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

[domzz]

More discoveries. I found out how to put the DAC into UAC1.0 mode. The music plays correctly. No pops or cracks. I also found out that if I play high rez audio in UAC2.0 mode, 24/96 for example, the dongle switches up to 384khz. It's not using the sample rate of the song. If I play a song that is 16/44.1 the dongle gets 24/48 which is the Android standard bit and sample rate. Another weird issue is that in UAC1.0 mode, the dongle does track the song's sample rate correctly. I've seen this same issue, compeletely unrelated to be clear, on my computer where if I set my desktop dac(not the dongle) to a fixed high sample rate of 384khz, but the content I play cannot do 384khz, I get the same clicking.

Edit: Tested with my Xduoo Link 2 Bal that shows different lights for sample rate. It correctly tracks the sample rates of the songs in UAC 2.0 mode without the clicks/pops.

Edit2: I tested with my wife's Pixel 7. Playing high res music in UAC 2.0 the dongle detects the sample rate correctly.

I have no idea if it's the phone or the dongle at this point.

@Shanling can you please help out on this issue? What do I need to do to make an official bug report?

I'd try different cables first.

 

[despoiler]

I'd try different cables first.

I already did. It's in my original post. All the cables have issues including the one that came with the dongle. Crackling/popping is from the dongle setting itself to 384khz sample rate when the audio sample rate is higher than 48khz.

More updates

Someone asked if if the original firmware has the issue and then someone posted the 1.0.3. I had assumed the lowest version on the Onix website was the original. I flashed 1.0.3 and now the dongle mostly detects the correct sample rate of the track playing. Though sometimes it goes to 384khz. The cracking/popping does still happen, but it's less frequent.

Another thing I noticed. The volume is low in UAC 2.0 on the 1.1.3 firmware. The 1.03 firmware gets louder than 1.1.3. The bad news is that I don't think this dongle is not getting as loud as it should. It has slightly more mW rating than my Astell & Kern HC4 yet the A&K is 3x-4 as loud. It's kind of nuts how big of a gap there is. I tested the Onix Alpha with my full sized Beyerdynamic DT1990 250ohm headphones. The HC4 has zero issues driving them while the Onix Alpha struggles. That means there is even more wrong with the Onix Alpha than the sample rate issue.

For giggles I tried 1.2.3 that is supposedly for Apple IOS18 only. The player correctly detects the sample rate and the volume is higher than 1.1.3, same volume as 1.0.3. I still get random clicks/pops on content over 48khz sample rate.

I'm done with troubleshooting. My view is this dongle has serious issues that @Shanling needs to address. BTW they haven't reached out yet. I don't expect they will.

What do I think of the Onix Alpha sound? It does sound good out of the box. Why it's appealling to owners and reviewers is there is a definitely boost in the bass region compared to a lot of dongles that track more neutral. Though my Astell & Kern HC4 is better sounding than the Onix Alpha. The HC4 still has weight and fullness where it should, but retains clarity. The Onix Alpha bass is indestinct and bloated where the HC4 is tight, textured, and has just plain more resolution. One thing to note, supposedly the the Onix Alpha measures a hair better than the HC4 yet the HC4 has more resolution. There's more space around everything. It's audibly cleaner which is often the case with better measurements. The thing is the difference between the two dongles should not be audible. Either the Onix Alpha meaurements aren't correct or they are correct and there is something additionally not right with the production version causing more noise/distortion than there should be. Final thought. I'll probably be returning the Onix Alpha. I don't want to miss the return window while they might try to fix the issues.

 

[smegel]

More discoveries. I found out how to put the DAC into UAC1.0 mode. The music plays correctly. No pops or cracks. I also found out that if I play high rez audio in UAC2.0 mode, 24/96 for example, the dongle switches up to 384khz. It's not using the sample rate of the song. If I play a song that is 16/44.1 the dongle gets 24/48 which is the Android standard bit and sample rate. Another weird issue is that in UAC1.0 mode, the dongle does track the song's sample rate correctly. I've seen this same issue, compeletely unrelated to be clear, on my computer where if I set my desktop dac(not the dongle) to a fixed high sample rate of 384khz, but the content I play cannot do 384khz, I get the same clicking.

Edit: Tested with my Xduoo Link 2 Bal that shows different lights for sample rate. It correctly tracks the sample rates of the songs in UAC 2.0 mode without the clicks/pops.

Edit2: I tested with my wife's Pixel 7. Playing high res music in UAC 2.0 the dongle detects the sample rate correctly.

I have no idea if it's the phone or the dongle at this point.

@Shanling can you please help out on this issue? What do I need to do to make an official bug report?

Not sure there is a 'bug' per se.

Are you listening using the 4.4 or the 3.5 jack?

 

[smegel]

I already did. It's in my original post. All the cables have issues including the one that came with the dongle.

Ok, I did a little experiment.

My IEM is a DITA Project M.
For my music... its on Spotify 'Root Chakra - Key Of C' by Christy Snow, Jack Fowler.
(Sorry if you don't like Zen, but its something to calm me down and let me focus on work.)
Note: This is streaming and not stored locally.

First I listened on my iPhone (iOS 17.7) - the led around the button was blue so not sure of the sampling rate. Using the PCM slow filter (default setting)
No loud clicks but there was one or two.

I then hooked the DAC up to my macbook pro M1Max. Set the midi to the highest 768hz, 32bits. Using eqMac w DITA Project M profile.
Note: It looks like the midi is up sampling to that rate.
I heard the pops/clicks.
I tried a different song... fewer clicks. But some still there. (Went back to the first song.)
I tried different PCM settings... NOS resulted in the fewest clicks.

I tried some Yo Yo Ma cello pieces. Fewer clicks, but some were noticeable.

I then switched from the 4.4 balanced to 3.5.
Fewer clicks/pops than from the 4.4.

I then went and used the 3.5mm head jack. I still heard the occasional click/pop.
I then went to my Apple USB-C dongle. Still heard the occasional click/pop.

So the issue occurs on all of the connections... albeit to the same or lesser extent.

I then went back to the DAC... switched to my longer thunderbolt 4 USB-C cable. (40Gb/s vs 10Gb/s). This is my thickest and 'best' USB-C cable.
Still the occasional crack/pop/click occur.

So bottom line...
Using the Thunderbolt 4 (usb-c) cable yielded the best results, however there are still some 'pops' in the music.
(This was at the up sampled maxium rate 768Hzx32bits)

Just to be thorough (and to play around...) I changed the sampling rate within the midi app.
I dropped it down to 48Hz and 32bits. (LED is blue) Minor occasional pop/click but not bad.
I also tried 96Hz/32bits (LED is green) again minor occasional pop/click not bad but ok.

I downloaded the song to remove any networking issues.

Since all of the devices exhibited the minor clicks/pops I don't think its the DAC itself.
The noise became more prevalent w the higher oversampling done by the midi app. (The dongle correctly sees this)

My guess is that the issue is one where there is some noise in the recording itself... along w a couple of other factors.
1) Cable. Yes, they can make a difference. The basic difference in my cables is the shielding and wiring. Thunderbolt 4 has the highest data rate xfer and does the best.
2) Up scaling done by the Midi App on the macbook Pro probably introduces some artifacts to the music which is causing the DAC to amplify pops.
3) Difference between 4.4 and 3.5 jacks. (balanced vs unbalanced)

I didn't test my M&D MW65 headphones, but I guess I'll hear roughly the same.
I also guess that more sensitive IEMs will hear more pops? But I could be wrong.


HTH

-Mike

 

[GSkyflakes]

I'm using a Nothing Phone 2a (latest update), i remember the onix alpha working on it when i first got it about 2 weeks ago. but for some reason, its just not working on my phone anymore. it gets powered, but it does not switch to the dacs output. (i have no problem running audio thru fiio ja11 and jcally jm6 pro).

also, i tried downloading eddict player, but it force closes whenever i try to open it. does anyone have a solution for this?

 

[despoiler]

Ok, I did a little experiment.

My IEM is a DITA Project M.
For my music... its on Spotify 'Root Chakra - Key Of C' by Christy Snow, Jack Fowler.
(Sorry if you don't like Zen, but its something to calm me down and let me focus on work.)
Note: This is streaming and not stored locally.

First I listened on my iPhone (iOS 17.7) - the led around the button was blue so not sure of the sampling rate. Using the PCM slow filter (default setting)
No loud clicks but there was one or two.

I then hooked the DAC up to my macbook pro M1Max. Set the midi to the highest 768hz, 32bits. Using eqMac w DITA Project M profile.
Note: It looks like the midi is up sampling to that rate.
I heard the pops/clicks.
I tried a different song... fewer clicks. But some still there. (Went back to the first song.)
I tried different PCM settings... NOS resulted in the fewest clicks.

I tried some Yo Yo Ma cello pieces. Fewer clicks, but some were noticeable.

I then switched from the 4.4 balanced to 3.5.
Fewer clicks/pops than from the 4.4.

I then went and used the 3.5mm head jack. I still heard the occasional click/pop.
I then went to my Apple USB-C dongle. Still heard the occasional click/pop.

So the issue occurs on all of the connections... albeit to the same or lesser extent.

I then went back to the DAC... switched to my longer thunderbolt 4 USB-C cable. (40Gb/s vs 10Gb/s). This is my thickest and 'best' USB-C cable.
Still the occasional crack/pop/click occur.

So bottom line...
Using the Thunderbolt 4 (usb-c) cable yielded the best results, however there are still some 'pops' in the music.
(This was at the up sampled maxium rate 768Hzx32bits)

Just to be thorough (and to play around...) I changed the sampling rate within the midi app.
I dropped it down to 48Hz and 32bits. (LED is blue) Minor occasional pop/click but not bad.
I also tried 96Hz/32bits (LED is green) again minor occasional pop/click not bad but ok.

I downloaded the song to remove any networking issues.

Since all of the devices exhibited the minor clicks/pops I don't think its the DAC itself.
The noise became more prevalent w the higher oversampling done by the midi app. (The dongle correctly sees this)

My guess is that the issue is one where there is some noise in the recording itself... along w a couple of other factors.
1) Cable. Yes, they can make a difference. The basic difference in my cables is the shielding and wiring. Thunderbolt 4 has the highest data rate xfer and does the best.
2) Up scaling done by the Midi App on the macbook Pro probably introduces some artifacts to the music which is causing the DAC to amplify pops.
3) Difference between 4.4 and 3.5 jacks. (balanced vs unbalanced)

I didn't test my M&D MW65 headphones, but I guess I'll hear roughly the same.
I also guess that more sensitive IEMs will hear more pops? But I could be wrong.


HTH

-Mike

Thanks for testing. To be clear, it's not abnormal to hear a click/pop when the sample rate changes. If the dongle, or dac, doesn't mute during the sample rate switch you hear a click/pop. The fact that it doesn't mute is another lack of refinement from Onix on this device. The clicks/pops I'm talking about are during music playback. That is not normal as the sample rate is set. Like I said, my unit v1.1.3 sets the sample rate to 384khz on anything over 48khz instead of setting it to the track. This is the cause of clicking/popping. It's a sample rate mismatch from the source to the DAC.

 

[smegel]

Thanks for testing. To be clear, it's not abnormal to hear a click/pop when the sample rate changes. If the dongle, or dac, doesn't mute the relays during the sample rate switch you hear a click/pop. The clicks/pops I'm talking about are during music playback. That is not normal as the sample rate is set. Like I said, my unit v1.1.3 sets the sample rate to 384khz on anything over 48khz instead of setting it to the track. This is the cause of clicking/popping. It's a sample rate mismatch from the source to the DAC.

Hi, to be clear...
I mentioned them to be complete but discounted them since its to be expected.
I was switching the PCM rates while listening to a song.
Also running the 1.03 version and didn't upgrade. (Which could be causing some of your issues.)
Not sure why you upgraded the firmware unless you didn't follow this thread.


I tested the 3.5mm headphone port on the mac, the USB dongle, and the DAC.
Now thru the MIDI App, I could see the default setting for the dongle and the headphone port which are much lower, just like the iPhone which doesn't upscale the music.

On all of the ports/dong/dac, I could hear the clicks and pops in the music. Almost inaudible but they were there.
When I used the MIDI app to set the DAC to use a lower Hz and bit rate (24 bits vs 32) the pops were less frequent and hardly audible.
Changing to thunderbolt 4 cable... got even better results.

With my Project Ms I can switch the connection to either 3.5 or 4.4. (Which is why I asked which port you were using on the DAC)
The pops and cracks were less noticeable too on the 3.5.
I really had to turn up the volume, louder than I normally listen to.. to hear the clicks/pops...

Now... there was a change in terms of sound stage, and detail. You really hear a lot more detail.
I mean when up scaling to 768/32 ... its really good. (except for the possible noise)

W.R.T your HC4... twice the price.
As to the volume... did you set the DAC to high gain?

W.R.T Shanling, if you look at past post in this forum, they do respond.

One thing that is interesting... In watching a bunch of the Audiophile reviews on YT, most always talk about pairing speakers to amps and getting the most out of them.
How class A sound different from AB and D class amps. Kind thought they were screwy until I started to look at dongle dacs and saw first hand how you can have pairings that work.

Is the Alpha perfect? No.
But for $109, its a great DAC.
Are there better DACs out there? Yes. The DC Elite is getting a lot of good praise along with some others.
But they are more expensive. The Alpha is still king in terms of value.

I'm just curious about the DAC chips themselves.
At the $100 price point you see CS.
At higher price points it seems to be ESS and higher still AKMs

 

[Kibet]

I get gaps/pauses of about 1-2 seconds when playing DSD files on PC through Foobar2000. I have another DAC (SMSL) for home use and I don’t get the pauses when using the same PC. Everything is fine with PCM.

 

[despoiler]

Hi, to be clear...
I mentioned them to be complete but discounted them since its to be expected.
I was switching the PCM rates while listening to a song.
Also running the 1.03 version and didn't upgrade. (Which could be causing some of your issues.)
Not sure why you upgraded the firmware unless you didn't follow this thread.


I tested the 3.5mm headphone port on the mac, the USB dongle, and the DAC.
Now thru the MIDI App, I could see the default setting for the dongle and the headphone port which are much lower, just like the iPhone which doesn't upscale the music.

On all of the ports/dong/dac, I could hear the clicks and pops in the music. Almost inaudible but they were there.
When I used the MIDI app to set the DAC to use a lower Hz and bit rate (24 bits vs 32) the pops were less frequent and hardly audible.
Changing to thunderbolt 4 cable... got even better results.

With my Project Ms I can switch the connection to either 3.5 or 4.4. (Which is why I asked which port you were using on the DAC)
The pops and cracks were less noticeable too on the 3.5.
I really had to turn up the volume, louder than I normally listen to.. to hear the clicks/pops...

Now... there was a change in terms of sound stage, and detail. You really hear a lot more detail.
I mean when up scaling to 768/32 ... its really good. (except for the possible noise)

W.R.T your HC4... twice the price.
As to the volume... did you set the DAC to high gain?

W.R.T Shanling, if you look at past post in this forum, they do respond.

One thing that is interesting... In watching a bunch of the Audiophile reviews on YT, most always talk about pairing speakers to amps and getting the most out of them.
How class A sound different from AB and D class amps. Kind thought they were screwy until I started to look at dongle dacs and saw first hand how you can have pairings that work.

Is the Alpha perfect? No.
But for $109, its a great DAC.
Are there better DACs out there? Yes. The DC Elite is getting a lot of good praise along with some others.
But they are more expensive. The Alpha is still king in terms of value.

I'm just curious about the DAC chips themselves.
At the $100 price point you see CS.
At higher price points it seems to be ESS and higher still AKMs

I tried 1.0.3. The sample rate does correctly switch to the track's value. I do still get intermittent pops during playback. Though much less than in any other configuration. The level of the pops is much lower than with higher firmware versions, but still very noticable. To be fair, the Alpha seems to have issues specifically with OnePlus 12 phones. UAC 1.0 works fine. UAC 2.0 is the problem between them. The issue for consumers is that they are shipping units with a higher, buggy version and they don't have the better working version on their website. It's a bit of a disaster.

Then we have the specs issue. I don't believe the power ratings or the THD+N Onix are advertising. Using the Alpha on my computer, the unit works w/o pops, but it cannot drive headphones all other dongles I own can. My other dongles advertise lower power capabilities too. And yes I switched the Alpha to the higher gain settings.

Shanling is positioning Onix as a premium brand. It's not IMO. I'll leave it at that. A lot of people are happy with the Alpha and it is completely fine to have that opinion.

 

[smegel]

I tried 1.0.3. The sample rate does correctly switch to the track's value. I do still get very intermittently get pops during playback. The level of the pops is much lower than with higher firmware versions, but still very noticable. To be fair, the Alpha seems to have issues specifically with OnePlus 12 phones. UAC 1.0 works fine. UAC 2.0 is the problem between them. The issue for consumers is that they are shipping units with a higher, buggy version and they don't have the better working version on their website. It's a bit of a disaster.

Then we have the specs issue. I don't believe the power ratings or the THD+N Onix are advertising. Using the Alpha on my computer, the unit works w/o pops, but it cannot drive headphones all other dongles I own can. My other dongles advertise lower power capabilities too. And yes I switched the Alpha to the higher gain settings.

Shanling is positioning Onix as a premium brand. It's not IMO. I'll leave it at that. A lot of people are happy with the Alpha and it is completely fine to have that opinion.

Ok,

I think if you look at the YT reviews, someone may have done some testing... (or maybe not)
I don't think anyone has sent an Alpha to Amir @ Audio Science Review who does some excellent work.

I'm sorry that the alpha doesn't work for you.
Onix is actually a separate company based in the UK which has a deal w Shanling.
This is the cheapest product and their DAP the Overture XM5 has also gotten some good reviews. That would compete against a Mojo2+Poly for roughly 1/2 the price.

To your point... the use of the term premium is a bit relative.
Here's the thing...
When the Alpha was released... nothing could touch it.
Since its release, there are what some reviewers consider a better dongle, the iBasso DC Elite. (And there maybe others...)
Now the DC Elite is ~$450 which is 4X the price of the Alpha. Is it 4X better? No. So Alpha is still the better value and a premium at that price point.

Here's the other thing to consider. Alpha uses the CS DAC chip. DC Elite uses a Rohm and higher end products like the Overture use ESS and even higher end products use AKM. So in that respect, I don't think that the CS chip is a premium dac chip. (Although Cirrus Logic may disagree) I don't know of any other dongle that uses a CS chip competes w the Alpha while some do come close.

Now is the Alpha 'perfect'? No.
Even Shanling admits it has some issues and can't really test it against all of the phones out there.
And to be fair... when there was an issue w iOS 18, they got a fix released quickly.

If I had to buy another DAC/DAP, I'd consider the Onix Overature XM5, iBasso DC Elite, or something else.
The Alpha is still the best value, but since I have it... I'd probably go for something that has some more features.
(e.g battery, bt,wi-fi, etc...)

 

[Foxgloves]

Then we have the specs issue. I don't believe the power ratings or the THD+N Onix are advertising. Using the Alpha on my computer, the unit works w/o pops, but it cannot drive headphones all other dongles I own can. My other dongles advertise lower power capabilities too. And yes I switched the Alpha to the higher gain settings.

Maybe but a large part of this has to be something else. My Onix only gets about roughly as loud as my JM6 pro out of my laptop usb port, but others report using considerably lower volume than me to get their listening level. I even saw someone claim 14 or so, but I don't hear anything at that level.

I tried 1.0.3. The sample rate does correctly switch to the track's value. I do still get intermittent pops during playback. Though much less than in any other configuration. The level of the pops is much lower than with higher firmware versions, but still very noticable.

Interestingly, I started to get a crackling noise that periodically occurs and won't stop until I replug the cable (I think it might be related to one mmcx cable I use on one older iem). Though from the get-go on all iems and either firmware, sometimes video/audio simply won't start or plays without audio and I have to replug. Less annoying but Onix shouldn't have been shipped with these various issues.

 

[GSkyflakes]

I'm using a Nothing Phone 2a (latest update), i remember the onix alpha working on it when i first got it about 2 weeks ago. but for some reason, its just not working on my phone anymore. it gets powered, but it does not switch to the dacs output. (i have no problem running audio thru fiio ja11 and jcally jm6 pro).

also, i tried downloading eddict player, but it force closes whenever i try to open it. does anyone have a solution for this?

 

[Shanling]

Edit2: I tested with my wife's Pixel 7. Playing high res music in UAC 2.0 the dongle detects the sample rate correctly.

I have no idea if it's the phone or the dongle at this point.

I already did. It's in my original post. All the cables have issues including the one that came with the dongle. Crackling/popping is from the dongle setting itself to 384khz sample rate when the audio sample rate is higher than 48khz.

Another thing I noticed. The volume is low in UAC 2.0 on the 1.1.3 firmware. The 1.03 firmware gets louder than 1.1.3. The bad news is that I don't think this dongle is not getting as loud as it should. It has slightly more mW rating than my Astell & Kern HC4 yet the A&K is 3x-4 as loud. It's kind of nuts how big of a gap there is. I tested the Onix Alpha with my full sized Beyerdynamic DT1990 250ohm headphones. The HC4 has zero issues driving them while the Onix Alpha struggles. That means there is even more wrong with the Onix Alpha than the sample rate issue.

For giggles I tried 1.2.3 that is supposedly for Apple IOS18 only. The player correctly detects the sample rate and the volume is higher than 1.1.3, same volume as 1.0.3. I still get random clicks/pops on content over 48khz sample rate.

I'm done with troubleshooting. My view is this dongle has serious issues that @Shanling needs to address. BTW they haven't reached out yet. I don't expect they will.

We were in the middle of our National holidays, so sorry we haven't responded right away to your comments.

As you reported it working fine with your wife's phone, it's possibly there is some software mismatch on your Oppo.

ONIX XI1 do not set itself to 384kHz or any other sampling rate. It simply reports what it receives from the source.
If your ONIX XI1 reports 384 kHz, it's something the software is doing, not the DAC.

The specification for ONIX XI1 was done with our standard audio measurement gear and follows all our other products. And there are many users and reviewers that will agree to its driving power.

If you are facing issues with volume, please check your software settings.
On Windows, some users reported return to proper high volume levels once they uninstalled the USB Drivers and ran it with the default windows drivers. You can test that

I'm using a Nothing Phone 2a (latest update), i remember the onix alpha working on it when i first got it about 2 weeks ago. but for some reason, its just not working on my phone anymore. it gets powered, but it does not switch to the dacs output. (i have no problem running audio thru fiio ja11 and jcally jm6 pro).

also, i tried downloading eddict player, but it force closes whenever i try to open it. does anyone have a solution for this?

Please which firmware version are you running on your ONIX XI1?
It's possible there was some update on the side of Nothing that caused this incompatibility. Do you have any other device to test the ONIX?

I get gaps/pauses of about 1-2 seconds when playing DSD files on PC through Foobar2000. I have another DAC (SMSL) for home use and I don’t get the pauses when using the same PC. Everything is fine with PCM.

Please which exact settings are you using?
We shared our recommended settings before:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c1JEwItAkk4ISPRR3bp--7nqxy93tDtd/view?usp=drive_link

 

[despoiler]

We were in the middle of our National holidays, so sorry we haven't responded right away to your comments.

As you reported it working fine with your wife's phone, it's possibly there is some software mismatch on your Oppo.

ONIX XI1 do not set itself to 384kHz or any other sampling rate. It simply reports what it receives from the source.
If your ONIX XI1 reports 384 kHz, it's something the software is doing, not the DAC.

The specification for ONIX XI1 was done with our standard audio measurement gear and follows all our other products. And there are many users and reviewers that will agree to its driving power.

If you are facing issues with volume, please check your software settings.
On Windows, some users reported return to proper high volume levels once they uninstalled the USB Drivers and ran it with the default windows drivers. You can test that




Please which firmware version are you running on your ONIX XI1?
It's possible there was some update on the side of Nothing that caused this incompatibility. Do you have any other device to test the ONIX?



Please which exact settings are you using?
We shared our recommended settings before:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c1JEwItAkk4ISPRR3bp--7nqxy93tDtd/view?usp=drive_link

Understandable with the holiday. I've responded serveral times with testing information. It's ok that you missed some of the details. It's the latest firmware for Android v1.1.3 that does not correctly detect the sample rate of high resolution music. The Onix Alpha sets itself to 384khz when anything above 48khz is presented. v1.0.3 works and v1.2.3( IOS18 version) also works. This causes a sample rate mismatch and causes clicking/popping. This is absolutely a bug in your firmware. I think you also missed that all of my other 3 dongles have zero issues with my phone and UAC 2.0. This leads me to believe Alpha firmware is the cause.

If your UAC 2.0 implementation isn't working correctly then the volume issue could stem from it. I dug into the UAC specifications and the dongle is supposed to relay its capabilities to the host device. UAC 2.0 allows the dongle to control the host for properties like volume.

I would also like to comment that the response you should have is "thanks you for reporting the issue. We will look into it." That would indicate you actually care about the products you sell. I've offered to provide debugs to your engineers. It's not a good policy to blame other devices when 1) we all know bugs happen. It's ok. 2) you've already issued new firmware for bugs relating to sample rate 3) it's not clear what the exact issue is. Though I've done enough troubleshooting to show it needs to be looked at.

 

[Kukikoki]

My two cents on this little DAC. It's a great value and a good little DAC. I'd consider it blind buy material seeing the power and functions and sound performance it provides. However, it might not be for everyone. It is rather neutral, decently technical, but does not provide the energy or hi-fi clarity sound of, say, the KA17, which I consider a better all rounder due to the super clean (though coloured) sound and added functions such as PEQ. The Onix for me is for when I want to relax with an IEM, it takes the harshness off, at the cost of energy and maybe a little tech. But it made my Ananda V3, unbearable on the KA17, bearable. Likewise my Pilgrim is ever so slightly spicy on the KA17, which I like, but when I want a more natural sound I reach for the Onix.