So I got the opportunity to have one of these in my grubby paws for a few weeks :rubhands:
I'm a big amp man ,I like the back breaking amps that have enormous toroidal power supplies and then on top of all that there is power sapping Class A that just does it for me. I unpacked the small form factor IDA8 and it is quite weighty and solid feeling for its size. Hooking up was such a breeze and I feed my SBT into the USB port, slipped in the nanna plugs from my speaker cables into the sturdy binding posts ,connected the power cord and that was done. Powered it all up and the digital settings on the SBT it had found the DAC and rebooted after selecting this. Pressed play and went to sit down.
Impressive was my very first thought ,found it hard to believe this little thing was driving my Audio Physics. I spent some time going through some familiar tracks and really liked what I heard. Called Mr's CAD and she sat a listened for a little while and was also pretty impressed. I spun some Dave Matthews as well as some Lisa Ekdal and her impressions were that the voice came straight down the middle and that she got a good sense of the artists being in the room. She was enjoying the drumming and percussion(lady drummer
)and found the brush strokes and cymbals quite profound. I had to agree with her impressions.
I carried on listening a bit on the Audio Physics and although it sounded more than good it seemed to be a little "restricted" compared to my system.
OK cool lets try some other speakers, so tried Boston CR-5 , B&W LM1's and a set of Castle Conway 3 floor standers. While both the Bostons and the LM1's sounded pretty darn good the IDA8 and the Castles just seemed to be a fine match so most of the listening and review is based on this set up.
Well what can I say that others have not said its bloody musical across all genre's. I often like to hit the random button and the IDA8 just made music with every genre that it was asked to play.
The DAC is very good and extracts tons of fine detail and the amp is no slouch. If this makes any sense I found it to sound the same from low volumes right through to higher listening levels. It's not really anything ,its not bright,it's not bassy , its not overly aggressive in the mids or highs ,kinda neutral would be the word I guess. I was pleasantly surprised with good articulate and very punchy bass. Stereo imaging is straight down the middle with a good sense of height and a pretty wide sound stage. The IDA seemed to lack a little in terms of perceived depth but nothing to complain about . I have listened to this set up for two weeks now,for a couple of hours at a time and experienced no fatigue what so ever and honestly just enjoyed the music it presented. I also realised just how good the Castle Conways can be when driven by a decent amp.
It's an awesome bit of kit and very versatile. I have actually had fun with it and hugely enjoyed experimenting. It has a fair amount of balls although I kinda get the feeling it may battle a bit with extreme speaker loads. Perfect one box solution for smallish rooms and desk top set ups.
Would I replace my current set up with the IDA8 ,nope and that was not the intention but if I were starting out looking for a good stereo set up in this price range it would most definitely be on my short list.I think it offers great value and musical enjoyment for ones hard earned moolah :thumbs:
I'm a big amp man ,I like the back breaking amps that have enormous toroidal power supplies and then on top of all that there is power sapping Class A that just does it for me. I unpacked the small form factor IDA8 and it is quite weighty and solid feeling for its size. Hooking up was such a breeze and I feed my SBT into the USB port, slipped in the nanna plugs from my speaker cables into the sturdy binding posts ,connected the power cord and that was done. Powered it all up and the digital settings on the SBT it had found the DAC and rebooted after selecting this. Pressed play and went to sit down.
Impressive was my very first thought ,found it hard to believe this little thing was driving my Audio Physics. I spent some time going through some familiar tracks and really liked what I heard. Called Mr's CAD and she sat a listened for a little while and was also pretty impressed. I spun some Dave Matthews as well as some Lisa Ekdal and her impressions were that the voice came straight down the middle and that she got a good sense of the artists being in the room. She was enjoying the drumming and percussion(lady drummer
)and found the brush strokes and cymbals quite profound. I had to agree with her impressions.I carried on listening a bit on the Audio Physics and although it sounded more than good it seemed to be a little "restricted" compared to my system.
OK cool lets try some other speakers, so tried Boston CR-5 , B&W LM1's and a set of Castle Conway 3 floor standers. While both the Bostons and the LM1's sounded pretty darn good the IDA8 and the Castles just seemed to be a fine match so most of the listening and review is based on this set up.
Well what can I say that others have not said its bloody musical across all genre's. I often like to hit the random button and the IDA8 just made music with every genre that it was asked to play.
The DAC is very good and extracts tons of fine detail and the amp is no slouch. If this makes any sense I found it to sound the same from low volumes right through to higher listening levels. It's not really anything ,its not bright,it's not bassy , its not overly aggressive in the mids or highs ,kinda neutral would be the word I guess. I was pleasantly surprised with good articulate and very punchy bass. Stereo imaging is straight down the middle with a good sense of height and a pretty wide sound stage. The IDA seemed to lack a little in terms of perceived depth but nothing to complain about . I have listened to this set up for two weeks now,for a couple of hours at a time and experienced no fatigue what so ever and honestly just enjoyed the music it presented. I also realised just how good the Castle Conways can be when driven by a decent amp.
It's an awesome bit of kit and very versatile. I have actually had fun with it and hugely enjoyed experimenting. It has a fair amount of balls although I kinda get the feeling it may battle a bit with extreme speaker loads. Perfect one box solution for smallish rooms and desk top set ups.
Would I replace my current set up with the IDA8 ,nope and that was not the intention but if I were starting out looking for a good stereo set up in this price range it would most definitely be on my short list.I think it offers great value and musical enjoyment for ones hard earned moolah :thumbs:
