Blue + red states = purple prosecution? To let my ears vote, DJ/composer and performer/producer Mercan Dede practices excellent production values for his Sufi-inspired 'organic' electronica. He is a true master of layering spoken samples, location noises, synths, percussion and acoustic instruments across carefully orchestrated studio-artificed soundscapes. And it was precisely with its sharper separation powers for more specific layering that the iPower justified its 'Elite' suffix. The micro detail of these layers became more intelligible. Think of reading fine embroidery on veils which are hung behind one another then back-lit by a stronger light source. That's how the iFi-powered FiiO moved ahead. It was by a clear-enough margin which didn't necessitate endless A/B, furrowed brows or obsessing about imaginaries. Neither did it take HifiMan Susvara type headphone resolution. Meze's €799 open-backed dynamics were plenty astute to cotton to the offset.

Once a listener recognizes a particular action or effect in a hardware comparison, it's easy to track it across different music. The usual proviso remains. Recording quality limits or expands what we can hear. If a production clumps everything together like stale oatmeal in a narrow central blob, there is no recorded staging or layering. No blood from a stone. But with an A/B's primary difference nulled, a keen listener can still hunt for lesser secondary differences. Here I keened in on what I'll call subjective transient suddenness. I hear it easiest on powerfully plucked strings. With some gear such attacks have more wiry snarl and snap. It seems as though they rise steeper, higher and faster. As a lover of the oud which in the right hands excels at exactly this, it's the secondary offset I heard whilst cueing up favourite oud music. Once we think on how our ear/brain localizes images, it's clear how superior separation and layer specificity intersect with and are informed by cleaner more unfettered tonal rises. Even where a recording didn't have spectacular soundstaging or layering by being too structurally sparse, this cleaner leading-edge treatment still made enough of a difference to matter.

 In the most basic terms, the iFi power supply meant more clarity. This was with the FiiO in headfi mode to run OS, conversion and output stages for max loading. The next question was, would any of these advantages hold when said busyness relaxed to Android 10 streaming out USB only? Though digital transports differ—the entire 'audiophile' streamer category is predicated upon it—their differing is most certainly dwarfed by speaker/room interactions, the absence or presence of subwoofers, by the changes in preamps and amplifiers even basic speaker setup. In short, even a best-case scenario now should be quite subtle. In this case too subtle to matter?

Not. I still thought that leading edges behaved more punctual to put it in proper German. Pünktlichkeit. Being on time. Our kind loves that. Sounds on the farthest layer sheath—remember my earlier visual of back-lit veils—were clearer, foreground images had more pronounced grip or pop.

Granted, this wasn't the type thing you'd pay a few 1'000 quid for and think yourself pro quo. But at €299? This was a very fair return. Heck, movie villains murder for less. Even if I didn't do headfi over the FiiO, I'd keep the iFi. With headfi it's a personal no-brainer. Even though iFi's marketing department is more buzz-wordy and bullish than most, on the score of promoting their iPower Elite's four voltage options for non-iFi kit I don't think they've really made sufficiently loud noise yet. So consider this my contribution to the cause. Cue some Hans Zimmer Dune.