Fosi Audio DS2 Portable DAC & Amp Review

[norcalscott]

Have you tried sending an email to UAPP's developer?

He's usually super quick to respond and patch issues.

Not yet, I am going to try a few things on my side when I have time. You are correct - the developer is usually quick to respond - I had a HiBy R5 Saber early on and exchanged a few things with him regarding support of that device and a couple of issues I was seeing. He fixed them in the next release.

 

[Narrator]

I had ordered it the day the review came up. Using it with 7hz crinacle zero 2s and an OTG lightning cable connecting to my iphone 11. Works wonderful. Thanks to Amir and all the nice people here.

 

[JimmyBuckets]

Bought one right from Fosi. Took a few weeks to get here, but been enjoying it so far. Using USB Audio Player Pro playing Qobuz from my Android phone and the LED on the dongle have followed suit with what Qobuz says is sample rate. It would be nice to see another sample of this unit measured and see if we got similar results.

 

[Labjr]

Bought one right from Fosi. Took a few weeks to get here, but been enjoying it so far. Using USB Audio Player Pro playing Qobuz from my Android phone and the LED on the dongle have followed suit with what Qobuz says is sample rate. It would be nice to see another sample of this unit measured and see if we got similar results.

RME confirmed some of the measurements.

Fosi Audio DS2 Portable DAC & Amp Review

Hi Turambar, thanks for your quick reply. Just name it: RTFM. :) Even if it is not entirely clear to me why an adapter should cause such problems, this is probably an incorrect method of use. 4.4mm to 4Pin XLR adapters are entirely safe to use. It's possible that you just happened to get a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Kuma]

I had ordered it the day the review came up. Using it with 7hz crinacle zero 2s and an OTG lightning cable connecting to my iphone 11. Works wonderful. Thanks to Amir and all the nice people here.

Very happy with mine. Ordered direct from Fosi after reading the review. It took a couple of weeks to receive it. It was simple plug and play with the supplied cable and my iPad. I also bought a 4.4 balanced headphone cable from amazon because why not? Been enjoying it for a couple of weeks now through HD600. Doesn’t get warm after hours of using, doesn’t drain the battery much, sounds great.

 

[Viper780]

To show our appreciation for the support from ASR members, we’re offering a special discount code for the DS2. You can use this code to get 20% off your DS2 purchase!
ASRDS220

Is this code still valid?
I doens't work for me anymore

 

[jasonhanjk]

I don't think anybody has concluded yet if 4.4mm jack has a proper ground connection for this use case.

Measured. The sleeve is connected to usb ground.

 

[Hasan Aydin]

It obviously can affect SQ. A piece from a song was used as an example (this can also be downloaded). The clicks occur depending on the structure of the signal and DAC Volume. I will try it out later with my Sonata BHD Pro.

These clicks were also confirmed for the SMSL M300 in the last 4 comments here and a few pages further: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/new-s-m-s-l-m300-se-120.44485/page-6


I don't want any random clicks in the signal that weren't there before. Especially when I'm doing audio editing...

I can definitely hear micro clicks with my Sonata BHD Pro!
I'm afraid DS2 will have the same problem, so I won't be ordering it. @amirm should take a closer look at this and mention it in the reviews so that manufacturers who use CS43131/43198 chips in their products become aware of this problem.

 

[Chester]

@amirm should take a closer look at this and mention it in the reviews so that manufacturers who use CS43131/43198 chips in their products become aware of this problem.

I don’t love these types of comments personally. Amir reviews all this stuff for free, on his own time. It’s not his responsibility to do a deep technical dive and identify every single issue a product may have. It’s a great little device, for most people, that’s what his testing has demonstrated. The fact that someone takes the time to provide this level of data is more than we can ask for.

 

[Hasan Aydin]

I don’t love these types of comments personally. Amir reviews all this stuff for free, on his own time. It’s not his responsibility to do a deep technical dive and identify every single issue a product may have. It’s a great little device, for most people, that’s what his testing has demonstrated. The fact that someone takes the time to provide this level of data is more than we can ask for.

I understand your point and I am more than grateful for what has already been achieved here, but such problems affect performance. Recommendations are made here for faulty products. Many people trust Amir and buy their products accordingly. Manufacturers also look at ASR. Therefore, it would also be an advantage for Amir to point out such issues. It does not only concern one product but several with Cirrus Logic chips. Random clicks are no small matter, something like this should never happen in a DA chip.
THD+N values below -110db or tiny bit of jitter or aliasing are compared here, which very few people hear, but obvious things like clicks are neglected...

 

[Chester]

I understand your point and I am more than grateful for what has already been achieved here, but such problems affect performance. Recommendations are made here for faulty products. Many people trust Amir and buy their products accordingly. Manufacturers also look at ASR. Therefore, it would also be an advantage for Amir to point out such issues. It does not only concern one product but several with Cirrus Logic chips. Random clicks are no small matter, something like this should never happen in a DA chip.
THD+N values below -110db or tiny bit of jitter or aliasing are compared here, which very few people hear, but obvious things like clicks are neglected...

It can’t all be on Amir though. I see a lot of demands in threads: “test this / test that / you really should have tested this”. Personally, I find it distasteful and a little ungrateful. I’m not saying that was yours or anyone else’s intention, it’s just my opinion. I also feel ASR has enough attention now that just discussing things in a thread like this will have the desired affect on manufacturers. If for instance, everyone here agrees with you, then any manufacturer who is observing these things will look to other affordable chips.

 

[vvox]

Is this code still valid?
I doens't work for me anymore

For 55$ on oficial Fosi, aliexpress.
Moondrop down pro for 50$ on ali for example.

 

[DSJR]

I finally found the time to start testing and measuring. I use iPhone 11 Pro and 16 Pro for testing, plus a notebook via USB C with the BRAVO ASIO driver. Lots of unexpected issues that keep me busy to find out what's going on. What is already interesting is that I am not able to perform a THD+N sweep of the Fosi without running into complete nonsense values. Reason seems to be that the High Performance Analyzer mode of the APx gets disturbed by the high amount of out-of-band noise, a known property of the whole CS DAC chip series. Turning the High Performance mode off fixes that but limits THD+N to around -105 or so dB. @amirm might be able to fix his sweeps by adding his AP switching amplifier measurement filter. And maybe that was the reason he had an 'instrumentation error'.

Back to the bench...

Very late question to this post, but is this out-of-band noise something to be concerned about? I mean, many class D amps seem to have all sorts going on over 20kHz and popular tweeters by at least two makers take off at 40kHz or so. I do appreciate none of us can hear these raw frequencies (especially as oldies like me now would struggle over 10k or not much higher), but could there be a cumulative issue possibly?

 

[Human Bass]

Right now for less than 43usd with coupons

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[Somafunk]

Right now for less than 43usd with coupons

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mr9XnnI

Christ…down to £35 posted to my door, I don’t need it at all but at that price I wish I did

 

[Human Bass]

Christ…down to £35 posted to my door, I don’t need it at all but at that price I wish I did

Do it

 

[Emlin]

Do it

I'm wondering how they do it!

 

[Labjr]

I'm wondering how they do it!

Probably don’t cost much to manufacture. Can't be much inside the tiny thing. Everyone is used to mark-up from traditional audiophile companies.

 

[norcalscott]

Update on my issue with USB Audio Player Pro not keeping connection with the Fosi DS2 - I uninstalled and completely re-installed and configured USBAPP and it is happily now working with the DS2. This little dongle is quite amazing for the price!

 

[Turambar]

It's quite amazing for any price, in my view.

Quality, in audio, is not price related.