A Worthy Successor
"The iFi Zen Can has always been one of my favorite amplifiers. I owned the original edition of the product (referred to the OG in the rest of the review) and have used it the most out of my collection (12+) amps. It's size, inputs/outputs, power, and analogue EQ make it ideal for just about every scenario you want to use it for. Connection your favorite DAC? It's got 3. 5mm SE and 4. 4mm balanced. Connecting your phone? It has a 3. 5mm single ended input. Want to use both your single-ended and balanced headphones with your single-ended and balanced DACs? Yep, it can cross the streams with power to spare. It has 4 levels gain, and three different EQ modes. It's damn near perfect. Why spend so much time talking about the OG if this is a review for Zen 3? Because they are more similar than different. Now, we're not talking the yearly NBA/NHL game from EA carbon-copy, but audiophile land is usually a game of inches and that does apply here. I will say that when I AB'd them, I was using the fancy Power X with the OG and the normal power supply with the Zen 3. That power supply is $100 on its own and I did not have the original power supply for the OG, so keep in mind that my OG is already a beefier version than stock. Features: Z3 has everything from the OG plus more. If you're going to do a new version of something as a company, you not only need to refine what you have but add value somewhere else. Otherwise, why upgrade? Z3 now has a game mode, a movie mode, and MEMs drive capability. Although I do not have any MEMs headphones/IEMs, I can tell you that the game mode and movie mode do what they say. I hooked up my Xbox controller to a long 3. 5mm cable and placed it into the single-ended input of the Z3. I could definitely hear footsteps and opponent reloads with more frequency and clarity. The movie mode also accomplished its stated goal: making dialogue clearer. Look, I am getting old at this point (40+), and new Atmos mixes almost always bump action and sound effects over the dialogue. I love explosions and car chases as much as the next guy, but I do occasionally want to also hear the plot in my blockbuster movies. The Z3 helps with this. If you plan to use the Z3 as your media hub amp and enjoy all of yoru cans with games, movies, and music, I think you could do a lot worse. No, it doesn’t have the built-in EQ that you can get from some DAPs and DACs, but for ~$225, I don’t know too many other products that have these features, this kind of power (2000mW vs the 1600mW of the OG), and in this small of a package. I do think the extra modes are excellent and put the Z3 over the OG. Is it a necessary upgrade? That’s extremely subjective given your gear and purposes for upgrading. If you have never gotten an iFi Can before, this is an easy recommendation. Spend a bit more and make the jump from the OG to the Z3. Sound: If you have never experienced iFi’s Zen Can, boy oh boy are you in for a treat. The usual audiophile terms of “warm” and “bassy” apply here. If you wanted an analogue/vinyl/tube-like sound without all the gear that those terms usually come with, there are few pieces of gear that do it better. This amp feels and sounds like a tube amp in a lot of ways and the ability to do an analogue bass boost just freaking rocks. The 3D/XSpace also is tastefully done. It just adds a bit more soundstage; like moving a couple of rows back at a concert. As far as OG/V3 comparisons go, I will say that I think the OG has a larger soundstage. I, too, found this a bit odd, but the V3 seems to bring vocals a bit more to the forefront (with added clarity), while raising bass and mid presence slightly. The overall effect is that the V3 sounds more like a jazz club while the OG sounds like a live performance outdoors at a town bar. I know that’s a weird comparison, but the OG pushes everything out just a bit more and everything sounds just a bit more recessed. The V3 really feels like the singer is directly in front of you with well-recorded music. Now, this slight difference in soundstage is mitigated a bit by what I think is a better utilization of the Xspace/3D function, so the V3 can have the soundstage of the OG with this feature added while having the additional clarity and presence added to vocals. I do also think the V3 has slightly stronger bass when the XBass feature is activated than the OG. TL;DR: In short, I think iFi succeeded in their goal for a new version of an already great product: they refined and slightly improved their previous features (Xbass, Xspace), added additional clarity and power to their product (it could already drive most cans I threw at it before the extra 400mW), and added more features (game, movie, and MEMs modes). For ~$225, this amp will power most of your cans, gives a fun bass and soundstage boost for cans that need it, and now has some multimedia modes that make it more of a Swiss army knife than it already was. I will be selling my OG Zen can to cover some of the cost of the new one, but I think it’s a worthwhile upgrade worth your hard earned cash."