MEIZU Hifi Pro USB-C Phone Dongle DAC Review

[ZolaIII]

Ahh okay, my bad. Does the ES9281 come close to the CS43131 used by the Meizu? Not sure if the Meizu supported mic and/or controls. The only ones I can still find using the CS43131 are mostly unbranded or some from JCALLY, although those are not sold by an official store.

CS43131 is better in three aspects; performance, power efficiency and EMI rejection rate (which again translates in performance).

 

[abm0]

Does the ES9281 come close to the CS43131 used by the Meizu?

They're both modern delta-sigma DACs, they should both sound audibly transparent unless misconfigured, underpowered or trapped behind bad amp chips.

Since we're talking tiny portable devices I don't see the point in applying anything more than the "lenient thresholds" in Amir's style of results presentation, so I'm not going to look for vanishingly small improvements in THD or whatever. Once the lenient thresholds are satisfied all I'm left with are user/reviewer reports.

The most interesting thing I'm seeing with the 43131 reviews is high praise from lovers of "analog sound" or "organic timbre" etc., the same people who call ESS DACs "sterile", "clinical", "digital sounding", "fatiguing" and who talk about "Sabre glare". That immediately tells me to pick the Sabre as it's probably the more accurate one in the comparison, while the 43131 might have some detrimental slow-rolloff filter activated that makes it roll off too early in the highs to satisfy these "analog lo-fi" aficionados. So having this information from reviewers, I will definitely not pick one of the currently popular 43131s (like the Tanchjim) over a Sabre device. I'd have to see clear descriptions like "it sounds just as clinical as a Sabre and if you wanna call a Sabre fatiguing you'd also have to call this 43131 fatiguing as well" before I'd consider any particular 43131-based implementation a serious competitor for a reasonably recent ESS Sabre. But that's just me.

 

[Matias]

Edit2: did not know of this brand Keysion but also adopts 9281 chip. <== I was curious and just ordered it to test.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005516171071.html

Following up on my post, I can confirm that the Keysion based on ES9281 chip sounds excellent and build quality is also very nice. 35 usd. Just add a Truthear Zero Red and you are done. This is a very nice successor to the Meizus.

 

[abm0]

Following up on my post, I can confirm that the Keysion based on ES9281 chip sounds excellent and build quality is also very nice. 35 usd. Just add a Truthear Zero Red and you are done. This is a very nice successor to the Meizus.

Might be the best I've heard to date, albeit I haven't listened to other devices having practically nothing added after the DAC chip. HiBy also added buttons for 30 volume steps when they built the FC3 around this chip, it also has its own auto high/low-gain mode based on a threshold of 150 ohms load impedance (not exactly clarified in the datasheet or in HiBy's leaflet, but confirmed by HypeTheSonics for their review and also by myself using an SPL meter and a 150 ohm adapter). Not much left to want if your headphones are not power-hungry. If it didn't have MQA it could've been the perfect DAC-amp for all easy-drive headphones.

 

[DimPalllas]

Hello,
I notice something strange with the dongle . I tried to listen to music from my mobile with Sennheiser HD650 headphones. I tried with meizu and without. I noticed that with the meizu the sound volume was lower and the sound quality not improved compared to the result I had when connecting the headphones directly to the mobile phone.
How can it be?

 

[amanieux]

Hello,
I notice something strange with the dongle . I tried to listen to music from my mobile with Sennheiser HD650 headphones. I tried with meizu and without. I noticed that with the meizu the sound volume was lower and the sound quality not improved compared to the result I had when connecting the headphones directly to the mobile phone.
How can it be ?

Ti get maximum volume you must use a bit direct audio app such as uapp or hiby that controls hardware usb volume

 

[DimPalllas]

Ti get maximum volume you must use a bit direct audio app such as uapp or hiby that controls hardware usb volume

I'm not so concerned about the lowered volume.
I'm more concerned that I don't hear better quality sound compared to the headphones directly on the mobile phone.
How come the Meizu dac does not perform better than the dac of the mobile phone?

 

[staticV3]

I'm not so concerned about the lowered volume.
I'm more concerned that I don't hear better quality sound compared to the headphones directly on the mobile phone.
How come the Meizu dac does not perform better than the dac of the mobile phone?

Because our ears are pretty bad at perceiving harmonic distortion.

Even entry-level DACs like the one that's built into your phone are usually good enough to be audibly transparent.

 

[DimPalllas]

Because our ears are pretty bad at perceiving harmonic distortion.

Even entry-level DACs like the one that's built into your phone are usually good enough to be audibly transparent.

Certainly, modern dacs are very valuable machines.

However, I am wondering how it is possible to not get a better sound result using the meizu, which surely has a better dac than my mobile phone.

 

[mc.god]

I'm not so concerned about the lowered volume.
I'm more concerned that I don't hear better quality sound compared to the headphones directly on the mobile phone.
How come the Meizu dac does not perform better than the dac of the mobile phone?

About sound quality, what exhactly you expected to be better than you phone? If you don't know, then, as @staticV3 said, you are already ok with it.

About volume, it's strange, if you are using the Meizu Pro (not the Lifeme, mblu, etc...) with your 300 ohm HD650 it should definitely go louder than the phone.

However, I am wondering how it is possible to not get a better sound result using the meizu, which surely has a better dac than my mobile phone.

Again, better in which way?

 

[DimPalllas]

About sound quality, what exhactly you expected to be better than you phone? If you don't know, then, as @staticV3 said, you are already ok with it.

About volume, it's strange, if you are using the Meizu Pro (not the Lifeme, mblu, etc...) with your 300 ohm HD650 it should definitely go louder than the phone.



Again, better in which way?

I expected to hear more detail and with more clarity.
I tried alternating the two on songs I've heard many times and know very well to see if they would capture the details.

 

[DimPalllas]

About volume, it's strange, if you are using the Meizu Pro (not the Lifeme, mblu, etc...) with your 300 ohm HD650 it should definitely go louder than the phone.

I'm using the pro.

 

[Jimbob54]

Do we know what the phone and its specs are?

 

[DimPalllas]

Do we know what the phone and its specs are?

It's the Galaxy A21s.

 

[staticV3]

I expected to hear more detail and with more clarity.
I tried alternating the two on songs I've heard many times and know very well to see if they would capture the details.

We're probably 10 years past the point where a poor DAC could audibly decrease detail and clarity.

 

[abm0]

Maybe the A21s is already audiophile-grade since it's a pretty new (2020) model, but this doesn't mean the Meizu wouldn't make a difference vs. a 10yo smartphone picked at random, or even a 10yo Samsung.

 

[jfitzell]

We're probably 10 years past the point where a poor DAC could audibly decrease detail and clarity.

I thought that was probably the case, and optimistically bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0C5WGTM9H

Wow was it shit. Admittedly I was comparing it to a DACMagic100 which "should" be better, but I hadn't expected just how muddy and noticeably crap it would sound. My plans to buy several went out the window.

 

[Paweł L]

Then there is question how good your own hearing is, damaged hearing is not uncommon today. I have really hard time hearing things my friends describe, sometimes a good thing, but generally I wish it was better. Of course not all recordings are pristine and not all music has the spectrum or qualities needed to judge equipments nuances.

 

[jfitzell]

Then there is question how good your own hearing is, damaged hearing is not uncommon today. I have really hard time hearing things my friends describe, sometimes a good thing, but generally I wish it was better. Of course not all recordings are pristine and not all music has the spectrum or qualities needed to judge equipments nuances.

I think my hearing is fairly standard for mid 40's. I can hear things better than many, but I also really struggle to hear in noisy environments with lots of conversations going (which is a noticeable change, I used to be able to actively listen to multiple conversations at once). I guess I could also be hearing other aspects of the cable rather than just the DAC, but I hadn't expected to hear any difference when I switched to it and instead it sounded terrible. I've never thought any of my other usb DACs sound terrible (some ugreen adaptors and some creative sound blasters)

 

[amanieux]

I'm not so concerned about the lowered volume.
I'm more concerned that I don't hear better quality sound compared to the headphones directly on the mobile phone.
How come the Meizu dac does not perform better than the dac of the mobile phone?

i also don't hear a significant difference between internal dac of my phone (sony) and meizu pro dac (with my macbook white 2009 internal dac, ii hear a small difference doing intensively focused A/B testing)) . this because most of us can't based on our gear and auditory capacity. if it can comfort you i can also not hear any difference between 128k mp3 and uncompressed audio on my adam f7 or any of my iems ( but i can clearly hear differences between two iems at the same price level)