[Takeda`1537]

Thank you for your recommendation!

I received the Aklaim PD6 today and tested it out, and I love both the small form factor and the sound.

The only disappointment is that the battery drain is higher than expected, even when not playing anything and not plugging in headphones. It consumed about the same or slightly more than my Hiby FC3 or Tempotec BHD Pro.

I'll be checking out your list Meizu products and the BGVP T01s soon.

Thank you for the reply. You made me suspicious and I measured it again, this time leaving it connected longer.
You are right, the PD6 seems to absorbs no power for the 60-90 seconds of use but it progressively, shows that is actually does suck up power. Little but it does!
PD7 does the same too....

My original measurements were done within the first 60 seconds of connection and I did not leave the dongles attached for measuring them over longer periods of time.

Just re-checked Meizu MbluHIFI Lifeme - this one has shown zero consumption during the 10 minutes I have kept monitoring it.
Same for the Meizu LifeMe Pro HA02S.
Same for the BGVT T01s.
Same for DDHiFi TC35C.

These latter four seem to have actually have a switch-off routine after two seconds of inactivity.
Something that seems to miss with Akliam's PD6 and PD7.

Took spot measures, my table is partial and, as it stands, is deceiving.
Will have to re-measure all my dongles over a longer connectivity duration .. Sorry for the inaccurate PD6 data.

 

[TheFritz]

they also offer this mini dongle with an ak chip that is used in the fiio btr3 and 7hz 72 dongles. for 22 EUR it might be worth a shot: amazon link

Out of pure curiosity I grabbed one of these TimeEar TEU-99 DAC dongles for 22 EUR (with same day delivery). Nothing spectacular but not bad either. Here some basic info from an Amazon review I just wrote...
I like the form factor: compact and light-weight but with an exchangeable (nice) USB-C-cable. It comes in an oversized metal can. It is plasticy but feels stable w.r.t. the connectors. No control keys on the unit but two small LEDs; one for PCM (it supports up to 384 kHz in 32,24,16 bit depth with no problems - tested on Windows) and one LED for DSD (128 - not tested). It also had no problems with 192 kHz sampling rate or volume control from an old Android phone. The 3.5mm port supports TRS and TRRS plugs for playback but does not support any cable inline microphone or inline remote - hence it provides only sound output and no ADC input.
It draws (only) about 0.3-0.4W of power from the host device when playing but has actually only a relatively low output power - struggling with almost all full size headphones (no surprise with about 30mW into 32 Ohm) ... but I intend to use it anyway with easy to drive cheapish IEMs only (in situations like at swimming pools when I am not willing to risk my "real" IEMs or dongles like the RU7/RU6, FC6, KA17, etc.). However, it works relatively well with some full sized headphones too like the super-easy to drive Aune AR5000 or the Fiio JT1.
I do not hear any hiss with moderately sensitive IEMs and separation is OK. The sound from the (single) AK4377A DAC chip is neutralish and half-way detailed... but it makes no sense to describe it here any further since it is more or less exactly what you can expect for about 25 +/-5 USD and not much more. No one here will buy it for its sound but it might be worth a shot for the convenience of the detachable USB-C-cable etc...

EDIT: I forgot to mention that it works very well with a Lightning iPhone (12 mini in my case) if you have a Lightning-to-USB-C OTG adapter or cable... this includes 192 kHz tracks from Qobuz. It gets quite loud that way with the AR5000 headphones and it also drives them well.

 

[nemurini]

Thank you for the reply. You made me suspicious and I measured it again, this time leaving it connected longer.
You are right, the PD6 seems to absorbs no power for the 60-90 seconds of use but it progressively, shows that is actually does suck up power. Little but it does!
PD7 does the same too....

My original measurements were done within the first 60 seconds of connection and I did not leave the dongles attached for measuring them over longer periods of time.

Just re-checked Meizu MbluHIFI Lifeme - this one has shown zero consumption during the 10 minutes I have kept monitoring it.
Same for the Meizu LifeMe Pro HA02S.
Same for the BGVT T01s.
Same for DDHiFi TC35C.

These latter four seem to have actually have a switch-off routine after two seconds of inactivity.
Something hat seems to miss with Akliam's PD6 and PD7.

Took spot measures, my table is partial and, as it stands, is deceiving.
Will have to re-measure all my dongles over a longer connectivity duration .. Sorry for the inaccurate PD6 data.

Oh, no need to apologize at all, the PD6 is still a good dongle, small and with good sound.

Your list of dongle power was very helpful to me.
I will be purchasing some of the dongles you mentioned soon.

The dongles I've tried so far include Periodic Rhodium, Apple USB-C Dongle, Jcally JM10, and others, and even the Apple dongle, which is supposed to be low power, has a pretty significant battery drain while in standby.

My guess is that the power consumption of dongles on Android is not as high, if they have a standby mode. (Moondrop dawn pro, Tanchjim Space with no standby mode drains the battery quite a bit when plugged in, even when not playing music.)

I think it's probably the standby power consumed by the smartphone itself due to the OTG feature being enabled.

 

[REXNFX]

Oh, no need to apologize at all, the PD6 is still a good dongle, small and with good sound.

Your list of dongle power was very helpful to me.
I will be purchasing some of the dongles you mentioned soon.

The dongles I've tried so far include Periodic Rhodium, Apple USB-C Dongle, Jcally JM10, and others, and even the Apple dongle, which is supposed to be low power, has a pretty significant battery drain while in standby.

My guess is that the power consumption of dongles on Android is not as high, if they have a standby mode. (Moondrop dawn pro, Tanchjim Space with no standby mode drains the battery quite a bit when plugged in, even when not playing music.)

I think it's probably the standby power consumed by the smartphone itself due to the OTG feature being enabled.

What did you think of the Dawn pro? I found it harsh like every dongle I've tried with my phone. Beginning to think my phone is the problem...

 

[thaslaya]

What did you think of the Dawn pro? I found it harsh like every dongle I've tried with my phone. Beginning to think my phone is the problem...

If you're looking for a very not harsh sounding dongle, the Hiby FC4 is a nice option.

 

[nemurini]

What did you think of the Dawn pro? I found it harsh like every dongle I've tried with my phone. Beginning to think my phone is the problem...

I'm not sure what you mean by harsh, I honestly don't notice much difference in sound between the dongles.

I don't use headphones, just IEMs. I've never found any dongle to sound harsh, and the Dawn pro is one of my favorites in terms of sound and form factor, other than power consumption.

I've experienced noise or phase issues with some Android smartphones, sometimes with dongles that were fine on other smartphones. (Mainly dongles without hardware volume.)

If you're having noise or phase issues with the dongle you're using, and you're using an Android smartphone, it might help to keep the volume on the smartphone at maximum and the dongle at a reasonable volume, but I don't know if that has anything to do with the harsh sound.

 

[sofastreamer]

Out of pure curiosity I grabbed one of these TimeEar TEU-99 DAC dongles for 22 EUR (with same day delivery). Nothing spectacular but not bad either. Here some basic info from an Amazon review I just wrote...
I like the form factor: compact and light-weight but with an exchangeable (nice) USB-C-cable. It comes in an oversized metal can. It is plasticy but feels stable w.r.t. the connectors. No control keys on the unit but two small LEDs; one for PCM (it supports up to 384 kHz in 32,24,16 bit depth with no problems - tested on Windows) and one LED for DSD (128 - not tested). It also had no problems with 192 kHz sampling rate or volume control from an old Android phone. The 3.5mm port supports TRS and TRRS plugs for playback but does not support any cable inline microphone or inline remote - hence it provides only sound output and no ADC input.
It draws (only) about 0.3-0.4W of power from the host device when playing but has actually only a relatively low output power - struggling with almost all full size headphones (no surprise with about 30mW into 32 Ohm) ... but I intend to use it anyway with easy to drive cheapish IEMs only (in situations like at swimming pools when I am not willing to risk my "real" IEMs or dongles like the RU7/RU6, FC6, KA17, etc.). However, it works relatively well with some full sized headphones too like the super-easy to drive Aune AR5000 or the Fiio JT1.
I do not hear any hiss with moderately sensitive IEMs and separation is OK. The sound from the (single) AK4377A DAC chip is neutralish and half-way detailed... but it makes no sense to describe it here any further since it is more or less exactly what you can expect for about 25 +/-5 USD and not much more. No one here will buy it for its sound but it might be worth a shot for the convenience of the detachable USB-C-cable etc...

EDIT: I forgot to mention that it works very well with a Lightning iPhone (12 mini in my case) if you have a Lightning-to-USB-C OTG adapter or cable... this includes 192 kHz tracks from Qobuz. It gets quite loud that way with the AR5000 headphones and it also drives them well.

interesting and nice write up. Thank you for just testing it out and sharing your impressions, much appreciated!

 

[Hal Rockwell]

Xduoo's upcoming release.

 

[sofastreamer]

Xduoo's upcoming release.

great find, thank you for sharing! at least it looks interesting. cant wait to read about specs

 

[Atek2019]

Xduoo's upcoming release.

SSD ? external Storage ?

 

[Jerwardemy]

What did you think of the Dawn pro? I found it harsh like every dongle I've tried with my phone. Beginning to think my phone is the problem...

You could be getting digital clipping causing the harsh sounds. I actually like to keep the volume on the phone lower and use the volume control of the dac to prevent clipping of the original signal.

 

[Polky74]

What did you think of the Dawn pro? I found it harsh like every dongle I've tried with my phone. Beginning to think my phone is the problem...

If you want to try a dongle that doesn't have a harsh sound without breaking the bank, you can try a Colorfly CDA-MP1. After that you will understand that your smartphone is not at fault.

 

[REXNFX]

If you want to try a dongle that doesn't have a harsh sound without breaking the bank, you can try a Colorfly CDA-MP1. After that you will understand that your smartphone is not at fault.

I tried it, sounded harsh. Maybe I need to play with developer options again.

 

[Polky74]

I tried it, sounded harsh. Maybe I need to play with developer options again.

With which iems?

 

[Takeda`1537]

Has anyone had challenges in getting Questyle M12 and/or M12i working on an Android phone?
My two phones (Samsung 23 Ultra and Sony Xperia IV) do not want to see either of the two or I get a message saying that the "USB device is not recognized".

Both dongles are working well with my laptop and I have no issues whatsoever with stacks of other dongles and my phones