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Portable power in a luxury DAC - iFi Hip-Dac 3 review
Published onApril 25, 2025
iFi Hip Dac 3
The iFi Hip-Dac 3 is as the name states, the third iteration of the flask-shaped DAC from iFi, and it aims to provide a clean source of music to your ears with an optional bass boost. For most people, if a DAC has a headphone jack, it’s more than good enough. For those going down the audio rabbit hole, the iFi Hip-Dac 3 is a well-regarded choice for portable DACs. Are there features that justify spending more on this DAC that you can bring on the go?
What I like about the iFi Hip-Dac 3
The iFi Hip-Dac 3 feels premium in the hand. It is made with an aluminum body and comes in a warm color cast that isn’t as saturated as its predecessor. The size is no bigger than my hand, smaller than most smartphones. At 137g, it’s a nice hefty unit, with a smooth weighted analogue volume knob. The knob doubles as a power switch, and sits almost flush to the sides. The knurling texture makes it unlikely to slip when adjusting volume.
Connection options include both a 3.5mm and 4.4mm pentaconn connector. For the most part, you won’t need to connect to an amp; the 4.4mm pentaconn is a fully balanced circuit, powering hard-to-drive headphones with up to 400mW into 32Ω headphones. If you don’t think it pushes the driver quite enough, there’s the “powermatch” button to add some gain to push more power into the headphones. Going the other way, there’s a switch for iEMatch on either the 3.5 or 4.4 mm outputs, meant for sensitive IEMs.
The placement of the connections is great for a clean desktop setup, with the ports on one side and the controls and output jacks on the other. This configuration keeps the cable clutter in the back of the unit when connected to a desktop. I was able to connect to both my Android phone and desktop on both macOS and Windows. The iFi Hip-Dac 3 decodes Hi-res PCM and DXD audio, and MQA, for high-bitrate audio files. There’s also no noticeable latency if you’re using it for gaming or video consumption.
In terms of sound quality, there’s not a lot of coloration, which is a good thing. What you’re putting in is what you’re getting out. Whether I was plugged in to charge or not, the sound out of the Hip-Dac 3 is clean and detailed, with no noticeable distortion, and doesn’t feel compressed. For the bass heads, there’s an Xbass button, adding a lot of that bass rumble without feeling unnatural. Most other bass boost implementations I’ve heard tend to feel like someone’s trying to bang your head against a wall, but that’s not the case here.
What I don’t like about the iFi Hip-Dac 3
Despite being portable, the iFi Hip-Dac 3, when used with current smartphones, is a pain. The provided cable is thankfully short, but it is too stiff for the unit to lie flat underneath the phone when stacked on top of each other. In my pocket, I constantly thought that it would scratch my phone’s camera lens. I added the included rubber feet, but it doesn’t stop the iFi Hip-Dac 3 from moving around in my pocket. The real problem is once in a while, the volume knob can by turned accidentally. Holding it with my phone in hand, just like one would with a battery bank, was annoying, but I got used to it. It would be nice if it could double as a battery bank.
You can connect to both the 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs simultaneously, but you’ll only be able to use iEMatch on one of the outputs. As well, in silent portions of tracks, I noticed some very subtle noise when using some IEMs with iEMatch enabled. That said, the noise is not as noticeable as with most other DACs I’ve used.
In normal use, the 12-hour battery life is long enough to last you all day, but not multiple days if you forget to charge the iFi Hip-Dac 3 overnight. Sadly, the iFi Hip-Dac 3 doesn’t take a charge while connected, it has a separate USB-C 5V DC input. The good part is that it’s a separate circuit before it hits the battery, but it adds an extra cable to your desk.
I found that on macOS, the iFi Hip-Dac 3 randomly disconnects. It’s happened a few times in the weeks I’ve been using it, and I can’t tell what causes the disconnect despite my troubleshooting.
The buttons feel nice, but all of the LEDs to indicate whether you have xBass or PowerMatch on are terribly recessed. It’s difficult to check if either of the buttons are engaged. I didn’t even notice the charge indicator LED until I looked at the user manual. It was easy to assume the LEDs on both sides of the volume knob are for power. They’re not. The colors are to indicate the audio format and are relatively specific or vague, depending on how colour-accurate your eyes are. To specify, there’s cyan and blue, red and magenta, but thankfully yellow and green, which is easier to decipher.
Should you buy the iFi Hip-Dac 3?
The ability to power even hard-to-drive headphones or use sensitive IEMs without a high noise floor, is a decent upgrade if you have a lot of noise in your current setup. If you need to relax or rock out to a more colorful audio experience, you can enable XBass. I would recommend the iFi Hip Dac 3 for those who need a lot of power, but also want some portability. If you’re looking specifically for a portable mobile DAC, the Apple dongle is far superior in portability. For those who already have a clean output, the iFi Hip Dac 3 is unlikely to be an upgrade.
iFi Hip Dac 3 review: FAQs
Yes. The iFi Hip Dac has a separate USB-C charging port from the USB-C input.
The iFi Hip Dac 3 takes about 3 hours to charge fully.
The iFi Hip Dac 3 is not an amplifier. It only has USB-C inputs. You're unlikely to need an amplifier, as the output power of the iFi Hip Dac 3 can drive most hard-to-drive headphones.