Best cheap USB-C headphone dongles?

[toge]

I've just received my Sonata MHD but no idea how to use the ESS audio device flasher. does the flasher auto detect my MHD and i just hit burn?

 

[KING DRANZER]

What is the best Dongle DAC available at or under $10

Am currently looking at:
Venture Electronics Avani
Venture Electronics Abigail
Apple Dongle
SAMSUNG Dongle

Which of these is the best in performance and reliability. And are there any other recommendations.

 

[amanieux]

What is the best Dongle DAC available at or under $10

Am currently looking at:
Venture Electronics Avani
Venture Electronics Abigail
Apple Dongle
SAMSUNG Dongle

Which of these is the best in performance and reliability. And are there any other recommendations.

i only have abigail and apple dongle, they sound 95% the same, apple dongle is 5% better but only if i a/b test them switching them instantly with a A/B hardware switch, if i wait 5 seconds between them i am unable to tell the difference. if you are in europe and use a android phone beware that apple dongle has 50% reduced voltage unless you use a bit direct app such as UAPP so abigail may be a better choice. on a laptop no reduce voltage applied on apple dongle as it is not recognised by apple dongle as a "mobile" device. if your iem is under $50 don't bother just pick abigail or apple but if you iem is above $50 if should can spend an extra $19 on the 7hz 71 dac that is $29, it has more power and akm dac (i dont have 71 dac but i have es100 also with an akm dac and it is 10% better sounding than apple dongle (smoother, more forgiving sound on harsh recordings).

 

[KING DRANZER]

i only have abigail and apple dongle, they sound 95% the same, apple dongle is 5% better but only if i a/b test them switch them instantly with a A/B switch, if i wait 5 seconds between them i am unable to tell the difference. if you are in europe and use a android phone beware that apple dongle has 50% reduced voltage unless you use a bit direct app such as UAPP so abigail may be a better choice. on a laptop no reduce voltage applied on apple dongleas it is not a "mobile" device.

I plan to go for Apple dongle then. Yes I do use Android Devices. But it seems to be of higher quality and reliable. So yeah. And be using with PC too. So don't think it be an issue. And SONY XPERIA 1 II has really good 3.5mm output with enough juice to drive 150ohm headphones. So don't think it be an issue with IEMs. Probably end up using it only on PC if it is bad on my Phone.

 

[amanieux]

I plan to go for Apple dongle then. Yes I do use Android Devices. But it seems to be of higher quality and reliable. So yeah. And be using with PC too. So don't think it be an issue. And SONY XPERIA 1 II has really good 3.5mm output with enough juice to drive 150ohm headphones. So don't think it be an issue with IEMs. Probably end up using it only on PC if it is bad on my Phone.

if you are in the usa, no votage limitation on apple dongle (easy to find used for $5) but if you use a 150 ohms headphone you should look into to 7hz 71 that is 70mW, apple dong is 30mw and not powerfull enoug for my hd58x, abigail claims 65mw on paper but is as loud as apple dongle when i compare them (i updated my post above to mention 7hz 71)

 

[staticV3]

if you are in europe and use a android phone beware that apple dongle has 50% reduced voltage unless you use a bit direct app such as UAPP

The EU dongle had a hardcoded voltage limit of 0.5V, compared to 1.0V on the US dongle. You cannot bypass this limit using UAPP.

In addition, both versions' hardware volume will default to just 25% of their respective max volumes when plugged into Android.
You can remove this limit by launching UAPP and setting the hardware volume to 100%. See here.

 

[KING DRANZER]

The EU dongle had a hardcoded voltage limit of 0.5V, compared to 1.0V on the US dongle. You cannot bypass this limit using UAPP.

In addition, both versions' hardware volume will default to just 25% of their respective max volumes when plugged into Android.
You can remove this limit by launching UAPP and setting the hardware volume to 100%. See here.

No point of having paid workaround as person who is going for under $10 dongle plans to do so to save some money. Why would he spend extra. Instead he could have got $20 Dongle right. Something like 7Hz 71. Nah man. Not gonna spend extra on Software.

 

[roladyzator]

No point of having paid workaround as person who is going for under $10 dongle plans to do so to save some money. Why would he spend extra. Instead he could have got $20 Dongle right. Something like 7Hz 71. Nah man. Not gonna spend extra on Software.

The trial version can also be used for the workaround.

 

[roladyzator]

The EU Samsung Dongle (I've bought one in Poland) has 1V RMS maximum output.

If you plan to use it with PC or UAPP on Android, then I guess it's a good choice. Otherwise, the volume workaround takes enough time to warrant getting another one, like the CX31993 dongles or the Tempotec ones.

Sonata HD II seems interesting since it employs an ES9270 DAC with a 2V RMS headphone output.

 

[KING DRANZER]

Is Realtek DAC in Venture Electronics Avani any good.

 

[roladyzator]

Is Realtek DAC in Venture Electronics Avani any good.

There's a guy who reviewed many dongles at https://andyaudiovault.com/dongle-reviews/

No measurement data, but Avani was given 4 out of 5 stars, and the reviewer liked it. I figure it would be all right.

 

[Shangri-La]

Anyone have experience with the Anker dongle DAC? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Z3B5QL3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's almost twice as expensive as many dongle DACs. I wonder what Anker's reason is to justify the asking price.

 

[DSJR]

Thanks to a very kind US based soul here, I have an EU and US Apple dongles. Headphones are lowish impedance and efficient Sennheisers and got to say the 'fidelity' is absolutely fine on both - and better than the 3.5mm headphone output on this old laptop here. Both not so good if used as dacs to feed a 10k+ input impedance on my stereos though as output is too low (US version) and deathly quiet (EU version) but then, they weren'e designed for that purpose.

Not sure what's going on with Android phones as I only use my middle aged Moto one for streaming (it has a 3.5 socket but it's cack frankly)...

 

[amanieux]

The EU dongle had a hardcoded voltage limit of 0.5V, compared to 1.0V on the US dongle. You cannot bypass this limit using UAPP.

In addition, both versions' hardware volume will default to just 25% of their respective max volumes when plugged into Android.
You can remove this limit by launching UAPP and setting the hardware volume to 100%. See here.

are you sure that EU apple dongle without any bit direct app have both half voltage hardcoded to 0.5V max+volume limited to 25% ? but why would they double implement volume limitation to limit loudness on mobile device for europe, only one of these 2 measures would have been enough.
here are my 3 findings without using bit direct app on android :
1/ EU apple dongle is louder on laptop than android phone (EU mobile device limitation does not apply to laptops)
2/ abigail is louder than apple dongle on my android phone (it is rated at 1V and does not have a EU version)
3/ abigial is as loud as apple dongle on laptop
-> so my only explaination for these 3 facts coexistance is that the EU apple dongle also outputs 1V on a laptop )

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

are you sure that EU apple dongle without any bit direct app have both half voltage hardcoded to 0.5V max+volume limited to 25% ? but why would they double implement volume limitation to limit loudness on mobile device for europe, only one of these 2 measures would have been enough.
here are my 3 findings without using bit direct app on android :
1/ EU apple dongle is louder on laptop than android phone (EU mobile device limitation does not apply to laptops)
2/ abigail is louder than apple dongle on my android phone (it is rated at 1V and does not have a EU version)
3/ abigial is as loud as apple dongle on laptop
-> so my only explaination for these 3 facts coexistance is that the EU apple dongle also outputs 1V on a laptop vs 0.5V on android phone )

The EU dongle is hardware limited to 0.5V output for regulatory reasons. The EU and US dongles default to 25% volume on android devices due to how apple has the device configured (they don't give a crap about android users, and arguably have an incentive to actively make the user experience worse).

 

[amanieux]

The EU dongle is hardware limited to 0.5V output for regulatory reasons. The EU and US dongles default to 25% volume on android devices due to how apple has the device configured (they don't give a crap about android users, and arguably have an incentive to actively make the user experience worse).

this claim : "0.5v limit hardcoded on EU apple dongle for all devices (mobile+laptops)" violates my 3rd finding (agail that outputs 1v sounds as loud as apple dongle on my laptop)

 

[staticV3]

are you sure that EU apple dongle without any bit direct app have both half voltage hardcoded to 0.5V max+volume limited to 25% ?

Yes.

1/ EU apple dongle is louder on laptop than android phone (EU mobile device limitation does not apply to laptops)

That's not because there's no EU limitation on laptops, but because your laptop can control UAC2 hardware volume, and your phone cannot.

2/ abigail is louder than apple dongle on my android phone (it is rated at 1V and does not have a EU version)

Most likely because, unlike the Apple dongles, it defaults to 100% UAC2 hardware volume.

-> so my only explaination for these 3 facts coexistance is that the EU apple dongle also outputs 1V on a laptop )

Wrong conclusion.
If you measure the output voltage with a multimeter, you'll see that the EU Apple dongle cannot output more than 0.5V no matter what.

 

[andreaspujihar]

well asus MU3C-AD(M) i think is cheap just 69 yuan (10 usd) in taobao than you buy in alixpress

 

[Shangri-La]

Copy/paste my posts from another thread : D

A quick comparison of 2 USB C dongles, Macbook Pro 2021 16-in built-in DAC, and a bit of Motu M2.

******
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Because of delivery delay, I bought 2 dongles and received both today.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y7YXHSB?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Z3B5QL3?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I'm usually not a headphone person but did a quick test on Macbook pro (2021, 16") with HD6XX/Truthear Hexa. Difference is minor and doesn't make much difference for what I intend to use (on my phone). The Anker may have a slightly fuller sound. Both are inferior to Motu M2 but that's expected. https://motu.com/en-us/products/m-series/m2/ The Anker is slightly worse than the MacBook Pro onboard DAC.

I then tested the mic quality. And Wow.. what a night and day difference. The MCSPER sounded muddy, as if my mic was wrapped with a few layers of cloth! The Anker in comparison is crystal clear. I didn't compare it to the Motu M2 and dont expect the Anker to perform at the same level. But I was really surprised to discover the mic performance difference.

I'm keeping the Anker and don't intend to order other dongles to compare.

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******

I was courious enough to compare the dongles on a 4k desktop listening system (Parasound Halo Int, Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2EX). Not my primary floorstanding setup but still should be good enough to make the comparison easier.

I cannot tell the difference between the Anker dongle and MCSPER as a DAC. Mac built-in DAC is slightly better, but only barely. On Motu M2, I feel finally I can call this music. On recording side, the MCSPER is unlitenable. Anker is much better, but the Mac built-in DAC is a lot better than the Anker, and louder. I used a lav mic for comparison. Motu M2's recording is clearly another level up.

Before buying the dongle DACs my expectation is I hope it's at the same level as Apple dongle. Although I'm not able to compare directly, I think the built-in DAC of my Macbook Pro 2021 16-in should be at least same or likely better than the Apple dongle. So expectation is met and I will be happy to keep the Anker dongle DAC : )

 

[dtan]

I am using the fiio e10k but I found out that the line out is not 2vrms to fit to my Schiit Magni.
Are there any cheap dongle that provides 2vrms at line out to input into headphone amp?