Setup and User Experience: Part 2

The iFi Pro iDSD Signature is also a streamer, hence the WiFi and Ethernet connectivity options, but this is the one time that I felt things could have been far better implemented for the average end user. During the R&D phase, and perhaps this is shared with some other iFi streamers too, the company decided to use the estwhile-called Muzo app to set up the Pro iDSD Signature for streaming. The problem is that all the printed manuals, videos, and launch day coverage talk about this app which is now something else entirely under the same name. Muzo was renamed to WiiM Home and you need to download the respective Android / iOS / macOS / Windows program here. The online user manual does mention the new name and I'd suggest going with the mobile version to make it easier, but even here the lack of clear instructions from iFi about how to actually set things up don't help. It took some frustration and plenty of searching online to get things going, including choosing the "App" input and the Bit-Perfect filter, then launching the app and connecting the phone to the iFi generated WiFi network in that very specific order. The WiiM Home app will then search for and hopefully find the Pro iDSD Signature which can then be connected to your home network. You can also theoretically use WPS on both the unit and your router but I could not get this to work no matter what I tried, including with multiple different routers. Once done, the WiiM Home app can be set up to play local music or through pre-selected streaming services and this is routed to the Pro iDSD Signature over WiFi. Ethernet connectivity is best handled after this or via an Ethernet Bridge / NAS / WiiM Home + PC.


Another option, which can be done after the network setup, is to use the provided iFi Bridge for Roon software, once again accessible on this page as with the firmware update and USB audio drivers. The Pro iDSD Signature may not be listed on Roon's compatible device list, but you can get around it with this bridge to where, once again, things could have been simpler for the end user. This bridge allows for any UPnP / DLNA device to be a Roon playback option in addition to allowing MQA and gapless network playback with the Pro iDSD Signature. It does so by effectively making Roon think the device is a Logitech Squeezebox—a product discontinued over a decade ago! Oh, and this only works on Windows too so there's no such solution for those on other operating systems. I will give iFi credit for putting out a detailed guide here which comes included with the bridge installer itself, but needless to say that using the streaming services on the Pro iDSD Signature has an unnecessarily steep learning curve.


Follow the steps as outlined in the guide and seen above, and finally the Pro iDSD Signature can be used with Roon (and other such programs supporting UPnP / DLNA playback). For those unaware, Roon is quite possibly the best thing you could have if you tend to go with local storage of music files over streaming. It's the best music organizer and player I've used to date with a clean UI and fantastic PCM and DSD playback alike. There are some music streaming services supported by it too and the amount of useful information it provides on the music artists and their work also makes it easy to discover others that may be to your liking. It's a paid subscription (or lifetime) that may seem confusing given it does not actually provide you with music content but I started using it recently and have already discovered the benefits which include easy-to-use digital filters to customize the tonality of headphones / speakers etc. If you are interested to give it a try, you can use this link to get a free 30-day trial (I don't get anything out of it). The takeaway here is that being Roon Ready or a Roon Partner is a good feature to note for audiophiles when it comes to streaming devices and getting the Pro iDSD Signature ready to this point is worth the effort and potential frustration.

Audio Performance

Outside of the various inputs on offer, I will mention that I do not have an external clock here so I could not test for that. The various filters on offer are also going to be subject to your use case and preferences, and even there I can't guarantee you can perceive a bit-perfect sound coming out of the Pro iDSD Signature in your ears either. I also do not have an AES input source to feed to the Pro iDSD Signature, but the point is you have all these available to try here, which is more than could be said about any other such DAC tested to date. I say DAC, but really this is also an amplifier in that it does offer Class A amplification over solid state and tube outputs to three different headphone outputs. This makes the Pro iDSD Signature a capable all-in-one device contingent on your headphones and subjective experience too. iFi rates the output power at 16 Ω, at a minimum of 1.575 W off the single-ended connector and 4.2 W off the balanced output. This is at the +18 dB gain setting admittedly but I am happy to note that it is capable of getting pretty much anything loud enough and then some! Indeed, I have seen reports from users who were satisfied with the notorious HIFIMAN Susvara directly connected to the Pro iDSD Signature, although I have had the same set driven off more capable amplifiers to where I can't say the Pro iDSD Signature will do for me. I instead saw the strong point of device with less demanding headphones than the Susvara, as well as the current-hungry MOONDROP VENUS, such as the HIFIMAN HE1000se which costs slightly more than the Pro iDSD Signature and also more demanding IEMs such as Symphonium Audio Helios which can compete with multi-kilobuck IEMs easily in my books. Higher impedance dynamic driver headphones are a great fit too, and I only wish I still had the Focal Utopia here given the excellent synergy the iFi Pro iDSD Signature displayed with even the Sennheiser HD 6XX with the tube output modes.


So, while the amplifier section on the Pro iDSD Signature may not be its strongest point necessarily given it's mostly a line out, I dare say the vast majority of people considering the device can afford to pair it with the dedicated amplifier of their choice. This means using the Pro iDSD Signature primarily as a network streamer and DAC and using the outputs on the back as demonstrated above with the dual 3-pin balanced XLR connection headed to two of my e-stat amplifiers here in the form of the excellent Headamp Blue Hawaii Special Edition ($7995 as configured) and the $5000 HIFIMAN Shangri-La Jr. amp, both of which cost more than the Pro iDSD Signature and are in the realm of that extreme top 0.01% of audiophiles who are willing to spend in the 5-figure USD for their audio experience. E-stats are weird in that the heavy capacitive load and the high voltage bias make it easier to discern between amplifiers and DACs more than more typical dynamic driver or planar magnetic driver headphones, and indeed this is also where I could not only tell you exactly where the three output modes here work best but also what combination of DAC/amp/headphones worked well too.

The solid state output of the iFi Pro iDSD Signature is a safe default that you will get used to and I appreciate it also being there to allow music playback while waiting for the tubes to be hot and ready to go. This is the most neutral of any iFi source I've tried to date, and is clearly seen compared to the other modes above. Indeed, I will point out that lovers of the warm Burr-Brown iFi house sound will not find it here, with the Pro iDSD Signature intentionally kept more neutral to allow the end user to get an uncolored bit-perfect music stream in as high as DSD1024 (with remastering) to then tweak as desired. There's not a lot to say here and admittedly at this point you would certainly need to be using the other features to justify the price point even remotely given you can otherwise get a similar sound at a far lower cost. It's the tube output modes which make things more interesting and draws comparisons to other expensive DACs, be it the R-2R variety or dedicated / hybrid tube DACs, some of which make this seem like a relative bargain. Those relying primarily on measurements for sources will immediately write this off but those willing to apply a mix of both objective and subjective experiences will find delight here. Tube mode paired with the BHSE and a neutral-bright leaning set of headphones would be my recommendation, with the likes of the flagship HIFIMAN Shangri-La Sr. now coming off slightly more balanced and still retaining that magic. This also adds a bit more punch and expands the soundstage to the Audeze CRBN to where I mostly found myself leaving the Pro iDSD Signature in Tube mode. On the other hand, Tube+ mode came off as too much of a good thing for me in that you get more of the tube's natural harmonic distortion. In practice, it made for muffled mids affecting vocals reproduction on almost every set of headphones to where you almost feel like you get a warm mid-bass and lower mids coupled with recessed mids. The frequency response also loses air in both tube modes, which also makes this overall warmth more perceivable.