Reviews by hokagoteatimereviews
Introduction:-
Hey everyone today I have the Fiio KA17 in for review. For a long time I wanted a dongle dac which could have a customisable EQ and saved inside the dac, and well looks my wish was fulfilled with the KA17 here.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This is a review unit from Fiio and all the thoughts an opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256806273951601.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets get started!
Review:-
1. First I want to say that I am really excited for this product, but it turned into disappointment as when I first received the unit there were lot of issues and bugs. But thankfully it was fixed with an update
2. The version I had before was a pre-launch firmware updating to the latest firmware of the KA17 to the version v0.99 it fixed the dac and its issues. I held doing my review until the v0.99 update came as it also fixed a lot of issues.
3. The packaging of the Fiio KA17 is really awesome, The box holds the Dac, USB-C cable, an Usb-C to A adapter and a case.
4. The packaging is fantastic and it has everything one will need. Except maybe the usb c cable is a bit flimsy, but I personally haven't had any issues with it.
5. Also, almost all dongle dac’s case is sold separately but its so nice of fiio to include the case inside the box. Good job fiio!
6. Now the fiio ka17 size wise is a bit chonky and bigger than most dongle dacs out there.
7. The KA17 has 3.5mm and 4.4mm, volume buttons which are independent of the source, a menu button, a usb c port, a second usb c port for supplying extra power (this is a power only port and no data is transferred) which can activate its desktop mode or high gain mode and take the power upto 650mw for your most demanding headphones/iems, desktop mode toggle and the OLED display
8. The desktop mode can also be activated if it is connected by the main port and is receiving enough power from the source, some android phones, laptops, PC’s can supply enough power here.
It supplies 140mw from 3.5, 300mw from 4.4 in normal mode and 270mw from 3.5, 650 mw from 4.4 in Desktop mode!
9. Now talking about the UI of the KA17 and what it can do ( Please Watch my video on my YouTube for better understanding, as i give a live demo there)
10. The default screen shows the Bit Rate, Volume it is at and the Usb mode
11. First there is the gain menu, you can select low or high
12. Then there is the filter menu of which there are eight. Now I personally didn’t notice any difference with all these filters at all. I used the default fast filter
13. Then there is an otpion for volume step, where in you can select between wither 60 or 120 volume steps
14. The fiio ka17 also supports S/pdif so you can also toggle one or off that.
15. Then you have a setting where in you can adjust the left and right shift to the music which is a fantastic feature to have specially if your hearing is a bit damaged in one side or if the source music or video you are playing has some issues with the audio being leaned towards one side
16. After that you have the dimmer switch of which there are 5 preset settings
17. Then comes the EQ mode which has 7 presets and 3 user presets and an option to bypass the EQ completely
18. Now bypassing the EQ completely disables the MQA option too, so if you want to use MQA and don’t want to use the EQ use the option EQ-off. Before the v0.99 there was a separate option of MQA on/off
19. Now the 3 user available EQ are awesome as that gives me a lot of flexibility in having a bass boost EQ built inside the dac so that if I ever wanted a slight bass boost and I don’t want to use EQ on the transport then this works really well
20. Sometimes when listening at low volumes, quite a few iems there is a lack of body to the entire song and a lack of bass so I keep a separate EQ for low volume listening where in I bump the bass a tad bit more than case 1
21. The EQ is a 10 band eq and for each band you can select the gain and the Q value of the band. Which is really awesome! Q value basically means how wide or narrow the range around that band is when you are changing
22. Also each user eq gets a gain of +/- 12db
23. After the EQ section there is a max volume setting, here you can limit the volume above which ka17 wont be going.
24. Next setting is the rotation display which turns the display 180 degrees around depending on your needs
25. Next is the Display off setting of which in increments of 5 you can select from 5 seconds to 60 seconds
26. After that it shows the USB mode you are in, for PS5 and switch you need to be in USB mode 1 to use the ka17 with these devices
27. Language selection is next english or chinese
28. The version number and at last Recovery mode or factory reset the ka17 to its basic state.
29. That was a bit long covering the menu settings and what it does. Now talking about the dac chip and amps of the KA17. It has 2 ESS ES9069Q flagship DAC chips and a THX AAA 78+ headphone amp. A non-plus version of this amp was used in their M11 and M11s DAP’s. Also there are 8 op-amps in a 4 channel parallel circuit.
30. The digital and analog portions of the circuit are on totally separate circuit boards, each board is equipped with a shielding cover for total isolation.
31. This also has the XMOS XU316 USB receiver, which is a first for a dongle dac if I am not wrong
32. The KA17 supports upto DSD512, 768kHz/32bit and full MQA unfolding
33. Now talking about the meats and potatoes, the sound
34. I will be talking about the sound without any EQ and I will be using the EQ bypass mode to test the sound.
35. Now before talking sound I want to say one thing, is that it is very hard to judge sound characteristics of a dac. And the sound is clearly dependent on the iem you are using and also comparing it with other dongle dac’s
36. The overall sound of the fiio ka17 is very neutral with a slight tinge of brightness.
37. This tinge of brightness isnt something which will make your bright iems unbearable to listen to but rather your warm sounding treble shy iems gets a small dose of treble which makes it sound nice and clear.
38. This neutral sound signature doesn’t mean that the bass authority has been lost, with iems like nova and kz castor the bass had authority and deep punchiness which made the bass sound crisper too. Something like my tanchjim kara in the desktop mode really benefited from the extra power and its bass sounded more fuller, crispier and very nicely texture here.
39. The mid range here is crystal clear and sounds exactly how I would want. Again the kara in desktop mode was really a treat to listen too! Chris cornells voice which sounds a bit lackluster in the kara in most underpowered dacs it sounded really good here.
40. The treble of the ka17 is very good, that tinge of brightness doesn’t cause any issues to any of my bright iems even at moderate volumes. The kara in desktop mode sounded very nice here too, the instruments sounded very good too. The treble notes here arent too blunted and they are really crisp.
41. The soundstage of the KA17 is phenomenal and so is the imaging. When listening to live songs specially the 1985 live album by Cassiopea it is immediately apparent. I was really surprised by this! Watching any movies like the top gun movies was awesome here and fly by of jets too was awesome and it was very crisp.
42. I cannot specify how good the ka17 powers and opens up something like the tanchjim kara in desktop mode. Kara is very hard to drive and seems like it is meant to be paired with the KA17.
43. Now for battery life. I tested it out with a moondrop chu 2 at 30% volume in low gain mode via the 3.5mm mode I got around 9.5 hours of battery. Yes it is very low and on my battery rank list this is the lowest, but thats sort of expected with the amount of power it pushes. Even when idle the KA17 pulls a lot of battery from the transport and it stays quite warm.
44. The ka17 does get heated up a lot, specially when using it in desktop mode. There is an overheating notification present on ka17 which will notify you when the temp is too much. I suggest using the ka17 out in open specially when using the desktop mode.
45. Now comparison to other dac -
46. v/s the Aune Yuki – Well in terms of features the KA17 wins here no doubt. Now previously I had given the yuki as my favourite dongle dac in terms of soundstage. But well the Fiio ka17 beats the yuki when it comes to that! If you still want something a bit analog sounding then the yuki is still a great option, but if you want a great soundstage and imaging along with a very neutral sound and detailed sound along with EQ then the KA17 is where it is at. The battery is much better on the yuki than on the KA17
47. v/s The colorfly cda m2 – In every aspect of sound the KA17 is just a superior product here, specially with ka17 having eq. But when it comes to battery life the colorfly is much better when compared to the KA17
48. v/s The Hiby FC6 – Well the fc6 is my favourite dongle period! But the ka17 is just superior when it comes to soundstage and imaging. When talking about the overall quality of the sound still prefer the analog sounding fc6 here. But I have to say that the KA17 takes the first spot too on my list of favourite dongles along with the FC6. If I want something with greater soundstage and neutral sound signature then the ka17 it is, if I want to relax and enjoy my music then its fc6.
49. Well the I had a lot of hopes for the KA17, it just broke all that and quickly became my favourite dongle along the FC6. If anyone wants a do it all dongle I highly highly suggest checking the fiio ka17 out. At its $149 price point I would say its definitely worth it, and I have never said this but even at 200 this is a really great product.
50. Being able to power most iems and headphones without any issues in desktop mode is an awesome thing to have. But it has one con is that it does suck up a lot of battery when connected even in normal mode, so do be careful of that when using it.
51. I am sorry if I come across a bit excited about this, because how the KA17 sounds is just fantastic and the EQ function + its price makes it an overall fantastic device to own.
52. Well that's my review of the KA17, I hope you liked it. If you have any questions please do comment and I will try to help you out. Thanks for stopping by!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Fiio for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Bye!
Introduction:-
Hey, guys this is the kiwi ears allegro. Its a dongle dac from kiwi ears which looks like gamepad. Its a really nice design and the price too is quite good at $59. So how is it? Lets find out.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
Before I start I want to say that this is a review unit from linsoul, but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
https://www.linsoul.com/products/kiwiears-allegro?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets get started!
Review:-
1. The packaging is very simple it has the dac and the usb c cable. Thats it! A small usb c to usb a adapter would have been nice for PC use.
2. I absolutely love the design of the dongle dac. The gamepad design is really nice and not boring unlike most dongle dac
3. The metal body of the allegro is really well built
4. Sadly the buttons on the face of the allegro don’t work, would have been nice if they could do something like tuning filters or shifting to high or low gain mode.
5. It has the ES9028Q2M DAC
6. It can support upto 32bit/384khz and DSD258
7. Its output power is 70mw from 3.5 and 155mw from 4.4
8. It does not have low or high gain mode
9. There are no filters here
10. As for power they are surprisingly good and drove even my hard to drive tanchjim kara really well.
11. Before I talk about the sound I want to say that it is very hard to determine the sound of the dac and its heavily dependent on the iem I am using and also by comparing to different source.
12. Well the overall sound of the allegro is very neutral but which sounds analog-ish
13. The bass and the mids are very neutral with no colouration whatsoever.
14. But the mids of the allegro are quite analogish and male vocals specifically sounds really good here.
15. The treble is really good, but it isn't the sharpest here.
16. The overall treble note is not that sharp and it is apparent when listening to 1985 live album from cassiopea.
17. The treble extension lacks a little bit and for some warm iems could be a bit of an issue
18. I think so the allegro pairs really well with brighter sounding source where the treble notes are blunted a bit and the vocals come forward a lot.
19. When using it warmer sounding iems for some songs it sounds a bit too dark and I do feel quite a bit of treble is lost. Again this is a bit of a nitpick. But it does pair well with most iems
20. The soundstage of the allegro is as depicted with the iem
21. Overall technicalities of the allegro is really good, the analog nature of allegro doesn’t muddy up the details and they come across quite well
22. The tonality and timbre of the dongle is very good.
23. Now for the battery test, I used a moondrop chu 2 at around 30% volume via the 3.5mm jack and got around 15.5 hours from my 5000mah smartphone.
24. The battery test is really good
25. It has 100 volume steps
26. The first few steps almost seems useless as the rise in volume is quite minimal and there is this huge jump in volume where the stepping is even more sudden.
27. Although not an issue I still thought of mentioning it
28. The allegro makes for a great budget buy, specially if you want a 4.4mm output and also want something which sounds a bit analog-ish and smooth
29. v/s the ka11 – ka11 is still my pick for a fantastic warm sounding budget dongle dac. Also ka11 has an app which the allegro lacks. Ka11 has only 3.5 but it costs less at $29
30. v/s the akliam pd4 plus – pd4 plus is very analytical and has play pause buttons and more power along with low/high gain mode. The allegro is a very analog-ish. So it depends on what type of sound you want and like
31. Well thats my review of the Kiwi Ears Allegro, I hope you liked it. If you have any questions please do comment and I will try to help you out. Thanks for stopping by!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Linsoul for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Bye!
Introduction :-
Hey guys, today I will be reviewing the ND Audio X12.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This is a review unit from ND Audio, but all thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated link) :-
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806327475730.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets get started!
Build, Comfort and Accessories:-
1. The package contains the iem. The 3 pairs of white and black eartips each, the flimsy cable, a sim tool for changing the switches and a pretty nice case. I would have loved to see a pair of foam tips here
2. The cable provided does have quite a bit of microphonics even though it is a thing cable.
3. Now the face plate of the iem is really interesting! I rally like it, its quite funky. Its nice to see something a bit different.
4. Shell of the iem is made out of aluminium, I have the silver version there is also a black version available.
5. They are really comfortable and I have had no issues wearing it for long periods of time.
6. These have 1DD, 4BA’s for mid and 1 BA for treble
7. There is a BA timbre
8. The price of the ND X12 is about $49.
Sound Impressions:-
1. There are 8 possible tunings possible for the X12 with the tuning switches
2. All the tunings with different tuning switches are quite useless as they don’t change anything.
3. The DDD is just treble paradise but it sounds too thin.
4. The UUU although bright sounding, is quite ok. My testing is done using this combination
5. The other combos are very similar there is no differences between them
6. These are very easy to drive
7. There is a lot of driver flex
8. Now the sound with UUU is a bright V tuned
9. The bass here is more sub-bass focused
10. The bass is quit thin and not so engaging in songs like crack crack crackle by classy. It sounds quite limp. Although if I wear foam tips the bass response is a tad bit better.
11. The mid-bass too is quite ok and follows the trend of the sub-bass, there is mid-bass bleed here
12. The instruments from songs like YMO and Cassiopea sounds a bit thin and lacking texture, but with a foam tips it sounds quite alright and ort of mangeable.
13. Now talking about the mids, the mids are quite meh
14. Male vocals like chris cornell and bill withers lacks that texture and warmthness of the sound and they take a back seat in the mix.
15. This meh male vocals does give a rise to pretty good female vocals. When listening to J-pop it sounded quite nice.
16. But this female vocals might be too much for someone who is sensitive to this shrilly female vocals.
17. Now treble, well X12 is certainly not lacking here. I mean if you are treblehead you will love this here.
18. The treble here is very shrilly and very uneven. While a treblehead might like the quantity if treble here, but the quality of treble is very lacking
19. The extension of treble is very bad too.
20. The overall technicalities it does perform quite good and is apt for the price.
21. The Soundstage and imaging is above average and what I would expect for this price.
22. when listening to the 1985 live album from cassiopea the crowd clapping noise was surprisingly good and fairly spaced with a nice sense of transition for imaging.
23. Now coming to comparison
24.v/s the simgot ew200 – the ew200 is better at every aspect here. If you are treblehead, the ew200 has a much nicer quality of treble and the extension of the treble is really good too. At under the $50 heck even $100 its hard to beat or compete with the Ew200
25. I think so the X12 would have made for a great iem a few years back specially for the price. But the competition has gotten so fierce that it is hard to compete now. The under $50 market is really good.
26. Specially the simgot Ew200 being at this price point makes a no brainer choice here even if you are treblehead.
27. If you are not a treblehead I would still suggest the ew200 and suggest using my tape mod and using a foam tip with it. That helps a lot with the overtly bright nature of ew200
28. unless you are too much intro treble, the X12 will be a hard choice to recommend. It would be nice if there was more variations among the tuning switches so that we could get different tuning.
29. Well thats my review of the X12, I hope you liked it. If you have any questions please do comment and I will try to help you out.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to ND Earphone for making this review possible.
Have a great day ahead, Bye
Introduction:-
Hey, guys in today's review I have the Akliam PD5. This is a sidegrade to one of my favourite dongle dac/budget dongle dac The Akliam PD4 Plus.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
The retail price for the Akliam PD5 is around $68
This is a review unit from Akliam, but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006668897990.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets get started!
Review:-
1. The packaging of the PD5 is very simple, it comes in this small box with some papers, the dongle dac, the usb cable and a Usb c to Usb A converter.
2. It uses the AKM AK4493SEQ along with 2*RT6863 OP-Amps
3. These are the same op-amps used in the ibasso dc04 pro
4. It supports upto 768KHz/32Bit and DSD512
5. The weight of the dongle is only 21g and is quite light weight.
6. There is a small glass window in the back which lets us see the components, which is a very nice touch in my opinion
7. It has 60 independent volume steps
8. I have tried the filters in the PD5, but I have heard no discerning difference. There are 6 filters available.
9. I will show a schematic about the button and what it can do, you can read it below
10. From the 3.5mm it can support upto 130mw in high gain and upto 255mw from the 4.4mm in high gain
11. There is a faint led which blinks red and blue when a certain action like changing the gain or switching filters is done
12. Unlike the PD4 Plus the PD5 can go to minimum volume and stay silent.
13. The background of the PD5 is completely pitch black and I heard no hiss when using my most sensitive iems
14. Now before talking sound I want to say one thing, is that it is very hard to judge sound characteristics of a dac. And the sound is clearly dependant on the iem you are using and also comparing it with other dongle dac’s
15. Now the sound of the PD5 contrary to the popular believe of AKM Chips, it is very neutral
16. When I first used the PD5 I was a bit taken aback as to hwo different the sound is from a typical AKM dac chip. Generally the AKM chips are warm sounding but this one sound clean and authorative!
17. When listening to song like crack crack crackle by classy I felt the bass to be a bit more neutral than I usually prefer and it had this really surgical precision about it which I found is more reminiscent of the expensive Fiio ka17
18. The mids of the songs containing male vocals and female vocals from my test list, were exactly I would expect for the iems to sound like.
19. The treble notes of the PD5 are very sharp and precise
20. The technicalities is where it was surprising for me. I found the PD5 to be even more technical that its brother the PD4 plus.
21. It paired fantastically with warmer pair of iems like the Nova, penon fan 2 etc.
22. The soundstage of the PD5 and Imaging was on par with the PD4 plus. In some places I felt it was a bit more precise than the PD4 plus. But that was after severely a-b ing it.
23. Seeing the battery life I got around 15.5 hours with the moondrop chu 2 at around 30% volume via the 3.5 in low gain on my 5000mah smartphone.
24. Comparing to the PD4 plus I think the PD5 is even more detailed and the treble details are even more sharpened. But the PD4 plus has more power than the PD5
25. v/s the Cda M1p the PD5 is very neutral sounding dac, whereas the Colorfly is a warm sounding dongle dac. The Colorfly is also quite heavy and does make it hard to use it daily, but the pd5 is very light.
26. So yeah thats my review of the Akliam PD5. Please do comment if you have any doubts or questions. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day ahead! Bye!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Akliam for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Bye!
hokagoteatimereviews
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Thank you for sharing it!
Introduction:-
Hey guys, today I am very excited for this review. Because its the first time I am reviewing a Ddhifi product.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
I was always curious about the quality of the Ddhifi products. So Today I have the Janus 3 Decoding Set or The better way to frame would be Usb C version of the Janus 3.
This was a review unit sent by Ddhifi, but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256806276210591.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets start the review!
Review:-
1. So the janus 3 decoding set is basically the Janus 3 iem (which is sold separately) and its paired with the M120B usb c cable (which is sold separately). So you can consider this as a dual review for the both the review of the Janus 3 and the M120B cable.
2. Well the packaging of the Janus 3 decoding set is fabulous! It has the Iem, with one set of Ddhifi ST35 eartips without the case and they are separately worth about $9 ( in my opinion one more set of tips should have been given), the fantastic case which is the Ddhifi C80 or The C90 case which in itself is sold separately for $30, The usb C cable is the M120B cable which is sold separately for $90. So the accessories in its own is worth about $129.
3. Now one thing I want to say about Ddhifi is they prefers quality and do upcharge a bit as they do built a premium product.
4. The Msrp for this Janus 3 decoding set is $150
5. Now the cable has this fantastic cylindrical shape for its usb c connector which is robust and it makes quite comfortable to use the usb c cable.
6. The iems can be worn in two ways, one like normal earphones straight down and other over the ear wrap around style like how we generally wear iems
7. This has one lithium magnesium alloy dome composite dynamic driver.
8. They are very comfortable to wear both straight down and wrap around style
9. The microphonics of the cable is almost none when it is worn wrap around style
10. But they do have quite a bit of microphonics when worn straight down.
11. The cable has integrated its mic within the splitter rather than letting it dangle on one side like most iems with mic, which i think is very nice and smart
12. Mic test is given at timestamp 2:25 on my YouTube video
Any support to me by subscribing to my channel is greatly appreciated
13. The sound coming out of this I can say is harman tuned but with a tad bit more bass than harman. You could also characterise it as a V tune too.
14. Overall the sound coming of it is very fun and very engaging
15. I used my usual set of sources for my review.
16. The sub-bass has good rumble and punch, when listening to songs like waltz by sunny it had awesome sub-bass rumble and punch.
17. The mid-bass too doesn’t stay far behind and it too has a good amount of bite and body which goes very well with the sub-bass
18. The mid-bass does occasionally bleeds into the mids. Depending on the genre of songs you listen too you might like this or not.
19. The Mids as usual in harman is slightly recessed behind everyone else
20. The Male vocals sits behind as usual, but they have good texture and body this is apparent when listening to chris cornell and bill withers.
21. Female vocals too are very good, but it could be a bit much for people who do not like shrilly upper mids. In some songs at higher volume it could be a bit much for some. Although I personally was fine with it.
22. The treble here is very good! It surprised me as to how good it was
23. It was detailed and airy and songs from casiopeas 1985 live album was awesome.
24. Now the notes of the treble are a bit sharp so certain songs when there is a lot going on it could be a bit uneven or could be a bit peaky. But the again this happens at very higher volumes for me and at low volumes it stays fine
25. The soundstage here is quite meh as they found a sphere around your head, now this is nice for people for those who like it. I personally like a wider soundstage.
26. The imaging is ok nothing great at the price, and the left to right transition were average for the price.
27. The M120B usb c cable has the Realtek audio chip and supports upto 384khz in the usb c mode and upto 48khz in the lightning version
28. There is a single button which can pick and reject calls and play and pause the audio.
29. Sadly a usb c to usb a converter isn't included in the box. Would have been nice if it was there.
30. So yeah to conclude the review, I do think for the price it does make a good enough purchase. As you know ddhifi does charge a bit more than its competition but the quality of the product is really good.
31. I think so the $149 is a bit of stretch here, if this was priced at around lets say 100-110, this would be an awesome iem in my opinion and I would suggest this iem if you want a no frills usb c iem.
32. By the way the cable and iem here is mmcx and it can be used with other iems too.
32. The pricing is the only thing which is the negative I can find.
33. That was my review of the Ddhifi Janus 3 Decoding Set + M120B cable, I hope you liked, Thanks for stopping by!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to DDHIFI for making this review possible.
Have a great day ahead, Bye
Introduction:-
Hey guys, today I have the Hiby W3 ii with me for review today. Its a budget Bluetooth dongle from hiby.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This is a review unit from Hiby, all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated link) :-
Hiby Website - https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-w3-ii
Hiby Aliexpress Store - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006467204561.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets get started!
Review:-
1. The packaging is very simple it comes with the W3ii, a usb c cable and some basic papers
2. The entire build is plastic and it is very lightweight at around only 19g! It also has a clip on the back.
3. The price of the W3ii is only $49
4. The W3ii has a single CS43131 dac in it and uses the Qualcomm QCC5125 chip which has bluetooth 5.2 and a single 3.5mm output.
5. It can be used both as a bluetooth dac and as a usb dongle dac. It also has NFC for connecting the device.
6. The bluetooth range is average at around 8-10m in a line of sight
7. Codec’c it supports are LDAC, aptx, aptxHD, SBC, AAC and Hiby’s proprietary UAT wireless codec.
8. It has a mic input which uses a CVC noise cancelling technology during calls and supports the CTIA headset controls, Please click on my youtube video the Mic sample is given at 1:34
(Any support by subscribing to my YouTube channel is greatly appreciated
)9. The battery is claimed to last around 10.5 hours on aac codec, but I got around 9.5 hours on aac codec while playing the moondrop chu 2 at around 30% volume.
10. The standby time is really good! They say its around 100 hours but I have seen much better than results than that.
11. It doesn’t have any low gain or high gain.
12. It also has an app which is separate from the Hiby music app.
13. I will show a screenshot below so that you can see what basic features it has.
14. The led control button is a really nice feature, also the Find feature is quite nice too.
15. It also supports a car mode, so you can use this adapter inside your car.
16. It also has a channel imbalance button which is great for someone who might have a hearing loss on one side.
17. It also has an EQ feature where there are 8 preset eq and you can modify the eq but only upto 4 bands. For the price this is really good!
18. Also the EQ is saved in the device so you can use the same EQ everywhere, although to change it you would require the android app once again.
19. Volume fine tune lets you choose the internal volume of the W3ii which is really nice!! So that it can adapt to different volume steps on different devices and you can adjust the volume steps to be a lot finer.
20. You also have the option to select auto power off feature, which is really nice.
21. I will share a small screenshot of the button function and also the what each step of the multicolour LED means. You can see it below
21. Now talking about the sound, before talking about the sound I want to say that it is very hard to judge a dac on its own. And the judgement depends heavily on what type of iems/headphones I am using it with.
22. The sound from the Hiby W3ii is very natural
23. Although there is no colouration of the sound it does sound quite lively specially when listening to any live recordings.
24. The overall treble notes is a bit blunted, which makes it a great pair to listen it with bright sounding iems.
25. Iems like Geekwold GK20 and the Simgot EW200 paired really well with this.
26. When using it in wired mode the sound from it seemed a bit better than in the bluetooth mode.
27. Overall for the price of $49 I think this is a fantastic product for those who want a budget bluetooth dongle dac and which also has eq feature and quite a robust app. The mic support and CTIA headset controls is a great feature to have.
28. Also if you have a bright iems this makes a good pairing too.
29. That was my review of the hiby W3ii, I hope you liked, Thanks for stopping by!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Hiby for making this review possible.
Have a great day ahead, Bye
Introduction:-
Hey guys this is a first of a kind review for me. This is a first time I am reviewing a cable, and the cable is from none other than Simgot. Its the simgot LC7 we have got in the house for review.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This is a review unit from Simgot, but all the thought and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256806199991817.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets get started!
Review:-
1. The packaging of the cable is very simple. It comes in a small box where in there is the cable and extra 4.4mm modular jack.
2. The price of the cable is $69. Nice!
3. Its a 18AWG cable the components of the cable is High Purity oxygen free Copper and High Purity oxygen free Silver.
4. It has 732 cores. And is a dual core cable which is moulded with PVC
5. The housing material is copper alloy.
6. Its a standard 0.78mm 2 pin
7. Now the alking about the physicality cable. It is very supple and soft.
8. It has a decent amount of memory when rolling it, but it also doesn’t get kinks. Which is a very nice thing in my opinion.
9. They are not that microphonic atleast for me.
10. The weight of the cable is a bit heavy but they handle quite well in daily use.
11. The moulded earhooks are not aggressive like you see with most stock cables.
12. The chin cinch is very nice and is very effective when using it.
13. Now as for sound which is a big controversial take here. I paired it with other iems too, but this cable seems like it is made for ea1000.
14. As for the sound difference well, to be honest I didn’t hear any. Everything sounded the same.
15. This cable looks so good with the ea1000! It looks like it is made for the ea1000. While the stock cable is good but this cable takes it a notch above in terms of handling the iem.
16. At $69 I do think it is a bit expensive for a cable. But the quality if the cable with it being modular and other cables of similar quality being a bit expensive than this.
17. I think so it makes a good point to get this specially if you have an ea1000 or an iem which looks similar to it.
18. The cable could be a bit heavy so a case to carry it is suggested
19. So that was my review, i hope you liked it. Thanks for stopping by!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Simgot for making this review possible.
Have a great day ahead, Bye
Introduction:-
Hey guys, today I have the EPZ S80 with me for review. Its an Open ear style TWS or OWS as its called. These have been really popular these days, so lets how these are.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
These are a review unit from EPZ but all the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Buy then here (Unaffiliated link) :-
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256806068368006.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets get started!
Review:-
1. Before I talk about the sound, I want to say one thing is that these are OWS so you shouldn’t be expecting sound quality of them like you would expect from any iem or even any earbuds
2. So lets talk about some basic specs now
3. It has Bluetooth 5.3, Uses a BES2000 chip sadly no qualcomm chip here so the codec support is only limited to sbc and aac I would have liked to see aptx support at this price point. But thats ok
4. The battery is rated for 15 hours on the buds and 45 hours on the case
5. It has a 16.2mm Dynamic driver
6. It is IPX5 waterproof which is nice for your work outs and gym
7. I used these while working out and found no issues when sweating
8. It has 4 mics which ENC during the call
9. Now talking about the comfort these are really comfortable for the first few hours, but after hour or 2 I did had some issues
10. On my left earbud I did feel a pressure on my earlobe. I tried adjusting the wings but they are fixed so they stayed as they are.
11. The material used is really comfortable to wear and caused no irritation as such even after I was sweating
12. Now talking about the sound quality I will display a graph from EPZ here
13. Well the sound range for the EPZ S80 is a bit weird
14. The first 30% of volume the sound coming out is very faint and teeny but once you reach pass that 30% limit the sound is a bit fuller.
15. Now this continues to be the case upto 70% of volume, after that if you increase the volume even more the sound becomes too shrilly and shouty.
16. So I suggest using the earbuds between 30-70% of volume for the best sound fidelity.
17. I typically used it around 30-60% depending where I am at, and I got around 12 hours of battery life using 50% of volume.
18. This has a fast charge feature where in you can charge for 15 minutes and get 6 hours of battery life. They don’t have wireless charging.
19. I will be talking about the sound from 30-70% of volume range. Because the sound below 30 is unusable and teeny and sound above 70 is shrilly and shouty.
20. Now the sound coming of it from when you hit 30% of volume is actually quite good, it has a good amount of bass.
21. Although the bass you hear is mid-bass heavy than sub bass. When listening to songs like crack crack crackle by classy and waltz by sunny the bass hits were punchy and hearty. Yes the sub-bass did lack behind the mid-bass.
22. The mids are ok nothing great for a OWS. But at higher volumes like 60-70% or the female vocals becomes quite shrilly and shouty.
23. The treble again is very well controlled and they do a surprisingly good job here.
24. The treble does lack a bit of extension but seeing how this an OWS thats ok I guess.
25. Now the soundstage of these buds are fantastic! Being an OWS they always excel at this. They are very wide sounding while the depth is average at best
26. This has no app support sadly.
27. I will leave the control schematics on screen so that you can pause and read it.
28. The mic test is on my YouTube video @ 4:00
28. These retail for $89
29. So are these worth the $89? well somewhat, I think so it does sound good specially if you stay within the volume range as I mentioned.
30. But I do think they are a tad bit expensive, if they were priced at around $60-70 they would have been a much better deal.
31. I don’t have the openrock or oladance or soundcore OWS which are priced similarly, I would have really loved to compare.
32. Because at $90 you are competing against the already established brands and they have lot more features and app support. Now I haven't used them but this is what I found from the reviews I have read or seen online about them.
33. So yeah that's my review of the S80. Thanks for stopping by!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to EPZ for making this review possible.
Have a great day ahead, Bye
Introduction:-
Hey guys, we have the letshuoer S15 today. This is the successor to the their famous S12/S12pro iem. So this is the most expensive planar iem in the recent times I have come across, so lets see how it stacks up with other planars and other similarly priced iems.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
Also as the title says, ifi go blu, qudelix 5k owners or any who loves to eq I highly suggest reading till end.
This is a review unit from letshuoer, but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated link) :-
Amazon USA - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHJ42YHD
Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CHJ42YHD
Amazon Japan - https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0CKSXPPD4
Amazon Germany - https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CHJ42YHD
Letshuoer Aliexpress - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006156571806.html?
Letshuoer Website - https://letshuoer.net/products/lets...ve-filtering-module-hifi-wired-in-ear-monitor
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets get started!
Build, Comfort and Accessories:-
1. The overall packaging of the S15 is fantastic! It punches way above the price in my opinion.
2. Inside the box you get the iem, two sets of tips one balanced tip and other vocal tips, the fantastic cable and 3 modular right angled jacks which is my preference, the case which is is made of this 3d printed palstic which feels very nice.
3. The retail price for the S15 is $330
4. The build quality of the iem is very nice, the shell is made of the same 3d printed plastic as the case. The outer plate of the iem is a metal.
5. It uses a 2 pin connector
6. The s15 has a 14.8mm planar driver. It also uses something called as the R-sonic passive filtering module.
7. These are really really comfortable to wear and I can wear them for hours without any fatigue.
8. Although the nozzle length is a bit short and some people might have some fit issue. For me the stock tips were fine.
Sound Impressions:-
1. The overall sound signature of the S15 seems to be a w shape tuning but with a tinge of mid-bass and the treble a bit relaxed.
2. The overall sonic range is very coherent with each other. I explain more about it as I proceed through the review.
3. They are a very relaxing pair of iems
4. The overall timbre is really good, and there is a slight tinge of planar timbre.
5. They pair very well with neutral source in my opinion
6. I will be using the usual choice of source for my review.
Hiby FC6, Fiio BTR5, IFI Hip Dac 3, IFI Go Blu, Colorfly CDA M1, Colorlfy CDA M2, Muse Hifi M4, Fosi Audio N3, Aune Yuki, Hiby M300, Akliam PD4 Plus, Kinera Usb C dongle dac, Razer Usb c dongle dac, Fiio KA11, Fiio KA17 & My smartphone
7. They do require quite a bit of power to sound their best. Although they can be driven off anything but I do suggest using a decent pair of dongle dac for these.
8. These do sound their best when playing at higher volumes.
9. Sadly these aren't a low volume set.
10. All my testing is done at moderately high volume than usual also I used all the stock accessories.
11. But I found the best tip to be the wide bore penon blue tips which worked really well for this. If possible or you have issues I highly suggest checking out a set of wide bore tips with these as they open up the treble a bit.
Bass-
1. Now the bass here is mid bass focused rather than sub bass focused.
2. If you are someone who likes a nice well rounded meaty mid-bass this is an iem for you.
3. When listening to songs like crack crack crackle by sunny or waltz by sunny the mid bass punch is really tastefully done. And it sounds really nice and meaty.
4. But the lack of the sub-bass punch does leave a lot to desire. Although the overall sonic range is very coherent with each other, the lack of sub-bass with the good mid-bass atleast for me feels a bit off.
5. Like I can almost enjoy the bass region of the song, but the lack of that sub-bass punch does leave me a bit longing.
6. But if you listen to a lot of instrumental, this is a great as they sound really natural over here. Listening to asayake 1985 live fro Casiopea was a real treat. The natural tone and timbre of the instrument was really good! Surprising that a planar does this good.
Mids-
1. The overall mids of this iems are really nicely done
2. The male vocals are very well done. Vocals like Chris Cornell and Bill Withers sounds very warm and lush and very enjoyable.
3. Now this is the surprising part atleast for me, I thought that the way the tuning is done I would expect it to the female vocals to be bad.
4. But the female vocals here were really good and sounded really natural and good. Now I generally like a good almost shirlly harmanny female vocals but that also spoils the male vocals in my opinion. But I think the S15 does a fantastic job at balancing it sounding warm and also providing a good female vocals.
5. Now would I have loved the female vocals to have been a bit more shrilly, yes. But that would have spoiled the over relaxing vibe of the iem it has going on.
Treble-
1. Now the treble is fantastic over here if you are someone who is sensitive to how most chi-fi iems or harman tuned iems are tuned you will love these
2. The treble here is really good and well controlled.
3. When listening to the 1985 live album casiopea, the treble isn't that matured over here but it has enough details for me to enjoy the song.
4. If you are a treblehead, this isnt an iem for you.
5. It strikes a good balance between it giving me a good relaxing listen while also having that treble details.
6. Treble extension could have been a bit better
Technicalities:-
The overall technicalities is quite good, but it doesn’t not the technicalities that you would expect a planar iem to have. For me it strikes a good balance between it sounding good while also not sounding a detail monster
Soundstage & Imaging:-
The overall soundstage is quite meh, it has this ball of soundstage around your head. I personally like a good wide and deep spacious soundstage. But there are many who loves the in-ear feeling of the iem. If you are someone like that you will love this. The soundstage depth of the s15 is really nice but it isn't that wide.
The Imaging is average which is a bit of disappointment at this price point. I would have expected to be doing a bit good. The left and right transition is ok and nothing great.
Gaming Test:-
Here too they do an ok job and nothing great, where does shine here is if there is a lot of things happening during the game it doesn’t sound too fatiguing and due to the nature of its tuning it sound swell controlled. Although the not so big soundstage and imaging specially at this price point is meh. They are ok for casual gaming.
Comparison & Recommendation:-
1. v/s 7hz Timeless AE – In Gizaudios recent video I said that one iem that I would like to own would be this and it still holds true. I love the big v this iem has and also the treble quality while having a big soundstage. S15 is a much relaxing listening and are very coherent overall across the range when compared to the AE.
2. v/s EA1000 – The ea1000 is harman done well. Its fantastic iem, but the ea1000 is quite a bit bright sounding when compared to the s15. If you are a treblehead ea1000 it is, if you are not one then the s15 makes a better purchase.
3. Now you might have seen my entire review, I speak about the shortcomings of the S15. During the starting of the review I also say that the ifi go blue, 5k and eq users to watch till end. Well here it is!
4. When using the S15 with ifi go blu and using the xbass+xpsace mode of it. They make a perfect pair. I personally have been using the S15 like this with a thin kinera cable and the penon wide bore blue tips. It has been great!
5. The xbass adding a tad bit more to the sub-bass and the xspace improving the soundstage a bit of the S15 works wonders! They sound so good now. If you own a go blu I highly suggest giving the s15 a try or atleast demo them.
6. Now I havent used the 5k but I guess you can eq the 5k and use it in a similar manner too.
7. You could also eq and add a bit of sub-bass and extend the treble a bit.
9. I think so with a bit of eq these sound really really good.
10. I think so the s15 makes for a great relaxing listening iem. But it isnt an iem if you want a detail monster. This isnt an iem for trebleheads either. This is an iem for those who like a bit warmer sounding iem.
11. And the biggest complaint for me is the price, I have no idea why it is priced more than double than that of the s12 pro MSRP or more than triple of the s12 which is available for $100 now. I think the s15 is a good iem, but the price is a bit too high.
12. The price could be the only barrier in my opinion from stopping people to buy this iem. If this was priced at $250 I think so it would make a great set at $330 its a bit of stretch. I really do hope these go on sale soon, so that more people could give these a shot.
13. So thats my review of the S15. I hope you liked, Thanks for stopping by!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Letshuoer for making this review possible.
Have a great day ahead, Bye
Introduction:-
Hello guys, today I will review the boom mic cable for celest ruyi. This is priced very well at a price of $29 and it regularly goes on sale for $23-25. This cable has a secret trick hidden up its sleeve so lets find out!
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
For this product i highly suggest watching my review on YouTube rather than reading it, as i show some of issues and features in the video which is a bit hard to express by writing in a review
Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
Kinera Website - https://www.kineraaudio.com/product/celest-ruyi
Kinera Aliexpress Store - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256805328455478.html?
Find your local dealer here - https://www.kineraaudio.com/where-to-buy
This was a review unit sent in by kinera, but all the thoughts and opinion you hear are my own.
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets get started!
Review:-
1. So the packaging is quite simple and handsome. It comes with the cable, the omnidirectional boom mic, the foam cover for the mic, and my review sample also has the extra usb c to 3.5mm converter. This converter/ usb c dac is an extra $9.99 I suggest getting it as it quite nice for its price.
2. Now the cable has 2 pin and mmcx I have the one with 2 pin.
3. The boom mic is detachable and so is the foam cover for the mic.
4. The sound of the iem doesn’t change with cable.
5. The cable is a 2 core cable and the cable is quite soft and seems great for the price.
6. For the mic test please check my youtube video, its at the 1:16 mark
7. So that was the mic test of the celest ruyi. I think so it sounds quite good specially the for online gaming sessions and also video calling. Other party has had no issues with me using this mic.
8. But it being omnidirectional it does pick up background noise although if you point the mic towards you it seems to minimize that.
9. Now whats the secret hidden trick? Well it has a mute button!
10. I think so its quite a nice feature for video calls and online gaming as having a physical kill switch is very nice.
11. it has a small drawback where it makes a noise when switching off the mic and switching on the mic.
12. I think so for the price it is a minor inconvenience.
13. The length of the cable is 150cm
14. It also has a play pause button volume up and down button and also can accept and reject call with the control button.
15. The usb c to 3.5mm which is an extra $9.99 is quite good too and drove most iem quite well. It has a very neutral sound and has no issues driving iems like nova, fan2 etc. Although a bit hard to drive iem like the kara did sound meh.
16. I primarily used my simgot em6l with these and they made a great gaming pair.
17. So yeah that's my review of the celest ruyi I think so its quite great and the mute switch is really awesome and helped me out a lot. Thanks for stopping by!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Kinera for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Bye!
Introduction:-
Hey guys, today I have an interesting thing for review. Well its not an audio product directly, but it does help you in managing your audio collection or your collection of iems and dongle dacs.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
For this product i highly suggest watching my review on YouTube rather than reading it, as i show some of issues and features in the video which is a bit hard to express by writing in a review
So this is a storage/Travel bag for your audio collection and its the Kinera Fenrir.
This is a review unit from Hifigo, but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
You can buy if here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
Hifigo Website :- https://hifigo.com/products/kinera-fenrir
Amazon US :- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ53QYXJ
Hifigo Aliexpress :- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256806149357294.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets get started!
Review:-
1. This case was actually included for free if you pre-ordered the Kineral Imperial Loki. Which is a $3000 flagship iem from kinera.
2. Fenrir is a monster from Norse mythology, He was an offspring of loki. So you get now why this was included for me with the loki iem
3. The price of the storage bag is $89.
4. Also the fenrir comes with this nice suede pouch which is very soft and can be used to protect the bag if you so wish. Although I didn’t use it. Also you get a nice bag too with the fenrir, which has imperial loki written on it.
5. The outside of the bag is made of water resistant leather and nylon on the lower section. Now the bag isn't waterproof by any sense but if there is minor splashes it wont spoil the things inside the bag.
6. The inside of the case is lined with velvet so that it doesn’t scratch your iems and daps.
7. The dimensions of the case are 22.5cm x 17.6cm x 4.8cm
8. The handle is quite nice and thin although there are no cushions on it its comfortable to hold, but one thing I would like to say is when closing or opening everytime the thin section of lid or flap which is below the lid or flap does bend a bit and I am not quite sure how well it last long time.
9. So to mitigate this, when using opening or closing I highly suggest pressing the handle with your thumbs on left and right and flatten it a bit and then closing or opening the lid, so that the bottom thin section of the flap doesn’t bend too much over time and it doesn’t bend.
10. The magnets on the flaps are very strong and when the bag was packed I had no issues of it falling out from the sides. I was scare this might happen but nothing like that happened and to be honest I was quite surprised how well the bag held up. The magnets included are quite strong.
11. Now it has one long divider which divides the bag into two section. One for the DAP towards the left and towards the right it has space for your iems and cables.
12. Now towards the left the Dap section has elastic band which can hold the dap down while in transit. Now while I don’t have a large dap, but it did work very well with the ifi hip dac 3 and Hiby m300 stack
13. Now towards the right the top two are meant for your iems
14. The bottom section is meant for your cables, dongle dacs, sets of eartips.
15. Now I personally am not using the stock setup. I will post a picture of the stock setup, so that you get an idea. I have removed the small dividers which divide the upper sections and the lower sections. That way I get more space for my stuff.
16. The way I organise isn't the most pretty way, but it hold a lot more stuff
17. Even when overpacked like I am, the bag does extremely well and it doesn’t fall out when walking the lid stays put. Off course I wont suggest violently shaking it or running with it.
18. Now this bag is awesome and a great way to store your collection of your iems, dacs and daps. But it has one big con
19. And that big con is the price.
20. I know you generally pay for quality but the MSRP is a tad bit expensive in my opinion.
21. While still expensive I think so you get your moneys worth and its very durable and will last a long time.
22. So if you want a great premium looking storage case for your iem, dap, dongle dacs, cables and eartips collection. This makes a great buy, cant suggest enough of this.
23. Also they are very durable! I haven’t been babying them at all and they have been really solid
23. So thats my review of the Kinera fenrir. Thanks for stopping by for my review!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Hifigo for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Bye!
Introduction:-
Its the TRN Conch we will look at today. This is a fantastic iem which sounds quite good and comes with a great accessory package and costs only $38 or a whopping $25 during a sale which it frequently goes at.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This was a review unit sent in Shenzhen audio, all the thoughts and opinion you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (unaffiliated link) :-
https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/trn-conch-in-ear-headphone
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256806009486243.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets get started!
Build Quality, Comfort and accessories:-
1. So the package is loaded with accessory. It comes with an iem, the qdc cable which has modular terminations, a trn metal case, a set of trn t tips, a single set of trn foam tips, a set of generic white tips, a set of generic black eartips, It also has 3 interchangeable nozzles.
2. That's a lot at its MSRP price point and unheard of at its sale price!
3. They are really comfortable to wear and can be worn for long period of time without any issues.
4. The cable is quite nice and supple and goes quite well with other similar iems.
5. It comes with a single 10mm dynamic driver.
6. The provided TRN t tips, the cable, the metal case provided is provide if bought separately is worth around $25. So the value of the package is great!
7. The shell is quite of a fingerprint magnet.
9. I really love the metal case provided it protects the iem, although there is a place for a small usb c dongle you cannot store a big dongle inside with an iem.
Sound Impressions:-
1. Well there are 3 nozzles and the black nozzle, the blue nozzle and the Red nozzle. You can check the graph now.
2. For my testing purposes I found the red nozzle to suite my taste the best and I will be using that for my review.
3. Well using the red nozzle it has U shaped sound signature.
4. The overall tone and timbre is quite nice.
5. They are very easy to drive with smartphones.
6. I will be using the Hiby FC6, Fiio BTR5, IFI Hip Dac 3, IFI Go Blu, Colorfly CDA M1, Colorlfy CDA M2, Muse Hifi M4, Fosi Audio N3, Aune Yuki, Hiby M300, Akliam PD4 Plus, Kinera Usb C dongle dac, Razer Usb c dongle dac & My smartphone
Bass-
1. The overall bass is quite good and impactful
2. The sub-bass is a bit more forward over the mid-bass
3. While the overall bass quantity is quite good, in some songs like crack crack crackle by classy it does lack a bit of that thump and punch.
4. When listening to waltz by sunny, the bass and the overall transition is quite nice. But the clarity of the bass felt a bit off sometimes.
5. The instrument from casiopea is quite decent but it does sound a bit lost sometimes specially when there is a lot happening. Although this can be seen as a nitpick for this price point.
Mids-
1. The mids here in general take a back seat specially if its a male vocals
2. Vocals from Chris Cornell and bill withers might lack a bit of that richness and thickness while they take a back seat.
3. Female vocals takes the front seat over the male vocals, but the upper mids here isn't over powering at all.
4. It does a very good job sounding controlled here.
Treble-
1. While the other two nozzle gives too much of it and doesn’t balances with the upper mids
2. The red nozzle gives a decently controlled treble here one that might not seem offensive here
3. This inoffensiveness of the treble might cause some issues, specially if you are someone who enjoys the bright shimmery flavour. But then again you can change the nozzle and have it your way.
4. This nozzle does quite a good enough job for appealing to those people who are treble sensitive while providing a good deal of treble.
Technicalities:-
They are quite average and are ok for the price range. If you use the other nozzle they are very detail focused and has that fake sensation of detail but I feel that the red one does a good job of having some detail while being inoffensive in other regions of the song.
Soundstage & Imaging:-
The soundstage is meh, ok bang average for the price. It has a small ball around your head. Now if you are like me who likes a super massive soundstage you might be a bit disappointed but if you like that cramped in ear soundstage then this is quite good. Imaging is bang average too with decent left to right and vice versa while transition.
Gaming Test:-
For casual gaming they do an ok job, but in my opinion there are better contenders out there for that. At the similar price range. Although one thing it does it quite well is that it never gets fatiguing if you are having the red nozzle.
Comparison & Recommendation:-
1. v/s the chu 2 – The trn conch is a clear winner here, as it comes with a fantastic set of and also the overall sound with red nozzle is quite consumer friendly. But in terms of details the slight edge goes to the chu 2 here.
2. v/s Simgot ew200 – If you want a better bass texture and better clarity whilst having great imaging and better gaming performance then the ew200 is a better option. But the conch has more bass and has more amount of accessory than the EW200.
3. v/s Arrti R1 – The r1 is better in every aspect but it is quite a bit expensive in price too. If you want to get an idea how the R1 sounds then this is a good iem.
4. Overall I love the trn conch. The tuning with the red filter is something which will be preferred by more people due to its amount of bass and not being so sensitive up in the treble region.
5. At its full price its a good deal too and is a good alternative to the ew200, but if you can get it for under $30 or $25 I think so this is a no brainer. Yes It does lack a bit of refinement overall, but I still think its a great buy specially if its your first iem.
6. So that was my review, i hope you liked it. Thanks for stopping by for my review!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Shenzhen Audio for making this review possible.
Have a great day ahead, Bye
Introduction:-
Hey guys, today I will be reviewing the Fiio KA11. Its a new budget dongle from fiio.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This was a review unit sent in by fiio, but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806284660223.html
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets start!
Review:-
1. So consider this an upgrade from the apple dongle.
2. Before I start the review I want to say that I did have a minor issue with the dongle where in the volume as suddenly maxed out and it almost blew my eardrums. But it seems to have been fixed by itself for some reason as I don’t see it happening now and I have spoken to others who has this they too didn’t face this issue. I guess I was the only one, although I have let fiio know about it.
3. If you are using UAPP I highly suggest enabling the option force volume sync under volume and then disconnect the dac and plug it again.
4. Lets talk about the dac in detail now
5. The price of Fiio KA11 is $30 and as of reviewing you can get it for $23-25 for sale
5. These have a CS43131 dac chip along with the Op-Amp SGM8262. It has an output impedance of less than 0.7ohms.
6. It supports upto 32bit 384khz and upto DSD256
7. It can supplies upto 200mw of power at 32ohms from its single 3.5mm jack, now this is the main selling point of this dac
8. Sadly no ADC control and that means no mic is supported here. This would have been an awesome feature to add to this dac as mostly it will be used by mobile users.
9. The cable of the KA11 is braided and is very nice.
10. Now it has an app, called the Fiio control app. Inside the app you can select the UAC modes, selecting turning on and off the indicator lights, selecting the filter modes and also controlling the inner volume of the dac.
(Screenshots shown are from the version 3.18, the latest version of the app as of this review is version 3.19. The version 3.19 doesn't have the internal volume slider)
11. Now as of making this review the latest version of the app has removed the internal volume slider of the dac. But I am using an older version of the dac which lets me control the internal volume of the dac.
12. I am using the v3.18 of the app because this has the volume control, if you want this version of the app please do comment below I can share it there.
13. Now why is this volume control feature important, well unlike most popular dongle dacs which as independent volume and a physical volume button. The fiio ka11 lacks and that is for all the right reasons
14. So lets say you are using it on a smartphone and the volume step jump is too high, then you have higher volume jumps in your ka11 too. But with the app this could be mitigated as you could set the internal volume of the dac to lets say 25/50 or 30/50 and that way you when you use it on a smartphone or any other devices where the volume step jump is high the increase in volume is more linear.
15. Sorry if its a bit complicated. But I hope you got my point, if you still have any doubts you can comment below.
16. With the UAC 1.0 mode you can use it with your PS5, Nintendo Switch etc. But it needs to be switched one first from the fiio control app.
17. Also the app is very buggy a usual. As of this review the app has connecting issues to the KA11 I have to connect and reconnect couple of times sometimes.
18. I have used the No oversampling filter for the review, I found no difference when using the other filters.
19.Now before talking about the sound, I want to mention that its very hard to talk about it and it depends heavily on your personal preference, the iems you are using and also a-b ing it with other dacs.
20. Now talking about the sound. It is fantastic!
21. The overall sound of the fiio ka11 is warm and very luscious.
22. The bass has this slight tinge of boost here without any major colouration here. For lean sounding iems it does give a nice slight kick to it without changing the sound much at all.
23. The mids might have a tinge of boost, where in they sound a bit fuller and thicker. But the female vocals sounds a bit recessed.
24. The treble too stays controlled
25. But the sharpness of the notes is a bit blunted, and this makes it really enjoyable to listen to for longer sessions
26. The fiio KA11 pairs excellently with brighter sounding iems.
27. It paired well with all my iems very well, and it even drove my very hard to drive tanchjim kara very well.
28. Now comparing it with the apple dongle dac. I don’t have it with me as of now, but I did test it when I borrowed it from my friend
29. The fiio ka11 beats it in every aspect. Period!
30. The fiio sounds fuller, richer and pairs very well with most iems.
31. Even if you are someone who wont be noticing about the sound quality upgrade of the fiio ka11 from the apple dongle, I think so the build quality upgrade alone when compared to the frail apple dongle is worth a shot.
32. Because the apple dongle is very much prone to breakage over the time, but the braided cable of the fiio ka11 does give me a lot of confidence.
33. Now even though when my initial experience with the fiio dongle dac was very bad due to the max volume issue. But after it was fixed, I cannot gush over enough this budget dongle dac.
34. What would be nice if there were EQ options inside the app which I guess could be added via an update. And also a USB-C to USB-A adapter inside the box would have been a nice addition.
35. So yeah thats my review of the KA11. Please do comment if you have any doubts or questions. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day ahead! Bye!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Fiio for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Bye!
Introduction:-
Hey, Today its a snowy night I mean the snowy night.
Hello everyone, today we have the Aful Snowy night in for review. Its the first dongle from Aful, so lets see how it is.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This is a review unit sent in from Hifigo, but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it below (Unaffiliated Link) :-
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSSHBYF6/aful+snowynight/
Amazon JP:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0CSSXHHDC/aful+snowynight/
HiFiGo：
https://hifigo.com/products/aful-snowynight
Aliexpress：
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006476607781.html
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets start!
Review:-
1. Well the packaging of it is very simple. It comes with the dac and a thick and nice usb c cable, Sadly no usb c to usb a converter inside the box.
2. The design of the cable is really nice, its thick and braided also this thick usb c chrome plated usb c endings. According to Aful its a high-purity 6N Single-Crystal copper material
3. The retail price of the aful snowy night is the $109
4. It comes with dual CS43198 dac chip
5. Although the exact power numbers aren't supplied anywhere, But it can supply from 140mw to 300mw. I Would assume 300mw is the highest power which can be supplied at high gain from the 4.4mm
6. The design of the dac is really simple and it looks really industrial.
7. It just has two volume buttons and double pressing that volume buttons together toggles between low and high gain mode.
8. You have UAC 1.0 and UAC 2.0 mode. They can be accessed by pressing the volume + button and connecting it to the device. There is a red blinking light and it stops blinking when the connection is done, this is great for devices like PS5, Nintendo switch etc.
9. It supports upto 32bit/768khz PCM and DSD256.
10. There are also 5 basic filters which can be accessed by pressing the Volume+/- button together for 1 second. I tried these, but never really noticed any difference. I just stayed at the stock setting which came in for the review.
11. Although aful doesn’t mention the volume steps, I found it to be around 61 steps
12. The aful snowy night is pretty ok when it comes to drive iems, but when driving the tanchjim kara via the 3.5mm stock cable. I had to use the high gain mode and almost be at around 50/61 steps to get a comfortable listening experience
13. As for the battery life the when playing the moondrop chu 2 at around 30% volume via the 3.5mm at low gain mode. I get around 13.5 hours from a 5000mah battery phone
14. Now before talking about the sound, I want to mention that its very hard to talk about it and it depends heavily on your personal preference, the iems you are using and also a-b ing it with other dacs.
15. The Snowy night offers a very neutral performance when it comes to the overall sound performance.
16. The overall clarity of the dongle is really good. And any colouration you hear is from the iem you are wearing or any eq from the app or music player you are using.
17. Although I want to say that, when I mean neutral while it does do a good job it isnt the cleanest our there. But for the price range it does a very good job.
18. The bass and mids are very neutral with no colouration whatsoever.
19. The treble while very linear too doesn’t have a harsher edge but they are softened up a bit, this makes it great for pairing it with harsher sounding iems
20. The imaging and soundstage stays the same and it completely depends on the iem or headphones you are wearing.
21. The tone of the timbre from it is really good and stays natural.
22.There is no background hiss that I heard of. Even the most sensitive iems like the fan 2 and nova stayed fine here.
23. Talking about the LED lights in the dongle dac, while they are good addition. They are quite flashy when on use and are quite bright when used at night.
24. I think so for the price they are good buy. But as for comparison with other CS43198 dongles I will make another video On my youtube channel where in I will talk about them in detail so that you get a good idea as to where each of the CS43198 dongles stand and what is the best for you and which one should you pick.
24. So thats my review of the Aful snowy night, if you are looking for neutral dongle with a bit of bluntness of the treble at around $100 these make a good buy and you wont certainly wont be disappointed.
25. Thanks for stopping by for my review.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to HifiGo for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Bye!
Introduction:-
Hey today I will be an unique product from simgot. A dac from simgot, although they have had dacs in china and some in International market too. This is the Dew4x
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This is a review unit from SIMGOT and all the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Buy it here (unaffiliated link) :-
Amazon US :- https://www.amazon.com/Linsoul-SIMGOT-DEW4X-Portable-Amplifier/dp/B0CSFCQZB3
Amazon UK :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Linsoul-SIMGOT-DEW4X-Portable-Amplifier/dp/B0CSFCQZB3
Aliexpress :- https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806284508418.html?
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets start the review
Review:-
1. It is priced at around $79 and it comes with the dual CS43198 dac chip which is the same dac chip as the one in Aune Yuki, moonriver 2 and the truthear shio.
2. The box is really simple, it has the twitter x logo on it, the dac, usb c cable and usb c to a converter for pc. Very simple and effective packaging
3. The Dac is very small and light, I think so it is one of the few dongle dacs which I can attach to the usb c port and use it while it dangles as it is very light.
4. It has 30 volume steps and also the high and low gain can be accessed by pressing the volume + and – at same time.
Volume graph of the DEW4X -
5. I will leave the power specs here so that you can read it.
6. the led light is a bit muted which I personally like. Although some might have a bit of a hard time to read it.
7. There are no filters here.
8. As for power they are a bit weak and required a significant volume boost to listen to my tanchjim kara.
9. But this less power comes at a boost of battery life which when played through the 3.5mm and low gain is very good.
10. As for the sound it is very neutral with a tinge of warmness.
11. Again the dongle cannot be judged in its own and it can be only as good as the iem you are pairing.
12. The bass and the mids are very neutral with no colouration whatsoever.
13. The treble is very neutral too but the overall edginess of treble when listening to iems like timeless ae and ea1000 those are rounded of a bit.
14. The soundstage and imaging is very wide, very precise and reproduces it very well with all my iems.
15. The tonality and timbre of the dongle is very good.
16. It is not the best in details as aune yuki, hiby fc6. Muse hifi m4 does well in that aspect. But then again the yuki and fc6 is quite more expensive and the m4 could cbe considered bright by some.
17. The battery life I got with these were insane rated at around 17 hours! I played it via the 3.5mm low gain at aorund 30% volume with the moondrop chu 2
18. It has got good amount of technicalities without sounding too Piercy.
19.
I mistakenly wrote this. Sorry
20. Overall for $80 I think they are a great purchase for a dongle, If you wanted a neutral dongle but with a tinge of warm sound this does a good job at that.
21. One of the big advantage of the dew4x is that it is very small but performs very well and also the battery backup is a great advantage of this dongle.
22. So that was my review, i hope you liked it.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day ahead! Bye!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to SIMGOT for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
hokagoteatimereviews
Hello, sorry I mistakenly wrote that I fixed it now.
Should update my other reviews too
Thank you for spotting it.
Should update my other reviews too
Thank you for spotting it.
Kindlefirehditaly
Infact it doesn't work with mic or inline commands. I guess wrong specifications
hokagoteatimereviews
No it doesn't sadly most dongle DACs avoid the ADC.
Introduction:-
Its the Colorfly CDA-M2 in for review today! This dongle dac has an OLED screen and a dual CS43198 dac chip with support for SPDIF via the 3.5mm.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This was a review unit sent in Shenzhen audio, all the thoughts and opinion you are about to hear are my own.
But it from here (unaffiliated link) :-
https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/colorfly-cda-m2-dual-cs43198-portable-usb-dac-amp
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets find out how it is!
Review:-
1. The packaging is very normal, it comes with dac and a very supple usb c to usb c cable.
2. The dongle is very lightweight at around 27grams and the build quality is top notch!
3. It has a dual CS43198 dac chips which supports upto DSD256 and PCM 32bit/768khz.
4. It has 5 digital filter options: Fast LL, Fast PC, Slow LL, Slow PC, and Non OS (Non Oversampling Filter)
5. It can deliver upto 125mw form the 3.5 and 250mw from the 4.4
6. Also there are 100 steps of volume which is independent from the source
7. It has three buttons volume up and down and the function button
8. Using the function button you can adjust the gain
9. Then you have a setting where in you can adjust the left and right shift to the music which is a fantastic feature to have specially if your hearing is a bit damaged in one side or if the source music or video you are playing has some issues with the audio being leaned towards one side
10. Then you can the access the filter modes of which there are 5 and I personally didn’t find any difference and I used Non OS filter for my testing
11. Then you have the function for S/PDIF on/off switch
12. After that there is the H-depop on/off switch. Now in the manual supplied there isnt anything written about this, So I had to use the Chinese manual and translate it. From what I understand that its a function which prevents the pop noise when plugging and uplugging your iem when connected to the pc.
13. Next setting is the display brightness settings of which there are 10 levels
14. Then is the display rotation which you can turn around 180 degrees. Its a nice addition.
15. Then is the display off setting which you can select from 1 second to 60 seconds or keep it permanently on. I wouldn't suggest the later option as it might cause burn in of the display since its an oled display.
16. Then you can see the firmware version.
17. And the last setting being the reset option
18. In the main display I will share a small picture of what everything on the screen means.
19. Now I tested my entire lot of iems with the CDA-M2.
20. Talking about the sound quality I would say it sounds very clean with no colouration of sound.
21. It powers everything on my iem collection without any issues and has enough power even via the 3.5mm
22. The bass sounds as it is meant to be without any humps or dips or anything like that with most iem I have tested.
23. The Mids are quite solid too and they sound open and spacious
24. The treble here is again very neutral too.
25. The overall sound is very nice and clean and with most iem it gives extra room and extra air a bit which sounds really nice.
26. When I was using it with my tanchjim kara, it seemed more evident. As the kara really shines with more power.
27. One of the best feature of the M2 I liked is the left right setting, which although a simple setting can actually be of use to many. This is the one setting which makes this dac very nice and that too it being inbuilt into the dac without using any app is awesome.
28. It would be nice if the function button acted as a play/pause button with single press and long press opened the settings.
29. The M2 is surprisingly quite power hungry and it does heat up a lot when its in use, although it was never so hot that it was uncomfortable to hold.
30. In terms of pairing it pairs very well with warm sounding iem like the penon fan 2. They perform really well and the pairing is really good.
31. This seems to be one of the few dongle dacs which seems to has S/Pdif so if that's a requirement you can have a look at this.
32. Compared to the Aune Yuki – The m2 is linear and clean sounding device and has more power and features than the yuki. But the yuki is a tad bit warmer sounding and the soundstage yuki offers is really good. M2 has more features and an oled screen while the yuki looks beautiful and is quite simply plug and play.
33. V/s the fc6 – Here the comparison is similar as last one. The fc6 being much more warmer sounding. But the M2 has S/pdif more power and the 4.4mm jack.
34. So ya that was my review of the M2 I think so it makes a great purchase if you want a clean sounding dac which has a lot of features specially S/pdif. I really like the left and right feature and I can see that being useful to quite a few out there specially someone with hearing loss.
35. So that was my review, i hope you liked it. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day ahead! Bye!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day ahead! Bye!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Shenzhen Audio for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Introduction:-
Hey guys today I will review the Colorfly CDA-m1p. Its a new dongle from colorfly and the update of their old model to CDA-M1. It is priced at around $68
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This is a review unit sent in by Shenzhen Audio, but all the thoughts and opinions are my own.
But it here (unaffiliated link) :-
https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/colorfly-cda-m1p-ak4493seq-portable-usb-dac-amp
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets get started!
Review:-
1. So packaging is very simple and it comes with the dongle and a very good ribbon style c to c cable.
2. First thing when you pick up the dongle you see is how heavy that is! It doesn’t feel like a $70 dongle at all! The build quality is very good, infact some might say too good.
3. The dongle is quite heavy and makes quite hard to control the dangle when using it daily
4. Also the entire inside the board moves in and out when plug in and out. Although I haven’t found anymore issues regarding the build this does concern me for long time use.
5. There is no floor noise I have heard.
6. Now the M1P uses a AKM AK44993SEQ chip with dual independent dac and can support upto PCM768 ad DSD 512
7. It has power upto 125mw from 3.5 and 240mw from 4.4
8. It has a high and low gain and also supports UAC 1&2
9. It has 6 filters and 100 independent volume steps
10. Now talking about the sound, the sound is absolutely fantastic! Now again generally I don’t find the difference in dacs I have to a-b them and find the subtle differences.
11. The overall sound is very warm and luscious. It has that akm sound which everyone talks about.
12. The lower range is slightly extended and that comes out very well.
13. Both the upper mids and treble seems very neutral.
14. But the overall harshness of the treble is subdued a lot, but that doesn’t mean it isnt technical enough.
15. When listening to the 1985 live album the instruments were very good and they had the body while sounding very clean.
16. The soundstage is quite good although not as wide as the aune yuki. Which is a benchmark as of now in my book. But still is very good! It performs well for its price.
17. When using the dongle with moondrop chu 2, at 30% volume via the 3.5mm with my 5000mah smartphone I ran it for around 12 hours.
18. The dongle after 2-3 hours of run time runs very hot and becomes quite hot too touch, now this does scare me about the longevity of the dongle. But still there are other dongles which becomes hot too and they seem to running fine like the questyle m15 which I haven't reviewed.
19. The dongle is quite heavy, also the controls for it and the led system is a bit confusing and you have to go through the manual a bit to understand.
20. The entire colorfly website is in Chinese and all the instructions there are in Chinese. I don’t know how a firmware upgrade in future will be notified for international customers.
21. The sort of bright ea1000 pairs really well with the warm CDA-M1P
22. If you wanted something like the FC6, I think so the m1p does a great job sounding similar to the fc6. Now obviously it doesn’t best the fc6 or comes close to the fc6 when it comes to overall sound but it does give a taste of the fc6 and how it might sound.
23. If you are hesitant to spend money of the fc6 the m1p is a great option for under $100.
24. That is my review of the colorfly cda-m1p. I think so it makes for a great dongle if you want that akm sound and want a good warm sounding sound. It pairs very well with planar iems or anything bright.
25. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a great day! Bye!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day ahead! Bye!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Shenzhen Audio for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Introduction:-
Love that transparent glass window it has. Its the Aune yuki today we will be looking at today. Its a beautiful dongle dac from Aune which looks really beautiful does it sound beautiful? Well lets find out.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This is a review unit sent by Aune but all the thoughts and opinions you are about to hear are my own.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated Link) :-
Aune Amazon USA store :-
Case - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CN168TQD
DAC - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJXYNNTH
Aune Audio Store :- https://www.aune-store.com/en/aune-yuki-dongle-dac_110207_1236/
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets start!
Review:-
1. Well the packaging is really good as it is a bit unique. It comes with the dongle dac a beautiful cable and the USB c to a converter. I really love the accessories they provide.
2. The price of the yuki is $169
3. The looks of the yuki is really good! The entire body has this enamel finish which makes feel it premium and hefty in a good way. Love the feel of it, the entire build quality just screams quality.
4. It has two separate layer one for the dac and other for the amp and the layer you see through the window is coated in ceramic.
5. The aune yuki is probably the most high quality dongle I have seen in terms of pure looks
6. Sadly the button placement for volume is a bit weird as they are on the back as opposed to them being on sides. I mean saw this as a positive too, but I guess it depends on what floats your boat
7. It has a high and low gain button but no lights or anything to indicate, while I personally like this minimal beautiful approach some might be a bit lost when using it daily. Having a small led light with an option to turn it of would have been nice.
8. The cable supplied is very supple and is really good, love the colour matching of the cable and the dongle dac aune has done. Very good job aune!
9. It has the dual CS43198 dacs and supports 32bit/768k DSD256 and has 3.5 and 4.4 output.
10. The power output is 90mw via 3.5 and 160mw via 4.4 also there is no floor noise when I tried it with the most sensitive iems.
11. Now talking about the sound, oof! What can I say.
12. Lets say I am so happy I got it test it, generally I have to do a A-b test to find the difference between the dacs even the fc6 went through this test. But when listening to yuki for first time I immediately felt something different
13. First thing you will notice is the super wide soundstage like listening with the timeless ae the soundstage becomes even wider. The overall sound is very analog sounding and the is a very warm sounding dongle while not compromising on technicalities or details.
14. When listening to the casiopea 1985 album specially the galactic funk and asayake live, it was such a treat. It has this great sense of depth and width
15. The separation of the instruments and the over technicalities is just so good!
16. It has a maybe a teeny tiny bump in the sub-bass region which can be barely noticeable in some tracks, and a great emphasis on vocals.
17. the overall treble is a bit smoothened out and this attributes pairs so well with the planar like 7hz timeless ae. Although that doesn’t mean that the all the treble detail is lost it does a great job on softening the treble while sounding lively.
18. When listening to any live songs aune yuki was my choice, the yuki also performs exceptionally well with both male and female vocals (baring you have a good iem to pair it with)
19. Now I was listening to the Song “Konnayuki” by Remioromen which feels like an apt song for this dongle both because of the name and how beautiful the song sounds overall with this dongle. (Konnayuki Means powdered snow)
The song (Also the title of the review) :-
20. I know I might be exaggerating but it just sounds so good and full, by any means this isn't a neutral sounding dongle but listening to any song specially a song which makes use of a wide soundstage this sounds just simple awesome!
21. The volume is independent and it has 100 volume steps.
22. Talking about the battery the aune yuki scored very well, I paired it with the moondrop chu 2 at 30% volume via the 3.5mm and I got around 14 hours and some change. My smartphone has 5000mah of battery
23. One more thing I would like to add is the glass window, is a bit scary to use daily and I am quite scared of breaking it when using it daily. Now I know it looks beautiful but it is something I still thought of mentioning.
24. It does get a bit warm when using it for a long time but nothing to uncomfortable.
25. It has a support uac 1.0
26. Now comparing it with the fc6 I think so the fc6 slightly edges over the yuki a bit in terms of overall sound, but the soundstage is much better on the yuki in my opinion. Also the screen helps a lot in the fc6 a single led light which could be switched off or on would have been really nice for yuki.
27. Now generally every product gets a critique from me telling something to be added or removed for the next iteration. Even the fc6 got one from me.
28. Maybe a single led light, which could be switched on or off according to use needs would be my only suggestion to aune. Because I sure as hell wouldn't want aune to change the sound of the yuki in next iteration.
29. Now if you are someone who wants a warm sounding ,beautiful looking and a simple dongle and are ok with not too much power to power your 600ohms headphone the yuki makes a great choice! Its kinda crazy how good this sounds for its price. The fc6 seems only marginally better than the yuki for its almost double the msrp. Although recently the fc6 has been available for 200.
30. BTW I forgot to speak about the case, the case is not included in the box but rather a separate buy and they cost about $15. The case is of very good quality and it is very easy to get on and off from the dongle dac. I suggest getting the case if possible it will protect that enamel finish of the dac on the long run
31. That is my review of the yuki, when I first saw it I really loved the way it looked. But never really thought it would sound this good too. Thanks for stopping by for my review, I hope you have a great day! Bye!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day ahead! Bye!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Aune for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
ICYGENIUS
Nice review bro!
hokagoteatimereviews
Thank you!
Introduction:-
Hi Guys, today we will be taking a look at the IFI Go blu. In the fast moving audio space the go blu is quite old. It released a year and half back, but it surprisingly has some great features. Like the 5100 Qualcomm bluetooth chip and it uses the CS43131 dac which has become quite popular for dongles dac in the $50-80 range.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This unit was sent to be by IFI, but all the thoughts and opinion you are about to hear are my own.
You can buy it here (Unaffilaited Link) :-
https://ifi-audio.com/products/go-blu/
If you cant buy it from here, have a look at the authorised ifi dealers in your country from the above web page
As usual it wont follow the usual format
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
So lets start the review!
Review:-
1. So the price of the IFI is $199
2. It has a 450mah battery which lasts around 8 hours depending on the load of the iems, the volume you are playing at and also the codec. I got around 7 hours 40 minutes with the moondrop chu 2 at around 30% volume from the 3.5mm
3. Inside the box it comes with a pouch, the dac and usb cable. There is also a clip case which I like but this is an extra purchase.
4. This clip case is mandatory in my opinion as that is what makes it very usable daily, but sadly its an extra. The clip makes a great change to the dac where in I can clip it and use it for music and also for calls if needed.
5. The go blue defers from the other dongles like the Q5K and Fiio BTR series by a lot. The Ifi doesn’t have an app, for some this can be a deal breaker for some it doesn’t matter.
6. For me I am ok with the lack of an app as everything is just plug and play and I don’t have to deal with the app. But I completely understand why someone would want to tinker and use PEQ and other awesome features found in the qudelix app.
7. As for the power it has 165mw from 3.5 and 245mw from 4.4 at 32 ohms. It drove all my iem and headphones without any issues from the 3.5.
8. The volume wheel it has is great! I really love the stepped notched volume wheel which has enough resistance but also increases the volume at a good linear range.
9. This doesn’t have the Iematch feature, I would have liked it as it has very very very minor his on very sensitive iems. Its not even noticable if there is a slight noise around you, but I thought of mentioning it. I am fine with something like this.
10. It has the Xbass – which gives a bass boost, but the bass boost here is much more subtler than the hip dac 3 and I really like this xbass feature for most iems ; Xspace – Gives a sense of wide soundstage, I personally quite liked this feature in some iems but for some it spoiled the overall sound so this is more of a test and find feature ; The last mode is the Xbass + Xspace which combines the both this again works fine but again it depends on the iem for some iems it sounds good and that little nudge in the bass region and space region does help it a lot but for some they some weird.
11. This has Bluetooth 5.1 and it has support for the codec AAC, SBC, aptX, aptX HD,
aptX Adaptive, aptX LL, LDAC, LHDC.
12. There is a latency when playing games as expected but for watching media there was none. If you still have latency issues I suggested shifting to the aptx LL mode baring your device supports that.
13. Talking about the sound. Well in a vaccum its hard to judge a sound from a dac, but when A-B ing with other dacs there is a difference in sound. They sound really nice with most iems, but the simgot ea100, penon fan 2, Celest phoenixcall, Truthear Nova and the 7hz timeless AE shines on these.
14. They have this slight boost on the female vocals, and the overall sharp treble from the phoenixcall and ea1000 is smoothened out quite a bit which sounds really nice. There is also a slight tinge of sub bass boost which makes it sound really nice overall. This doesn’t mean that the clarity of the iems like ea1000 or the timeless ae is lost they improve on them too. When listening to the songs like the 1985 live album the soundstage depth and width sounded really good specially with more power. Vocals like yourshika and yoasobi sounded crisp but not being too over the top.
15. I particularly used the xbass mode a lot when paired with the ea1000 that slight boost of bass along with the ea1000’s overall signature sounded majestic! In songs like crack crack crackle by classy I got the extra thump of the bass and it made the song well rounded and sounded really good.
16. All this awesome sound via ldac and been sort of wire free and being able to take calls was really convenient. I will give a mic sample of the ifi go blu now, you can have a listen at it.
17. I had no pairing issues with the go blu, as I said it doesn’t have any app. But if you wanted to update the firmware there is an android app you can download and use to upgrade the firmware and change basic features like name of the device and also the codec you want. For example if you only want to use the ldac codec you can do that via this app. I will leave a link down below, so that you can check it out.
https://ifi-audio.com/support/download-hub/
18. The app cant be downloaded unless you give the serial number of the device, which is very weird in my opinion. I will show some screenshots now so you can see it.
19. The go blu makes a great no fuss purchase and is really awesome with the sound it produced and the way it pairs with most iems. But what might turn of most people is the lack of an app and specially the lack of a detailed and robust app like the qudelix 5K. For me personally I do not mind it, but yes it would have been nice if there was an app like the 5K so for those who like tinkering could do that.
20. Comparing with the Btr5 I prefer the go blue any time of the day.
21. Comparing with the Muse Hifi M4 the GO blu has a much warmer sound than the M4 which has a very neutral sound. If bought with the clip case you can even clip the go blue which the M4 lacks. Also the mic of the M4 is very bad unlike the go blu’s. Physically the M4 is bigger too but this all falls shorts when you see that the M4 is almost half the price of the go blu. It really depends on how much you want to spend, also one more thing the M4’s 2.5mm has its left and right side reversed so if you 2.5mm.
22. That was my review of the IFI go blu, I hope you liked it.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day ahead! Bye!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to IFI Audio for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
Attachments
Introduction:-
Hello Guys, We have the Fosi Audio N3 in for review. It is a small Bluetooth dac which costs around $40-60 depending where you buy it form. This also has a bass up button which is something akin to the xbass button from ifi dacs.
I have also shared a video version of the review at YouTube any support there in form of a view, A like or A subscribe is greatly appreciated. But if you so wish to read the written version you can read this.
This was a review unit from Fosi audio, All the thoughts and opinions are my own. Fosi audio also shared with me a small coupon code which you can use and get a small discount. I earn no money from this. But rather it is just a small discount code for you to use.
Buy it here (Unaffiliated link) :-
Official website: https://fosiaudio.com/products/fosi-audio-n3-portable-bluetooth-headphone-amplifier-receiver
Promo code: MKTN310 (used on the official site only)
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJB45YFM
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CJB45YFM
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CJB45YFM
Amazon DE: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CJB45YFM
Amazon FR: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0CJB45YFM
Amazon IT: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0CJB45YFM
Amazon ES: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0CJB45YFM
I will be as usual following my bullet style format for better readability for those who are dyslexic and in general find it hard to read long paragraphs. I follow this guide in general from the British Dyslexia Association.
Lets start the review
Review:-
1. Well the packaging is very simple it has the dac and the cable.
2. The dac is built of aluminium
3. Physically it is very compact and quite pocketable too.
4. It has a nice volume knob on the corner which makes it nice and easy to control the volume.
5. Fosi audio doesn’t specify what dac it uses but it does have an OPA1656
6. It can have upto 138mw of power at 32 ohms
7. The 1200mah battery for me lasted around 9 hours 20 minutes when playing the moondrop chu 2 at 30% volume in low gain. The stated battery life is at 10 hours.
8. Sadly the codec it supports are only aac and sbc. No ldac or aptx here
9. The Bluetooth range quite ok
10. There is a gain switch which works well for some hard to power iems. Although for me most iems even the kara ran fine on low gain.
11. It also has an option for line in/ aux signal and can be used to amplify that to an iem. This is a feature addition to bluetooth
12. The overall sound quality is ok nothing great. It presents the sound as you would generally hear.
13. The included bass boost is an awesome feature which I like very much, and the bass boost is subtle bass boost. Which makes it great for low volume listening and also for bass lean iems.
14. One of the biggest gripe for me is the static sound it makes when when listening to anything. Although its not so apparent when using it and listening to songs. But on idle its very much an issue, and I could see someone not liking it.
15. While for the budget price I wouldn't expect it to be perfect but the noise floor is quite high specially when using sensitive iems like the nova or fan 2. With hard to drive iems like kara it minimizes away a lot.
16. Well overall this is a short review, I think so its a decent device specially for the price. And the bass button is a very nice addition along with it being able to work as an aux port for car.
17. I highly suggest trying it from Amazon or from somewhere where you have good return policy. So if it has noise issues like my unit you can return it easily. If it doesn’t, well you have an a nice bluetooth dac amp for a budget price.
18. So that was my review, i hope you liked it. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day ahead! Bye!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and also if you have any issues regarding this format of review please do comment I will try to mend it. Also sorry to those who are used to reading long paragraphs of review in headfi. I hope my review was upto the mark, I appreciate any feedback.
Again a big thanks to Fosi Audio for making this review happen.
Have a great day ahead
