[ifrK]

Hi! I'm a newbie to hi-fi world and I use IEMs as my primary gear to listen to my music from my smartphone and laptop.
I choose Audiolab M-DAC Nano as my first DAC/AMP because it has great review in several review sites and because of its wireless Bluetooth connection. But later I find that this product is rarely discussed in this forum. Nor I cannot find any user review and comparison with other DAC products in this /other in other forums.
IMO the sound of the Nano is clean and sweet, almost no jitter, but I experience some short screeching sound/distortion due to unstable Bluetooth connection to my smartphone. Now I'm considering to upgrade it to Audioquest dragonfly Cobalt or Chort Mojo.

Can anyone give advise/recommendation, do I really need to upgrade my Audiolab M-DAC Nano? will it significantly improve the sound quality? is it worth it?

Thanks in advance for the advice

 

[baskingshark]

Hi! I'm a newbie to hi-fi world and I use IEMs as my primary gear to listen to my music from my smartphone and laptop.
I choose Audiolab M-DAC Nano as my first DAC/AMP because it has great review in several review sites and because of its wireless Bluetooth connection. But later I find that this product is rarely discussed in this forum. Nor I cannot find any user review and comparison with other DAC products in this /other in other forums.
IMO the sound of the Nano is clean and sweet, almost no jitter, but I experience some short screeching sound/distortion due to unstable Bluetooth connection to my smartphone. Now I'm considering to upgrade it to Audioquest dragonfly Cobalt or Chort Mojo.

Can anyone give advise/recommendation, do I really need to upgrade my Audiolab M-DAC Nano? will it significantly improve the sound quality? is it worth it?

Thanks in advance for the advice

I would recommend a cheap and good USB DAC/AMP called the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro. It is sub $40 and it is small, yet gives almost as good performance as my desktop setup. It makes details, dynamics and soundstage better than from just a smartphone/laptop. It can't drive high powered headphones, but for most IEMs it is adequate. I wrote a small review on it here: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/tempotec-sonata-hd-pro.24181/reviews#item-review-23794

It doesn't have bluetooth, but is just simple plug and play into the laptop/smartphone, just buy the android or apple compatible version depending on your phone, and u will need to go to the desktop/phone to enable a higher bit rate for music and u are good to go.

The Hidizs S8 is actually the same internally as the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro, just that the Sonata HD Pro is an OEM version of it at half the price. Audioscience review is quite impressed by it: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dizs-s8-usb-c-headphone-adapter-review.10823/

You can check out Audioscience review for objective measurements on most of the current DACs. Here's a table of comparisons:

The Hidizs S8 (Tempotec Sonata HD Pro) measures in the best zone (blue), whereas the chord mojo measures in the green zone (one tier down).

Though at the end of the day, measurements as above may not correlate with what we're able to hear. And personally, I find that u get more returns by upgrading the transducer (ie IEM or headphone) rather than by upgrading the DAC/AMP, but YMMV and the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro does make a difference in my sound quality for cheap, so I'm very happy with it.

Good luck in your search friend! Hope the others can advise too!

 

[Raketen]

I was going to suggest trying the M-DAC over USB instead of bluetooth but it looks like you found the one bluetooth gadget that doesn't have usb port much less usb dac mode (at least the ones I am familiar with like es100 and btr3k usually have both capabilies).

Have you tried the M-DAC with someone else's smartphone? It's possible the issue you are having with the screeching sound is due to the phone and not the device? "screetching" could be RF/EM interference as well (could try disabling your phones mobile data and wifi and see if you still have issues)

IMO once you have found good baseline sound quality the "improvements" tend become more difficult to spot- and a lot of times it has more to do with how your headphones and device interact than with the devicve itself being better or worse.

Probably the biggest improvement you could get would be using USB instead of bluetooth (although usb devices can still be subject to interference noises), bluetooth can be pretty acceptable for a lot of situations (a smaller improvement might be found using aptxhd or ldac devices if your phone is compatible). IMO the most important thing is to find something that is compatible with your headphones and fits in comfortably with how you spend your time listening (for instance I can be content with just my phone probably 80% of the time I listen to music etc...).

 

[ifrK]

Thanks guys!
@Raketen Yes after I see your reply I did some experiment with my M-DAC nano today, and I think the problem is caused by RF or EM that interfere the Bluetooth transmitter in my smartphone, because the interference become intense when my smartphone is busy (receiving mail/message, syncing, etc) and moving my M-DAC nano far from the smartphone did not solve the problem, while the problem is almost not occur when I connect the m-dac nano to my laptop. Too bad, the Nano is very portable for outdoor use.

@baskingshark Very attractive product the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro. I also found that it also have good user review in my local e-commerce. Definitely want to try.

I'm planning to use M-DAC Nano for my laptop and buy the Sonata HD Pro for my smartphone.

Again, many thanks guys for the advise!

 

[surfgeorge]

For what it's worth, I have both the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro and the CHORD Mojo.
I love the Mojo and consider it one of the best purchases on my journey to audio fulfillment, but I needed a small and portable solution to listen to music with the iPhone XR which doesn't have a 3,5mm output any more, so after some research I got the Sonata Pro. It's quite good and also well designed. It adapts to the impedance of the connected IEM and sounds clean, clear and smooth enough to enjoy music without missing the Mojo too much.
Value and convenience is high with the Sonata, value with the Mojo is also high but it's bigger and a bit quirky (battery treatment, micro-USB input).
I didn't have any hiss with either one, but my IEMs are not the most sensitive ones.

 

[buke9]

For what it's worth, I have both the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro and the CHORD Mojo.
I love the Mojo and consider it one of the best purchases on my journey to audio fulfillment, but I needed a small and portable solution to listen to music with the iPhone XR which doesn't have a 3,5mm output any more, so after some research I got the Sonata Pro. It's quite good and also well designed. It adapts to the impedance of the connected IEM and sounds clean, clear and smooth enough to enjoy music without missing the Mojo too much.
Value and convenience is high with the Sonata, value with the Mojo is also high but it's bigger and a bit quirky (battery treatment, micro-USB input).
I didn't have any hiss with either one, but my IEMs are not the most sensitive ones.

But do you think the Mojo sounds better ?

 

[surfgeorge]

But do you think the Mojo sounds better ?

Yes, there is no doubt that the Mojo sounds better.
The Sonata is fine but can't touch the natural, dynamic, detailed and expansive sound of the Mojo.
The Mojo sounds best with live recordings of complex music, like classical orchestra or Jazz.
When I switch from the Mojo to the Sonata the music feels restricted and compressed, it's really funny, I feel that physically in my body.
But it's still clean, tight and not too artificial. Certainly good for $45.

But generally the difference between DACs is something that is in some way subtle and in another way absolutely fundamental.
Some people don't hear a significant difference, for others, like me, a good DAC is at least as important as a good headphone/IEM.
You can only try and see how it's for you. Take time, listen with one DAC for a while, then switch and pay attention how the music touches you rather than analyzing it.

 

[ifrK]

@

I would recommend a cheap and good USB DAC/AMP called the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro. It is sub $40 and it is small, yet gives almost as good performance as my desktop setup. It makes details, dynamics and soundstage better than from just a smartphone/laptop. It can't drive high powered headphones, but for most IEMs it is adequate. I wrote a small review on it here: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/tempotec-sonata-hd-pro.24181/reviews#item-review-23794

It doesn't have bluetooth, but is just simple plug and play into the laptop/smartphone, just buy the android or apple compatible version depending on your phone, and u will need to go to the desktop/phone to enable a higher bit rate for music and u are good to go.

The Hidizs S8 is actually the same internally as the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro, just that the Sonata HD Pro is an OEM version of it at half the price. Audioscience review is quite impressed by it: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dizs-s8-usb-c-headphone-adapter-review.10823/

You can check out Audioscience review for objective measurements on most of the current DACs. Here's a table of comparisons:


The Hidizs S8 (Tempotec Sonata HD Pro) measures in the best zone (blue), whereas the chord mojo measures in the green zone (one tier down).

Though at the end of the day, measurements as above may not correlate with what we're able to hear. And personally, I find that u get more returns by upgrading the transducer (ie IEM or headphone) rather than by upgrading the DAC/AMP, but YMMV and the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro does make a difference in my sound quality for cheap, so I'm very happy with it.

Good luck in your search friend! Hope the others can advise too!

My Tempotec Sonata HD Pro just arrived. I try it with my laptop, as my smartphone still using microUSB, and the connector is still in delivery. First impression is good, nice build, the sound is really clean, no hiss at all, and have more silent (or blacker) background than my M-DAC nano in first impression IMO, maybe I'm biased, but IMO the blacker background boost my EIM capability to more reveal the clean detail in several "crowded" and "quiet" track in my playlist, again maybe I'm biased, but again first impression is good. My unexperienced ear cannot, yet, really feel other detail impact on the IEM sounding, tonality, or soundstage, but so far I really like it, especially because it is only $40! (yes, with this I can save the money for better IEM/headphone) no need to think twice to buy it. @baskingshark nice recommendation!

 

[F208Frank]

From my own personal biased opinion, no matter how much of the chain I upgraded with my IEMs, the very end results despite being better did not yield enough of a result for me to deal with bringing around an extra device.

Perhaps I expected too much from the results of scaling up headphones that are full sized.

Once again this is just a biased opinion.

I now just use my IEM's straight out of the phone and keep them as a portable option last resort option, full size headphones for me all the way. Though I do recognize some people travel and are on the go much more than I am so for them it will be different. IEMs do give a very intimate personal touch to the music that I do like. U18T user here from 64 Audio.

Peace!