In this video I take a close look at the brand new iFi hip dac 3 portable USB DAC/amp and go through everything you need to know before buying: unboxing, design/build, specs, buttons/switches, firmware, real-world pairings, and finally a direct comparison with the hip dac 2. I’m using my Samsung Galaxy S10 (Android 12) with FLAC/DSD via USB Audio Player Pro, plus Apple Music and Tidal for lossless streaming, and I focus on what actually matters day to day—power, noise floor, usability, and how it behaves with both IEMs and full-size headphones. hip dac 3 is based on a Burr-Brown chipset (PCM up to 384 kHz/32-bit, DSD256, and MQA support depending on firmware), has a 2,200 mAh battery, and gives you both 3.5 mm (with S-Balanced) and 4.4 mm balanced outputs. In my testing it has tons of headroom: I ran all my IEMs in low gain and rarely went past 1 o’clock, and it still drove my full-size headphones with ease in high gain. Sound-wise, I’d describe it as musical and warm, but still quite resolving, with a solid black background—plus you get genuinely useful extras like PowerMatch, IEMatch for very sensitive IEMs, and the XBass analog bass shelf for leaner headphones.