[Hyde00]

Not necessarily. Dacs have been perfected years ago and tests has shown all dacs sound same as after the $100 mark. The improvements you hear is going to be the amp. The apple dongle came out with the iPhone 7 which isn’t all that long ago.

I mean........ this is going to be another complicated hot debatable topic kind of like "does burn in makes a difference".

To not start World War 3 here, let's just say so far all my dongle dacs that I ever own ALL sound different. Granted not all of them is over $100 so you could argue that only the ones over $100 will sound the same.

Here are the ones that I tried that's over $100 that sounds different from each other:
Dragonfly Black
Dragonfly Red
Dragonfly Cobalt
HUD100
Violectric Chronos

Ones I tried under $100 that sounds different from each other:
Apple dongle
Pixel 2 dongle
Pixel 3 dongle
Xduoo Link
Hidizs Sonata HD 2
Zorloo Ztella

Hence back to the "you gotta trial and error a little bit" comment...... LOL.

 

[noplsestar]

Hi! I am new to this thread (and general to DAC dongles). Always had a DAP (Calyx M, LPGT Ti) but am now searching for a portable dongle.

Now, which one is the „best“ sounding? Have you already found it!?

Just joking. I know it comes down to taste and used gear.

I am listening with the Focal Stellia (that doesn’t need much juice at all, so I won’t have a power problem). I don’t want/need a product of Cayin or L&P because I don’t like those companies. I also don’t need the Lotoo DAC as I had the LPGT ti.
I am thinking about a neutral sounding DAC (wouldn’t be sad if the bass wasn’t perfectly neutral though). And that’s why I was looking at the Violectric Chronos. I like and respect this company.
@Ichos do you think this is the one to got for?

Also Romi Audio‘s products are on my list. Any chance someone here has heard their DACs?
https://www.romiaudio.com/product-page/dac2-balance-digital-audio-converter

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[Mouseman]

I also have a lot of DACs that sound quite different. Maybe all your IEMs sound the same??

But seriously, there are a variety of chips that all have a different sonic character. Even within the same manufacturers. I will agree that amps also have a huge impact on sound, but so does the whole signal chain.

 

[Hyde00]

Hi! I am new to this thread (and general to DAC dongles). Always had a DAP (Calyx M, LPGT Ti) but am now searching for a portable dongle.

Now, which one is the „best“ sounding? Have you already found it!?

Just joking. I know it comes down to taste and used gear.

I am listening with the Focal Stellia (that doesn’t need much juice at all, so I won’t have a power problem). I don’t want/need a product of Cayin or L&P because I don’t like those companies. I also don’t need the Lotoo DAC as I had the LPGT ti.
I am thinking about a neutral sounding DAC (wouldn’t be sad if the bass wasn’t perfectly neutral though). And that’s why I was looking at the Violectric Chronos. I like and respect this company.
@Ichos do you think this is the one to got for?

Also Romi Audio‘s products are on my list. Any chance someone here has heard their DACs?
https://www.romiaudio.com/product-page/dac2-balance-digital-audio-converter

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Was going to say currently the dongle dac trinity seems to be L&P W2 / Cayin RU6 / Lotoo S2 which you rejected ALL LOL.

I think I had a small conversion with Ichos he claims Chronos is meant to be for IEM and not for driving full size headphone (in your case, Stellia) but we can wait till he chime in.

If you want neutral dongle dac I was going to say Questyle M12 seems to be good but judging you rejected the trinity above top so I'm going to assume you're not a fan of ChiFi. So you'll probably reject Questyle too.

A&K PEE51 is good too but it's colored sound as oppose to neutral.

HMMMMMM...................

https://andyaudiovault.com/donglemadness/

Here just go down the list and pick the first company that you like LOL.

 

[Fungus]

I mean........ this is going to be another complicated hot debatable topic kind of like "does burn in makes a difference".

To not start World War 3 here, let's just say so far all my dongle dacs that I ever own ALL sound different. Granted not all of them is over $100 so you could argue that only the ones over $100 will sound the same.

Here are the ones that I tried that's over $100 that sounds different from each other:
Dragonfly Black
Dragonfly Red
Dragonfly Cobalt
HUD100
Violectric Chronos

Ones I tried under $100 that sounds different from each other:
Apple dongle
Pixel 2 dongle
Pixel 3 dongle
Xduoo Link
Hidizs Sonata HD 2
Zorloo Ztella

Hence back to the "you gotta trial and error a little bit" comment...... LOL.

Wow I can’t even justify buying a dragonfly dac let alone owning three at one time

 

[Fungus]

So what’s the difference between the pixel 2 and 3 dongle?
Can someone confirm if it’s true the Apple usb c dongle limits the volume to 60% on android phones?

 

[Hyde00]

Wow I can’t even justify buying a dragonfly dac let alone owning three at one time

lol I mean, I demo the Black in store, I bought Cobalt trying to "upgrade" and end up still liking Red more so I returned the Cobalt.

The Red I just bought second hand for like 40% original price.

I don't keep all my gadget I just buy and sell hahaha.

But Dragonfly Red is my daily driver.

So what’s the difference between the pixel 2 and 3 dongle?
Can someone confirm if it’s true the Apple usb c dongle limits the volume to 60% on android phones?

Uh physically Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 dongle almost look identical.

Sound wise Pixel 2 dongle sound a lot like Hidizs Sonata HD II.

Pixel 3 dongle uses less battery but sound more bad (trade off for consuming less power).

As for Apple's USB C thing I think there's a lot of articles online that talk about it but we can also wait till someone chime in.

 

[PhonoPhi]

lol I mean, I demo the Black in store, I bought Cobalt trying to "upgrade" and end up still liking Red more so I returned the Cobalt.

The Red I just bought second hand for like 40% original price.

I don't keep all my gadget I just buy and sell hahaha.

But Dragonfly Red is my daily driver.

Uh physically Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 dongle almost look identical.

Sound wise Pixel 2 dongle sound a lot like Hidizs Sonata HD II.

Pixel 3 dongle uses less battery but sound more bad (trade off for consuming less power).

As for Apple's USB C thing I think there's a lot of articles online that talk about it but we can also wait till someone chime in.

Apple USB C is great, neutral, perfectly sufficient for 16-32 Ohm IEM and unbeatable for its price. No volume limiting in NA vs. EU (those EU bureaucrats must make some rules here and there to feel totally useful ...)

 

[Fungus]

lol I mean, I demo the Black in store, I bought Cobalt trying to "upgrade" and end up still liking Red more so I returned the Cobalt.

The Red I just bought second hand for like 40% original price.

I don't keep all my gadget I just buy and sell hahaha.

But Dragonfly Red is my daily driver.

Uh physically Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 dongle almost look identical.

Sound wise Pixel 2 dongle sound a lot like Hidizs Sonata HD II.

Pixel 3 dongle uses less battery but sound more bad (trade off for consuming less power).

As for Apple's USB C thing I think there's a lot of articles online that talk about it but we can also wait till someone chime in.

Pixel 2 it is then

P.S many actually claim the original pixel v1 is the best sounding with way more power

 

[Hyde00]

So what’s the difference between the pixel 2 and 3 dongle?
Can someone confirm if it’s true the Apple usb c dongle limits the volume to 60% on android phones?

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones...e_usbc_isnt_that_great_on_android_if_you_are/

Look for first reply, basically something to do with default hardware volume being 0.5 Vrms. And Android has no way to changing it at hardware level.

For reference line level is 2.0 Vrms. So 1.0 Vrms is already consider low and 0.5 Vrms is super low.

Apple USB C is great, neutral, perfectly sufficient for 16-32 Ohm IEM and unbeatable for its price. No volume limiting in NA vs. EU (those EU bureaucrats must make some rules here and there to feel totally useful ...)

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/cpm4b3/apple_usbc_on_android_output_too_low/

It seems like European get different version at hardware level LOL. So it is limited it's just not apparent lol.

Pixel 2 it is then

P.S many actually claim the original pixel v1 is the best sounding with way more power

Uhhhh....... issue is that we're at Pixel 6 now, so I don't know how much change has happened to the google dongle between Pixel 3 to Pixel 6 or if they even updated at all. They also discontinued the Pixel 2 dongle after they came up with the Pixel 3 dongle so you can't find the older ones anymore.

And yes I did own the Pixel 1 phone indeed the headphone jack sounded awesome. I used it as my actual music player during its time.

EDIT: Honestly you're better off just buying a budget dongle or something, there's tons of options these days.

 

[Fungus]

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones...e_usbc_isnt_that_great_on_android_if_you_are/

Look for first reply, basically something to do with default hardware volume being 0.5 Vrms. And Android has no way to change it at hardware level.

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/cpm4b3/apple_usbc_on_android_output_too_low/

It seems like European get different version at hardware level LOL. So it is limited it's just not apparent lol.

Uhhhh....... issue is that we're at Pixel 6 now, so I don't know how much change has happened to the google dongle between Pixel 3 to Pixel 6 or if they even updated at all. They also discontinued the Pixel 2 dongle after they came up with the Pixel 3 dongle so you can't find the older ones anymore.

And yes I did own the Pixel 1 phone indeed the headphone jack sounded awesome. I used it as my actual music player during its time.

Do major retailers still sell the original v1 Google dongle? The original one doesn’t have the dongle photo on the front

 

[Fungus]

The amount of inbuilt dac dongle available in the current market is doing my head in.

I just want one that is as slim as the Apple/ pixel one but with the highest output power around about the same price point

 

[Hyde00]

Do major retailers still sell the original v1 Google dongle? The original one doesn’t have the dongle photo on the front

lol ops sorry I edited my message while you were replying so re-read my earlier message on the safe side LOL.

But basically it's like "under the table" update so there's no way to know. They also physically look almost identical on the outside so you'd have to cut it open to know the difference, which isn't practical LOL. Even the Apple dongle look almost the same as the Pixel dongles, it's crazy!

EDIT: Found pictures, technically what they mean Pixel 1 dongle mean first dongle and 2nd dongle. But Pixel 1 phone has headphone jack so dongle doesn't exists until Pixel 2 and 3, so it's technically it's Pixel 2 and 3 dongle (since Pixel 1 don't have dongle).

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...pple-vs-google-usb-c-headphone-adapters.5541/

The amount of inbuilt dac dongle available in the current market is doing my head in

Okay I can help you look for some options, what's your budget? And what's your device?

What's your preferred sound signature?

 

[Fungus]

lol ops sorry I edited my message while you were replying so re-read my earlier message on the safe side LOL.

But basically it's like "under the table" update so there's no way to know. They also physically look almost identical on the outside so you'd have to cut it open to know the difference, which isn't practical LOL. Even the Apple dongle look almost the same as the Pixel dongles, it's crazy!

Okay I can help you look for some options, what's your budget? And what's your device?

What's your preferred sound signature?

From what I’ve gathered the pixel v1 is the best but probably hard to obtain unless I pay more online which I’m not willing to do.

I need one that has no hiss, has plenty of power, well build, no bigger the the apple dongle and under $50

 

[originalsnuffy]

I have that Zorloo Ztella. The advantage is that it is quite small and the iphone picks up on it right away which is nice.
The downside is that I find it a tad bright.

Are there any other dongles that are fairly small and easy to use with IOS that are suggested? I would ask for AKM chipsets but I gather that is barking up a burnt out tree....