theque
100+ Head-Fier
I know this is Head-Fi, and making comparisons on anything but subjective sound quality between products seems rare. I get it, we are here to discuss sound quality of source equipment, DAC’s, Amps, speakers, headphones, earbuds, etc…
However, I would like to discuss a dilemma I am having regarding a new mobile DAC/Amp. As my is just as much into music and has recently discovered how much she loves Hi-Fi as I enlisted her help in some A/B testing last year; oddly enough she can hear the differences better than I can, furthermore it matches up with the professional reviewers that she has never in her life read. Side note on this: ouch to my bank account…
Though she may want a pair of CIEM’s in the future, she really liked the sound, comfort, and usability aspects of the Shure SE846 when we auditioned several UIEM’s. Furthermore, when she is not hooked up to the nightstand Schiit DAC/Amps, she really likes my Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII I purchased a few years back. This brought me to my quest to either find her a mobile DAC/Amp, myself a replacement DAC/Amp, or both if there is something better than the Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII.
Given that, I have been testing several options available to us and am concluding that ultimate sound quality in this format is not the only, and sometimes not the most important factor. The following are the DAC/Amps we have tested:
· Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII
· Oppo HA-2SE
· Chord Mojo
· AudioQuest Dragonfly (Red)
As this is Head-Fi, I will list them in order of absolute sound quality (both my wife and I agree here) when listening to them in a “critical listening environment.”
1. Chord Mojo
2. Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII
3. Oppo HA-2SE
4. AudioQuest Dragonfly (Red)
I am not going to go into the audible difference in these devices, as many reviews and comparisons have been done in this respect. I am also not going to discuss price as this is not a factor for us in making this decision. Diminishing returns, price/performance, and total cost of ownership (cables needed to be purchased or not) was not to be considered in our evaluation. To this point, my wife was not even told how much each item cost. We were only to evaluate them based on how convenient they were compared to how much improvement in sound we received.
How we tested:
My wife and I both used our cell phones, Samsung S8 and S8 plus respectively, for a solid day. We intentionally listened to music whenever we could throughout the day (waiting in lines at the store, during exercise, on breaks at work (she works retail so she could not listen at work like I can), when we were working on the computer such as paying bills, emails, etc…
After a full day, we each grabbed a DAC/Amp (only have one of each so it was different), and repeated the above. Between testing a DAC/Amp, we would listen to the cell phones directly for a full day (trying to eliminate A/B testing of the sound quality for this test).
This took us 2 weeks in total to test as modifications were made to how we carried them or strapped them to the phone based on annoyances.
Initial Findings:
The first and most important finding was that in the times we were listening to our earbuds (Shure SE846 for her and UM Miracle for me), sound quality took a back seat to “enjoyability” and ease of use.
Let me explain what I mean; when exercising, for example, you are not doing “critical listening.” Instead what you are doing is distracting yourself from the pain, though the “emotion” of the music still applied. When in public or loud environment, you just have a hard time picking out the subtlest of details unless you have the volume super high. Furthermore, when doing other tasks like bills, emails, cleaning, etc… you are also not concentrating on the micro details; as in the exercise example, the emotional response to the music still applied.
We also found ease of use, or portability, to be a significant factor. I have owned the Leckerton for a few years, but tend to only pull it out when I am sitting on my flights between DC and San Diego or San Francisco for business. You just do not realize the impact of portability and ease of use in this environment; the reality is you welcome something to distract you on these flights.
However, using them daily and carrying them around all day, these factors certainly come into play; and they come into play far greater than one may expect.
With all of that, we found that almost universally, these products produced a quality sound to the music that helped the “emotional” aspect of what we were listening to. Having a DAC/Amp instead of using the cell phone directly was preferred in all cases.
Individual Findings:
Chord Mojo
This product tied for last place (with the Leckerton) in the ease of use / portability test. I believe, with the exception of the Dragonfly, all of these weighed approximately the same; these are of a form factor that created a problem when “mounting” them to the phone.
The solution we found was to purchase a couple of cheap phone cases that your cell phone snapped into and “mount” the DAC/Amp’s to that. This allowed for a pretty nice solution as the products were well secured. The issue is that they were awkward in the pocket with one end almost needing to be at the bottom of the pocket (the heavy end with the DAC/Amp. At first, this was not an issue, but over time we found it to be more annoying than anticipated. This also created an odd bulge in the pocket and a “ledge” where items sat on, like receipts, that when you pulled your phone out of the pocket you were also pulling out whatever happened to be sitting on the “ledge.” Furthermore, I had to keep remembering to have my phone against my leg and not the DAC/Amp as it was uncomfortable the reverse way.
Though I thought they were pretty cool, my wife was not a fan of the push button volume control. Again, though it did not happen to me, she had a couple instances of the buttons being pushed in her pocket.
When exercising on a treadmill or elliptical machine, there were no problems with the form or weight. When sitting at a desk this also did not pose any issues, at first. As I often need to get up from my desk, I found leaving the set in my pocket to be more efficient after almost yanking it off my desk when I got up once. The issue here is the extra bulge was uncomfortable in my suit pants when sitting.
Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII
As stated above, this product was tied for last place in the ease of use / portability test. Almost all the same issue that plague the Chord Mojo also pertain to the Leckerton. The real difference for me was where the volume knob sat in comparison to my phone when mounted, for whatever reason I found it changed volume far more often than that of the Oppo HA-2SE; and when I wanted to intentionally change the volume, it was in awkward location. I tried both high and low mounting on the back of the phone, but high mounting (so the volume knob was in the same place as the Oppo) resulted in my phone needing to be placed in my pocket the opposite direction often tangling the earbud cable.
Oppo HA-2SE
For me, this was my favorite DAC/Amp in this test, though my wife is still debating. As stated above, I believe this product weighed the same as the Chord and Leckerton. However, as this was almost the exact shape of the phone, the weight was distributed properly. Mounting it to the phone (using the above technique) resulted in a transparent addition to my pocket, save the extra weight. It is also thinner than the other products which almost felt like my Note 4 inside a protective case, when I owned that phone. Also, the orientation of the phone in my pocket did not matte, phone against leg or DAC/Amp against leg had no difference.
I do not know if it is due to the Leckerton being older and more broken in, but the volume knob on the Oppo HA-2SE felt stiffer and had much less tendency to change the volume in my pocket. Given it was thinner than the above products, I found it did not feel as uncomfortable in my pocket when sitting at my desk.
AudioQuest Dragonfly (Red)
This was my second pick, and my wife is still debating between this and the Oppo. This is clearly the lightest product in the mix, but it does have its own problems associated as weight is indeed not everything we found.
The first issue with this very small sized product for me was the very small size. My first attempt was to mount it to the case as I did with the other DAC/Amps, but I found that I was constantly having to adjust it because the cable applied lateral forces that twisted it. If I were to use it in this manner, I would likely tape the USB cable / Dragonfly together and superglue the tapped module to the case to prevent any movement while allowing me to remove it later. This was not unlike the Mojo or Leckerton for me in that I had to constantly ensure my phone was oriented in my pocket correctly, and receipts and business cards seem to inevitably find their way between the cable and phone or the dragonfly and phone.
My second try with this was to use a longer USB cable and use the Dragonfly/cable and an effective extension to my earbud cables. This worked extremely well with a few exceptions. The first issue is how easy it is to pull out the USB cable from the phone when strain is applied. I had several instances of this cable being disconnected from my phone. The second issue I realized was over time the additional weight (and we are not talking substantial weight) of the USB cable and Dragonfly tugged on the cables being routed over my ears more than I liked. Lastly, in this configuration, I had the Dragonfly out of my pocket, it was not secure and I was a little worried it would get damaged swinging around.
When I put the Dragonfly in my pocket with my phone, but not attached, I would often loose connection when I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Inevitably, I would grab my phone and pull it out and the Dragonfly would snag somehow and the USB cable would disconnect from my phone.
My wife, being obviously a better person that I am, did not have any issues with the Dragonfly like I did. Maybe she is more careful than I am with insertion and extraction (feel free to make jokes here). What she was not a fan of what having to use her phones volume control to control the volume. I do not know what the problem was, but apparently, the USB audio on her phone keeps resetting to max volume so when she connects the Dragonfly she must intentionally turn down the volume every time. I looked online and no one else seems to be having this issue (neither did I), so there may be a phone setting that is incorrect in her phone. This is the only issue for her considering this her favorite; and I will look into this issue more.
Conclusion:
All of these products produced a marked sound improvement over the phone DAC. Without a doubt, we would rather have an external DAC/Amp than not have one. What we did discover is the difference between products in regard to sound quality in a real-world environment in which you are mobile and using earbuds was insignificant. When sitting in our gravity chairs having a Scotch and Cigar listening to music, we certainly are not using our earbuds; I have a pair of Sennheiser HD800S headphones and she is on her “starter” headphones (Philips Fidelio X2; my office headphones) until she decides what headphones she would like.
What was important was these DAC/Amps added a level of depth or emotion to the music that the phone DAC just did not provide. This was noticeable regardless of loud environment or being distracted while working.
I know this was extremely long winded, but I hope that this was informative for someone looking to purchase an external DAC/Amp for regular usage on a cell phone. There are other advantages / disadvantages to these DAC/Amps that were not discussed here as they have been discussed in depth in other reviews. If you are only purchasing one DAC/Amp that needs to be multi-purpose, please see those reviews on the differences. However, if you are looking for better audio quality while maintaining the highest convenience and comfort throughout the day, I hope this was helpful to someone.
-Ray
However, I would like to discuss a dilemma I am having regarding a new mobile DAC/Amp. As my is just as much into music and has recently discovered how much she loves Hi-Fi as I enlisted her help in some A/B testing last year; oddly enough she can hear the differences better than I can, furthermore it matches up with the professional reviewers that she has never in her life read. Side note on this: ouch to my bank account…
Though she may want a pair of CIEM’s in the future, she really liked the sound, comfort, and usability aspects of the Shure SE846 when we auditioned several UIEM’s. Furthermore, when she is not hooked up to the nightstand Schiit DAC/Amps, she really likes my Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII I purchased a few years back. This brought me to my quest to either find her a mobile DAC/Amp, myself a replacement DAC/Amp, or both if there is something better than the Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII.
Given that, I have been testing several options available to us and am concluding that ultimate sound quality in this format is not the only, and sometimes not the most important factor. The following are the DAC/Amps we have tested:
· Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII
· Oppo HA-2SE
· Chord Mojo
· AudioQuest Dragonfly (Red)
As this is Head-Fi, I will list them in order of absolute sound quality (both my wife and I agree here) when listening to them in a “critical listening environment.”
1. Chord Mojo
2. Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII
3. Oppo HA-2SE
4. AudioQuest Dragonfly (Red)
I am not going to go into the audible difference in these devices, as many reviews and comparisons have been done in this respect. I am also not going to discuss price as this is not a factor for us in making this decision. Diminishing returns, price/performance, and total cost of ownership (cables needed to be purchased or not) was not to be considered in our evaluation. To this point, my wife was not even told how much each item cost. We were only to evaluate them based on how convenient they were compared to how much improvement in sound we received.
How we tested:
My wife and I both used our cell phones, Samsung S8 and S8 plus respectively, for a solid day. We intentionally listened to music whenever we could throughout the day (waiting in lines at the store, during exercise, on breaks at work (she works retail so she could not listen at work like I can), when we were working on the computer such as paying bills, emails, etc…
After a full day, we each grabbed a DAC/Amp (only have one of each so it was different), and repeated the above. Between testing a DAC/Amp, we would listen to the cell phones directly for a full day (trying to eliminate A/B testing of the sound quality for this test).
This took us 2 weeks in total to test as modifications were made to how we carried them or strapped them to the phone based on annoyances.
Initial Findings:
The first and most important finding was that in the times we were listening to our earbuds (Shure SE846 for her and UM Miracle for me), sound quality took a back seat to “enjoyability” and ease of use.
Let me explain what I mean; when exercising, for example, you are not doing “critical listening.” Instead what you are doing is distracting yourself from the pain, though the “emotion” of the music still applied. When in public or loud environment, you just have a hard time picking out the subtlest of details unless you have the volume super high. Furthermore, when doing other tasks like bills, emails, cleaning, etc… you are also not concentrating on the micro details; as in the exercise example, the emotional response to the music still applied.
We also found ease of use, or portability, to be a significant factor. I have owned the Leckerton for a few years, but tend to only pull it out when I am sitting on my flights between DC and San Diego or San Francisco for business. You just do not realize the impact of portability and ease of use in this environment; the reality is you welcome something to distract you on these flights.
However, using them daily and carrying them around all day, these factors certainly come into play; and they come into play far greater than one may expect.
With all of that, we found that almost universally, these products produced a quality sound to the music that helped the “emotional” aspect of what we were listening to. Having a DAC/Amp instead of using the cell phone directly was preferred in all cases.
Individual Findings:
Chord Mojo
This product tied for last place (with the Leckerton) in the ease of use / portability test. I believe, with the exception of the Dragonfly, all of these weighed approximately the same; these are of a form factor that created a problem when “mounting” them to the phone.
The solution we found was to purchase a couple of cheap phone cases that your cell phone snapped into and “mount” the DAC/Amp’s to that. This allowed for a pretty nice solution as the products were well secured. The issue is that they were awkward in the pocket with one end almost needing to be at the bottom of the pocket (the heavy end with the DAC/Amp. At first, this was not an issue, but over time we found it to be more annoying than anticipated. This also created an odd bulge in the pocket and a “ledge” where items sat on, like receipts, that when you pulled your phone out of the pocket you were also pulling out whatever happened to be sitting on the “ledge.” Furthermore, I had to keep remembering to have my phone against my leg and not the DAC/Amp as it was uncomfortable the reverse way.
Though I thought they were pretty cool, my wife was not a fan of the push button volume control. Again, though it did not happen to me, she had a couple instances of the buttons being pushed in her pocket.
When exercising on a treadmill or elliptical machine, there were no problems with the form or weight. When sitting at a desk this also did not pose any issues, at first. As I often need to get up from my desk, I found leaving the set in my pocket to be more efficient after almost yanking it off my desk when I got up once. The issue here is the extra bulge was uncomfortable in my suit pants when sitting.
Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII
As stated above, this product was tied for last place in the ease of use / portability test. Almost all the same issue that plague the Chord Mojo also pertain to the Leckerton. The real difference for me was where the volume knob sat in comparison to my phone when mounted, for whatever reason I found it changed volume far more often than that of the Oppo HA-2SE; and when I wanted to intentionally change the volume, it was in awkward location. I tried both high and low mounting on the back of the phone, but high mounting (so the volume knob was in the same place as the Oppo) resulted in my phone needing to be placed in my pocket the opposite direction often tangling the earbud cable.
Oppo HA-2SE
For me, this was my favorite DAC/Amp in this test, though my wife is still debating. As stated above, I believe this product weighed the same as the Chord and Leckerton. However, as this was almost the exact shape of the phone, the weight was distributed properly. Mounting it to the phone (using the above technique) resulted in a transparent addition to my pocket, save the extra weight. It is also thinner than the other products which almost felt like my Note 4 inside a protective case, when I owned that phone. Also, the orientation of the phone in my pocket did not matte, phone against leg or DAC/Amp against leg had no difference.
I do not know if it is due to the Leckerton being older and more broken in, but the volume knob on the Oppo HA-2SE felt stiffer and had much less tendency to change the volume in my pocket. Given it was thinner than the above products, I found it did not feel as uncomfortable in my pocket when sitting at my desk.
AudioQuest Dragonfly (Red)
This was my second pick, and my wife is still debating between this and the Oppo. This is clearly the lightest product in the mix, but it does have its own problems associated as weight is indeed not everything we found.
The first issue with this very small sized product for me was the very small size. My first attempt was to mount it to the case as I did with the other DAC/Amps, but I found that I was constantly having to adjust it because the cable applied lateral forces that twisted it. If I were to use it in this manner, I would likely tape the USB cable / Dragonfly together and superglue the tapped module to the case to prevent any movement while allowing me to remove it later. This was not unlike the Mojo or Leckerton for me in that I had to constantly ensure my phone was oriented in my pocket correctly, and receipts and business cards seem to inevitably find their way between the cable and phone or the dragonfly and phone.
My second try with this was to use a longer USB cable and use the Dragonfly/cable and an effective extension to my earbud cables. This worked extremely well with a few exceptions. The first issue is how easy it is to pull out the USB cable from the phone when strain is applied. I had several instances of this cable being disconnected from my phone. The second issue I realized was over time the additional weight (and we are not talking substantial weight) of the USB cable and Dragonfly tugged on the cables being routed over my ears more than I liked. Lastly, in this configuration, I had the Dragonfly out of my pocket, it was not secure and I was a little worried it would get damaged swinging around.
When I put the Dragonfly in my pocket with my phone, but not attached, I would often loose connection when I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Inevitably, I would grab my phone and pull it out and the Dragonfly would snag somehow and the USB cable would disconnect from my phone.
My wife, being obviously a better person that I am, did not have any issues with the Dragonfly like I did. Maybe she is more careful than I am with insertion and extraction (feel free to make jokes here). What she was not a fan of what having to use her phones volume control to control the volume. I do not know what the problem was, but apparently, the USB audio on her phone keeps resetting to max volume so when she connects the Dragonfly she must intentionally turn down the volume every time. I looked online and no one else seems to be having this issue (neither did I), so there may be a phone setting that is incorrect in her phone. This is the only issue for her considering this her favorite; and I will look into this issue more.
Conclusion:
All of these products produced a marked sound improvement over the phone DAC. Without a doubt, we would rather have an external DAC/Amp than not have one. What we did discover is the difference between products in regard to sound quality in a real-world environment in which you are mobile and using earbuds was insignificant. When sitting in our gravity chairs having a Scotch and Cigar listening to music, we certainly are not using our earbuds; I have a pair of Sennheiser HD800S headphones and she is on her “starter” headphones (Philips Fidelio X2; my office headphones) until she decides what headphones she would like.
What was important was these DAC/Amps added a level of depth or emotion to the music that the phone DAC just did not provide. This was noticeable regardless of loud environment or being distracted while working.
I know this was extremely long winded, but I hope that this was informative for someone looking to purchase an external DAC/Amp for regular usage on a cell phone. There are other advantages / disadvantages to these DAC/Amps that were not discussed here as they have been discussed in depth in other reviews. If you are only purchasing one DAC/Amp that needs to be multi-purpose, please see those reviews on the differences. However, if you are looking for better audio quality while maintaining the highest convenience and comfort throughout the day, I hope this was helpful to someone.
-Ray
