Asus MU3C-AD(M) Dongle DAC - First impressions and basic measurements

[Chowchilla]

The 24/96 limit and lack of hardware volume control are signs of a UAC1 DAC.
Unfortunately I don't have a PS5 or Switch to confirm this 100%.

I've got one coming to me shortly so I'll try it on PS5/Switch

 

[Chowchilla]

@staticV3

You mentioned 24/96 limit but this fella on Ali is going on about 32bit 384kHz and.. MQA..

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EHtqKZp

Wonder who his source is ha

 

[mc.god]

@staticV3

You mentioned 24/96 limit but this fella on Ali is going on about 32bit 384kHz and.. MQA..

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EHtqKZp

Wonder who his source is ha

They subtly only report the data taken from the specs of ES9260 dac, that supports up to 32/384 and DSD, but the dongle can't go that far, as @staticV3 showed .
All depends onto the usb-bridge capabilities, since it is in charge of receiving data from usb and sending them to the dac as pcm, most likely Asus used a basic USB 1 bridge supporting maximum 24/96..

[EDIT]
E9260 specs say "integrated USB 1.1 PHY", so the dac con go in "basic" performance on it's own and at full performance paired with an external bridge, Asus went for the integrated option.

 

[Chowchilla]

Is this dongle run in UAC 1 mode ?
considering to by this one to pair with Nintendo switch

Mine arrived. Worked fine is PS5 but oddly nothing on the switch

 

[Saidera]

Could I clarify by 'integrated' do you mean that ASUS did not use an external bridge so we are stuck with 24/96? Are the other performance indicators all the same/is there any other disbenefit in having just the ess dac chip do it all on its own?
While everyone should look for dongles with Cirrus Logic chips for better performance, since I have this dongle I have decided to use it with my ZenBook as ASUS originally intended. I lament the fact that ASUS could have put a little more effort in and enabled DSD use.