SlowLife
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Best cheap USB-C headphone dongles?
- Thread starter starfly
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Did they measure current draw?
IVX
Major Contributor
"17.39ohm 0.144mW:50mV" and "17.39ohm 0.144mW:10mV" or "17.39ohm 0.144mW:30mV"
To me looks like 100.00% nonsense, and the result down to nanoohms as well "Impedance: 0.680121654ohm"..
HissingFree
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Could people chime in on some never tested faults of some of these dacs? what I mean by this is for example crackling or crackle and pops.
I would like to know more personal experience about your experience in these regards, for example, Jcally JM20, JM20 Max, Fiio KA11, does it crackle in the rumble test:
And does it produce pops when connecting the dac or starting/stopping a song etc. Same with other dacs people have like a standard CX31993 for example
I would like to know more personal experience about your experience in these regards, for example, Jcally JM20, JM20 Max, Fiio KA11, does it crackle in the rumble test:
Hi and welcome to ASR.
If you strictly need ASIO support i cannot recall any dongle with mic support.
mic support is generally done via and ADC integrated with the usb bridge or with a complete codec chip thati ntegrates DAC, ADC and bridge.
ASIO drivers are available only for Savitech, Comtrue and Xmos usb bridges and non of them have and integratec ADC, so i cannot remember any dongle based on them supporting mic input.
staticV3
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I've checked Tempotec's and Tanchjim's product ranges yesterday.
Both offer dongle DACs with ASIO drivers and dongle DACs with Mic support, but they're mutually exclusive.
I bought the JCALLY JM7 Max during an AliExpress sale.
I connected it to my Windows 11 PC and played a test audio in the sound settings, but it played with a fade-in.
There's a glitch where playing music from silence causes it to fade in. It's awful.
Right out of the box, I was disappointed when playing the test audio. “Not again,” I thought.
The JCALLY JM30 has a similar issue.
It's not a fade-in, but when playing an audio file, the first 0.5 seconds are missing.
Information about this is being shared in a dedicated thread.
I own two JCALLY products. Are they all like this?
I've wasted money twice now.
I connected it to my Windows 11 PC and played a test audio in the sound settings, but it played with a fade-in.
There's a glitch where playing music from silence causes it to fade in. It's awful.
Right out of the box, I was disappointed when playing the test audio. “Not again,” I thought.
The JCALLY JM30 has a similar issue.
It's not a fade-in, but when playing an audio file, the first 0.5 seconds are missing.
Information about this is being shared in a dedicated thread.
I own two JCALLY products. Are they all like this?
I've wasted money twice now.
Not specific to Jcally, as you can see in the topic you linked it's a common behavior for many dongles, it's due to power saving features since they are originally intended for mobile use with a smartphone.
Yes, PEQ filters on the Hi-Max dongle work as intended except that the Q factor of a low-shelf filter has no effect. But shelving filters are not that useful, anyway.
Just want to share my subjective opinion on 3 cheap dongles.
GraveAudio DA06 (CX31993) > Generic ALC5686 > Hi-MAX (CB1200AU)
The DA06 can step down to UAC1 (USB Full-Speed, 96/24) without artifacting (crackling) while the other 2 can't.
Both the DA06 and the ALC5686 have no noise when it is silent but the Hi-MAX does (used with CCA CRA).
The CB1200AU seems to be inferior to the ALC5686 (105 vs 124 dB SNR, -85 vs 92 dB THD+N) judging by the datasheet screenshots I jacked from BiliBili. The same DAC is also used in Moondrop Quark 2.
It also does appear to have a stereo ADC, which I found quite unique.
GraveAudio DA06 (CX31993) > Generic ALC5686 > Hi-MAX (CB1200AU)
The DA06 can step down to UAC1 (USB Full-Speed, 96/24) without artifacting (crackling) while the other 2 can't.
Both the DA06 and the ALC5686 have no noise when it is silent but the Hi-MAX does (used with CCA CRA).
The CB1200AU seems to be inferior to the ALC5686 (105 vs 124 dB SNR, -85 vs 92 dB THD+N) judging by the datasheet screenshots I jacked from BiliBili. The same DAC is also used in Moondrop Quark 2.
It also does appear to have a stereo ADC, which I found quite unique.
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HissingFree
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CX31993 without MAX97220 seems to have lower noise floor, as evidenced by the specs of JM7 Max CX31993 with SGM8262 opamp, much lower noise floor with that opamp than with MAX97220. It is probably the best ultra cheap dongle chip for IEMs
Hi and welcome to ASR.
I can confirm your findings, CB1200AU has worse noise performance than CX31993, I own both and CB1200 produce audible hissing with very sensitive iems while Grave Audio DA06 is dead silent.
The CB1200 selling point is the hardware PEQ function, that at that price is almost unheard, and with less sensitive iems noise will not be a problem.
Both have an ADC that supports audio input for calls.
Finally, both the Hi-Max CB1200AU and Grave Audio DA06 (CX31993 with no op-amp) have been measured by the same reviewer, Roman at Reference Audio Analyzer. Since the results must have been obtained in the same testing condition, we can make an objective comparison.
Hi-Max CB1200AU and Grave Audio DA06 pictured:
These two dongles are pretty cheap at AliExpress.
Output impedance and maximum output:
These are basically 1V output dongles and as such suitable for reasonably sensitive headphones and IEMs. The Hi-Max's 2.5 Ohm output impedance means that its max output will drop a bit when paired with low-impedance phones.
1 kHz sinusoid tests at -1.0 dBFS under no load:
Hi-Max's THD is substantially higher than the Grave Audio's.
1 kHz sinusoid FFTs at -60 dBFS under no load:
Hi-Max's noise floor is also slightly higher (4 dB higher; see below) than the Grave Audio's. These measurements also indicate that these two devices do not employ dynamic range enhancement (DRE) to artificially reduce noise at low levels.
Measured signal-to-noise ratio referenced to max output:
Although this difference is not very large, it seems that these noise levels are right on the borderline between hissing and silent background according to @mc.god's observation in the above.
THD vs. level under 24.5 Ohm load:
THD performance of the Hi-Max is again somewhat worse than the Grave Audio at higher levels. In practice, however, harmonic distortion shouldn't be an audible issue for either device.
According to the data shown so far it appears that the Grave Audio DA06 performs a little better than the Hi-Max with respect to distortion and noise. However, there is one area where the Grave Audio has an issue.
See jitter tests:
Contribution of random jitter is quite noticeable on the DA06's response whereas jitter of any kind is absent on the Hi-Max's.
So, which is a better choice? In my view, either should be fine in its use case (i.e., a tiny dongle for reasonably sensitive phones). But the PEQ feature of the Hi-Max is a big, surprising bonus for a dongle at this price. One may just need to see if its slightly higher noise level is noticeable for the headphones, and if its higher output impedance drops its output too much (in most case, it should not).
Hi-Max CB1200AU and Grave Audio DA06 pictured:
These two dongles are pretty cheap at AliExpress.
Output impedance and maximum output:
| Hi-Max | Grave Audio DA06 | |
|---|---|---|
| Output impedance | 2.5 Ohm | 0.2 Ohm |
| Max unclipping output | 0.95 Vrms | 0.98 Vrms |
1 kHz sinusoid tests at -1.0 dBFS under no load:
Hi-Max's THD is substantially higher than the Grave Audio's.
1 kHz sinusoid FFTs at -60 dBFS under no load:
Hi-Max's noise floor is also slightly higher (4 dB higher; see below) than the Grave Audio's. These measurements also indicate that these two devices do not employ dynamic range enhancement (DRE) to artificially reduce noise at low levels.
Measured signal-to-noise ratio referenced to max output:
| Hi-Max | Grave Audio DA06 |
|---|---|
| 102 dB | 106 dB |
THD vs. level under 24.5 Ohm load:
THD performance of the Hi-Max is again somewhat worse than the Grave Audio at higher levels. In practice, however, harmonic distortion shouldn't be an audible issue for either device.
According to the data shown so far it appears that the Grave Audio DA06 performs a little better than the Hi-Max with respect to distortion and noise. However, there is one area where the Grave Audio has an issue.
See jitter tests:
Contribution of random jitter is quite noticeable on the DA06's response whereas jitter of any kind is absent on the Hi-Max's.
So, which is a better choice? In my view, either should be fine in its use case (i.e., a tiny dongle for reasonably sensitive phones). But the PEQ feature of the Hi-Max is a big, surprising bonus for a dongle at this price. One may just need to see if its slightly higher noise level is noticeable for the headphones, and if its higher output impedance drops its output too much (in most case, it should not).
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HissingFree
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I think CB1200AU has very similar noise floor to JA11 with tinhifi firmware, so noise floor is definitely very noticeable in my experience.
I have no doubt it was noticeable in your experience. As you may recall, I measured the dynamic ranges of the Hi-Max and JA11 w/ TinHifi firmware. The JA11 w/ TinHifi FW is a tiny bit (1 - 2 dB) noisier than the Hi-Max. Based on RAA's measurements, the three devices' DRs (virtually same as SNRs) are best estimated as:
| FiiO JA11 w/ TinHifi FW | Hi-Max | Grave Audio DA06 |
|---|---|---|
| 101.5 dB | 102.5 dB | 107.0 dB |
And my estimates of their 50mV SNRs are:
| FiiO JA11 w/ TinHifi FW | Hi-Max | Grave Audio DA06 |
|---|---|---|
| 75.5 dB | 76.5 dB | 81.0 dB |
Still, I would not say the noise floor of the first two devices should be very noticeable, although I acknowledge that it can be perceived when paired with some phones with sensitivity on the higher side. In my book, this noise performance is still acceptable, causing no problem in most use cases.
Given all the information, for a cheap 1V dongle I would recommend:
- Hi-Max (CB1200AU), based on its overall performance and onboard PEQ;
- Grave Audio (CX31993) or other CX31993-based dongle, if low noise is top priority and onboard PEQ is not necessary.
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Thank you for reporting and resuming it here and to Roman for his great work!
100% agree, but since they are so cheap I'd say "get both and chill!"
Would you be more specific on this? As for the Hi-Max, does it not support UAC1? Or does it support UAC1 but not without crackling?
I have a setup where I connect a 3.5mm from my laptop's dock to my desktop's line-in, so I can hear both audio at once.
However, this inevitably introduces ground loops, so I had to use a USB isolator, then connect the DAC to the USB isolator, then connect the DAC to the desktop through 3.5mm. The generic ADuM3160 isolator only supports USB Full Speed, which is UAC1.
When connected to the isolator, the DA06 is able to detect that the connection is USB Full Speed, and downgrade it to 96kHz/24bit UAC1. The ALC5686 and the Hi-Max seems to be able to detect the connection downgrade, but they provide a 48kHz/32bit output instead of the 96kHz/24bit of the DA06, and crackles when audio is played. Crackling happens even when the audio output is set to 48kHz/16bit, so it is probably an implementation issue on the DAC. No crackling on DA06.
I have also tried extremely cheap dongles such as a unbranded 48kHz/16bit "KM_B2 Digital Audio" dongle and a Bluetrum AB132A 48kHz/16bit dongle. They work fine with the isolator, but they are UAC1 from the start anyways.
Its more than crackling, but you can hear what I mean by the file below. It's 5 seconds of silence, followed by about 30 seconds of Aimyon's Marigold in a .wav file, for the Hi-MAX.
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