Before I bring up the bad, let me say that this adapter/DAC has great sound quality. No hiss even with sensitive IEMs. No Cell phone interference or charger whine.
But, I don't think they are worth the asking $60 price. Here is why.
I've had these since the pre-order deliveries went out last year. I've only used them for a little over a month. Why? They have broken two times already. I sent them back the first time after 2-3 weeks of use. They came back and broke again shortly there after. Why did it take me so long to do something about it? I moved to Japan and have been surviving with my cheap Chinese lightning adapter that hasn't broken in about 10 months of use (but has lots of noise from Cell traffic and charging).
On to the QC issues. I opened the case up to find a shoddy soldering job for the repair. You can see the stress relief (brass ring on the right) doesn't give the wires enough excess in the case. It also fell off after I picked it up, so it was broken as well.
Next I went to a friend's micro/miniature lab to use his microscope.
That looks like a wire across three leads, but I don't think it was as my multimeter did not show a short.
Next you can see excess solder next to a capacitor almost shorting it out.
You can also see all the debris, left over flux, and even some silicon inside the unit. Poor QC overall IMHO.
Is this chip corroded? It looks bad, but is still operational. We'll see how long it'll last.
I've since repaired it, by chopping off the end and starting from scratch. The wire colors are very hard to distinguish with the naked eye. Luckily a camera with flash made it easier. I super glued wire sheath to the rubber grommet to keep the wire from twisting in use. After soldering the wires I also used a little bit of hot glue to keep them from moving around in the case. Hopefully this will do the trick.
But, I don't think they are worth the asking $60 price. Here is why.
I've had these since the pre-order deliveries went out last year. I've only used them for a little over a month. Why? They have broken two times already. I sent them back the first time after 2-3 weeks of use. They came back and broke again shortly there after. Why did it take me so long to do something about it? I moved to Japan and have been surviving with my cheap Chinese lightning adapter that hasn't broken in about 10 months of use (but has lots of noise from Cell traffic and charging).
On to the QC issues. I opened the case up to find a shoddy soldering job for the repair. You can see the stress relief (brass ring on the right) doesn't give the wires enough excess in the case. It also fell off after I picked it up, so it was broken as well.
Next I went to a friend's micro/miniature lab to use his microscope.
That looks like a wire across three leads, but I don't think it was as my multimeter did not show a short.
Next you can see excess solder next to a capacitor almost shorting it out.
You can also see all the debris, left over flux, and even some silicon inside the unit. Poor QC overall IMHO.
Is this chip corroded? It looks bad, but is still operational. We'll see how long it'll last.
I've since repaired it, by chopping off the end and starting from scratch. The wire colors are very hard to distinguish with the naked eye. Luckily a camera with flash made it easier. I super glued wire sheath to the rubber grommet to keep the wire from twisting in use. After soldering the wires I also used a little bit of hot glue to keep them from moving around in the case. Hopefully this will do the trick.
