Powerful Hi-Res Headphone Amplifier with Exclusive Technology
The ZEN Air CAN is a powerful, hi-res home analog amplifier that provides greater headphone enjoyment with any analog source, including your PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet, streamer or TV. Enjoy an improved headphone experience with the ZEN Air CAN.
Think about listening to sound with your hands over your ears and then removing them! Adding the ZEN Air CAN into your system is a little like that – back comes clarity of sound as well as volume. It offers two stereo RCA inputs and one 3.5mm stereo input for great compatibility with the analog audio outputs of your gear.
Three Gain Settings for Maximum Headphone Compatibility
The ZEN Air CAN comes with three gain settings so that it works well with every pair of headphones or in-ear monitors. More gain equals a stronger signal. You will need to adjust the gain depending on the sensitivity of the headphones or iEMs you are using. For example, highly sensitive headphones need lower gain. Play around with the settings until your headphones sound the best.
Balanced and Unbalanced Headphone Jacks
The ZEN Air CAN has two different headphone jacks – 1/4" (6.3mm) single-ended unbalanced and 4.4mm S-Balanced. Single-ended is the most common headphone connection, but the balanced option is often considered the better as it offers more power and control over balanced headphones.
Not everyone has balanced headphones, however. So iFi created its S-Balanced technology. This gives you all the benefits of a balanced connection – lower noise, less crosstalk – but without the need for balanced headphones.
Unique Sonic Tailoring
The ZEN Air CAN boasts a couple of sonic tweaks that are unique to iFi. XBass is analog bass boost that you can switch on or off. It extends the bass response to suit different headphones. XSpace is an analog headphone spatializer that you can also choose to use or not. It opens up your music to give you the spaciousness of a live-concert atmosphere.
Premium Internal Components
Premium internal components help give ZEN Air CAN its sonic edge. As with many other iFi audio products, it uses a custom OV Series operational-amplifier. This top-notch component contributes to the extremely low noise, low distortion (0.0001%) and wide bandwidth.
Texas Instruments low-noise ICs offer great unity-gain bandwidth, very low noise and distortion, high output drive capability, common-mode and power supply rejection ratios of over 100 dB, wide maximum-output-swing bandwidths, and high slew rates.
TDK C0G (Class 1 ceramic) capacitors offer high stability and low losses for resonant circuit applications. Getting ever closer to the theoretical ideal of pure, frequency-constant capacitance, these capacitors reduce capacitor-induced distortion to vanishingly low levels. They are pricey but are a valuable addition to iFi products.
