[HiFiGuy528]

I've had some time with this unit and I thought I'd share with you my thoughts and show you in a video.  Hope you guys like it.
 

 

[Audiophilehi]

Thanks for the review!!!

 

[Mauricio]

How loudly generally does it drive 250-ohm cans?

 

[fabio-fi]

Looks like a nice portable solution. How does it compare to similar priced dacs? 

 

[Mauricio]

More to the point, how does it compare to the Audinst HUD-MX1 ($179) and the Audiotrak Cube Prodigy ($99)?

 

[HiFiGuy528]

I don't have those units to compare it to. Sorry.

 

[mikeaj]

How loudly generally does it drive 250-ohm cans?

The website claims 2V rms output, with 10 ohms output impedance on the headphone jack. It's USB powered after all. Most likely that's probably somewhat similar to the Audiotrak Cube Prodigy and certainly less powerful than the Audinst HUD-MX1.
http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-D1#tech-stuff

It would be nice to confirm this though, and it only takes about a minute and a $5 multimeter to do so (well slightly more time and effort to confirm the output impedance).

 

[HiFiGuy528]

Do I have to open it to measure the impedance?

 

[Mauricio]

I would expect the Audinst HUD-MX1 to put out more juice to the headphones once it is plugged in.  Its A/C power supply is 12-15 volts, after all.

 

[mikeaj]

Do I have to open it to measure the impedance?

No, you don't need to open it up. I don't expect you (well you in particular...it's easy and it would be helpful for everybody to include this info) to do this, but for reference:

1. To measure max output:
Plug in a 3.5mm cable to the output to make it easier, turn all volume to 100% and play a 0 dBFS (max volume) 60 Hz sine wave. Most cheap multimeters, even the $5 ones, usually have little issues with measuring 60Hz stuff. You can make a 60 Hz tone and play it back in something like Audacity, a free program. Measure the voltage between the left (or right) side and ground. On a normal audio jack, the tip is L, the ring is R, and the sleeve is ground.

2. To measure output impedance:
Play back a 60 Hz tone and measure the level. Now plug the output into a splitter for convenience: you want to connect one side to a resistor or maybe just headphones with known impedance, and you'll use the other side to probe for the measurement. If you use headphones, make sure the volume is not set way too high for them—for example, don't feed 2V into IEMs, or you could damage them. Play back the same tone (without adjusting the output level) and measure what it is again. The second reading should be lower. Knowing the load (resistor or headphones impedance at the test frequency), you can use some trivial algebra to calculate the source output impedance. Or just post the two voltage readings and the load used, and somebody else can do that trivial calculation.

But Audioengine lists these things, so it's probably close enough to being true. A lot of products don't list these very basic parameters, for whatever reasons.

 

[Earwicker]

Nice review.
 
This thing's pretty good, PROVIDED you just plug it in to the computer's USB socket and leave it alone. Try using it with the optical input and a wall wart, and bit perfect solutions like ASIO or WASAPI and you'll quickly discover that this fine sounding DAC has an Achilles' heel: its firmware is absolutely dire. The drivers are internal, so I presume there's no way of upgrading it either.
 
The trouble is, because the driver is internal, you can't tell the DAC what it should be doing, so if it gets it wrong - which it frequently does - there's no way of sorting it out. For example, I want to listen to a ripped CD using Foobar and ASIO4ALL (which seems to be more stable than WASAPI). On my Windows 7 x64 PC, it usually detects the optical in and works first time, but sometimes I have to switch it off and on to get it to work. Irritating but never mind. Then, let's say I want to watch a YouTube vid like yours posted here. I close Foobar, and press play on YouTube. No sound. Switch off and on again and we're in business.
 
I have a Windows XP machine upstairs. I tried using the optical out from my Essence STX, so we have Foobar==>ASIO4ALL==>Essence==>Toslink==>D1. Nah. Won't have it at all. 
 
So, if you're happy to just have everything going through the windows mixer with sample rate conversion to 48, and you just want to plug it in to the computer's USB and leave it alone, then you'll be fine. If you want to do ANYTHING else with it, it'll drive you round the bend!
 
That said, when it's working properly it sounds fantastic. It really needed configurable drivers installable on the computer; the internal ones are crap, and are too easily fooled.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

Quote:

Nice review.
 
This thing's pretty good, PROVIDED you just plug it in to the computer's USB socket and leave it alone. Try using it with the optical input and a wall wart, and bit perfect solutions like ASIO or WASAPI and you'll quickly discover that this fine sounding DAC has an Achilles' heel: its firmware is absolutely dire. The drivers are internal, so I presume there's no way of upgrading it either.
 
The trouble is, because the driver is internal, you can't tell the DAC what it should be doing, so if it gets it wrong - which it frequently does - there's no way of sorting it out. For example, I want to listen to a ripped CD using Foobar and ASIO4ALL (which seems to be more stable than WASAPI). On my Windows 7 x64 PC, it usually detects the optical in and works first time, but sometimes I have to switch it off and on to get it to work. Irritating but never mind. Then, let's say I want to watch a YouTube vid like yours posted here. I close Foobar, and press play on YouTube. No sound. Switch off and on again and we're in business.
 
I have a Windows XP machine upstairs. I tried using the optical out from my Essence STX, so we have Foobar==>ASIO4ALL==>Essence==>Toslink==>D1. Nah. Won't have it at all. 
 
So, if you're happy to just have everything going through the windows mixer with sample rate conversion to 48, and you just want to plug it in to the computer's USB and leave it alone, then you'll be fine. If you want to do ANYTHING else with it, it'll drive you round the bend!
 
That said, when it's working properly it sounds fantastic. It really needed configurable drivers installable on the computer; the internal ones are crap, and are too easily fooled.

 
Great comments on Windows OS.  Thank you!

 

[Earwicker]

... Oh and it does its no sound thing after a period of idling too (using the optical in) and has to be switched off and on again. Blimey, Audioengine, have you ever heard of testing??

 

[KT66]

thanks -listening to it now via my D1 and SR60s