ZEN CAN 3
interface_dac
$229
Used market: $135*
Specifications
5 of 10 values have a recorded source- Type
- Analog Headphone Amp·
- Bus Powered
- no·
- Max Gain dB
- 18✓
- Analog Inputs
- RCA line in, 3.5 mm line in, 4.4 mm balanced line in·
- Analog Outputs
- 6.35 mm TRS headphone, 4.4 mm balanced headphone·
- Digital Inputs
- ·
- Min Usb Power W
- 0·
- Headphone Output
- Max Voltage Vrms: 7.6 · Output Impedance ohms: 1·
- Max Input Level dBu
- 13.8✓
- Phantom Power Provided
- no·
Expert Audio Engineering Commentary
Headroom Notes
The single-ended output is stored: 7.6 V into 600 ohms, 7.2 V into 32. The balanced 4.4 mm jack reaches 15.1 V into 600 ohms - double the voltage, and the reason to own this amplifier if your headphones have a balanced cable. Read the balanced figures carefully though; see the note on what iFi calls MAX and RMS.
Gain Staging Advice
Four gain steps - 0, 6, 12 and 18 dB - which is finer control than anything else in this batch, and the reason the ZEN CAN suits sensitive in-ears as well as 600 ohm cans. Maximum input on the RCA jacks is 3.8 V RMS, that is 13.8 dBu; a professional interface line output at +24 dBu will clip this input, and that is worth knowing before blaming the amplifier.
What the datasheet actually says
Quoted verbatim from the manufacturer’s own page, with the date we checked it. We state what is printed, not what anyone intended by it.
«HEADPHONE OUTPUT MAX ... BAL 4.4mm: >15.1V/385mW (@ 600 Ohms), >6.2V/1,200mW (@ 32 Ohms) ... HEADPHONE OUTPUT RMS ... BAL 4.4mm: >11.5V/2,000mW (@ 64 Ohms)»
The headline on the same page is '2,000mW Max. Output'. That figure appears in the row labelled RMS, at 64 ohms - a load nobody's headphones present. The row labelled MAX gives 1,200 mW at 32 ohms, that is less power into a lower impedance, which for a voltage source should be more. What the two rows describe together is an amplifier that is current-limited: it holds 15.1 V into 600 ohms but only 6.2 V into 32, so its output falls away exactly where power-hungry planar headphones live. None of this is hidden - iFi prints all the loads - but the number chosen for the headline is the one measured at the load that flatters it most.
checked 8/5/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~59% retained value). · checked on 8/5/2026