I ordered an ifi iPower for both my Pi 4 streamer and Mytek Brooklyn.
https://amzn.to/33dvsTz(Disclaimer, that’s an affiliate link, if you buy from it I’ll save money on my CD’s)
Pretty good sounding. I haven’t been able to do any direct comparisons to my
variable voltage, $250 Astron but based on measurements on ASR and that they sound good, at $50 each I can give them thumbs up for price, performance and convenience. Despite being a little underrated for a Pi 4 (only 2.5 A) the 5V model works fine. I read up online and I guess the Pi 4 only takes about 0.5A unless you have any high draw accessories, so this should be OK.
I’ve only listened to the original version, not the X which seems to add more current to the spec, and looks a lot nicer. I’ve also not yet tried the Mytek with more than 96kHz sources. I’m not sure if the higher sampling rates will tax the ifi’s 2A output, compared to the 25A Astron, but after several days of listening I have no complaints or operating issues at all with the ifi.
My listening area is a mess. After I have moved hopefully I will have a better comparison between the ifi and Astron, but based on performance, size convenience and cost I don’t see myself going back. I’ll keep the Astron in case I ever go back to doing any op-amp projects again.
Best,
E