Smaller than I expected from photos. High quality materials, switches, and knobs throughout. I have 20-300ohm headphones in my collection and with the Lo/Hi gain switch this amp was a great fit with all of them. Even with my HD 600 (300ohm) I did not need to pass 11 o'clock on the volume dial with high gain. It can take power input from DC IN and use Micro USB for digital input at the same time (isolating power from the digital signal). So it can be used as a desktop or laptop sound card. It can also charge while in use with the single Micro USB input. Sound is a step up from on-board audio (Dell XPS 8700) for sure. But will not replace a middle to higher end full-size Hi-Fi desktop amp/dac. From my on-board audio it's more analytical and will reveal imperfections in recordings quite clearly. It does add a few DB to bass but other then that it's quite neutral. No hiss or hum is audible all the way up (very low noise floor). On bass heavy headphones like my DT 770 Pro 250ohm I found the bass boost a bit much, especially at high volumes. However, on my more neutral HD 600 the bass boost was quite pleasant. Either way you can adjust this through an equalizer to your liking. True plug and play on all my devices. Tested with the following:
-Windows 7, 8, 8.1
-Moto X 2013 with Android 4.4 Kitkat
-Moto G 1st gen with Android 5.0 Lolipop
-iPhone 6 Plus iOS 8
Seems the volume can't be changed on iOS 8, not sure about other versions. It's just fixed at max volume in the iPhone. Not a big deal since you can change it with the volume knob on the amp. In all Windows tests it pulls the driver from Windows Update with no problems. Android just works. Upgraded the firmware to latest version 1.24 without a problem. I can't comment on battery life as of yet. Tested the TEAC Hi-Fi app on Windows. It's got great sound but lacks alot of features. Particularly no EQ and lacks importing universal playlist files like m3u. Foobar200 has identical sound with way more features.
In Canada this is hard to find under $300. That being said it's not the best value for improving sound quality for a desktop setup. At $300 or so you can get a much better desktop amp/dac. But if you don't have enough right now for a desktop and mobile setup, this will still improve audio from desktops too. But if you already have an aftermarket sound card or very high end motherboard it likely wont improve anything outside of adding a bit of power through the amp. Highly recommended as a mobile amp/dac, but I would not pay more than $250 for it.
-Windows 7, 8, 8.1
-Moto X 2013 with Android 4.4 Kitkat
-Moto G 1st gen with Android 5.0 Lolipop
-iPhone 6 Plus iOS 8
Seems the volume can't be changed on iOS 8, not sure about other versions. It's just fixed at max volume in the iPhone. Not a big deal since you can change it with the volume knob on the amp. In all Windows tests it pulls the driver from Windows Update with no problems. Android just works. Upgraded the firmware to latest version 1.24 without a problem. I can't comment on battery life as of yet. Tested the TEAC Hi-Fi app on Windows. It's got great sound but lacks alot of features. Particularly no EQ and lacks importing universal playlist files like m3u. Foobar200 has identical sound with way more features.
In Canada this is hard to find under $300. That being said it's not the best value for improving sound quality for a desktop setup. At $300 or so you can get a much better desktop amp/dac. But if you don't have enough right now for a desktop and mobile setup, this will still improve audio from desktops too. But if you already have an aftermarket sound card or very high end motherboard it likely wont improve anything outside of adding a bit of power through the amp. Highly recommended as a mobile amp/dac, but I would not pay more than $250 for it.