iFi xDSD Gryphon - Ultra-Res Portable Balanced DAC & Headphone Amplifier - INPUTS: Bluetooth 5.1 / USB-C/S-PDIF / 3.5mm SE / 4.4mm Bal

iFi xDSD Gryphon is one of the best purchases I've made this year. BT mode is excellent and has LDAC + many more. The sound quality is amazing, and when plugged in using USB, it gets even better.This is a slightly warm dac/amp, and has a few different sound effects, each one has its own benefits. It is built strong, feels it's price, but I just really want to talk about why I love it.I tried many iem's and headphones on it, but it took 3 iem's that I liked, but haven't listened to them as each one had 1 or 2 issues, and the gryphon fixed their issues, and they are now used daily.The Fearless Rui S6 lacked bass, and was thin in the midrange, though it had beautiful vocals, great treble extension, and good bass control. When I finally settled on putting it on the XBass+(front) and the switch in the rear on XSpace with the filter GTO, Wow! Instantaneously I fell in love. On all genres. But the vocals are simply divine with great details.Then I tried, LetShuoer EJ07m x Hbb, a great iem, another great balanced iem with a little too much in the upper mids, some female vocals got harsh, and it lacked that sparkle in the treble, though stage was good, bass well controlled. But I found it boring, with the settings set to: XBass+ in front and in the back lifted up to bass+presence with it on GTO. Again, wow, a wonderful balanced with a great sub and midbass, female vocals sound amazing and natural. Treble is slightly lifted giving it sparkle, the mids are delightful.And finally the ibasso IT01s, a single dynamic, that had two issues, the nozzle was too large, that was an easy fix, just unscrewed the nozzle filter and took it off, but it was so perfectly balanced and neutral that it was quite bland/boring. Putting it on the STD effect, using XBass+ front and XBass on back. Cannot believe this is a single dynamic. The details are crisp, great space between instruments (that darkness) imaging is great, bass is impactful, reaches down low with just enough warmth to give the mids richness, vocals are intimate and sweet, treble is right on, sparkle and air. It's the best single DD I've ever heard now, so rich and full sounding like a pair of headphones.I tried about 30 iem's and 6 headphones. But I was looking for something for my iem's. As I wasn't listening too much with them, as I was in headphone land, lol. The gryphon changed that for me. Also on sensitive iem's there is some noise, but there's a switch on the bottom of the unit that you can use to dial down this issue, so it makes it even more appealing to use. What else can I say, it made me start using my iem's again. If I could go back in time, this would be the only portable dac/amp I would need to buy. Worth every penny of it's price

I love this portable DAC/Amp! The Gryphon keeps surprising me with its capabilities. What I enjoy most about the Gryphon, which is made possible by its amazing DAC is the amplifier filters: XBass & XSpace. There are some albums that I tried to listen to for the past two years but I couldn't enjoy them due to the way they were mastered. Not really done well. With the Gryphon you can make analog corrections. Need more bass, no problem. Need mids to be more forward, no problem! Need some more instrument separation, you got it (albeit you'll really only notice the impact with intimate headphones, like the Focal Clears).It is super clear, natural sounding, and musical! I so enjoy listening to it on its own, whether it's classical, new age, contemporary jazz, it's so much fun.It is also powerful enough to drive my Hifiman Arya SE with no issue and plenty of headroom, using the 4.4mm balanced jack, which I recommend. But their single-ended 3.8mm jack is also very good, shockingly good. It is also able to be used as a preamp to power speakers or feed into another amplifier. This pairs very well with a tube amplifier. I'm currently doing a 3.8mm line out from the Gryphon into my WA7 Fireflies 3rd gen (RCA input) and it sounds amazing!!! With XBass turned on for albums that need it, it's a godsend.Lastly, another favorite feature is desktop mode. You can have it run off of usb charging cable and stop charging the battery. This is my primary use case until I need to travel and need to bring my music experience with me. The Gryphon makes it super easy. Whether I'm at the hotel or visiting friends/family, for a long stay, the Gryphon is a fabulous on-the-go solution.Do yourself a favor, if you are on the fence, just buy it and try it out for 30 days. I don't think you'll be disappointed.