The IFi ZEN CAN Signature Edition 6xx Balanced headphone amplifier retails for 299€ in Europe. It is designed to pair with
Drop/Sennheiser HD6xx Headphones but it will also work very well with other Headphones.
The build of the amplifier is very good, it feels very solid and interacting with the volume knob is very satisfying. The small footprint of
the unit comes in handy if you don't have much space on the desktop or rack.
Nothing special to say about the packaging , included in the box beside the Zen Can Amplifier you will get the Ifi iPower X current adapter which is supposed to be of better quality than the adapter provided with standard edition of Zen Can Amplifier.
On the front of the unit from left to right, there's a power button, input selector, gain selector, the big volume knob in the middle, a 6,35mm SE and a 4,4 BAL Headphone output and lastly a button to switch between the Standard, HD6xx & XSpace EQ setting . The regular bass boost EQ is not available on this unit as it is replaced by the 6xx EQ setting.
On the back from Left to Right 4.4 BAL Pentaconn, Single Ended & RCA LR inputs and a 4.4 BAL Output and finally DC 5V connector
This small headphone Amp is very powerful, it drove all my headphones and IEMS with ease, even the harder to drive Hifiman HE6SEv2 can be powered with this amplifier (not to it's full potential) with highest gain setting which was a surprise to me, as other headphone amps like the Earmen ST-Amp which is situated in a comparable price category and on paper has the same power rating (1850 Mw on BAL Output) is not able to deliver enough juice to the HE6SEv2 to get to loud enough listening levels.
Pairing it with Drop/Sennheiser HD6xx Headphones for which it was apparently designed for, was infact a good combo, i'm not sure though
if the 6xx Eq setting is really helping these headphones to improve compared to the bass boost function of the standard Zen Can Amp. There is also another "issue" or lets say a big competitor when it comes to pairing with D/S HD 6xx headphones, the Xduuo MT604 balanced only hybrid-tube headphone amp, it has something magical when paired with HD 6xx which the Ifi is not able to do at least for my taste.
Final Word:
The IFi ZEN CAN Signature Edition 6xx is a solid performer it works well with a wide range of Headphones and IEM's without any background noise, it is very powerful yet versatile with it's 4 gain power matching. But i think i would probably buy the standard version which cost a 100€
less it is basically the same amp with BASS Boost instead of 6xx Boost EQ. If looking for a partner for HD6xx Headphones i would go for Xduuo MT604 which costs 160€
Used listening components:
Questyle CMA-400i
Ifi Zen Can
Ifi Zen Dac V2
Earmen ST-Amp
Xduoo MT604
Drop/Sennheiser HD6xx
Hifiman H6SEv2
Fiio FT3
Hifiman Sundara Closed Back
Sennheiser HD 660s2
Moondrop Blessing 2 (SE)
Kinera Idun Golden (BAL)
LINSOUL 7Hz Salnotes Zero (SE)
Letshouer S12 (BAL)
ThieAudio Hype 2 (BAL)
ThieAudio Oracle Mk2 (BAL)
Matrix Audio Mini I4 Streamer
Wiim Pro Streamer
Hart Modular Audio Cables & Stock Cables