matbhuvi
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That is very useful @kvik. That is what i expected as well. Tento needs a good amp to bring out the best from it.
TENTO Multibit Porta DAC 1866
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Wondering if anyone else has any info on these...seems hard to find. I just happened to be thinking to myself the other day that a portable R2R dac/amp would be the best thing ever, given my preference for R2R sound. I have a Mojo currently.
I have a powerful amp (Pro iCan) for desktop purposes, and a desktop DAC. However, I’m thinking of buying a pair of closed-back cans for portable use, and I have to say, I’ve really grown to like the sound I get out of my desktop setup and would like to take that with me, I’m growing away from the Mojo sound signature. In addition, seems the battery life is better on this unit? Also seems to have much more output power. Finally, the bluetooth would be very nice...I don’t have a need for it to work across the house, only to slide this in my pocket while I hold my phone in my hand. In a sense, this seems to be a perfect product...except I’m not sure where one buys it these days.
Would be willing to trade my Mojo for one...
I have a powerful amp (Pro iCan) for desktop purposes, and a desktop DAC. However, I’m thinking of buying a pair of closed-back cans for portable use, and I have to say, I’ve really grown to like the sound I get out of my desktop setup and would like to take that with me, I’m growing away from the Mojo sound signature. In addition, seems the battery life is better on this unit? Also seems to have much more output power. Finally, the bluetooth would be very nice...I don’t have a need for it to work across the house, only to slide this in my pocket while I hold my phone in my hand. In a sense, this seems to be a perfect product...except I’m not sure where one buys it these days.
Would be willing to trade my Mojo for one...
MyST is working on an DAP called DeWiSo, which as far as I understand is to be primarily controlled by phone via bluetooth. First version will be PCM1794 (apparently already in production), later AD1862 and PCM1704 is planned as well. It’s quite a bit bigger than Tento 1866 (apprx 130x75x20 cm), and will be quite a bit more expensive (and sold from Russia only). The Hifiman R2R DAP (PCM1704) is apparently also to be BT-controlled, and size appears to be slightly more pocket-friendly.
BT on Tento is ok (quite good actually), but having mainly used Coax, I find it a little hard to go back to BT. I would rather use BT just for controling playback (like the two above), not for transfer. I suppose rumina’s mojo streamer/player design (rPi Zero W) could be adopted to Tento, combined with sometihing like justboom pHAT to connect via s/pdif rather than usb. However, then we are into brick-size portable again, at least if external storage has to attached/incorporated as well. Then a portable, dedicated sd-transport with Coax-Out (like xDuoo X10T) is probably just as handy.
Anyway, just laying out a few thoughts related to your inquiry. For my own stationary Tento setup I have been considering the Allo transports for a while (USBridge and DigiOne Player). I really like the sound of the DAC, so am looking for something less bulky than my current MacBook Pro as source/transport.
As for battery life I think mojo and tento are more or less on the same level. I haven’t used BT very much with Tento, so don’t know if this drains it faster than s/pdif. Tento is still available directly from the german manufacturer (Tento Engineering), and also from Amazon. There is also a seller on the bay that has non-aptx versions (and accepts best offer).
BT on Tento is ok (quite good actually), but having mainly used Coax, I find it a little hard to go back to BT. I would rather use BT just for controling playback (like the two above), not for transfer. I suppose rumina’s mojo streamer/player design (rPi Zero W) could be adopted to Tento, combined with sometihing like justboom pHAT to connect via s/pdif rather than usb. However, then we are into brick-size portable again, at least if external storage has to attached/incorporated as well. Then a portable, dedicated sd-transport with Coax-Out (like xDuoo X10T) is probably just as handy.
Anyway, just laying out a few thoughts related to your inquiry. For my own stationary Tento setup I have been considering the Allo transports for a while (USBridge and DigiOne Player). I really like the sound of the DAC, so am looking for something less bulky than my current MacBook Pro as source/transport.
As for battery life I think mojo and tento are more or less on the same level. I haven’t used BT very much with Tento, so don’t know if this drains it faster than s/pdif. Tento is still available directly from the german manufacturer (Tento Engineering), and also from Amazon. There is also a seller on the bay that has non-aptx versions (and accepts best offer).
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Thanks for the reply, very much appreciate it. Saw your PM as well, replied to that.
Didn't know about the HiFiMan R2R DAP, that is interesting, but I do have all my music on my iPhone and I probably won't be changing that any time soon.
I have a decent setup for my desktop right now, my main interest is as something portable that gives me the R2R sound I've now decided I can't live without. Given that the power output seems to be pretty decent as well and that it supports bluetooth, seems to cover all the bases for me. The 1866 and a pair of decent closed-back headphones are all I need in a portable setup, seemingly.
Didn't know about the HiFiMan R2R DAP, that is interesting, but I do have all my music on my iPhone and I probably won't be changing that any time soon.
I have a decent setup for my desktop right now, my main interest is as something portable that gives me the R2R sound I've now decided I can't live without. Given that the power output seems to be pretty decent as well and that it supports bluetooth, seems to cover all the bases for me. The 1866 and a pair of decent closed-back headphones are all I need in a portable setup, seemingly.
If you are going to transmit music from your iPhone, you should be aware that it doesn’t do aptX, only AAC or SBC, and there’s no way of checking which codec it uses. In the case of Tento, the expensive version has AAC and aptX, the cheaper version I believe only has SBC.
I haven’t done listening tests on SBC vs AAC vs aptX, only checked on my MacBook Pro (which DOES do aptX, and where it’s possible to check the codec used) that AAC/aptX works on my Tento unit.
My inittial unit came from the first batch which did’nt have AAC/aptX, but sounded great anyway (through SBC), and so did the MyST siebling a friend of mine had (also SBC only, at the time). However, I wanted the possibility to use AAC/aptX, so had mine swapped to the new AAC/aptX version, when it became available.
If you have ALL your music on your iPhone, I guess you must be storing it in ALAC or AAC. It’s my understanding that when transmitting AAC (if both transmitter and receiver support the codec) you avoid transcoding, and theoretically this should mean better sound quality. This is why I wanted the AAC/aptX verison, as I would be using iPhone as source, like you’re planning to.
For various reasons I then ended up using PortaDAC in a transportable setup, rather than with iPhone, so never really got to make use of the AAC/aptX feature. As I said, SBC sound great also, MyST/Tento clearly found a way to extract the most of this codec.
All this to say, that probably the AAC/aptX verson is best suited for you, but the regular version sound fine/great as well.
I haven’t done listening tests on SBC vs AAC vs aptX, only checked on my MacBook Pro (which DOES do aptX, and where it’s possible to check the codec used) that AAC/aptX works on my Tento unit.
My inittial unit came from the first batch which did’nt have AAC/aptX, but sounded great anyway (through SBC), and so did the MyST siebling a friend of mine had (also SBC only, at the time). However, I wanted the possibility to use AAC/aptX, so had mine swapped to the new AAC/aptX version, when it became available.
If you have ALL your music on your iPhone, I guess you must be storing it in ALAC or AAC. It’s my understanding that when transmitting AAC (if both transmitter and receiver support the codec) you avoid transcoding, and theoretically this should mean better sound quality. This is why I wanted the AAC/aptX verison, as I would be using iPhone as source, like you’re planning to.
For various reasons I then ended up using PortaDAC in a transportable setup, rather than with iPhone, so never really got to make use of the AAC/aptX feature. As I said, SBC sound great also, MyST/Tento clearly found a way to extract the most of this codec.
All this to say, that probably the AAC/aptX verson is best suited for you, but the regular version sound fine/great as well.
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I would agree, seems the AptX version would be better, seems you can get them for a decent price from the eBay seller. Once I figure out what my portable headphone setup will be, I think I may have to pick one up.
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