Thank you for an excellent review!

Thanks for the review. I completely agree with your assessment! I own (or have owned) several dongle DACs and this one is by far my favorite. Clean, powerful, and musical with just about any earphones/headphones.

Yet another top-notch quality review by the king of dongles!

That 9281 DAC is v good. Same one is in the Shanling M3x in a dual config, dialed in nicely. Very potent performance

yup2, I definitely agree with your assessment and I'm glad that I'm not the only one that perceives it since I posted a few on their Questyle thread, and in my opinion, the M15 is slightly better than Cayin Ru6 in terms of details yet Cayin Ru6 still holds the title of the best analog-sounding. Moreover, M15 is the epitome of what the word "implementation" means.

Thanks Andy for the write up, in terms of sound how it is compared to LP W2 (original version) ?

@chaotic_angel Thanks. Simply put, I am not impressed with W2. It lacks actual power and does seem to only shine better with an already very efficient partners, subject it to anything a bit more demanding and W2 pales to many other dongles I own. And it gets worse on the 3.5mm Se side. Besides, something like xDuoo Link2 BAL or even M12 offers better dynamic density and richness, just my 2 cents

this is just great! I cannot wait for mine to arrive

Hi Andy, thx for the review
I have E1DA 9038S G3. Is it worth to upgrade from it to M15?
I am looking for meatier, smoother sounding mobile dac/amp that matches well with the Etymotic Evo. Would you suggest the M15 or anything else? thx

@Lacas Absolutely, M15 is an upgrade over E1DA 9038 SG3

I currently have the apogee groove. I find it’s amplifier section to be great with moderate sensitivity high impedance headphones like hd800, so much that I prefer the groove over many desktop amps. But with low sensitivity cans that need higher current, the groove shows it’s limitations compared to desktop amps (still good enough as a portable). Do you think the m15 is better in this aspect?

Also I felt that the digital interpolator on the groove to be not natural sounding and I generally override it by using custom interpolator before feeding the dac. I guess with the filter choices and Mqa option (I wish it were a full decoder instead of just a renderer though), it’ll be easier to choose my favoured style with the m15.

How would you compare the M15 to the Link2 BAL?

@RPJ12 M15 is slightly a better unit than Link2 BAL except for Soundstage width and outright max power. M15 will also be a bit more resolving with Micro Details and imaging. But we are comparing two of the few best dongles for 2022 here, both already well above the rest in the playing field

Excellent write up! I'm deciding between this, the Link2 Bal and the MoonRiver 2, so I was wondering how you would compare them!

@LudwigVonMises If I have to choose only one from the three you mentioned, I am more partial to choose M15. Link2 BAL comes very close, so does MoonRiver 2. You must remember that all 3 are already excellent Dongle DAC/Amps and we are talking about small differences that separates them

Excellent analysis...

How would you compare to Ve Megatron?

@Carroamaro The most evident difference between Megatron and M15 is that Megatron will exhibit audible floor noises for any pairing with sensitive IEMs. Sound wise they are pretty much similarly tuned to be neutral and organic. Megatron obviously have upper hand with outright power. Technically however I think M15 is more resolving, probably the most resolving dongle I have tried of over 122 units...

Hello Andy, would you recommend the questyle m15 to pair with audiosense dt600? Audiosense dt600 is a 6BA setup with a U shaped sound signature. If not what other dongles would you recommend because dt600 is known to be sensitive and source picky. Thank you.