[Dobrescu George]

I think it sounds *very* good. The difference over the older Sonata is very noticeable, and I'm a very skeptical person.

Oh, I agree

And personally, I thought the older sonata was great too

so sad that the two keys aren't that useful tho, lots of people may skip it because it looks a bit like a toy (?)

 

[GunGrave]

Hey guys
Just received my Sonata HD today.
I installed the driver, but the pc does not see it.
I plugged into a P30Pro, it sees it but it is only able to charge it.
Is it DOA or can I try something else ?

 

[blse59]

Hey guys
Just received my Sonata HD today.
I installed the driver, but the pc does not see it.
I plugged into a P30Pro, it sees it but it is only able to charge it.
Is it DOA or can I try something else ?

What OS? You shouldn't have needed to install the driver. It is completely plug and play on modern Windows OSs. Click on the little system volume icon in the system tray to select it.

 

[GunGrave]

Nothing new appears there, just my other dacs. No option for the sonata

 

[GunGrave]

Windows 10.

 

[GunGrave]

Found the problem.
The micro usb connector is too deep inside the case and most cables (including the ones that came with the sonata) don't connect properly.
More over, sonata is not active unless a jack is also connected.
I will contact the seller, this is not OK.

 

[HiFlight]

Found the problem.
The micro usb connector is too deep inside the case and most cables (including the ones that came with the sonata) don't connect properly.
More over, sonata is not active unless a jack is also connected.
I will contact the seller, this is not OK.

The excessive USB depth is certainly not normal but a headphone connection IS required and what you experienced in this regard is normal operation.

 

[captione]

Planning to buy the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro this Xmas, and I have a question, will it drive < 150ohms with the forced 2vrms method of putting a 3.5mm male to female connector? I'm planning to use it with some high impedance earbuds too

 

[citral23]

I don't know what you're talking about with 2vrms but it drives my 400ohms earbuds just fine

 

[captione]

I don't know what you're talking about with 2vrms but it drives my 400ohms earbuds just fine

Hell yeah, just what I love to hear!
I'm talking about tricking the device to force it into 2vrms regardless of the headphone impedance by connecting it to a 3.5mm male to female because it registers infinite impedance, something like that (sorry I can't explain it very well, but that's the gist of it, I saw people doing that in their Sonata HD Pros too)

 

[baskingshark]

Planning to buy the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro this Xmas, and I have a question, will it drive < 150ohms with the forced 2vrms method of putting a 3.5mm male to female connector? I'm planning to use it with some high impedance earbuds too

Yes it can generally drive 150 ohm loads with the 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm adapter "trick". Other than some driver types like planars, which are super power hungry. But you should also factor in sensitivity as a gauge of difficulty to drive an IEM, not only the impedance, so do take note that very low sensitivity IEMs may not be driven sufficiently on the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro.

 

[GunGrave]

High impedance earbuds might be OK but the sonata is no powerhouse.
As baskingshark said , some planars or low sensitivity cans, maybe even IEMS will not be drive good enough.
The volume on hand is pretty good, but not fantastic.
On a quieter jazz song from youtube I can reach max volume on the SHP9500.

 

[baskingshark]

High impedance earbuds might be OK but the sonata is no powerhouse.
As baskingshark said , some planars or low sensitivity cans, maybe even IEMS will not be drive good enough.
The volume on hand is pretty good, but not fantastic.

Agreed fully.

The Sonata HD Pro is my daily dongle, it is good in many areas, eg clear transparent sound, good measurements, neutralish set, volume controls, doesn't get warm, low output impedance etc, but one area of weakness is that it cannot power more demanding gear.

I saw that Tempotec just released a balanced 2.5 mm set called the Tempotec Sonata BHD, looks to be approximately 2 times more powerful than the HD Pro. Anybody tried it yet? Perhaps that can be the answer for those who want more power on tap.

 

[captione]

I only plan to use it on iems and high impedance (<150ohms) earbuds anyway, just enough for my use case! My friend has the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro paired with HD58x* and he said he could drive it well but I have worries because earbuds and full size cans are different beasts. I'm glad I checked here if they can drive em somehow, thank you for the answers!

 

[Mori511]

I got mine Tempotec Sonata HD PRO few month ago. Best value to sound for a price, better than ALC5686 dongle i own previously.
My only concerned is, you cannot pair Sonata HD Pro with additional external Amplifier without dealing with clicking or popping intermittent sound between music tracks. You can pair it, if only you can deal with that bit of annoyance for better Sound.
In my case it's Sonata HD PRO + Nx3s (Op Amp Muses8920) jack on my phone.