AFUL SnowyNight

AFUL SnowyNight
2x CS43198
$110

Before I start this review, first let me thank HiFiGO for providing the dongle in for review.
Rest assured, my review is 100% my own personal opinion.

Unboxing
Build Quality
is really good, the body is made from metal with snowy pattern, it also has LED indicator,
The side has volume button (independent volume control)

Output Power
Rated at 140 – 300mw (not specific),I have tested the SnowyNight using its 3.5mm.
It is strong enough to push HD650 to a reasonably loud listening level, unless you're pushing something more power hungry than HD650, then you really don't have to worry.

Power Consumption
Seems to be reasonably efficient.
Plugged in to my Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus 5G, 1% got me around 8 minutes of listening time.
Not only that, the SnowyNight did not heat up at all, so its really a good point from me.

Sound

Stock Filter, Music Mostly from Apple Music and Spotify
Tonality in General : Neutral –Slightly Warm

I found the AFUL SnowyNight with its default configuration to be sounding neutral but slightly tilted towards warm, not as warm as TruthEar SHIO, but its like adding more emotions rather than dead neutral analytical one.

Bass : The bass is round and full, it has great extension too, and bass control tested using HD650 seems to be really good, not perfect but really good.
Not only that, the rumble details and layering is present, which is spectacular for its asking price.

Midrange : The midrange of the SnowyNight has this some kind of highlight / accent, it shows more emotion than dead neutral analytical type. Not as much highlight and warmth lets say like the TruthEar SHIO but its noticeable if you're comparing it to a dead neutral dongle / dac-amp.

It adds a bit of warmth and body to the lower midrange, just a bit, not much.
Don't expect the SnowyNight to be magically make your analytical cans to be musical, it wont happen.

Treble : Smooth and extended, the SnowyNight has very good treble presentation, despite its slight musical presentation, it doesn't roll off the treble early, it has very good extension but presented more in a joyful manner, not in your face.


Technicalities
Excellent for $110

Stage : Medium – Large
For its asking price, its very good, especially if you're using the 4.4mm balanced port.
The SnowyNight also has very good stage layering, punching above its asking price, it is comparable to lets say the Moondrop Moonriver 2 non Ti.

Imaging : Excellent
For $110, not really holographical when I do my Moondrop Chu 2 test, but it sounds like almost holographical, like its missing just a bit, which is spectacular.

Plugged in to more proper cans lets say HD560s and HD650, the SnowyNight has no problem showing the holographical information for both cans.

Separation and Positioning : Very Good
For its asking price, again, it's comparable to Moonriver 2 non Ti, which is punch above its asking price.

Detail Retrieval : Very Good
It can extract many details from your cans, though if I'm really nitpicking without any price bracket context, its still lacking the micro layer of decay, but if I put context the price is only $110, then its very good, the SnowyNight pretty much in the same ballpark as Moonriver 2 non Ti.

Comparation

Moonriver 2 non Ti.
Moonriver 2 sounds more neutral, same technicalities, more pricier than the SnowyNight.
The SnowyNight has more musical presentation compared to the Moonriver 2.
The body of Moonriver 2 get warm after use.

Conclusion

Do I recommend the SnowyNight by AFUL ?

ABSOLUTELY !

In fact, this will be my EDC dongle because it sounds good, build like a beautiful tank, and don't get warm while used.

So if you're in the market for a dongle around $100 that want a neutral but slightly musical / warm sounding dongle with very good technicalities, definitely check the SnowyNight, I can whole heartedly recommend this dongle because the technicalities alone is at the same ballpark as the Moonriver 2 non Ti.

Even better, it looks more pretty than the Moonriver 2 non Ti and it cost cheaper.

That's all from me for now, thanks for reaching this far.

Just in case you're Indonesian or understand Bahasa Indonesia, you can watch it here


-littlenezt.

AFUL SnowyNight Review​

Introduction: -

AFUL is highly reputed for its unique design for IEMs especially. They started their journey with IEMs in 2018 with a dedicated acoustic team that focused on developing cutting-edge acoustic technology. In 2023, AFUL has brought us MagicOne. They have designed a customized balanced armature driver for the MagicOne. Now, they came up with their first-ever DAC/Amp, Snowynight. AFUL Snowynight is a very well-built dongle with a full metal body with volume buttons on the side to control the volume with ease on the go and an attractive design painted with snowflakes. Due to its dual Cirrus Logic tonality, we feel it will synergize well with warm tonality IEMs and headphones. We would also like to inform you that Snowynight is very energy efficient all thanks to the Cirrus Logic chip. Alongside it's also highly compatible and has low heat dissipation due to its great design.



Specifications: -

• DAC Used: Dual Cirrus Logic CS43198
• Output Power: 4Vrms (BAL High), 2Vrms (BAL Low)
• 2Vrms (UNBAL High), 1Vrms (UNBAL Low)
• THD+N: ≤0.00037%
• Dynamic-Range: BAL - 130dB, UNBAL - 125dB
• Background Noise: 1.5uV (BAL), 1uV (UNBAL)
• Headphone Out: 3.5mm SE / 4.4mm Bal
• Input port: USB Type-C
• Output Power: 140mW-300mW.

Disclaimer: -

The review tour for AFUL Snowynight was arranged by AFUL and @gadgetgod in India. We are thankful to them for the opportunity. However, the review reflects our honest opinion.

Packaging & Accessories: -

The AFUL Snowynight comes in a small-sized box with the DAC/Amp and all the accessories. The unboxing experience is simple yet premium. Removing the box lead, we have the manuals and quick guides. After that, we found the DAC/Amp in a foam assembly. The Snowynight comes with a USB Type-C to Lightning male cable connection (In our case) and it is also available in USB Type-C male-to-male cable. All come under the price tag of US $109.99.



Build & Design: -

AFUL Snowynight features a medium-sized and compact build. The DAC features a full metal enclosure for the reason the DAC/Amp is comparatively heavier than many other portable USB Dongle-DAC. The housing is made up of high-quality aluminium material with top-notch machining quality. The cable supplied is also very sturdy and premium. On the side of the device, it has independent volume adjustment buttons. The volume buttons are also used to control gain and filter settings.



Sound Analysis: -

AFUL Snowynight the name itself depicts the sound quality it is trying to offer in our testing. It is one of the cleanest and most natural-sounding dongles we have auditioned or have in our Aural Café’s bank. One of the best things about Snowynight is its neutrality with very good imaging and crispy notes. The soundstage is decent with more depth when we compare it to the other dongles. We believe that the team has achieved it because of its decoding architecture supported by two powerful Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chips. The sound presentation is unique with a neutral with a very slightly warm tonality and a pitch-black background. One more interesting thing about the item is that it doesn’t try to overly colour the sound. The AFUL Snowynight’s non-linear volume control really helps especially with in-ear monitors and the onboard 4.4mm balanced output with 4 Vrms of output power can drive the most demanding IEMs and also drive the less demanding full-size headphones. This review will not do justice if we don’t write about the high-quality OTG cable the Snowynight is bundled with. The OTG cable is made up of high-purity 6N Single-Crystal Copper Cable which are properly shielded leading to a more efficient power supply to support its dual decoding architecture resulting in a clean background.

However, we would not mind if there were more amount of microdetails present. Another footnote we want to add here is the lack of App-Support where many of its competitors already walked the path and were quite successful.




Conclusion: -

We at Aural Café can happily assure you that if you are in the market for a well-built portable DAC/Amp at a competitive price then you can go with AFUL Snowynight because of its unique and clean sound production, robust build quality and efficient design. Also, we are surprised with AFUL where it’s their first endeavor in this vast dongle universe.

Non-Affiliated Links: -
- https://www.amazon.com/HiFiGo-SnowyNight-Amplifiers-Impressively-Distortion/dp/B0CSSGCV6T?th=1
- https://hifigo.com/products/aful-snowynight

AFUL as an Audio Company​

AFUL is a relatively new Audio Brand that placed itself as the new block in the kid by releasing exceptional releases like Performer 5/8 and the mysterious MagicOne which is truly a work of Magic. Basically, they pioneered the engineering aspect of acoustics very promisingly. Certainly, I always look forward to this company and what it offers next.

As they dipped their toe for the first time in the DAC-AMP market, they must go right otherwise there is a lot of competition in this section that would demolish the product’s existence. And I am happy to say that they did a good job.

Sound Characteristics​

General Tonality​

The tonality of this product overall is not neutral to me. I always feel neutral is the tonality that resembles how I hear the world around me. For me, it sounds slightly warm and at the same time dark too. Not that I dislike this tonality in any way or form. I adore matching this with a few of my IEMs and headphones.

Low-End​

This source is not shy of showing off its low end. It is warm and thick. The note weights are full of heft and have distinct time before falling off. It sounds like it have no rush to do something, everything comes off very naturally and in an organic way. It doesn’t make the bass artificially elevated, just everything gets a hint of warmth. Likewise, the vocals sound richer and more forward.

• Runaway – Half Alive
• Opr – Geafallestine

Mids​

Mids are rich. Not just rich, it’s full of heft and low-end elevation gave it a tremendous advantage to show it off. It is loaded with textures that come out very organically. There is not even a hint of nasal ness that you can get from low-distortion amplifiers. Mids are the best thing about this source. Mids don’t mean only vocals but they dictate the whole spectrum. Soundstage to Timber everything depends on the mids of the spectrum. And Aful did a fantastic job of reproducing that. The timbre of every instrument came out very natural and organic.

• Personal – Emotional Oranges
• Nobody Knows – Autograff

Treble​

The treble of this product is recessed in a very tasteful way. The lower treble is very inoffensive basically, such that in a few IEMs I don’t feel the need to EQ, which is a very good way to showcase source since it is very easy to mess up this range due to factors that are very sensitive to handle. Therefore, it is also an indicator that AFUL used high-quality internals to make this product. The treble is not airy to my ears and won’t satisfy trebleheads. Nor it will pierce your ears if you play something very sharp.

• Caravan – Whiplash
• Mountains – Interstellar

Technicalities​

Soundstaging​

The soundstage of this IEM is not very open. It will give you more of an intimate feeling than a spacious one. It is very good for a few genres like POP and HipHop but it is not optimal for something like Orchestra or Jazz since they feel more in your face. But it is not too intimate where you feel claustrophobic, you just won’t be experiencing Albums like Interstellar – in it’s full potential. Although for small-sound staging headphones and IEMs, it doesn’t feel too claustrophobic.

• Bubbles – Yoshi Horikawa
• Opera House – Ciggerate After Sex

Localization/Imaging​

Although the soundstage is not that bit, the way it uses the soundstage is pretty good. There is not a lot of space to play with its imaging but it can position instruments in the mix effortlessly. The channel separation seemed pretty good too, fast and snappy.

• Thriller – Michael Jackson
• Hideaway – Jacob Collier

Resolution​

Details and resolution are not good on this device for my ears. Not that it will feel underdetailed but definitely can’t resolve enough at its price point. Not only it does not hold the trailing edges of the notes but resolution-wise it sounds busy here and there. I would not prefer it for genres like Orchestra/Western Classical. Often people dictate crispiness as resolution or detail, I am referring to detail/resolution as “How many instruments I can focus on in a mix / how transparent the overall music is”.

• Contact – Draft Punk
• Western Classicals

We studied a lot of different portable and desktop audio setups, and we realised we needed to work on the source signal transmission to enhance the acoustic performance of SnowyNight. We noticed USB transmission is not the cleanest, and digital inputs such as Coaxial, Optical provided cleaner and better transmission in most cases. But in the case of portable USB DAC/AMPs, we get limited to only USB transmissions. So, to enhance the acoustic performance in such a scenario, we bundled the SnowyNight with an enhanced cable that brings noticeable improvements by stable signal transmission, USB Lossless transmission, and also protects the sound signal from external interferences. The cable has high-purity 6N monocrystalline copper wire cores. It effectively improves the overall performance of the SnowyNight and makes it comparable to Coaxial and Optical input options in other devices.
AFUL

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The Wire​

Sadly I was sent the product with a Lightning Port to USB C Connection so, I haven’t tested the wire included with this DAC. Although it looks and feels very premium.

So this review is done completely with Moondrop Dawn Pro cable.


Now before jumping further let’s see the specifications of this dongle.

Specifications​

DAC Chips: 2xCS43198.

Although off-the-shelf DAC chips are very good these days, their implementation matters a lot. This could differentiate a lot regarding price. What I liked most about this chip is the Clocking System, they use 22.5792 or 24.576 MHz clocks. Which means the PLL Ratio is lower. Now let me talk about the advantages of higher frequency clocks.

The advantages of lower multiplication are​

• Lower Jitter
• Lower Phase Noise
• Simplified Implementation
• Power Efficiency

But it can also cause problems such as​

• Not Generating a Wide Range of Frequency
• Depends on External Clocks

Birtate: 32-Bit/786kHz PCM, DSD256, DoP256.

Let’s not discuss them, because most of the Audio Files we have don’t have the quality to bottleneck them.

Output Ports: 3.5mm+4.4mm.

This is an excellent decision not to go with 2.5mm since they are thin and break easily.


Output Frequency Range: 20Hz-20kHz.

SNR: 125dB(3.5mm), 130dB(4.4mm)

Noise Floor: 1uV(3.5mm), 1.5uV(4.4mm).

DNR: 125dB(3.5mm), 130dB(4.4mm).

Operating Voltage Range: 4.2V~5.3V.

Output Level: 1Vrms(3.5mm, Low-Gain), 2Vrms(3.5mm, High-Gain), 2Vrms(4.4mm, Low-Gain), 4Vrms(4.4mm, High-Gain).

This is excellent too at this price. The 4Vrms helps greatly to drive high impedance dynamic drivers (Since they require more Voltage Swing than Current).

THD+N: ≤0.00037%.

Now this is where AFUL impressed me the most. Don’t get me wrong, our transducers have much higher distortion than this, so we won’t be able to get anywhere near the THD.

The reason why it impressed me is, occasionally companies use cheap techniques to boost the THD just to look good on paper(Overcorrection Using Feedback Loop). On the other hand by doing that they destroy the tonality of the source. This Dongle sounds nowhere near that. It doesn’t sound sterile, it doesn’t have digital essence, and it doesn’t lose note weight.

Output Power: 140mW-300mW.

It is very average nowadays to have this kind of power at the price range. It handled every IEM in my arsenal very efficiently. From Thie Audio Monarch MKII to Tripowin Olina, From IE600 to Softears RSV. Nothing felt underpowered.

Now comes the most important part of any DAC review, pairing​

Neutral Tuning​

This DAC is extremely tasteful for Neutrally Tuned transducers. It gave those transducers a subtle flavour, that increased the musicality.

Moondrop Blessing 2 became more fun, the treble took a backseat but the bass and vocals sounded very good.

Sotears RSV became very neutral. Surprisingly it didn’t get darker that much and the timber came out very good.

V-Shape Tuning​

This DAC is best with V-shaped transducers. It elevated the low end very organically alongside it controlled the treble. This source fits V Shape Tuning Very Much

IE 600 – This not only gave the mid-bass a meaty quantity. The mids became more organic, that’s why the timber became more correct. The spiciness was reduced although it decreased the soundstage.

EA500LM – This greatly helped reduce the unrefined treble of the IEM. Alongside it also increased the midrange recession.

Compatibility with other tuning​

• “Dark Tuned” – I won’t recommend this DAC for dark transducers, since it will make it darker. And the treble became veiled.
• “Brightly Tuned” – This dongle will help a lot to reduce the sharpness.
• “Mid-Focused” – This will be a great match for the transducers since it will give it a very natural and realistic timber.

Driving HD600​

From 2023, the Sennheiser HD600 became my reference headphone to test every audio source. Not only it is very neutral, but it is also extremely transparent towards every single device in the audio chain. So it is very easy to judge DACs and AMPs with this headphone.

And I am happy to say that this Dongle alone, can drive HD600. Driving a headphone doesn’t mean loudness, it means how well they can retain the frequency range from 20hz – 20Khz while maintaining crest factor.

Being said that HD600 is a very hard-to-drive headphone. (I will explain about powering dynamic drivers and operation of amplifiers in future ). On a short note, it needs a very good Voltage Swing to operate fully. And AFUL SnowyNight did a very good job of bringing out the bass, the vocals didn’t feel thin. The treble became softer (Sometimes HD600’s treble might get hot). I had no problem driving them on the go.

Battery Draining​

A new 4500mah battery phone with a modern 4-5nm Chipset can last easily 7 (with normal usage) hours for 3.5mm with IEMs like IE600, and EA500LM.

Pros​

• Output Voltage
• Energy Consumption
• Volume Button (Steps & Construction)
• Midrange Tonality and note weight
• Well-controlled treble

Cons​

• LED Light (Too bright)
• No Phone Application
• Bass Elevation is too much
• The soundstage is on the narrower side
• Micro Details and Resolution

The final and most important question​

Should you buy this?​

Do you want an organic and natural sound that primarily is musical and pleases your auditory senses?

Yes, you can buy this dongle.

Do you want a very high resolution and sterile sound that will sound digital and that comes with a big soundstage?

No, there are other options at this price-point.

AFUL SnowyNight is a great substitute to Moondrop Dawn Pro, combine they can tackle every kind of IEMs.
Duggu

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Conclusion​

I do think that at the pricepoint it stands it’s ground. Nothing groundbreaking as we expect from AFUL every time. Although as their first step towards source products. They did an outstanding job.