ONIX Alpha XI1 - Smallest & Most Affordable ONIX DAC - High-Power Portable USB DAC/AMP

[HiddenSquid]

Does Everyone getting these crackling problem?

 

[raymondlin]

Does Everyone getting these crackling problem?

I haven't heard any crackling, it's super clean.

 

[smegel]

I haven't heard any crackling, it's super clean.

The crackling issue is a tough one to nail down.
Only a couple of people here have reported it... (myself included.)
I found that it occurs when I listen on my macbook, up scaling it. But not on my iPhone.
And it happens only w a couple of songs. Not all music.

I had issues w my USB-C socket. And I just ended up going w gluing in a USB-C 4 cable... Now that problem went away but there are the occasional clicks/pops.
Not as bad as @Mortin and not all the time.

But then again... what do you expect from a $100.00 dongle?

 

[Lawnmower]

I got hold of an Onix Alpha the other day, and can't seem to get the DAC to go above 384kHz upsampling.. I'm hoping someone here may have some pointers. I doubt I could hear much/any difference between 384kHz and 768kHz, but I'd like to test to see.

The Alpha came with the latest firmware (which I don't need as I don't like Apple products), and have found and gotten hold of the earlier firmwares in case that turns out to be a recommendation.

I'm not particularly familiar with using DACs (I still can't shake thinking of them as external sound cards).. I have a few different pieces of equipment that have similarities (they too have DAC chips), and just assumed the Alpha would behave similarly, but with OTG capabilities, and that seems to ring true up to 384kHz.

Sources are a Win10 PC and a phone. The PC didn't see any change when installing the official driver - set in the device's settings in Windows, not trying to run as ASIO as far as I'm aware (would rather avoid ASIO-type drivers if I can). PowerAmp app on the phone can be set to 384kHz, but Eddict Player's even worse at max 192kHz.

I have no source material with that kind of sample rate, the best I have is 192kHz (but it's not on the phone yet). I use foobar as the PC player, but again, I don't want to enable ASIO if I can avoid it, which is why I haven't really tried looking into DSD playback via foobar. The PC is full modern hardware, the phone's aging, but I would've thought it'd cope fine (it's internal DAC is 384kHz). Unless using the computer to do solely one dedicated thing well (at the expense of everything else), kernel level stuff in Windows tends to bring me more headaches than it's worth.

Any comments/suggestions would be most appreciated!

EDIT: I've found others way back in July '24 making similar observations, and no one refuting them.. Perhaps the Alpha isn't actually up to spec? Can someone confirm they've had it running @ 768kHz and if so, on what transport, please?

General story and impressions that may assist others:
As my phone's starting to age, so is it's battery, and I want to make it last as long as I can. As such, grabbing a cable/adapter to allow external powering of the Alpha was the obvious solution. I wouldn't've even bought the Alpha if that wasn't possible; I've seen other DACs with separate power in ports and nearly pulled the trigger on one of those for that very reason, then I found the iBasso CB19 cable. Reading through this thread has certainly helped confirm my suspicion that external power would be preferable, but in practice it doesn't seem to need as much juice as I thought it would.

Initially (the first use/test session) I got a weird sound that I thought might be a single BA in the left IEM clipping - but only on certain tracks at specific times (I'm guessing a specific frequency was being hit, and there wasn't much else going on so it was noticeable and irritating). The issue was 100% repeatable. The Alpha became fairly hot to touch. I found turning the 4.4mm jack ever so slightly in the socket would cause audio to stop, or come back, sometimes it would sound thin as if half the data was missing. After unplugging and replugging a couple times all these issues disappeared. I must of spent 30mins trying to troubleshoot the weird single clipping BA sound before finally turning that jack - certainly didn't expect a jack to need 'burn in' or a bit of manhandling for it to make a proper connection. And now it makes a fine connection every single time, and the Alpha is barely warm to touch while running.

With the first USB cable I tried that didn't come in the box the PC would randomly reboot unexpectedly after a few mins of listening (no blue screen, just straight soft reboot without warning). After this happened 3 times I wasn't very impressed. The first thing I thought to do was swap the cable, and it's been fine ever since. I'm not unfamiliar with tech; I've even had a couple of IT jobs over the years. We get used to a rapid fire trial and error approach to troubleshooting. I can't enunciate why I first went to the USB cable as a possible cause for a PC reboot (completely bypassing the usual first step of cycling power), or even why it actually was the cause. The first cable I tried was overspec'd to handle the Alpha with ease. It was a fresh cable, perhaps it was cheap and not actually up to it's claimed spec.

The 3rd cable was a longer one that again should've been spec'd to handle the Alpha even with the length and the power drop that brings. I was experiencing mini/micro drop outs every few seconds, and they weren't consistent in their timing; as frequent as it was annoying. This was on a different port however, so I can't confirm there was enough power on the bus as there could've been other devices hanging off it - I didn't investigate that far. Adding the power up the line with the iBasso cable solved it.

If you're having troubles with the Alpha, try a different (hopefully better) cable and ensure it's sufficiently powered, cycle power, perhaps try jiggling things round a bit and allow a few hours for it to settle down.

Gotta say I'm impressed with the Alpha's performance; really enjoying what I'm hearing so far..

 

[UnderwaterB0i]

I just got my XI1 yesterday. Very preliminary testing, but I like it. Only headphone I've used so far is the Meze 109 Pro. They aren't particularly hard to drive, but more so than an IEM would be. I'm using low gain and NOS mode and have volume at about 45 using the 3.5mm output. Works seamlessly on my iPhone and Mac Mini, haven't tested on my DX180 yet, but that wasn't exactly the use case for it. I probably will get the Shanling USB-C to lightning OTG cable so I can use it on my older iPad.

I like that it's a pretty analog presentation. The 109 Pros, and how a lot of people perceive their elevated treble response, don't play well with overly analytical DAC/amps. This dongle is a good pairing with it. I'll put it through it's paces with my other headphones/IEMs throughout the day.

 

[smegel]

I just got my XI1 yesterday. Very preliminary testing, but I like it. Only headphone I've used so far is the Meze 109 Pro. They aren't particularly hard to drive, but more so than an IEM would be. I'm using low gain and NOS mode and have volume at about 45 using the 3.5mm output. Works seamlessly on my iPhone and Mac Mini, haven't tested on my DX180 yet, but that wasn't exactly the use case for it. I probably will get the Shanling USB-C to lightning OTG cable so I can use it on my older iPad.

I like that it's a pretty analog presentation. The 109 Pros, and how a lot of people perceive their elevated treble response, don't play well with overly analytical DAC/amps. This dongle is a good pairing with it. I'll put it through it's paces with my other headphones/IEMs throughout the day.

I'm not sure if you meant to say you're going to try the headphones against the DX180 or if you were planning on the Onix...which isn't possible.

On your Mac Mini... not sure how old it is... but if you have usb-c connectors. Open the MIDI app w the ONIX attached. You'll see it as a device.
If you click on it... you can increase or upscale the output to that device. On my Macbook Pro M1Max, I can upscale the output to the 768Hz/32bit limit of the Onix.

And I'd compare the Onix to the DX180. Honestly the Onix has a slight edge over the DX180 at least IMHO.
I'm house sitting at my sister's and while I brought both the DX180 and the Onix... I haven't broken out the DX180. Its more due to the fact that I'm on my laptop where I use the Onix as an output to my headphones... while the DX180 is when I'm out and about. However... most of the time I'm w my wife so I can't just put the headphones on and tune out. (You don't need to have been married 25yrs to realize its not a good idea.... )

 

[UnderwaterB0i]

I'm not sure if you meant to say you're going to try the headphones against the DX180 or if you were planning on the Onix...which isn't possible.

On your Mac Mini... not sure how old it is... but if you have usb-c connectors. Open the MIDI app w the ONIX attached. You'll see it as a device.
If you click on it... you can increase or upscale the output to that device. On my Macbook Pro M1Max, I can upscale the output to the 768Hz/32bit limit of the Onix.

And I'd compare the Onix to the DX180. Honestly the Onix has a slight edge over the DX180 at least IMHO.
I'm house sitting at my sister's and while I brought both the DX180 and the Onix... I haven't broken out the DX180. Its more due to the fact that I'm on my laptop where I use the Onix as an output to my headphones... while the DX180 is when I'm out and about. However... most of the time I'm w my wife so I can't just put the headphones on and tune out. (You don't need to have been married 25yrs to realize its not a good idea.... )

I don't like upscaling in MIDI like that. I use Qobuz and it changes the setting for the song I'm listening to. When I used Apple Music, I had a plugin installed that did the same. Are you saying the Onix won't work with the DX180? I just tried it and it won't automatically detect it, but I've used dongles with the DX180 in the past and it's worked just fine, not sure why this one wouldn't be any different. Generally my DX180 does two things for me: I exclusively stream, so I use it with Qobuz to keep stuff offline for the situations when I need a large selection downloaded for offline listening (flying), and for using PowerAmp for full PEQ. Like I mentioned, my main headphones are the 109 Pros, but I also have the Focal Clear OGs and the Sony XM4s and on both of those I prefer Oratory1990's EQ profile, especially the XM4s, and the DX180 allows me to listen to those with EQ that I can't do with my iPhone/iPad.

 

[smegel]

I don't like upscaling in MIDI like that. I use Qobuz and it changes the setting for the song I'm listening to. When I used Apple Music, I had a plugin installed that did the same. Are you saying the Onix won't work with the DX180? I just tried it and it won't automatically detect it, but I've used dongles with the DX180 in the past and it's worked just fine, not sure why this one wouldn't be any different. Generally my DX180 does two things for me: I exclusively stream, so I use it with Qobuz to keep stuff offline for the situations when I need a large selection downloaded for offline listening (flying), and for using PowerAmp for full PEQ. Like I mentioned, my main headphones are the 109 Pros, but I also have the Focal Clear OGs and the Sony XM4s and on both of those I prefer Oratory1990's EQ profile, especially the XM4s, and the DX180 allows me to listen to those with EQ that I can't do with my iPhone/iPad.

Ok… I never really thought about it…
And I don’t have my dx180 in front of me…
The output from the dx180 is 3.5 coax or as 3.5 or 4.4balanced. Headphone/line out.

Input is usb c.
Are you saying you can use the USB-c as output too?
You may need to use a split cable to get power from an external battery if you can use the usb-c as an output….

I’ll have to check that out.

 

[UnderwaterB0i]

Ok… I never really thought about it…
And I don’t have my dx180 in front of me…
The output from the dx180 is 3.5 coax or as 3.5 or 4.4balanced. Headphone/line out.

Input is usb c.
Are you saying you can use the USB-c as output too?
You may need to use a split cable to get power from an external battery if you can use the usb-c as an output….

I’ll have to check that out.

I used the iBasso DC Elite with it before with no issues. Not sure why the XI1 isn't being detected. Not a huge issue, since the DX180 does the exact same thing with the same ports and filter options, I just like to know what I can/can't use a device for.

 

[smegel]

I used the iBasso DC Elite with it before with no issues. Not sure why the XI1 isn't being detected. Not a huge issue, since the DX180 does the exact same thing with the same ports and filter options, I just like to know what I can/can't use a device for.

Ok....

Got it to work... Learned something new.
Had to bust my glued USB-C cable to do it though....

The issue is that the DX180 doesn't supply enough power thru the USB-C connection. This is a known problem and why the Alpha doesn't work with certain phones.
You need to use the iBasso cable that is split where you have a USB-A connector for power and then an USB-C for data both going into a USB-C that you plug into the dongle.

This bypasses the DAC of the DX180 and its only a source. You're getting line out. (So you need to make sure the Alpha's controls are set to manage the volume. (I set mine up to do prev/next track. )

So you end up w the DX180 as a music player, and then the dongle is your DAC. Kind of defeats the purpose even though it works.
You said you stream... so its like using your phone and then a dongle dac.

Here's my stack... the alpha, dx180 then my battery.

I'm going to go back and glue up my USB-C 4 cable... I like using it as a headphone jack on my desk.

 

[UnderwaterB0i]

Ok....

Got it to work... Learned something new.
Had to bust my glued USB-C cable to do it though....

The issue is that the DX180 doesn't supply enough power thru the USB-C connection. This is a known problem and why the Alpha doesn't work with certain phones.
You need to use the iBasso cable that is split where you have a USB-A connector for power and then an USB-C for data both going into a USB-C that you plug into the dongle.

This bypasses the DAC of the DX180 and its only a source. You're getting line out. (So you need to make sure the Alpha's controls are set to manage the volume. (I set mine up to do prev/next track. )

So you end up w the DX180 as a music player, and then the dongle is your DAC. Kind of defeats the purpose even though it works.
You said you stream... so its like using your phone and then a dongle dac.

Here's my stack... the alpha, dx180 then my battery.

I'm going to go back and glue up my USB-C 4 cable... I like using it as a headphone jack on my desk.

Ah, good to know, thanks. I had the CB19 but sold it with my DC Elite. Interesting because the DC Elite theoretically sounded better when using the CB19, but it worked without it just fine.

It definitely defeats the purpose of the DAP, unless you find the sound is significantly better on your dongle DAC and want to still listen to an offline library. Small use case.

 

[RIGATIO]

Thats why im using the Alpha and any other dongle like the Elite with a Samsung phone. Samsung delivers all the power a dongle needs and there is absolutely no difference between sound when connected to a PC or Samsung phone.

 

[Lawnmower]

Thats why im using the Alpha and any other dongle like the Elite with a Samsung phone. Samsung delivers all the power a dongle needs and there is absolutely no difference between sound when connected to a PC or Samsung phone.

Not all Samsung phones are created equally. Presumably you're talking about S series?
EDIT: There are reports further back in the thread of some A series not being up to the task..

 

[RIGATIO]

Not all Samsung phones are created equally. Presumably you're talking about S series?
EDIT: There are reports further back in the thread of some A series not being up to the task..

Yes im talking S series, sorry didnt know they differ in this aspect

 

[smegel]

Ah, good to know, thanks. I had the CB19 but sold it with my DC Elite. Interesting because the DC Elite theoretically sounded better when using the CB19, but it worked without it just fine.

It definitely defeats the purpose of the DAP, unless you find the sound is significantly better on your dongle DAC and want to still listen to an offline library. Small use case.

Yeah. If your music source provides more power... the better the sound from the dongle. People tend to forget that the USB-C is also the dongle's power supply (unless there's a battery in the dongle.

So the CB19 helps a bit.
My iPhone 15 does ok, but the music from the macbook pro sounds better plus I can up sample the music.

I prefer the Alpha's DAC to the DX180's DAC, but its really close.
I mean its not like the DX180's dac is bad at all. I love it too, but the Alpha ... at least for me... beats it by a smidge.
If I was just casually listening while out on a walk... I couldn't tell the difference. Still have to pay attention to the street traffic noise.

If you're planning on using the Alpha while walking around... the USB-C socket is going to take some abuse and the YTer Andy's recommendation to glue a cable in... makes a lot of sense.

The Alpha w the case is definitely money well spent.

Of course if you had the DC Elite... not sure why you sold it... that one got better reviews and because of the power issue... the Alpha has mixed reviews... when it works... it beats most everything else in its price range.