iFi Audio Zen Air Can

The ZEN CAN Air is a fully analog headphone amplifier that can drive difficult headphone loads. Its balanced circuit design, extremely low distortion levels, and versatile sound customization options to optimize performance are all very unusual for a desktop headphone amp costing less than €100.

Its circuitry and features have been simplified, but the quality of what has been retained is remarkable. Like the ZEN CAN, it has no digital inputs; it connects to any audio source with an analog output, such as the headphone output of a DAP (Digital Audio Player), laptop, tablet, or smartphone, or the RCA outputs of a CD player, for example, or a phono stage like the ZEN Air Phono. It could also be paired with the ZEN Air Blue to add Bluetooth reception, or perhaps combined with the ZEN Air DAC to upgrade the DAC’s headphone amplification stage.

Technology Highlights

Although the fully balanced circuit topology of the ZEN CAN has been simplified to create its Air equivalent, it retains the use of high-quality discrete components and a separate, symmetrical layout between channels—an exceptional level of design for such an eminently affordable price. While it doesn’t offer the same output level as the ZEN CAN, it has enough power to easily drive all manner of headphones—1200mW into a 32Ω load—and ultra-low distortion to deliver impressive musical texture and detail.

The iFi four-amp circuit includes OVA-series field-effect transistor (FET) op-amps using a “folded cascode” design, with a specialized feedback circuitry to optimize performance. The input stage features auto gain matching between inputs and feeds a precision TOCOS potentiometer, while the complementary bipolar discrete output stage uses the same Class A buffer found in iFi’s more expensive headphone amps. The power supply circuitry includes a “stealth mode” voltage conversion, with linear regulation, noise filtering, physical isolation from sensitive audio circuits, and over 4,000uF capacity to maintain sufficient power reserves to handle musical transients.

Alloy shielding inside the thermoplastic polymer outer case protects sensitive signal paths from interference. Even the way the ZEN Air CAN switches between settings has been engineered to ensure sonic transparency: FET-based switching is handled by a microcontroller that only wakes up when the user changes a setting, eliminating any sound-degrading interference.

All this meticulous attention to detail would be impressive in a high-end headphone amp; the fact that iFi has managed to implement such high-quality circuitry in a device retailing at just €99 is simply remarkable.

Technical Specifications

Main Features

• Audiophile design with symmetrical channel layout
• Three gain levels to suit all types of headphones
• Bass boost (XBass+) and spatialization (XSpace) modes for sound customization
• Powerful amplification with ultra-low noise

Audio Performance

• Output power:

  • 6.7 V / 75 mW (at 600 Ω)

  • 6.5 V / 660 mW (at 64 Ω)

  • 6.2 V / 1200 mW (at 32 Ω)

• Total harmonic distortion and noise: 0.005% (at 100 mW / 1.27 V at 16 Ω)
• Signal-to-noise ratio: > 114 dBA (at 6.7 V)
• Frequency response: 10 Hz - 100 kHz (-3 dB)

Connectivity

• Inputs: 2 stereo RCA jacks, 1 mini-jack 3.5 mm
• Headphone outputs:
  • 6.3 mm unbalanced jack
  • 4.4 mm balanced jack (S-Balanced) (50% distortion reduction)

Physical Characteristics

• Power consumption:
  • Standby: 5 W
  • Operating: 13 W
• Dimensions (W × H × D): 158 × 35 × 117 mm
• Weight: 352 g