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

[felixkopian]

Explain why.

noise

 

[smegel]

iPhone/IOS is not that popular outside the US. Shanling should have tested low, mid and high end android phones with the Onix before releasing the for retail. Now they're going to have to accept that oversight as something that will cost them a huge chunk of lost sales. Comparing this with the iBasso DC07 also makes the design flaw more glaring. DC07 doesn't require extra power to turn on.

Oh well there's always Onix Alpha Xl2?

When you compare specific brands, Apple, Nokia, Samsung, etc... Apple is the top brand...

Top Smartphone Brands by Shipments:

• Apple: Apple, the US-based phone maker, takes the lead by shipping 70 million smartphone units. This accounts for a 23% market share, making Apple the most popular phone brand in terms of shipments. However, it experienced a 14.1% decrease compared to Q4 2021.
• Samsung: As a major competitor, Samsung secures the second spot with 58.3 million smartphone shipments. Although it experienced a 15.5% annual decrease, Samsung still holds a significant 19.2% market share.
• Xiaomi: Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone brand, ranks third with 33.2 million smartphone shipments. Despite a 26.2% year-over-year decrease, Xiaomi remains a prominent player in the market.
• Oppo: With 29.6 million shipments, Oppo captures the fourth position. It experienced a 12.7% annual decrease, signaling a decline from previous years.
• Vivo: The final brand on the list is Vivo, another Chinese smartphone manufacturer. It shipped 23.4 million devices, experiencing a 20.1% annual decrease.

see: https://www.doofinder.com/en/statistics/top-10-mobile-company-name-list

Now I would expect Shanling or Onix to do some basic research and pick the top 10 or so brands and test w them.

That said... iBasso DC07 is twice the price and touts low power requirements... and IIRC tests a close 2nd to the Onix.
I forget the YT reviewer who has a spreadsheet and the DC07 was rated slightly lower. (Going from memory 92 vs 98 on a scale of 1-100)
So I doubt you could go wrong there.

@ToneDeafMonk , can you share an 'expert opinion'? (I forget who else compared the two)

I mean the Onix Alpha XI isn't widely available in the US. I was considering going w the Chord Mojo2 , which is 6x the price and larger and then later on get the Poly for it.
So I'd have a wireless portable system for around the house. (But it too has flaws.)

 

[smegel]

noise

Eeew.. Maybe?

Ok, so there's a couple of factors.. the computer's chipset, clock, construction, quality of parts... etc... (This has the largest impact on the digital signal)
And then the length of the USB cable ... but in this case its an adapter not the cable.
Since this is still a digital signal at this point... the only 'noise' would be from the quality of the adapter and its fit... I doubt it would be audible.
I would expect that there could be a slight voltage drop, but I doubt it would 'smear' the signal and would be audible if it did.

And again, depending on the build, chip set... its possible that you get something that sounds better?
I don't know and I think it would vary on PC to PC.

@ToneDeafMonk , IIRC you too use a Macbook?
If you took your Dita Project M and tried either the headphone port or the apple dongle. Do you hear a difference?
( Assuming you kept the Apple Midi app settings the same... )

Now I'm an old man (58) who's been married for 25yrs and have been around loud guns so my hearing is not as good as it was when I was younger although still decent for my age.

 

[smegel]

The output voltage is equivalent.

Ok, since I'm a Software Engineer. Equivalent as in equal, or close enough?

The reason I ask is that someone here said that w slightly more power, the Onix Alpha sounds better.
Again its a subjective opinion and there are a lot of factors. I mean if you took a single Onix and tested it w 10 different laptops from different manufacturers and price points... I'm sure you'd hear a difference... assuming that all of the port settings and drivers were the same.

 

[ybbobserrot]

When you compare specific brands, Apple, Nokia, Samsung, etc... Apple is the top brand...

see: https://www.doofinder.com/en/statistics/top-10-mobile-company-name-list

Now I would expect Shanling or Onix to do some basic research and pick the top 10 or so brands and test w them.

That said... iBasso DC07 is twice the price and touts low power requirements... and IIRC tests a close 2nd to the Onix.
I forget the YT reviewer who has a spreadsheet and the DC07 was rated slightly lower. (Going from memory 92 vs 98 on a scale of 1-100)
So I doubt you could go wrong there.

@ToneDeafMonk , can you share an 'expert opinion'? (I forget who else compared the two)

I mean the Onix Alpha XI isn't widely available in the US. I was considering going w the Chord Mojo2 , which is 6x the price and larger and then later on get the Poly for it.
So I'd have a wireless portable system for around the house. (But it too has flaws.)

You must be referring to Andy of Audiovault legend. Anyway, we're going to have to accept that the Onix is an unrealized potential and the flaw is hardware based. I do want to be wrong about that because part of me hopes a software update will fix the issue. Darn it, I should have gone for the DC07.

 

[ybbobserrot]

noise

Well unless you have bat ears... I never noticed any noise from a type C connection. Can you explain the science behind that please?

 

[salman91]

I hear differences in sound with all my usb cables, each of them sound different. This is my experience from 5 years testing different usb cables with different gear. These differences are not huge, but very subtle in certain frequencies. I can also hear the difference when the power cord has incorrect phase connection with power socket. I can easely hear differences with headphone cables.

Talking about Ibasso CB19 usb c cable: when I connect it to power bank with 5V 3A output - Onix sounds the best. When I connect it to other power bank which has less power output 5V 1A - Onix sounds not as great as with 5V 3A power bank. I can hear that clearly each time.

And I can clearly hear that Shanling L3 silver usb-c cable has more impact in SQ than stock Onix usb-c cable. Also this L3 is better built than Onix stock cable.

That is my opinion and I trust my ears.

Can you rank the good cables for Onix Alpha XI1? Because the stock cable after a period of use disconnects with any slight movement, I tried other cables: AKLIAM cable and pure silver cable, and all of them made SQ worse compared to the stock cable, because the sound became very warm.

 

[smegel]

Can you rank the good cables for Onix Alpha XI1? Because the stock cable after a period of use disconnects with any slight movement, I tried other cables: AKLIAM cable and pure silver cable, and all of them made SQ worse compared to the stock cable, because the sound became very warm.

Ok. not all USB-C cables are equal.
IIRC USB-C 2.0 cables are rated for 480Mb/s throughput.
USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 certified where you can get over 10Gb/S throughput. ( The Thunderbolt 4 rated cables can do 40Gb/S )

The difference is in quality of cable, connectors and of course shielding.

So you're talking ~$20.00 or so... (ballpark)

Now you can spend more but IMHO that's where the 'snake oil' starts to come in to it.
I mean don't get me wrong. There are quality build cables out there that use top quality parts and are hand made and tested... but
remember you bought a $109 DAC. (No Offense to Shanling)

 

[smegel]

You must be referring to Andy of Audiovault legend. Anyway, we're going to have to accept that the Onix is an unrealized potential and the flaw is hardware based. I do want to be wrong about that because part of me hopes a software update will fix the issue. Darn it, I should have gone for the DC07.

Yes,
I think ToneDeafMonk recommend having both???
(You can check out his reviews)

I don't know that I would call it a hardware flaw.
I mean it would be a flaw if the phone USB ports are spec'd to give X power and Shanling requires Y where Y > X ... But I don't know.

From multiple reviews... the reviewers who compared the DC07 against the Onix gave the Onix the nod.
And of course your IEMs play a part. Sort of like speaker pairing w amps.

Personally for casual listening using my phone... I doubt I'd hear any difference. I mean I'm usually out and about listening at a lower level so I can pay attention to traffic noise. (And not go def )

For more 'serious' listening I'm on my PC. So its a bit different.

So unless your phone can't drive it... then its not a good choice.

 

[ybbobserrot]

Yes,
I think ToneDeafMonk recommend having both???
(You can check out his reviews)

I don't know that I would call it a hardware flaw.
I mean it would be a flaw if the phone USB ports are spec'd to give X power and Shanling requires Y where Y > X ... But I don't know.

From multiple reviews... the reviewers who compared the DC07 against the Onix gave the Onix the nod.
And of course your IEMs play a part. Sort of like speaker pairing w amps.

Personally for casual listening using my phone... I doubt I'd hear any difference. I mean I'm usually out and about listening at a lower level so I can pay attention to traffic noise. (And not go def )

For more 'serious' listening I'm on my PC. So its a bit different.

So unless your phone can't drive it... then its not a good choice.

Agree with everything you said. The flaw I'm referring to is the design regarding why a dongle designed for portability needs to be powered with extra juice and the others don't. There's nothing wrong with the sound and function per se.

 

[felixkopian]

Eeew.. Maybe?

Ok, so there's a couple of factors.. the computer's chipset, clock, construction, quality of parts... etc... (This has the largest impact on the digital signal)
And then the length of the USB cable ... but in this case its an adapter not the cable.
Since this is still a digital signal at this point... the only 'noise' would be from the quality of the adapter and its fit... I doubt it would be audible.
I would expect that there could be a slight voltage drop, but I doubt it would 'smear' the signal and would be audible if it did.

And again, depending on the build, chip set... its possible that you get something that sounds better?
I don't know and I think it would vary on PC to PC.

@ToneDeafMonk , IIRC you too use a Macbook?
If you took your Dita Project M and tried either the headphone port or the apple dongle. Do you hear a difference?
( Assuming you kept the Apple Midi app settings the same... )

Now I'm an old man (58) who's been married for 25yrs and have been around loud guns so my hearing is not as good as it was when I was younger although still decent for my age.

Well unless you have bat ears... I never noticed any noise from a type C connection. Can you explain the science behind that please?

connected to the phone.. sounds cleaner than on PC/computer

 

[laleeee]

 

[smegel]

connected to the phone.. sounds cleaner than on PC/computer

I stand corrected.
I was thinking the iBasso DC07 but it was the HIBYFC06 when I said 92.
But yes the iBasso scored really good. same as the Alpha. Although... IIRC didn't he ding Alpha on the volume control because of too many steps?
IMHO that's not fair because if you set the Alpha to control the source's volume and not the DAC, you have fewer steps.

And of course the Alpha gets a 9 on the Power Efficiency category.

 

[smegel]

connected to the phone.. sounds cleaner than on PC/computer

Hmmm.
Ok, what is your PC?
My experience is a little different between the macbook pro M1Max vs iPhone15ProMax.

I may pull one of my Linux boxes out of the rack ... the one w the 3090 GPU and load up some Linux software for sound processing on the GPU.
But I'm running decent mother boards and AMD chips.

 

[ybbobserrot]

I stand corrected.
I was thinking the iBasso DC07 but it was the HIBYFC06 when I said 92.
But yes the iBasso scored really good. same as the Alpha. Although... IIRC didn't he ding Alpha on the volume control because of too many steps?
IMHO that's not fair because if you set the Alpha to control the source's volume and not the DAC, you have fewer steps.

And of course the Alpha gets a 9 on the Power Efficiency category.

Volume has too many steps it's more of a nitpick and a personal preference. Although I do appreciate the thought behind Andy's rating system, he did another video pointing out fhat these are based on his personal preferences and he even continued to say just recently that he will stop the rating system from now on. I like his reviews and it is this rating system that helped me decide which dongle to buy... too bad.