hearing things in a whole new way.

Nice headphone amp, does the job well. The only thing that lets it down is the warmth in the bass boost is a little too subtle compared alongside the Zen Dac V2. Perhaps this will be addressed in the V2 version of the Zen Can? If that is the case , it would be an unbeatable piece of kit at this price point!!

The price is right for this little power house... Love it!! Not the best by any stretch, but it hits hard at value for money. Try to stack it with the Zen Dac and use a balanced cable to connect. Lots of features such as 4.4 balanced in and out. Bass boost and spacial audio are nice additions. Not as powerful as some of schiit offerings but bang for buck you probably won't beat this too easily... Good job IFI..

I consider myself a borderline audiophile. I appreciate a good product and like a nice sound. I don’t subscribe to buying overpriced cables that supposedly make my system sound better, instead looking for an understated, good value alternative. So I started my journey with ifi when I bought a hipdac2. I’d been a bit disappointed with my headphone experience and I was blown away by what a decent headphone amp could do. My home hifi amp doesn’t have a headphone socket (more audiophile nonsense) so I’d had to buy a headphone amp and despite it being from the manufacturer of the amp it was seriously disappointing. Having been so pleased with the hipdac2 I thought I’d try the ifi zen can. Well, it didn’t disappoint. My big headphone found a new lease of life. They’ve never sounded quite so good. The only fly in the ointment, and I’d like to think is a one off, my zen can didn’t come with a power supply, despite being listed with one. In all fairness the seller stepped up and having first got in touch with ifi then sent one out, although it did take a week to arrive which took the edge off the joy of a shiny new toy a little.

Great way to start your audiophile rabit hole, pair it with the amp, it's worth, I'm still using after years with my HD 6XX and hi-fi man Ananda, defo a great a value of money, also use it balanced.

Bought this amp because I was demoing the DT990's and the Sundaras and knew I needed an amp for the DT's. Ended up keeping the Sundaras and kept the amp too as I felt the bass sounded awesome with the XBass switch. Problem is I only just recently realised this amp squares off the sub bass. I was programming some 808's and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the clipping was coming from on the sub bass until I swapped the headphones into the direct out on my audio interface. Turned out it was the amp. Even on the lowest of the four gain settings I can only get rid of the squaring / soft clipping of the bass by having the volume super low. But if I plug them straight into my USB audio device (an SSL2) I can drive them to deafeningly loud volumes and the sub sounds like a pure sine wave through and through. Not sure if that's the amp in general as I no longer have any high impedance headphones to test with but at least for the Sundaras (and I assume any others that are around that ohmage) it turned out to be a bust. But yeah like I say - you don't need it at all if you have a USB interface. Just plug straight into the headphone out and they sound great.

El sonido suena más potente, mejora los impactos repentinos en la música, por ejemplo en la batería. Todas las frecuencias mejoran un poco pero no hace maravillas. El modo Xbass no ayuda tanto la resonancia de los bajos como se esperaría. Honestamente no vale lo que cuesta, yo buscaría un amplificador Yamaha el cual incluye DAC y un buen ecualizador.

I don't know what XBass/3D does, I just know it does fun things to music and headphones. And then when you turn them off, you have an amp that is as transparent and neutral as it needs to be. Lots of gain increments are useful (just be wary of the knob position as you must go up to go down). I would definitely use this set up with TrueBass + Xbass + 3D whatever it's called to convert people wearing muddy garbage bass boosted headphones. This is what those people actually want, but have never heard. Why iFi insists on knee-capping their products performance so they can upsell snake oil power supplies is both a mystery and not a mystery at all to me. Just. Don't. Buy. Them. DONT BUY THE POWER SUPPLIES! iFi have a great sound, and the Zen Dac and Can have a cool retro look, but the Zen Dac includes NO power supply at all, and the Can includes a 2.4 amp one? Digging into a manual/"low-down" I found on iFi's website, I found this interesting bit of information. "It’s worth knowing that the ZEN CAN appreciates more than 2.5A, and can handle up to 4A peaks." So...why not include a 5v4a power supply? Why is your **$70** "SilentPower" adapter only 2.5A? I bought a UL listed 5v4a power supply for 14 dollars on this site. It works great. Just do that. With good power provided this should drive anything loud enough to damage your hearing. If you have to ask if it has enough power, it does.

Coupled with a Zen DAC V2, via a a balanced cable, the stack is running HiFi Man Arya Stealth Magnet headphones with no problem. I did set the gain to the second spot.

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.

I didn't know what i was missing until I added this to my computer audio chain. What a lovely amp to pair with the ifi dac. Adds volume and texture. also, the bass boost is great. Highly recommended.