Your review is mostly on point but there’re some conflicting information. The ONIX Alpha is a very clean sounding dongle. There’s no distortion or bad feedback from the Alpha. It has a clean sound with a dark background. I don’t understand how you can say it’s not clean unless you received a faulty unit. Now there’s some light coloration to the sound and leans in the warm side of neutral. Maybe that’s what you’re referring to but that has nothing to do with clean power.
ONIX Alpha XI1 - Smallest & Most Affordable ONIX DAC - High-Power Portable USB DAC/AMP
- Thread starter Shanling
- Start date
Same here.
Ordered on the 17th of June and no news, one month later.
Before blaming a defective dongle dac, there are some external factors that would impact the sound.
1) The source.
Not all phones, or PCs are made the same.
The quality of the components as well as the design of the MB can
2) The cable.
Quality and length can impact performance. This doesn't mean going out and buying snake oil priced 'audio grade' USB cables, but buying good quality cables from reputable brands and stores.
3) Your listening device. Not all IEMs are equal.
4) The environment.
While this is less of an issue, it could be a factor so you should consider it.
To give you an example...
Not specific to Onix...
I tried this w both my M&D MW65s using the cable ... and my DITA Project Ms.
I have a macbook pro, and a desktop port extender that connects to the macbook via a 10Gb/s USB-C cable.
On the macbook, I used both the Apple USB-C dongle, and the 3.5mm port. No noise, no issues. (Unless I am also charging my MW&65s from the Mac.)
On the port extender, both the USB-C and the 3.5mm port had noise. (Really bad on the 3.5mm port.)
This led me to think about the hardware inside the devices and the amount of noise/leakage that can occur.
I think you need to test over time, and w multiple devices.
I don't disagree w your opinion, but have to question it.
Clearly if you're not using a certain set of hardware (phone/computer) as a source... along w a good USB-C cable... YMMV.
vandung2510
100+ Head-Fier
Hmmm. Well, in the grand (like really grand) scheme of things, from the worst dac/amp all the way to the best dac/amp imagineable, then the Onix Alpha is a clean sounding dongle.
"There's no distortion or bad feedback from the Alpha" - I agree.
"It has a clean sound with a dark back ground" - I agree on the back ground thing, i'll get back to the clean part later.
"Now there’s some light coloration to the sound and leans in the warm side of neutral." - There it is.
I'm not the best reviewer out there, but i like doing review. So when i do review, i wanna dive deep into what the gear sounds like, and in the process of describing the sound, i may have blown things out of proportion, or exaggerated a lot of things.
To "normal" (as in not familiar with the hobby) people's ear, the Alpha and DC07 Pro both will be an exceptional dac/amp. The differences would be small to a lot of them.
But since i am reviewing it, i have to make the "small" differences bigger, exaggerated it.
So like i said, in the grand scheme of things, it's a clear sounding dongle. But in comparison with other iem and dissecting the differences, the Alpha IS the "less clean" sounding dongle vs the DC07 Pro. The differences is small, but it is what it is.
As a reference point, look at how reviewer reviewing cables. The differences between cables is really small, definitely way smaller than DAC/Amp, yet some people dedicated pages on describing the differences between, yk what i mean?
You’re not wrong, obviously there could be numerous things that contribute to not getting a “clean” sound such as a source and etc. However saying the Alpha itself doesn’t have “clean” sound is misleading and not a true statement.
That's my point.
Now I don't have the Alpha. (I need to contact the US distributor )
So I was talking about the factors that can impact the perceived sound from the DAC rather than condemn the DAC itself.
From all of the reviews where they tested the Alpha w an Apple product... no issues reported.
I'm not really worried about battery charge on my iPhone (15 Pro Max) because currently I can go ~3+ days between charging where my old iPhone X had to be charged every night.
Overall your review is accurate and I encourage you to keep sharing your experiences. I 100% agree with the Pro’s in your review with the only caveat on the cons of not being “clean” but it seems this is a vocabulary description problem. Just because something might have a colored sound or warm leaning it doesn’t mean that it isn’t clean sounding. The other thing is your scale of “analog to hifi” which is something I never seen before. Just because something sounds analog it doesn’t mean that it isn’t hifi. I suggest in the future wording it analog to digital scale or analog to analytical scale. Great job and overall I agree with your findings. It’s appreciated taking the time to share your experiences with the community. This helps people make a more educated decision when deciding if a product is worth buying.
jsmiller58
Headphoneus Supremus
I agree with your assessment that “There it is”, but maybe I mean something else. You are noting your preference, while others may actually prefer a warmer sound signature (I am in that camp).
vandung2510
100+ Head-Fier
I'm incline to think you're right regarding the word "not clean" being used wrongly here, but oh well, i got my points accross anyway.
Also, i put this spoiler in my review:
I’d just like to first explain my stance on the so-called “Timbre signature”, whether it’s on a more analog side, or whether it’s on a more digital or hifi side. On the grand scheme of things, there are some dac/amps out there that heavily leans on one side or another, like for example the Ibasso PB5 and D16 which i listened to really briefly a while back, is a heavily analog source, where as some other dac/amp like Topping’s desktop A90 D90 stack is more hifi. By analog, I'm looking for those organic, smooth, musical playbacks, whereas hifi is more clean, analytical and technical. So if we were to put it into numbers and consider -10 as the most analog and 10 as the most digital, then to my own definition and my subjective ears, i’d say most dongle dac/amps that i’ve tried falls into the middle range, from -3.5 to plus 3.5, with few outliers like the Qudelix 5K being in the 4.5-5 range. For reference, I'd consider the Hiby to be -3.5, almost -4, so the most analog dongle I've heard, and the E1DA 9038D like a 3.5 to 4. Since the gap between them is large because they’re on the opposite end of the spectrum, it’s quite easy for me to differentiate the two.
However, my main point is that many dongles out there usually fall into the middle range, meaning from -2 to 2 range. And now, since the gap has become smaller, in many cases it’s quite hard for me to judge whether it’s more on the analog side or hifi side. They have a balanced sense of analog and hifi sounding at the same time. Some have too little differences for my “not-golden” ears to notice and differentiate.
However, my main point is that many dongles out there usually fall into the middle range, meaning from -2 to 2 range. And now, since the gap has become smaller, in many cases it’s quite hard for me to judge whether it’s more on the analog side or hifi side. They have a balanced sense of analog and hifi sounding at the same time. Some have too little differences for my “not-golden” ears to notice and differentiate.
So i did nearly everything you said lol.
"Just because something sounds analog it doesn’t mean that it isn’t hifi", yea, it can be both, hence the balancing sense.
vandung2510
100+ Head-Fier
Quantity: Alphacan you compare the bass of the DC07 Pro and the bass of the Onix Alpha ? ( Quantity, Quality )
And what about the dynamics and note weight of this two ? Thank you
Quality: Dc07 pro. It's more..."processed", direct opposite of "diamond in the rough".
I got brain fog so i dont know which word to use lol.
Also, Note weight: Alpha > Dc07 pro
The Alpha is a little bass-weak and lack some dynamics. The dc07pro can sound quite thin
vandung2510
100+ Head-Fier
I... dont understand what you mean actually.
I didnt note my preference, i just describe it as warm. I dont hate warm lol.
I like balencing warm, not overly warm.
Metaphorically, if warm=sweet, then i like souffle or vanilla cake, not a ton of sugar shoving down my throat. (I think)
vandung2510
100+ Head-Fier
It can sound thin, yes. Clean sounding, borderline thin. So might as well consider it clean, depending on one's preference.The Alpha is a little bass-weak and lack some dynamics. The dc07pro can sound quite thin
Maybe it's really some brain fog Users who are viewing this thread
