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Earmen Sparrow Review (Portable DAC & Amp)

wasnotwasnotwas

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Just checked it seems my bad memory of the cowon measurements are great and thought the AK did measures great too which is wrong memory. My bad here

As someone that bought an AK before finding ASR, I'm as sorry as you are
 

wasnotwasnotwas

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Actually I hope asr did measure a AK totl model someday, I bought an zx300 which isn’t a charm either

Me too, if only to prove that the better dongles out perform in terms of distortion and power (or dont).
 

YSC

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Me too, if only to prove that the better dongles out perform in terms of distortion and power (or dont).
I do think it’s different use case, I used to use an iPhone dongle as you know they ditched the 3.5mm long ago.
But that
1) can’t charge at the same time and as everything uses phone battery that’s a trouble

2) extra strain to the socket isn't a good idea and after normal usage for a while at portable environmet (i.e. put in pocket or bags and walk around) th socket just gets loose and you got broken connection once a while, which is worse than any SINAD numbers.

So personally I still prefer and enjoys my 86db SINAD ZX300 at portable use or stream through BT for tidal than use a good dongle instead.
 

Rottmannash

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What is this showing, because it doesn't look like a sine wave.
That was a image before he turned down the signal. Check out the review-there are several screenshots of the scope with various voltages both SE and balanced. There were too many images to save and post.
 

Rottmannash

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Try this.
Sparrow-35mm-032_resize.jpg
 

mshenay

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About a month ago EarMen released a firmware update for Sparrow (its on their homepage). I wonder if it improves the noise performance?

It's more for stability but it may also help to refine the performance, I would have hoped the sample came with the most up to date firmware installed! If not it would be interesting to see if updating it has any change on the measure performance
 

vkvedam

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Isn't it Earmen?

Meizu Pro DAC trumps this in every aspect I suppose, am I mistaken?
 

cqtek

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Hello to all.

It is an honor that my measurements are referenced in a forum that I follow with admiration for the quality of its measures.
My humble measuring devices cannot compete with the ones here. I used to have a Fluke oscilloscope that I could take better measurements with. It was from my work and was sent to another branch. I had to buy another one that was much cheaper...

Regarding the Sparrow, their specifications say that at 32 Ohms by the SE output, they provide 1.4V. You can turn up the volume, but the distortion is visible in the pure waves. With higher impedance (100 Ohms), the output is already clean at 2.0V. Something similar happens with the balanced output, you can see that at 32 Ohms there is 2.0V clean (according to the specifications). The most important thing is that the waves are clean throughout the audible range. There are times when measurements are made at 1kHz and they are good, but when they are measured at high or low frequencies, you can see a mess there.
Regarding the sound of the Sparrow, connected to my HiBy R3 Pro, it is one of the best I have tried, I love that combination. I do not argue that for what it costs the set can be found a better sound, but it is what I have at home, why not enjoy it?
 

Veri

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Hey @amirm since this one was received pretty well, any chance you're getting the E1DA 9038d reviewed? I'm thinking it'll be even better but I would love to see that confirmed :) thanks a lot
 

Rottmannash

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Ditto. Am interested in the E1DA 9038d as well. Have heard it has the same issues w/ interference from EMI though.
 

M00ndancer

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I do think it’s different use case, I used to use an iPhone dongle as you know they ditched the 3.5mm long ago.
But that
1) can’t charge at the same time and as everything uses phone battery that’s a trouble

2) extra strain to the socket isn't a good idea and after normal usage for a while at portable environmet (i.e. put in pocket or bags and walk around) th socket just gets loose and you got broken connection once a while, which is worse than any SINAD numbers.

A good USB-C implementation walks all over the crappy lightning connection.
A phone with a bigger battery have no problem with it either.

But iPhone is a bad product in many ways that have nothing to do with sound quality (Overtaxing battery, small battery, crappy lightning connector), something it shares will the majority of phones, regardless of manufacturer.

So personally I still prefer and enjoys my 86db SINAD ZX300 at portable use or stream through BT for tidal than use a good dongle instead.

That's your personal preference and nothing I can argue about more than stating, "in my opinion" bla bla bla.

We all know that opinions are like assholes, every human (that I know off) has one.
 

jameswilson

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I would love to see a review of these "portables" using their intended source... a smart phone.

Selfishly, an android, as thats what I use for all these dongles. It definitely does have an impact on power output... actually, ever since the most recent update on my Samsung Note 9 a week ago, I've felt my PAW S1 requires 10 more steps to reach the normal volume level.
 

staticV3

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I would love to see a review of these "portables" using their intended source... a smart phone.

Selfishly, an android, as thats what I use for all these dongles. It definitely does have an impact on power output... actually, ever since the most recent update on my Samsung Note 9 a week ago, I've felt my PAW S1 requires 10 more steps to reach the normal volume level.
You can use UAPP or Hiby to talk to the DAC directly, which will give you the same performance and output power as though you're using Wasapi or Asio on Windows
 
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Yep the Earmen Sparrow with its two outputs (single-ended; balanced) provides more power than the Dragonfly Black…but only on the Mabook Air.

On the iphone, the Sparrow appears throttled and the Dragonfly has MUCH more power. Could it be that this has to do with the Sparrow's higher power consumption?
 
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