Picked up a Violectric Chronos yesterday. It’s small, smaller than I expected from the photos, just a bit bigger than a USB A-C adapter or a few keys on my keyboard:
Thoughts:
It’s powerful. I’m using B&W P7s, which are 22 ohms and 111dB/V so easy to drive. But I have volume set at 8-9 out of 100 when plugged into my laptop. From iPhone it’s a bit more reasonable as the output from the device is obviously weaker, and I’m around halfway on the volume slider with my iPhone.
I do actually wish companies would put out some lower power dongles. I know that sounds crazy but how much power do you need for portable use? the problem I’ve had with any Dragonfly/Spectra X etc that doesn’t have its own volume control is that it’s so loud from a Windows PC that you lose fine volume control, ending up in the <10 scale on the Windows slider, so each increment is ~10% extra volume.
Thankfully the Chronos has volume buttons, which was also a draw card for me to try it. It gives you 50 steps on Windows and 15/16 on an iPhone. That’s not too bad, but I sometimes find I have to resort to the slider on HF player (iPhone) or fiddling with laptop volume to try and dial in a more exact volume that suits me.
But the volume control isn’t truly independent either - the buttons on the Chronos change the volume on the Windows, Audirvana or iPhone slider - i.e. up 2 on Windows slider, or about 3dB on Audirvana. I swear my old DacMagic XS had 50 steps of volume but you could set a volume on Windows, then have 50 steps on the device itself, so it allowed fine tuning and was a much better design. Anyway, I can set an okay volume and I find it much better than no volume buttons (as with Dragonflys) but not as good as other dongles like the XS.
That rant out of the way
how does it sound?
It’s good, overall there’s a bit of mid-lower treble focus, so vocals and mid-range instruments are very clear. It doesn’t have as much bass slam as my DAPs or the Mojo, but I wouldn’t expect as much from a dongle. So I’d say bass is present and reasonable for a device this size. Treble is good, well-controlled and not harsh at all. Even though I do prefer a bit more bass impact it does actually have a nice, balanced sound - good spatial information and imaging, and quite a ‘more-ish’ easy to listen to natural tonality.
Minor point, it might have been better to have the option to turn the light off, since it’s just permanently on when in use. Also there’s only white (for connected), green (for PCM) or red (for DSD), so the light doesn’t provide as much information about sample rate etc. as other devices like the Mojo. Since I don’t have any DSD files for me it’s just permanently this Hulk/Kermit/cartoon toxic waste green glow
One bonus is it works well with the iPhone using the included lightning cable, so no need for the awkward CCK intermediary. Also no heat build up that I’ve noticed.
Sorry I’ve been out of the dongle market for some time so don’t have any others at hand to compare it with. My Plenue R2 is probably the closest comparison, using dual CS43131 instead of the single in Chronos. They have a similar, detailed, revealing tonality. The R2 has more bass heft, and all the EQ options, but I think Chronos might actually have better spatial depth and more front/back extension instead of more left-right presentation of the R2. Overall the R2 is a more dynamic, intense listen, but the Chronos may well be better for long-term listening. Also, so far I feel that Chronos might actually sound better from my iPhone than from Audirvana/laptop.
Anyway, I’m not sure if it’s a keeper yet - W2 has 100 volume steps and might be better for my use case scenario, but Chronos is easy to use and does sound impressive for such a small device. The question for Violectric will be how it compares to similarly priced options from Earmen, Audioquest, Luxury&Precision etc.
