[Alan Billington]

I bought the Sparrow to be able to make use of my various balanced cables on IEMs while listening music from my phone, and I do enjoy the sound it produced very much.

Though, what has brought down my excitement somewhat is the constant electronic interference I get from my phone while using the Sparrow.

The original short braided cable that came with the Sparrow produced interference from the get-go, and based on the info in this thread I purchased the Oeaudio's oeotg cable. Unfortunately, I'm experiencing interference with the oeotg's cable as well, but not as much as with the original cable.

I contacted the company to get a replacement cable as per the instructions in this thread, because the company was kind enough to send it for free. Again, the lengthier replacement cable produced interference - while perhaps slightly less than the original cable, still more than the oeotg cable.

So, I'm left with only being able to use the Sparrow through my phone if I place it in airplane mode, which is not ideal since that means I'm not reachable on my phone when listening to music on it. Still, I do like the Sparrow so much that I'm willing to live with it for now. I suspect that my phone might be the culprit (Honor brand) and somehow especially incompatible with the Sparrow, so I hope when I upgrade my phone later this year that my problems will go away.

I've been thinking about making a Faraday pouch of some kind for the Sparrow or just wrapping it up in EMF shielding tape, but I haven't undertaken that effort yet since I'm hoping it's the phone that is causing the problem.

I've updated the firmware to the latest version, and my device was probably one of the earlier ones produced as I purchased it immediately after seeing a store in the EU having it in stock after launch.

TL;DR

The Sparrow is a great device when it comes to listening to music via the balanced output, but it does have a design flaw, which causes electronic interference when paired with certain devices regardless of the firmware version or the cables used.

Ditto for me. Numerous cables make little difference. I use the latest iPhone. As weird as it sounds I wonder if it’s weather related as my EMI has got a lot worse during the recent hot weather. Ironically I like the idea of your insulating pouch. As soon as I put the Sparrow in my hands the noise completely disappears. I also love it so much that I’m willing to make sacrifices like airplane mode

 

[SunnyHF]

Ditto for me. Numerous cables make little difference. I use the latest iPhone. As weird as it sounds I wonder if it’s weather related as my EMI has got a lot worse during the recent hot weather. Ironically I like the idea of your insulating pouch. As soon as I put the Sparrow in my hands the noise completely disappears. I also love it so much that I’m willing to make sacrifices like airplane mode

If I wrap my hand around the Sparrow it does mitigate the interference somewhat, but it doesn't remove it completely in my case.

I haven't noticed any discernible difference to the amount of interference with the change to the ambient temperature.

But again, I do enjoy the sound the Sparrow produces from my phone and it far exceeds the in-built DACs performance. While I appreciate a truly neutral AMP and DAC combo on my desktop setup with headphones - I think the Sparrow's forward emphasized and somewhat bloated sound signature works very well on IEMs on the go where there are ambient sounds to compete with.

 

[emilsoft]

The sparrow has a very interesting sound. After a long burn in I’ve been comparing it with my desktop systems and it holds its own unique take on musically. Best I can describe it is it’s zippy and bouncy sounding, but paired with nice smoothness, creamy mids and sparkly (but smooth non digital) highs and slightly funky plump bass. It’s has a special sauce that makes me keep grabbing it instead of my more expensive (and perhaps more neutral) kit. It’s an exciting lively listen - injecting more life in most of my iems, and thanks to its smoothness, funky bass and lack of digitus it’s not actually fatiguing. Its got a foot tapping and friendly sound quality that I rarely hear elsewhere.

Ultimately it doesn’t beat my Apogee Element which sounds larger and more analogue with deeper bass etc but I do find it slightly more musical and fun vs my Fiio m11 Plus even if it’s not as technically proficient.

This thing hands down offers the most sound quality vs size out there. I will suffer the interference issues just for the excellent sound quality

I look forward to seeing what else Earmen can pull off in the future - if they can retain similar form factor, up the sound quality even more a touch, introduce flexible dsp parametric eq (like the qudelix) they will destroy the competitions and become the gold standard of dongles

 

[Azonic]

Yeah I'm now at the point that I may ask for a refund.

I really dig the device itself (other than the fact we can't dim the LED), and for the size it produces some amazing sound but I've tried every cable I can find - short, long, shielded, unshielded with a number of headphones/iems and a number of phones/laptops in various USB-C ports and the EMI is just unbearable. The listening experience is 98% ruined by the constant loud clicks and ticks and takes everything away from the sound quality.

It's such a shame as I really really wanted to love this device but it drives me crazy.

I hope a V2 comes out with these interference issues fixed.

 

[Azonic]

Earmen said they will send a replacement out to me, hopefully this solves the issue but I have seen others here say they had the same issue with replacements so I'm not holding my breath! Fingers crossed though

 

[vsg28]

Earmen said they will send a replacement out to me, hopefully this solves the issue but I have seen others here say they had the same issue with replacements so I'm not holding my breath! Fingers crossed though

If it helps I didn't have any issues on my 4G phone and the stock cables from a recent production batch.

 

[IemLover]

If it helps I didn't have any issues on my 4G phone and the stock cables

Me too, i haven't any issues with my old phone (oneplus 5) and my Sparrow with stock cable. I am very happy with them...

 

[Azonic]

Glad to hear it!

 

[emilsoft]

I'm using Campfire Andromeda and the interference on balanced is unbearable.. this is including the stock usb-c cable.

Is there a new hardware batch (not cables) that has better shielding and fixes this issue I wonder. I'm thinking of returning my unit, I'm constantly battling the interference.

 

[Azonic]

I'm using Campfire Andromeda and the interference on balanced is unbearable.. this is including the stock usb-c cable.

Is there a new hardware batch (not cables) that has better shielding and fixes this issue I wonder. I'm thinking of returning my unit, I'm constantly battling the interference.

I asked Earmen they didn't really give me a straight answer, but they may replace your unit or send a different cable. Some people haven't had any EMI issues so perhaps they did fix the issue with a more recent hardware batch

 

[Anouk]

Hi everyone,
I just bought my earmen sparrow from a dutch dealer. Hopefully I will have it on friday. Tomorrow I will receive the balanced cable for my meze99.
Can anyone recommend a flexible lightning cable that I can use between my iphone se2020 and the sparrow?
I have the usb3 camera adapter kit but it is lumpy, short and inflexible.
Thanks in advance for any info, Really looking forward to trying out this new setup.
Greetings, Anouk,

 

[Anouk]

Hello,
My sparrow just arrived and I immediately tested it because I was a bit worried. But it works extremely well with my meze 99 (admittedly not a very hard to drive headphone) with the upgraded earpads and silver balanced cable). No clicks no channel imbalance.
I have to turn the volume up fairly loud but that might be due to the non stock earpads.
No distortion though.
It sounds better then my dragonfly red but now I can fully use apples high res so that comparison might not be entirely fair.
The only thing thatI might update in future is getting a dan clark audio noir headphone because its more compact and I am just really curious because I have never heard any of those before.
The included cables were satisfactory although a direct cable to use the dac/amp with the iphone would have been nice without having to use the camera adapter kit.
I am a happy customer.
Greetings, Anouk,

 

[Azonic]

Earmen said they will send a replacement out to me, hopefully this solves the issue but I have seen others here say they had the same issue with replacements so I'm not holding my breath! Fingers crossed though

Wanted to follow up on this, im very pleased to report that the replacement Sparrow has given me no EMI issues whatsoever so big thanks to Earmen for that.

 

[propolis12]

Dear Valued Customers,

We would like to inform all of the Sparrow users who have an issue with a USB C cable to contact us in order to receive a new cable replacement.
You would need to send the order number or any proof of purchase, as well as information about receiving the shipment to the following mail: sales@earmen.com .

Thank you.

EarMen LLC

Hello , will it be possible to get a replacement cable if I purchase sparrow from local retail shop ? Thanks

 

[Johnfg465vd]

So, I got my Sparrow today and immediately noticed clicking as soon as I started playing music. Clicking noise stops when I pause playback. I've tried 3 different USB Cables of varying length and different sources (Phones. PC...) and the problem persists. Very disappointed with the experience.

I listened to some tracks ignoring the clicking and found the sound quality to be "OK". It's on par or maybe slightly better than my LG G7 with the primary difference being slightly more power and a bit more refinement. Maybe I was expecting too much from this surprisingly small device, but If you already have an LG Phone, I'd recommend avoiding this device as an upgrade. Compared to other phones and my PC, the sound quality here is a excellent. For fun I tried comparing this to my Mojo & iDSD Signature and obviously they are much better sounding than the Sparrow. The Sparrow however is an upgrade when compared to my friend's BTR5.

Another small issue I've found is that I'm unable to get a precise volume adjustment unless I stick to USB Audio Player and it's 50 Volume step setting.