FiiO has released the USBDAC JA11, with an initial price of only $9 (69RMB) and support for PEQ DSD128 PCM384

[RandomEar]

Thought about getting this for my notebook (noisy onboard DAC). Considering the size and the price, the hardware seems very capable. But man, what a clusterfuck of a firmware implementation by Fiio...

 

[TonyJZX]

well not really

people complain about something, fiio fixes it with a new firmware

the windows tool seems fine

the app works ok

I dont know what people expect for the price of a medium Big Mac meal

 

[markanini]

It will run fine without ever installing the Fiio the app and fulfill the requirement of cleaner audio output vs. onboard DAC. No reason to see issues where they are not relevant to your use case.

 

[CedarX]

Thought about getting this for my notebook (noisy onboard DAC). Considering the size and the price, the hardware seems very capable. But man, what a clusterfuck of a firmware implementation by Fiio...

I’m with you here. It’s one thing to have a buggy app, not letting you use all the features (e.g. PEQ) correctly. It’s another thing to have initialization bugs, with a firmware (not the app) creating unwanted, and most likely audible, distortions depending on what you play or the sequence of what you play—see previous posts & measurements.

It will run fine without ever installing the Fiio the app and fulfill the requirement of cleaner audio output vs. onboard DAC.

Not sure about that… (see previous posts and distortion measurements).

 

[markanini]

Not sure about that… (see previous posts and distortion measurements).

The distortion according to him was exclusive to phone use. Not PC, which is RandomEar's specified use case.

@danadam have you tried playing back test signals in a app with direct hardware access, like Hiby player?

 

[danadam]

The distortion according to him was exclusive to phone use. Not PC ...

In case of 44k and its multiples, yes. In case of 48k also mostly yes. In case of 96k and higher, no.

FiiO has released the USBDAC JA11, with an initial price of only $9 (69RMB) and support for PEQ DSD128 PCM384

which one would be better the ve odo or the ja11 measurement wise and they have the same chip so u can flash the fiio firmware ??

www.audiosciencereview.com

@danadam have you tried playing back test signals in a app with direct hardware access, like Hiby player?

Just tried on Galaxy S8 (admittedly, an old phone) using UAPP with Bitperfect mode ON. I haven't noticed anything different. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens. The previous tests were on Pixel 8 using "Files by Google" (its internal player) and Foobar2000.

 

[danadam]

Another tidbit, at full volume JA11 starts clipping from -0.01 dBFS up.

In the test file (in attachment) I have a signal that starts at -0.012 dBFS and it ramps up by 0.001 dB every second:


When played on JA11 at full volume:

For comparison, Samsung dongle and Lenovo T480s onboard DAC:

It's enough to reduce the volume on JA11 by 1 step to fix it:

And before anybody asks, no, reducing the volume does not solve the distortion issues reported earlier.

 

[hypervoice]

Can someone test the JM12 to see if it has the same problem?

 

[gufkl]

found something interesting today, when i test Fiio JA11 with this simple stereo test video on youtube, i heard some distortion on opposite channel ie when sound supposed to be heard on left channel there is distort on right channel and vice versa.
i tried to disable the PEQ (previously I thought the distortion was due to peq) but unfortunely it's still persist no matter if EQ is active or not.

 

[marcheloka]

found something interesting today, when i test Fiio JA11 with this simple stereo test video on youtube, i heard some distortion on opposite channel ie when sound supposed to be heard on left channel there is distort on right channel and vice versa.
i tried to disable the PEQ (previously I thought the distortion was due to peq) but unfortunely it's still persist no matter if EQ is active or not.

Hello gufkl i do not have a problem with this track. I hear no distortion. I am using JCally JM12 with JA11 software. I play that track on my windows laptop.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Got one this week on Ali Express. Stumbled into new member discount. It seems to work fine. I'm using it in the car with my phone and music player. Output level is lower than my Tempo Tec and Moondrop dongles but the audio quality is more than adequate for a moving car (As usual, road noise wins.) and I can easily turn it up to too loud on the car audio. For $7.50 I'm very pleased.

 

[danadam]

found something interesting today, when i test Fiio JA11 with this simple stereo test video on youtube, i heard some distortion on opposite channel ie when sound supposed to be heard on left channel there is distort on right channel and vice versa.
i tried to disable the PEQ (previously I thought the distortion was due to peq) but unfortunely it's still persist no matter if EQ is active or not.

I hear it too but but only on Truthear Zero Blue and not on Sennheiser HD650. I managed to create a simple test signal, a modulated sine, that reproduced the problem (in attachment). The distortion starts when the volume is more than -45dB (in alsamixer).

Here's the spectrogram (zoomed in to 4 kHz) of the signal when it starts from -47 dBFS and increases 1dB every second:

Samsung dongle for comparison:

We can zoom in to the waveform, JA11:

and Samsung:

 

[markanini]

I have trouble relating the y axis to dB values I'm used to. But if it's too high maybe I will stick to CX31993 dongles in the future. Although to be fair I haven't seen much beyond standard tests for CX31993.

 

[danadam]

I have trouble relating the y axis to dB values I'm used to. But if it's too high maybe I will stick to CX31993 dongles in the future. Although to be fair I haven't seen much beyond standard tests for CX31993.

0.0001 -80.00 dBFS
0.0002 -73.98 dBFS
0.0003 -70.46 dBFS

The DC shift is caused by ADCiso, I think, it doesn't happen on ADI-2 Pro.

The thing to keep in mind: the above was done at JA11 full volume and this distortion level is more or less constant, regardless of the modulated signal level or JA11 volume. So, with Truthear Zero Blue, when the casual volume level (for me) is at -30 dB, the distortion is ~50 dB below full scale:

 

[markanini]

0.0001 -80.00 dBFS
0.0002 -73.98 dBFS
0.0003 -70.46 dBFS

The DC shift is caused by ADCiso, I think, it doesn't happen on ADI-2 Pro.

The thing to keep in mind: the above was done at JA11 full volume and this distortion level is more or less constant, regardless of the modulated signal level or JA11 volume. So, with Truthear Zero Blue, when the casual volume level (for me) is at -30 dB, the distortion is ~50 dB below full scale:

View attachment 394778

Maybe @AnalogSteph has a clue about what's going on. Do you have any CX31993 dongle by any chance?

 

[danadam]

Do you have any CX31993 dongle by any chance?

Hm... I don't know, probably not Other things lying around are: tanchjim space, dragonfly red, fiio k3 ess, speaka (dragonfly black rip-off)

 

[muza_1]

There is a new update, only fix the clicking sound it seems but I don't know if it's worth it after seeing the distortion measurements.
I'm using a CX31993 now but I miss the small form factor of the JA11.

 

[CedarX]

There is a new update, only fix the clicking sound it seems but I don't know if it's worth it after seeing the distortion measurements.
I'm using a CX31993 now but I miss the small form factor of the JA11.

On the functionality side, the upgrade enables the FiiO’s WebApp to control the JA11 from a PC or Mac (Chromium-based browsers).

 

[multiformous]

I was for sure experiencing the occasional tick or click when using the JCally JM12 with JA11 firmware before this 2.1 update... haven't noticed any noises during my limited use of it since the latest update.

On a related note, I updated the JM12 on PC using the download from Fiio. I didn't see an option to do it on Android in the Fiio Control app. Did I miss something?

 

[gufkl]

I was for sure experiencing the occasional tick or click when using the JCally JM12 with JA11 firmware before this 2.1 update... haven't noticed any noises during my limited use of it since the latest update.

On a related note, I updated the JM12 on PC using the download from Fiio. I didn't see an option to do it on Android in the Fiio Control app. Did I miss something?

it's either via FiiO web control or firmware update software as far i know