It is quite a decent dongle for the price, not the most technical, warm neutral dongle. Organic, with good timbre. Doesn't get hot, and has gain options + 4.4mm/3.5mm.
If you want something analytical and technical, then perhaps the E1DA family is better.
You will regret it unless you have low-demand gear, i.e : super sensitive IEM. Which makes sens because there is no opamp inside SHIO, there is the CS43131 for that matter.
It handles most IEMs and low-demand gear easily, but the acid test comes when the SHIO faces some fickle behemoths like the infamous Final E5000 (low sensitivity) and Sennheiser HD650 (high impedance).
The E5000 has a bloated and nebulous bass when it isn’t powered well, and sadly that appears to be the case here, even on the SHIO’s balanced output and high gain setting. Likewise, the HD650 sounds tame in dynamics and boring.
You will regret it unless you have low-demand gear, i.e : super sensitive IEM. Which makes sens because there is no opamp inside SHIO, there is the CS43131 for that matter.
This is false since 1) dongles with proper design manage to drive the HD650 2) some dongles have terrible noise floor hence are not suitable for sensitive IEM
This is false since 1) dongles with proper design manage to drive the HD650 2) some dongles have terrible noise floor hence are not suitable for sensitive IEM
and i don't remember the OP asking to drive only sensitive stuff, and the HD650 is not particularly hard to drive, but the SHIO is just a DAC without AMP. So yeah people will probably regret it especially with the advertising "SHIO can carry most earphones on the market" on their website.
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