It's as simple as it gets - a dongle that will take your digital signal from USB-C and turn it into analogue on it's 3.5 mm output, and it suppose to do that better than integrated smartphone DAC. Conveniently, there is an USB-A to USB-C adapter in the box so you can hook it up to almost anything. I tried it on several smartphones and it worked like a peach. I ended up using HibyMucis player for android because it was able to take direct control over the DAC and feed it with a bit-perfect signal. I haven't try it on my PC because my Win 10 is 1607 version and this DAC is supported only on 1703 or newer.
Look and feel - It's very compact and if I didn't know there's a Cirrus Logic DAC inside I would have easily mistaken it for a passive $2 adapter. Build quality looks good and cable is bandy and practical. When working it heats a bit at its USB side which contains DAC inside, but it's quite moderately because it doesn't consume much energy, just around 50 mA. I used it often on my Mi 8 lite with moderately strong battery and I never noticed big battery drains or something like that.
Sound Quality - is very decent. First thing I noticed is it has significantly more power than any phone I hooked it up to. It's louder than my already quite loud Xiaomi Mi 8 lite and easily more than twice louder than Sony Xperia Z3. Next thing is the quality itself, it's not spectacular but rather very decent. Bass is warm and punchy but also has good speed which is great, mids and highs are very clear but mids lack some body which puts them on the lean and analytical side of things. Sound-stage and instrument separation are quite nice too. Put all of that together and it should be a nice improvement over most budget phones, tablets and laptops. But if you have some flagship model renown for its audio quality this might not bring the improvement you wanted. For example, I tried it on:
Samsung J7 2018, Huawei Y7 2019 - quite significant improvement in sound quality, wort every penny.
Xiaomi Mi8 lite - moderate improvement, deeper bass and more details but more recessed mids.
Xiaomi Mi 5 - no improvement in the sound quality, just slightly colder and leaner signature compared to warmer on Mi 5. But it's clearly louder and more suitable for power hungry cans.
Headphones I tried with it: AKG K92, Takstar Pro 82, Sennheiser CX300-II, SoundMAGIC E10, KZ ZSN
It has enough power to drive both AKGs and Takstars to very loud level and with very decent punch which is great. For some reason it did't click with AKG sound signature that well but it is a very good match for Takstar Pro 82 and I really like listening this combo - it produces precise and spacious sound.
Conclusion - don't expect it to sound at the level of a good desktop product (I compared it with some), it has it's character (analytical sounding), but for just $30 I think it's a great, compact and fuss-less way of making any underwhelming smartphone, tablet or laptop into a very decent and sufficiently loud audio player.
And here is my video review too
Look and feel - It's very compact and if I didn't know there's a Cirrus Logic DAC inside I would have easily mistaken it for a passive $2 adapter. Build quality looks good and cable is bandy and practical. When working it heats a bit at its USB side which contains DAC inside, but it's quite moderately because it doesn't consume much energy, just around 50 mA. I used it often on my Mi 8 lite with moderately strong battery and I never noticed big battery drains or something like that.
Sound Quality - is very decent. First thing I noticed is it has significantly more power than any phone I hooked it up to. It's louder than my already quite loud Xiaomi Mi 8 lite and easily more than twice louder than Sony Xperia Z3. Next thing is the quality itself, it's not spectacular but rather very decent. Bass is warm and punchy but also has good speed which is great, mids and highs are very clear but mids lack some body which puts them on the lean and analytical side of things. Sound-stage and instrument separation are quite nice too. Put all of that together and it should be a nice improvement over most budget phones, tablets and laptops. But if you have some flagship model renown for its audio quality this might not bring the improvement you wanted. For example, I tried it on:
Samsung J7 2018, Huawei Y7 2019 - quite significant improvement in sound quality, wort every penny.
Xiaomi Mi8 lite - moderate improvement, deeper bass and more details but more recessed mids.
Xiaomi Mi 5 - no improvement in the sound quality, just slightly colder and leaner signature compared to warmer on Mi 5. But it's clearly louder and more suitable for power hungry cans.
Headphones I tried with it: AKG K92, Takstar Pro 82, Sennheiser CX300-II, SoundMAGIC E10, KZ ZSN
It has enough power to drive both AKGs and Takstars to very loud level and with very decent punch which is great. For some reason it did't click with AKG sound signature that well but it is a very good match for Takstar Pro 82 and I really like listening this combo - it produces precise and spacious sound.
Conclusion - don't expect it to sound at the level of a good desktop product (I compared it with some), it has it's character (analytical sounding), but for just $30 I think it's a great, compact and fuss-less way of making any underwhelming smartphone, tablet or laptop into a very decent and sufficiently loud audio player.
And here is my video review too