A Thread Dedicated to Cirrus Logic CS43131

[CedarX]

Your picture should indeed be the CD-20, while CD-10 should only have 2 buttons.

The first dual CS43198 i can remember was the Truthear Shio almost 2 years ago, with RT6863 opamps

and given that both claim for 768 Khz support (via CT7601) my bet is that they are the same pcb, or maybe updated to SGM8262.

Corrected the picture!

About these IEM manufacturers: they may use the same OEM to design their “custom” dongles.

 

[CedarX]

About the CS43198… I also have this (uncommon?) Kuang Pai “Plus 4” dongle:

Dual CS43198, dual RT6863, with 3.5/2.5/4.4 outputs. 150mW / 3V RMS in SE and 320 mW / 6V RMS in balanced mode. 3 gain levels and some “filters” accessible through button combination.

 

[mc.god]

About the CS43198… I also have this (uncommon?) Kuang Pai “Plus 4” dongle:
View attachment 394453

Dual CS43198, dual RT6863, with 3.5/2.5/4.4 outputs. 150mW / 3V RMS in SE and 320 mW / 6V RMS in balanced mode. 3 gain levels and some “filters” accessible through button combination.

This surely is uncommon at 3V and 6V!

 

[CedarX]

This surely is uncommon at 3V and 6V!

Yes, it’s a relatively large dongle. It has two PCBs, one dedicated to a charge pump or DC-DC converter—hence the 3V and 6V.

Kuang Pai is located in Taiwan, not Shenzen, mainland China like most other brands.

 

[Sak]

CD-10: dual CS43198

They’ve also announced a CD-20 built around a (single?) ES9039Q2M…

There are almost no reviews for Kinera's dongles online. On AliExpress, you can read subjective reviews from a few people who bought the CD-10. However, it is currently out of stock and has been replaced by the CD-20. The product description have been updated, but the reviews and rating remain from the previous CD-10 model.

 

[TheMusicListener]

I just received a JM20 dongle from this Aliexpress store and it seems to work perfectly except for one huge problem: if Kodi is running, Kodi's audio will constantly pop/drop out. Even worse, if Kodi is running (not playing anything) it will make all Windows audio including system noises pop and drop out. I have posted on the Kodi forums here and you can see all the steps I've tried to fix this. But I'm starting to feel like this problem is so weird, it can't be Kodi's fault. But Kodi is the only program I've run that has this issue.

While the problem started with just the generic Windows drivers, as you can see in the Kodi thread, I've just installed those Bravo-HD drivers from Hifime and they don't help. Kodi will even cause dropouts in Foobar in ASIO mode. I have a feeling that if there is a solution, you DAC experts will know it. Has no one but me run the JM20/CS43131 with Kodi? Or is this JM20 defective in a very very specific way?

 

[TheMusicListener]

Found another person with a Tempotec Sonata HD Pro who can't get it to work with Kodi. Seems like Windows + Kodi + CS43131 creates some sort of system-wide problem.

 

[mc.god]

Maybe some kind of bug in Kodi with Savitech usb bridge. I have Jm20 and Sonata BHD but never used Kodi so I can't confirm.

 

[CedarX]

Found another person with a Tempotec Sonata HD Pro who can't get it to work with Kodi. Seems like Windows + Kodi + CS43131 creates some sort of system-wide problem.

Can’t help with the Kodi part (I don’t use it), but to be exact, the CS43131 is not the issue here: the Savitech USB bridge chip & its FW/driver is.

 

[TheMusicListener]

Weird that it happens with the generic Windows drivers too. The JM20 works fine with Kodi on my Fire tablet. Are there any currently available cheap CS43131 dongles that don't use the Savitech bridge? Preferably on Amazon?

 

[mc.god]

Weird that it happens with the generic Windows drivers too. The JM20 works fine with Kodi on my Fire tablet. Are there any currently available cheap CS43131 dongles that don't use the Savitech bridge? Preferably on Amazon?

The cheaper i can think at the moment is Moondrop Dawn Pro using a Comtrue CT7601 usb bridge.

 

[TheMusicListener]

Eh, if I spend ~$50 for the Moondrop for desktop use, I might as well get the SMSL SU-1 for ~$65 (hopefully... during Oct Prime Days) and just sidestep the whole CS43131 thing entirely. I'll keep the JM20 I guess for travel use with the tablet.

 

[staticV3]

Eh, if I spend ~$50 for the Moondrop for desktop use, I might as well get the SMSL SU-1 for ~$65 (hopefully... during Oct Prime Days) and just sidestep the whole CS43131 thing entirely.

Maybe consider the E30II Lite for a nice screen, built-in volume control, IR Remote, and selectable Nyquist filter.

 

[TheMusicListener]

Interesting, I hadn't seen this. But my use case is just for desktop with headphones and I don't know if I care too much about filters (don't really understand them, honestly) or the remote. The screen would be nice but not sure if it's worth +$40 to me. Right now I am back to using my Scarlett Solo Gen 2 hooked up to my ol' reliable DIY Gilmore Dynalo (Rev C) headphone amp. Here are some specs I found for the Scarlett Solo off a Russian Prosound site:

I'm actually not sure how much of a difference a SU-1 or a E30III Lite would make, audibly speaking, compared to the numbers above. I did read somewhere that the distortion can rise as you raise the monitor levels. At least the SU-1 is a cheap solution and I thought the JM20 would be an even cheaper one but no dice.

Edited to add: I have a cheap student discount for Tidal, so I've been keeping my Solo at 24/192 just to cover all sample rates, since I use Peace for EQ and have to pick a single audio format in Windows. I know it probably doesn't make a real difference in sound quality.