ADVANCED Accessport

Before I bring up the bad, let me say that this adapter/DAC has great sound quality. No hiss even with sensitive IEMs. No Cell phone interference or charger whine.

But, I don't think they are worth the asking $60 price. Here is why.

I've had these since the pre-order deliveries went out last year. I've only used them for a little over a month. Why? They have broken two times already. I sent them back the first time after 2-3 weeks of use. They came back and broke again shortly there after. Why did it take me so long to do something about it? I moved to Japan and have been surviving with my cheap Chinese lightning adapter that hasn't broken in about 10 months of use (but has lots of noise from Cell traffic and charging).

On to the QC issues. I opened the case up to find a shoddy soldering job for the repair. You can see the stress relief (brass ring on the right) doesn't give the wires enough excess in the case. It also fell off after I picked it up, so it was broken as well.



Next I went to a friend's micro/miniature lab to use his microscope.



That looks like a wire across three leads, but I don't think it was as my multimeter did not show a short.

Next you can see excess solder next to a capacitor almost shorting it out.



You can also see all the debris, left over flux, and even some silicon inside the unit. Poor QC overall IMHO.



Is this chip corroded? It looks bad, but is still operational. We'll see how long it'll last.




I've since repaired it, by chopping off the end and starting from scratch. The wire colors are very hard to distinguish with the naked eye. Luckily a camera with flash made it easier. I super glued wire sheath to the rubber grommet to keep the wire from twisting in use. After soldering the wires I also used a little bit of hot glue to keep them from moving around in the case. Hopefully this will do the trick.

Introduction

Today we’ll be reviewing a interesting offering by Advanced Sound recently being crowd funded through various crowdfunding sites like kickstarter. The Accessport is a Lightning/ USB-C powered DAC/Amp meant for mobile users to up their music game on the go. In this review, I will be going to take you through the lightning version as it is paired daily with my Iphone 7 Plus, after receiving it almost 2 months ago. Before I continue, this review is not paid as I backed this project myself through Kickstarter and all comments are of my own personal opinions in all honesty



As Apple did away with their 3.5mm earphone jack, all who refuse to go wireless had to resort to a short lightning to 3.5mm dongle to attach their nice cable-d IEMs. With the camera connection kit, we could use USB type DAC’s like the Zorlo’s ZuperDac and the Dragonfly Red/Black. These however are not “Made For Iphone” and may face issues whenever Apple updates their iOS versions. On the other hand, the Accessport is “Made For Iphone” and every time its being plugged in, I’ll never get the “ This accessory is not supported..” message and I feel that I can rely on it whenever I need it.



This small DAC is actually my first audio accessory as I have always played music directly from my source, either from my Macbook or my Ipod Touch 4G previously. So without further ado, lets see how these perform!



Packaging and Build Quality


The Accessport came in a unassuming, no frills packaging, that shows off a big Accessport logo and accompanying that is a “funded by kickstarter” logo that reminds us where this project came from. The “Made For Ipod” logo is obvious and it certainly gives iOS users the confidence to purchase this. Sliding off the packaging reveals the Accessport, together with the lightning termination glory.





The Accessport is full plastic and has a soft touch plastic matt black finish which feels very premium and pleasant to touch. Branding and logos on the device are very subtle with only Advanced Audio’s tag line “Designed For Musicians” placed near the 3.5mm port and a “Powered by AAW” logo on the other side of the device, showing off the collaboration with AAW. The short cable are also braided which should add to the durability since this is meant to be used as a replacement for daily commute or daily listening sessions on our mobile devices. The termination is probably made of some sort of aluminium which feels solid and has the usual ADV logo on both sides.

Overall I was satisfied and pleased with the build quality of the Accessport.





Functionality

The Accessport is meant to give users the ability to charge and use earphones at the same time, which proves really useful when I am watching movies on flights and am required to use the phone throughout the day, so having the option to charge while listening to music is a definite advantage over the standard dongle from apple. I had no issues with the charging though I must admit, I charge through the Accessport seldomly.



This nifty device also has 3 buttons on one of it sides which act as a standard 3 button remote on your earphones. I find this quite useful as most of earphones do not come with a remote and I found this handy when i had to answer calls or to increase or decrease volumes. Then again, it is not something I use often but It is really handy when I need it.



Sound wise, I have almost no comparison with other amps or DACs, but i must say there is a difference when A/Bing with my IEMs and even on the legendary VE Monks. I found my music to sound fuller, with deeper bass and a clearer mids. I did not find much improvement to the highs of the music I was listening to, but overall it was an improvement and I did not look back afterwards. I stopped using the small apple dongle completely and switched over to the Accessport.

Sometimes I get people asking me what this was and I always get skeptical looks whenever I say this improves the music you are listening to, even when you are on spotify. However as they gave this a try and started listening, expressions start to change and they were like wow, there is a difference afterall!

Using the app

The app accompanying the Accessport can be downloaded from the respective app stores regardless if you are a iOS user or Android user, it serves as a firmware update app and it was very easy to use from my experience. Simply plug the Accessport in and the app will inform you if the version was the latest or if it needs an update. Really appreciate and enjoy these kind of constant fuss free software updates as it keeps my device up to date easily.



Overall Impressions

This device is easy to recommend as I enjoyed the portability of this device and how it worked seamlessly with my iOS device. Given that I listen to music on my commute, the small size of this is very much bigger to the apple adapter and could fit into my earphone carrying case easily. At $60, it is more expensive than the Belkin Rockstar or the Apple adapter but with a added DAP functionality, it is sure worth its money.