I was in the market for some portable DAC/Amps, and luckily it just so happened that I had a need right as my trip to CanJam came around. I was looking at the options from iFi with the Hip DAC, and from FiiO with the Q3 with its THX AAA amp. There unfortunately wasn't much at the event, especially not under $1000 that I was really into. I loved the Hugo 2, but again, it was well out of my price range with its MSRP at nearly $2,000.

But low and behold I would find this thing while doing the rounds for that raffle ticket (which I unfortunately did not drop in before 3:30!!). On the first day of the con, I didn't pay much attention to the CEntrance booth, and it was only by chance of me and my friend wanting to do the raffle that I dropped by. While demoing it, I was impressed. For every feature I discovered about this thing, two more would be hidden around the bend. As I describe here, and in person with the representative at the booth, it is quite literally a clown car.

Why a clown car? Well, it's small, and things just keep pouring out of it. When I found the guys were selling this with a floor discount of $150 off with even more deals with extra accessories, I jumped on the opportunity for this item and its waterproof case, which I will get to soon. That case in of itself is a shocker.

Without further ado, let me get into the specifics. TL;DR at the bottom.

Specs & In The Box


The above is copy/pasted from their site's specs sheet and typed some things myself. I included what I felt was important. For full info, check out their site page on it here.

I know the output power ratings look weird but trust me, I think this thing can drive things pretty well considering it managed to get my highest impedance headphones, the HD 58x's to listenable volumes even on low gain.

Included in the box is the device itself, a velvet drawstring pouch, a 3 ft USB-C to USB-C cable, a USB-C to USB-A adapter, 3M rubber feet, a SIM tool, and the manual/quick-start guide.

If you're curious as to why there's a "Charge On" switch and one USB-C port labelled as both power and data, we'll get into that next.

Features

Let me tell you, this thing is packed with value. Not only does this have 4 inputs for headphones (which btw, can all output at once) and USB-C, but it comes with other features in the form of tiny switches you flip with either their provided SIM card tool or whatever small household tools you got (they recommend toothpicks or paperclips).

On top of your usual low/high gain switch, you have two EQ options. A Bass Boost, and a Treble Boost. I don't know what exactly the amount they add to the boosts, but it's pretty sizeable. I think it can either enhance your experience or bork the sound, but it depends on the headphones you're running and how well they adapt to EQ. From my tests, over-ear headphones handle EQ better while IEMs tend to get messed up, but hey, mileage may vary.

There are also two special settings which I list under "Switches" in specs, these being the Charge switch and the Stamina switch. Each of these affect how the DAC/Amp handles power.

The Charge switch basically tells the DAC/Amp to also utilize the USB-C data port for power, basically meaning you can run it purely off of USB bus power from your PC/laptop, or charge it via your phone. If it is turned off, it otherwise requires you to utilize the power port on the back where the "hot" ports are located.

The Stamina switch is an excellent feature I didn't see from my research on other portable DAC/Amps. It basically turns off the "hot" ports on the back and the LED VU meter in order to save battery life in cases where you don't need to run insensitive headphones. What makes this even better is that the Bluetooth mode also requires less power, and the manual basically recommends using Stamina mode in conjunction with Bluetooth to get the maximum battery life, which at the rated 15 hours, is pretty frickin' sweet.

Of course easily one of the coolest features for me is the LED VU meter. VU meters are always great and it's no difference here with the dots.

Bluetooth is here as well and under my testing, it works great. On the showroom floor at CanJam, I was able to walk halfway across the convention room floor and still get a stable connection that is crystal clear. Under my "real world" test in my own home, though it did break up occasionally, for the most part it was still crystal clear while I was downstairs, with my phone in my room. Of course, the moment I got into a place where's too many walls, or too far with additional walls, it began breaking up regardless of me streaming Qobuz or my compressed Opus files on my phone.

To swap between USB or Bluetooth, you simply push the Input button (duh!). It gives you a beeping noise whenever you switch.

Overall Impressions (& That Waterproof Case)

Okay, let me get this out of the way first. I got this waterproof case with my order for $20 extra. The rep told me it floats. And well, I'm here to say:



IT. FREAKIN'. FLOATS.

Also does a pretty good job of repelling water from getting inside! I only noticed a tooth pick sized droplet in the case. Though I think just in case, I'll still wrap the thing in the velvet bag when I put it in there. Especially since it has zero padding and the thing rattles around in there. Of course, this goes without saying, but please don't do what I did and purposefully endanger your item. I only did it once for testing purposes since I'm the first poster for it here and I will not do it again. So, impressions regarding that case: YES. GOOD.

While setting it up for my PC, I came to the first speed bump. This thing is not natively compatible with Windows. I just...what? I literally had to go to CEntrance's site, sign up with my email, get the link from that email which was in my spam, then download and run the .exe. But wait! There's more! I had to reboot my computer in order to for Windows 10 to actually recognize it. Thankfully, I have an SSD so it was quick and without hassle, but for those who don't have a SSD boot drive...yea, total pain in the ass.

What really irks me about it too is that it worked flawlessly with no modification on my Android phone. And from what they say, it's native on Mac OS and iOS too! So what gives? Well, low and behold, I boot up Windows and open up the Sound Control Panel. What do I see?



That's right, line output. This sucker does not have UAC. I soon figured that out when I decided to try on my PS4 and Switch nearby. And guess what? Didn't recognize it at all. I think for the asking price of $750, this is a little ridiculous. Why wouldn't you have native compatibility with the most popular home computer OS, much less not utilize UAC for those who use consoles? So, console gamers, you might wanna look at Schiit's or Creative's DAC/Amp offerings instead.

I was also disappointed to find that I couldn't lower the bitrate or sampling rate down to 24/48. Why that you ask? Why would that be a con? For me, that's the perfect rates since most audio rarely exceeds 24/48. Even the highest quality FLACs, such as those for Xenoblade Chronicles 2's OST I have in my library, only reach up to 24/48. In my tampering for the Modi 3, I found I preferred how it sounded under those settings versus the highest possible quality where I thought things didn't sound...right, for lack of better term.

Don't get me wrong though, I still love this thing, 100%! I just felt the need to get those annoyances/cons off my chest first. For the rest of this, expect me to sing this thing's praises.

During my testing, I utilized a combination of Hi-Res Qobuz streaming, 24/48 streaming over UPnP via Foobar2000, playing FLACs off Foobar on my PC, as well as watching movies and gaming on said PC. I tested both Bluetooth and USB connections. As for my usage, in comparison to my personal Magni 3+/Modi 3 stack on my PC...crap dude. Those AK4493s produce this level of clarity, fullness, and detail, that not even the 4490 of the Modi 3 could under the same bit depth and sampling rate of 32 bit/48 kHz.

During my A/B versus my Modi 3, I utilized Xenoblade 2's OST. The dual AKM 4493, as I say here, provides this level of clarity yet fullness and richness to the sound that made me fall in love with it when I demoed it at CanJam SoCal 2021. In comparison to the AKM 4490, it just has this level of detail and presentation that I think makes it a clear winner. The violins and acoustic guitars in the track "Torigoth Day" sound amazing, with the guitar's plucking being heard loud and clear. In "Monster Surprised You", this thing gives the cymbals a lifelike quality, and the orchestral segments gave me goosebumps while listening with my Dunu Falcon Pros.

Make no mistake, I'll be keeping my Modi 3 for a while, but let it be known that my Modius & Modi Multibit upgrades may come soon than I think!

It really began to shine when I took on Qobuz and listened to tracks like Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" (my personal favorite "litmus test" track), Michael Jackson's "Bad" album, and Sturgill Simpson's album "Sound and Fury". Much like when I first listened to Hybrid Theory on my Schiit stack for the first time in Christmas 2020, I found a new level of appreciation for the tracks. MJ's "Speed Demon" has this punchiness and attitude to the bassline I never experienced before, yet it was so detailed. Michael's forceful voice was more powerful than ever before, and his lower toned sections had this velvety texture to them. "Sound and Fury"? Oh, I understood every aspect of his bigger disco influence in that album.

In terms of power, it was able to drive most of my cans I own to audible volumes even on low gain through the lower powered ports on the "cool" side. Though of course to get at the volume I listen to, which is a bit on the louder side, I either had to swap to the "hot" port of the 1/4 inch jack on the other side while still on low gain, or set the gain switch to high, or in some cases, both hot and high gain. I have a feeling there won't be any issue driving high impedance headphones. I will update this once I get my 600 ohm DT 880's though to let you guys know if it can deal, since I think that headphone will be a great stress test.

Given that this thing has balanced, and my Dunu's came equipped with balanced connectors, this was also my first time utilizing balanced connection. With regard to this, I thought I heard something better there than in SE sometimes. But the more I intently listened and swapped, the more I realized I was wrong in that regard. Perhaps it's the fact that these are $220 valued IEMs (bought with showroom deal of $200). These are the most expensive headphones I own and I'm willing to bet that had I owned a pair of cans that costed $300+ or $1000+, it'd be a different story.

But as it stands, my impressions of balanced audio for headphones is that the only difference I found between it and SE is the amount of amplification power the ports gave me. You can hate me for this, I don't care, but I think I agree with my friend in finding it not worth it beyond the use case of either long cable runs or needing to drive inefficient cans on the go. I'll definitely be sticking with SE otherwise for all future gear.

The TL;DR; Final Thoughts

As a whole, I am very much satisfied with my purchase. Especially for a discount of $150 off from the showroom floor deal. I'm excited to finally have a portable DAC/Amp solution that I feel gives me everything I could have ever wanted and so much more. I swear, every thing I listen to on this, it just gives me goosebumps. The good kind!

It legit has me wanting to improve my desktop audio gear because otherwise it competes with my stack in a way that makes me feel like I can't ever go back. I think I can deal and hold out for the time being, but man would my Magni/Modi stack be jealous if they were living creatures.

Despite me loving this thing, I had to dock half a star for not using UAC1 nor being natively compatible with Windows. The former I can deal with. I got a Modi 3 and a J-Tech HDMI Audio Optical Extractor for console audio.

But the latter? No Windows native compatibility...for a modern DAC/Amp...that is $750?! I think that's quite frankly a little ridiculous, if not straight up unacceptable at this price. Had I not absolutely love everything else about this thing, I definitely would've taken off a full to 1.5 stars off the rating.

All that aside, if you're not a console gamer, this wholeheartedly gets my recommendation. I am a very happy camper after using this.



An Update

Well, unfortunately, this thing is getting docked another star from me. It seems this thing is not exactly drop-resistant. It may seem like a stupid reason to dock to you, but hear me out. I'm a bit of a klutz. My hands shake and sometimes they just drop things. I never intend to do so on purpose. I can count the amount of times I dropped this on two hands and it was never dropped on concrete.

Nor were any of the drops from some exceeding height. No, the worst drop is maybe some times I dropped it on hardwood flooring while my arm was down by my waist...yet it survived it just fine. Eventually one day, sitting on a chair and down it goes again and...the left channel is dead. This thing had survived just fine with not a single change before, even with headphones plugged in.

Worst of all the drop that killed it was by and large the smallest height drop this thing ever had. I don't know what exactly happened and neither was David from Centrance, but needless to say at $750, it's not encouraging to see him say "yea that might happen". I'm thankful that Centrance offers repairs at all even out of warranty, but not gonna lie I'm a little disappointed that a portable device as sturdily built as this, with pricing nearing that of a midrange Android phone, doesn't come with the same endurance as one. I've dropped my phone a lot and I've never had any problems with the USB C port.

At this point, I'm unsure whether I'll pay for the repair or try to find an alternate solution like a Dragonfly Red or not.