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Best Dongle/Portable DAC/AMP to buy?

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I need some help! There are way too many of these that its mindboggling. My Primary usage would be for my Laptop.

Main Requirements or what I'm seeking...
  • Budget: Under $100 USD.
  • Standard 3.5mm Port.
  • USB Powered.
  • 1 Unit, No Stacks.
I've compiled a few so far and wondering if you guys can help me choose, or If theres some others that I should consider. I haven't done any or much research. Looking for some Improvement over the Apple USB C Dongle.
  • EarStudio HUD100 MK2
  • HiBy FC3
  • Hidizs S8 / Maybe Hidizs S9?
Thanks! apologize in advance if this doesn't belong here.
 
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JustAnandaDourEyedDude

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Those are all nice choices, but Hidizs S9 is the best among them, based on Amir's review published just tonight. The E1DA #9038D, soon to be reviewed by Amir but already available for sale, has measured accuracy performance better than the Hidizs S9, and will deliver up to 180mW from its standard 3.5mm single-ended jack into 32 ohm earpiece via your existing single-ended/unbalanced headphone/IEM cable. Whereas the S9 delivers 110mW from its 2.5mm balanced jack for which you need a balanced cable at extra cost on your headphone/earphone. They are both great choices, and I do not know that the difference in sound accuracy would even be audible. So it depends on how much power your headphones/IEMs need to get satisfactorily loud. You need to know the impedance and power or voltage sensitivity of the headphones/IEMs you own or plan to buy.

https://e1dashz.wixsite.com/index/9038d
https://www.amazon.com/Linsoul-9038S-Headphone-Balanced-Output/dp/B08L815P44
You can also get it from AliExpress for a little less money.

The question of "improvement" in sound quality depends on whether your ears and hearing are more pleased by accuracy (at which the #9038D and S9 excel) or some manufacturer's expert tuning which results in a SINAD of only 100dB but could be more pleasing to your ears on most recordings that you listen to.
 
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OP
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Those are all nice choices, but Hidizs S9 is the best among them, based on Amir's review published just tonight. The E1DA #9038D, soon to be reviewed by Amir but already available for sale, has measured accuracy performance better than the Hidizs S9, and will deliver up to 180mW from its standard 3.5mm single-ended jack into 32 ohm earpiece via your existing single-ended/unbalanced headphone/IEM cable. Whereas the S9 delivers 110mW from its 2.5mm balanced jack for which you need a balanced cable at extra cost on your headphone/earphone. They are both great choices, and I do not know that the difference in sound accuracy would even be audible. So it depends on how much power your headphones/IEMs need to get satisfactorily loud. You need to know the impedance and power or voltage sensitivity of the headphones/IEMs you own or plan to buy.

https://e1dashz.wixsite.com/index/9038d
https://www.amazon.com/Linsoul-9038S-Headphone-Balanced-Output/dp/B08L815P44


Does the E1DA #9038D have that issue where it randomly loses volume control? I had the PowerDAC v2 in the past where I sold it immediately when it nearly blew out my ears. I was scared shitless.

The E1DA #9038D is the best one in their lineup?
 
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ZolaIII

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So far L&P W2 actually holds the record (counting in the difference between WolfX-700 and Amir's measuring methodology differences) from those mesured hire so far but with current pricing it certainly doesn't represent value for money.
 
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JustAnandaDourEyedDude

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Does the E1DA #9038D have that issue where it randomly loses volume control? I had the PowerDAC v2 in the past where I sold it immediately when it nearly blew out my ears. I was scared shitless.

The E1DA #9038D is the best one in their lineup?
The #9038S G3 Susumu 3000 edition and #9038D are about equivalent in sound quality and power. However, the #9038D provides the prevalent 3.5mm socket, whereas the #9038S provides a 2.5mm socket requiring a balanced cable at extra cost. I have not experienced the random volume level jump that you mention with either the #9038S G3 S3K or the #9038D, nor have I come across any prior mention of it. I am waiting for PowerDAC v2.1 to be released, which can supposedly be used as a Line Out to feed an amp. The E1DA Discord chat should help answer a lot of questions or issues posed by active users.
 
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brandall10

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Does the E1DA #9038D have that issue where it randomly loses volume control? I had the PowerDAC v2 in the past where I sold it immediately when it nearly blew out my ears. I was scared shitless.

The E1DA #9038D is the best one in their lineup?

I have the balanced version and never experienced that issue. The PowerDAC with the extra HPToy and all that jazz may have been more susceptible.
 

Al Batar

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Hi, I'm new here and I need to buy a additional adapter USB-C to jack 3.5 mm for my new phone (a Xiaomi MI 10T Pro). I've found this forum, full of interesting reviews and comments, and hope I could get here tips and /or answers to some questions.

The first is : does anybody knows if my phone is compatible with analog audio over USB-C ?

Additionally, I use a Sennheiser Momentum 2 (low impedance) and currently own a portable DAC (Encore mDSD) which I find quite good (but I have no other DAC to be used in side-by-side comparison !). I've started to search for another DAC, with smaller footprint in my pockets. As I read this forums, it appears that the following products should be interesting for me :
* Hidizs S9 (should I wait for the incoming Pro version ?) ;
* Hidizs S8 or its clone Sonata HD Pro ;
* HiBy FC3 ;
* E1DA #9038D.

Reading some customers' review on AliExpress, I found a guy saying the E1DA 9038D was quite power-demanding to let it express its full qualities, and that with more power, the DAC was sounding far more better (see 2nd comment here).

Do anyone sincerely believe that I will be able to ear a major difference between any of these products ? I'm quite old now (47) and I do know my ears are not anymore what they used to be ;-). And, to be complete, I'm specially demanding on the quality of the tones of analog instruments (I play cello, I love the « matter » of a sound), I hate cramped or metallic sounds (eg. violins on mean products), skimpy soundstage. But I also prefer transparency over artificial warmness.

Lastly, does anyone have a suggestion concerning USB-C cable allowing communication AND charging simultaneously ?

Thanks for reading this far, and more thanks in advance for any piece of advice.

AB

PS : my apologize for all English flaws, it's not my native language...
 

jonathane40

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The #9038S G3 Susumu 3000 edition does seem very interesting. Has anyone used it with sensitive IEMs like Andromedas? I wonder if it would have a clean and silent background without any hiss.

I am looking for a 4.4mm balanced amp/dac but I'm also open to 2.5 now!
 

AdamG

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Rottmannash

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Hi, I'm new here and I need to buy a additional adapter USB-C to jack 3.5 mm for my new phone (a Xiaomi MI 10T Pro). I've found this forum, full of interesting reviews and comments, and hope I could get here tips and /or answers to some questions.

The first is : does anybody knows if my phone is compatible with analog audio over USB-C ?

Additionally, I use a Sennheiser Momentum 2 (low impedance) and currently own a portable DAC (Encore mDSD) which I find quite good (but I have no other DAC to be used in side-by-side comparison !). I've started to search for another DAC, with smaller footprint in my pockets. As I read this forums, it appears that the following products should be interesting for me :
* Hidizs S9 (should I wait for the incoming Pro version ?) ;
* Hidizs S8 or its clone Sonata HD Pro ;
* HiBy FC3 ;
* E1DA #9038D.

Reading some customers' review on AliExpress, I found a guy saying the E1DA 9038D was quite power-demanding to let it express its full qualities, and that with more power, the DAC was sounding far more better (see 2nd comment here).

Do anyone sincerely believe that I will be able to ear a major difference between any of these products ? I'm quite old now (47) and I do know my ears are not anymore what they used to be ;-). And, to be complete, I'm specially demanding on the quality of the tones of analog instruments (I play cello, I love the « matter » of a sound), I hate cramped or metallic sounds (eg. violins on mean products), skimpy soundstage. But I also prefer transparency over artificial warmness.

Lastly, does anyone have a suggestion concerning USB-C cable allowing communication AND charging simultaneously ?

Thanks for reading this far, and more thanks in advance for any piece of advice.

AB

PS : my apologize for all English flaws, it's not my native language...
I have the 9038D and the way I get around the charging issue if when in the car I use a phone mount that wirelessly charges the phone while the dongle is in the USB C port. Charging and listening simultaneously but that only works w/ wireless charging. One could use one of those wireless pads one can place one's phone on and can use it that way as well.
 

raif71

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I just got a used e1da powerdac v2 and started to look into eq which I have avoided previously. I'm intrigued with the HPToy eq preset and if I'm not mistaken uses a 7 filter parameter. I believe one can import filter settings and add to the hptoy preset lists. I've been looking around for hptoy peq filter setting files but couldn't find any but I have found 10 parameter filter setting files. I wonder if I can I use them with hptoy? Any help is appreciated if people have links to actual hptoy preset files or perhaps I need to format the 10 preset lists so that it is compatible with hptoy etc. Thanks

The 10 parameter filter setting files are here...

 
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staticV3

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There are two ways you can import AutoEQ presets into HPToy:

1) enter the first five PEQ filters of a 10-band PEQ preset manually into HPToy.
Screenshot_20220518-003448_Chrome.jpg
To do that, tap on this arrow in the Filter menu:
Screenshot_20220518-002445_HPToy.jpg
And then you can enter the Freq, Gain, and Q values manually:
Screenshot_20220518-002644_HPToy.jpg
The disadvantage of this method is that the EQ will be a bit imprecise.

2) download the .png from AutoEQ, set it as background in the Filter menu, then build a 7-band PEQ manually by dragging and pinching the filters around. Here's how:

And a secret, 3rd method:
Use the AutoEQ Python script to generate optimal PEQ settings automatically. To do that, use max_filters=7 and fs=88100Hz
 
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raif71

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There are two ways you can import AutoEQ presets into HPToy:

1) enter the first five PEQ filters of a 10-band PEQ preset manually into HPToy.
View attachment 207295
To do that, tap on this arrow in the Filter menu:
View attachment 207288
And then you can enter the Freq, Gain, and Q values manually:
View attachment 207290
The disadvantage of this method is that the EQ will be a bit imprecise.

2) download the .png from AutoEQ, set it as background in the Filter menu, then build a 7-band PEQ manually by dragging and pinching the filters around. Here's how:

And a secret, 3rd method:
Use the AutoEQ Python script to generate optimal PEQ settings automatically. To do that, use max_filters=7 and fs=88100Hz
do you mean 88200 ?
 

Inhuman

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I love how Sonata HD Pro bring music to my ears, prefer CS than ESS chip btw :D
 

raif71

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I thought so. Anyway, I've installed autoeq and I'm trying the sound signature command to make my hd800 sound like an hd820. I've used your suggestion of using filter=7 and fs=88200 and gotten results in the my_result directory... what files can I load in hptoy...should I use txt file or csv file etc... Thanks
 
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staticV3

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You can enter the PEQ values in the PEQ text file into the Filter menu in HPToy:
Screenshot_20220518-002644_HPToy.jpg
You can't import the text file directly

To emulate a specific headphone using AutoEQ, I would set that headphone as the target frequency response, instead of as the sound signature

Edit:
Serious question: why would you want to emulate this:
Screenshot_20220521-114232_Chrome.jpg
 
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raif71

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You can enter the PEQ values in the PEQ text file into the Filter menu in HPToy:
View attachment 207930
You can't import the text file directly

To emulate a specific headphone using AutoEQ, I would set that headphone as the target frequency response, instead of as the sound signature

Edit:
Serious question: why would you want to emulate this:
View attachment 207931
I see that I have to do this manually ie adding filter data. As for the your question about emulation...you mean I cannot really emulate my hd800 to sound like hd820 with autoeq?
 

staticV3

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That you can't fully emulate a headphone that way should be obvious
What I mean is that:
A: there are better ways of doing it than with AutoEQ's sound signature feature and
B: I don't understand why anyone would want to emulate the HD820's frequency response. It is awful.
 
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