[ehjie]

A DAP priced dongle O.o

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...exp_id=8241cc6b-5ab3-4218-8513-860d9ae9c581-1

a bit on the exp. side, more exp. than W2...

 

[sanakimpro]

Hi friends,

I received my S1 recently and posted my impressions in main S1 thread. Let me know if you have any questions.

Very happy with the sound but having upgraditis and just wondering if I should get W2 just to try out given the 10% July 4th sale on Musicteck With Sennheiser IE800, the volume is 70 on high gain (SE) and volume is 50 on High for AKT8ie MK II (Bal) that it would hurt to push it louder.. so with this headroom, curious how the sound could get better than this for IEM, seriously?

Hoping Andy or others with both dongles can chime in

 

[ZigZagged]

I bought the CX31993 off of AliExpress (JieTu store), waiting on it now, hope it lives up to the positive reviews I've seen of it.

 

[povidlo]

Hi friends,

I received my S1 recently and posted my impressions in main S1 thread. Let me know if you have any questions.

Very happy with the sound but having upgraditis and just wondering if I should get W2 just to try out given the 10% July 4th sale on Musicteck With Sennheiser IE800, the volume is 70 on high gain (SE) and volume is 50 on High for AKT8ie MK II (Bal) that it would hurt to push it louder.. so with this headroom, curious how the sound could get better than this for IEM, seriously?

Hoping Andy or others with both dongles can chime in

There are numerous comparisons between the two in the dedicated threads, especially in the W2 one since it came out later:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lux...new-fw-available-update-info-on-post-1.949448
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lot...b-dac-amp-with-dual-3-5mm-4-4mm-output.932676

I have both. I don't think it's just about volume / power per say. They're both very musical sounding but W2 has much better technicalities in terms of detail-retrieval, instrument separation, soundstage depth, etc. S1 is much more smoother sounding.

While I find W2 superior technically, it really comes down to synergy and personal preference. S1 sounds great with laid-back, thin, bright, lean sounding gear as it adds a bit of warmth and thickness, while W2 works best with engaging, bassy, warm headgear as it cleans up the warmth and mudiness while remaining very enjoyable.

Btw, I hate how my Xelento, which is similar to your A&K IEM, sound with S1. W2 really pushes them to their capability. W2 has custom profiles for Xelento and IE800s so that might be interesting for you to try those profiles with your IEMs as well.

 

[boredbuyingstuff]

There are numerous comparisons between the two in the dedicated threads, especially in the W2 one since it came out later:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lux...new-fw-available-update-info-on-post-1.949448
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lot...b-dac-amp-with-dual-3-5mm-4-4mm-output.932676

I have both. I don't think it's just about volume / power per say. They're both very musical sounding but W2 has much better technicalities in terms of detail-retrieval, instrument separation, soundstage depth, etc. S1 is much more smoother sounding.

While I find W2 superior technically, it really comes down to synergy and personal preference. S1 sounds great with laid-back, thin, bright, lean sounding gear as it adds a bit of warmth and thickness, while W2 works best with engaging, bassy, warm headgear as it cleans up the warmth and mudiness while remaining very enjoyable.

Btw, I hate how my Xelento, which is similar to your A&K IEM, sound with S1. W2 really pushes them to their capability. W2 has custom profiles for Xelento and IE800s so that might be interesting for you to try those profiles with your IEMs as well.

Do you have a Hidizs S9 Pro or had the opportunity to test them and give your impressions on how it compares with the W2?

 

[supersesa]

Ill buy my first USB dongle, to use with my S21 and my Philips Fidelio X2HR.
I'm very ecletic. I listen to eletronic music (like Metronomy, Chemical Brothers, etc), alternative (Strokes, Gotan Project, Joy Division, etc), bossa nova (Tom Jobim, Bebel Gilberto), and jazz (Coltrane, Madeleine Peyrroux, etc).
Can someone please recommend me a USB dongle?
I was thinking in buying iBasso DC04 or Fiio BTR5, but I never used any of them.

 

[sanakimpro]

Hi povidlo,

Thanks for chiming in! Yes, I am also considering the W2 now given the July sales as local seller is giving a great price.

I agree with you; so far I love the S1 with IE800 as the synergy is great! Very smooth sound with plenty of details. However, I dislike the W2 + AKT8ie MK II pairing as it becomes very warm and loses a bit of details even on balanced.

Also, while I said I use 70 high gain for IE800 for pop music, it turns out I need to reach 90 high gain for high dynamic range classical playlist or Youtube videos with lower volumes. This gives me a reason to try the W2 as well

Do you end up using both or is the S1 sitting in the drawer now? Can the W2 drive mid-size cans like HD600? It was a definite no on the S1.

There are numerous comparisons between the two in the dedicated threads, especially in the W2 one since it came out later:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lux...new-fw-available-update-info-on-post-1.949448
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/lot...b-dac-amp-with-dual-3-5mm-4-4mm-output.932676

I have both. I don't think it's just about volume / power per say. They're both very musical sounding but W2 has much better technicalities in terms of detail-retrieval, instrument separation, soundstage depth, etc. S1 is much more smoother sounding.

While I find W2 superior technically, it really comes down to synergy and personal preference. S1 sounds great with laid-back, thin, bright, lean sounding gear as it adds a bit of warmth and thickness, while W2 works best with engaging, bassy, warm headgear as it cleans up the warmth and mudiness while remaining very enjoyable.

Btw, I hate how my Xelento, which is similar to your A&K IEM, sound with S1. W2 really pushes them to their capability. W2 has custom profiles for Xelento and IE800s so that might be interesting for you to try those profiles with your IEMs as well.

 

[povidlo]

Do you have a Hidizs S9 Pro or had the opportunity to test them and give your impressions on how it compares with the W2?

Unfortunatelly I have not heard S9 Pro.

Hi povidlo,

Thanks for chiming in! Yes, I am also considering the W2 now given the July sales as local seller is giving a great price.

I agree with you; so far I love the S1 with IE800 as the synergy is great! Very smooth sound with plenty of details. However, I dislike the W2 + AKT8ie MK II pairing as it becomes very warm and loses a bit of details even on balanced.

Also, while I said I use 70 high gain for IE800 for pop music, it turns out I need to reach 90 high gain for high dynamic range classical playlist or Youtube videos with lower volumes. This gives me a reason to try the W2 as well

Do you end up using both or is the S1 sitting in the drawer now? Can the W2 drive mid-size cans like HD600? It was a definite no on the S1.

It's not really a fair fight since W2 costs 2x more and uses 2x flagship Cirrus Logic dac chips vs. S1 that has an entry-level AK dac chip at half the cost.

S1 still manages to perform very well and features MQA support unlike W2. I still use it but significantly less after getting W2.

W2 can drive my HD6XX but I never use them together tbh, it will not drive them to what they're capable of through a more powerful set up.

 

[Vladimir 198]

I bought the CX31993 off of AliExpress (JieTu store), waiting on it now, hope it lives up to the positive reviews I've seen of it.

The sound really isn't bad, although I wouldn't rate it too highly. Lacks softness and physicality. But the worst is

the connecting cable. This destroys this device. Even with the most careful use, it is unlikely to last long. IMHO.

 

[ZigZagged]

The sound really isn't bad, although I wouldn't rate it too highly. Lacks softness and physicality. But the worst is the connecting cable. This destroys this device. Even with the most careful use, it is unlikely to last long. IMHO.

That's unfortuante, but they'll probably still be an improvement to whatever my Samsung A31 has though, I tried the Samsung dongle one of my friends uses with his phone and it was very nice. So I thought the CX-Pro would be good enough considering I don't really have an avenue of getting my hands on the Apple dongle.
Oh well.

 

[Vladimir 198]

ZigZagged​

O, sure. It sounds better than good. I'm just picking on the named champion a bit. And in comparison with the android audio path, it is simply magnificent. No comparison. I compared it with dacmagik xs v2, which I usually use. But the CX 31993 competes with it very well, although it loses a little in the naturalness of the sound, for my taste.

 

[sanakimpro]

Sorry, the thread is closed now?

 

[nhumdorn]

a bit on the exp. side, more exp. than W2...

Wow.. so expensive.. too expensive for the look of it.. perhap.