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Fosi Audio DS2 Portable DAC & Amp Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
No random dropouts with the Sonata BHD, only the common behavior when resuming play after it goes in "sleep" mode that I documented in some posts at the previous page and the strange noise catching up probably mostly caused by the specific combination with my laptop, both minor issues for me. All in all I'm pretty satisfied with the dongle.
While I expect that the Fosi Audio DS2, should be easily able to drive these headphones, I would suggest you use a headphone power calculator, where you can plug in the values for the output and input, i.e the DAC, and each of your headphones, to determine if it has enough power for the kind of loudness you want.
For example your DT 990 Pro has two different variants, with impedances of 80 ohms or 250 ohms, and I do not know which one you have, unless you specify this.
Best you check how well the Fosi Audio DS2, will be able to power your headphones, via a headphone calculator. In my opinion of course. Reduces the risk of inadequate matching., do check first.
Real question is going to be 1st, how loud do you want to listen, or need to listen, this varies between individuals, and can have an impact on how adequate the DAC/Headphone Amp will be., for own specific listening needs. You can plug in your target loudness in the headphone power calculator, and it should let you know if the DAC/Headphone Am dongle will deliver enough loudness for each of your headphones.
I have not had any issues with sleep mode. None that I can recall. My laptop goes into "sleep mode" or full hibernation, a few times a day, when I am either off to sleep or away from the laptop, and I close the lid. When I log back in, take the laptop out of sleep or hibernation mode, not a sound, from my IEMs.
Only glitch momentarily would be on some occasions, when I plug/unplug in the USB-C cable from the laptop to my Android phone/ or vice versa, cos now I use the Sonata BHD as the only audio output from my phone, when I'm away from the desk/laptop. With this exception. Not a single squeak.
Now on Windows, whenever the computer is really busy, and I have lots of apps and browser windows open, yes audio can glitch occasionally, but this is a resource issue, where the laptop has run out of steam. On the Android smartphone, no such glitches due to resource constraints.
I am nevertheless still interested in procuring the Fiio JA11, and possibly a single CS43131 dongle DAC out of curiosity. This will be for use outdoors, with the Android smartphone, or when I'm out of the house with the laptop. I'd hate to lose or damage the Tempotec Sonata BHD. Fallen in love with it.
But acknowledge that I will be losing the balanced output on these other lower cost devices. A compromise I can live with. For a while I was fixated with the idea of "balanced" headphone outputs, but now I think I have not been able to tell the difference in sound quality between the single ended and balanced, with only difference audibly is loudness balanced being louder.
For IEMs, which is what I use predominantly, the single ended output from the Tempotec Sonata BHD, drives any IEM I could ever want to own, more than well enough, with tha balanced being just overkill.
Nope, we are not talking about the computer going in sleep mode\hibernation, but the "sleep" or "muting" or "power saving" state or whatever you can call it that DS2 (and Sonata BHD) goes into about 3 seconds after stopping\pausing playback and the delay\lag it has when resuming playback, truncating the very first samples of played audio and with a more or less audible panning effect. If i remember well you use a daw as music player, so it could behave just like Ocenaudio keeping the dongle always "active" (i described it here , at n. 5 ) and preventing this to happen to you. Or maybe you are just lucky
I now get your point. Yes, I do play ALL of my audio via a custom loop back, VB audio's ASIO Bridge Virtual Cable, into my DAW, so my DAW has full control of the Dongle DAC, via WASAPI Exclusive, 100% of the time. So maybe I am lucky.Nope, we are not talking about the computer going in sleep mode\hibernation, but the "sleep" or "muting" or "power saving" state or whatever you can call it that DS2 (and Sonata BHD) goes into about 3 seconds after stopping\pausing playback and the delay\lag it has when resuming playback, truncating the very first samples of played audio and with a more or less audible panning effect. If i remember well you use a daw as music player, so it could behave just like Ocenaudio keeping the dongle always "active" (i described it here , at n. 5 ) and preventing this to happen to you. Or maybe you are just lucky
I have experienced the kind of dropout at the start of audio playback, with some other dongles - which I discovered were not authentic Samsung USB-C dongle DACS. While playing back the start of audio in my audio editor, the 1st few seconds, would be muted, and I struggled with this for many months. Never found the solution, cos it was a bit random, after a few times retrying the same audio section of the file, it would play back correctly - really strange. Fortunately with the Sonata BHD, no issues with audo dropouts, whatsoever. None. Thankful. Any disruptions would have been a nightmare for my work - I mix music using the TempoTec Sonata BHD.
Hammeredklavier
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How does this happen though? If the damn thing doesn't play music properly then who cares about the stratospheric SINAD? What's the point of a 120 dB dynamic range if the sound keeps dropping out altogether and then fading back in?! A dongle that behaves in this way might perhaps be useful as a keyring, but certainly not as a device for listening to digital music! Are there really companies that test their products and deem this behaviour acceptable - or don't even notice it? This new Fosi product is basically a total dud unless you want to use it with a phone, and yet it somehow got through the company's own R&D exercise and also received a full-throated recommendation here when the bloody thing can't even play a short track from start to finish without obvious problems.
As I write this I'm listening Bach keyboard concertos via an Arcam rPAC that was designed before Windows 11 was even a glint in Bill Gates's eye and it's working flawlessly - like a CD player!
I have the previous version with the ESS chip and it's unlistenable as a line out source from S22+ in the car, as especially on podcasts as it will play fine then shut off briefly (appx 2-3 seconds) then come back on, only to repeat this until I get tired of it and switch dongles. It works well as a HP amp, even from PC driving Aeon 2's on 4.4 balanced. Not sure what the problem is but it also occurs w/ music from the S22+. Also when switching from low to high mode there is no difference in volume.
I only discovered the existence of this device the rRac, from your mention of it. The initial cost was about $150, which recognises the higher value invested in products at that time. You will recall, in 2012, how many people would bother to use an external DAC, not that many, compared to today, and there were not that many similar products available.
But there are other issues at play here, and I do not want to sound discriminatory, but as someone who has bought audio converter products, since 1996 or 97, every few years, in the past, there was usually a distributor chain, through which we purchase such products, and there was marketing in magazines - paper magazines, which was how some of us discovered these products, and most of the design was not done in Asia, and sometimes the manufacture was also not done in Asia. Quality Control had to be much better, cos there was a long product cycle of at least a few years, before a new one was released. So it had to stand up to scrutiny and reliability. Can't recall I had heard about MQA in 2012..
So today, with increased competition, direct sales, via online stores, and predominantly manufacture as well as design now done in Asia, some of the quality control, has gone. Furthermore in the good old days, the hardware manufacturer would also develop their own drivers like RME does, not use a generic driver, that supports many other devices.
I have bought a total of about 10 or 11 devices for portable listening (IEM's and Dongle DACs) in 2024, and the only two with no issues whatsoever, in terms of quality control, are an Apple USB-C Dongle DAC and an Apple EarPod. I may not like the frequency response of the EarPod, cos my some of my other IEMs are so much better, to listen to, but product quality and reliability, the Apple devices are faultless. The only issue with the Apple dongle, is it insists on having a headphone/microphone cable connected, before the audio device is recognised in Windows 10, so every time I disconnect/reconnect the headphone/microphone from it, I have to reassign any audio apps to the device again, cos once disconnected, with the dongle still plugged in, the device "disappears". That's the design, I can't seem to be able to change this, with any settings.
Every other product, including the ones I'm generally happy with, such as a KZ CCA CRA IEM, ARTTI T10 IEM, and the Tempotec Sonata BHD, all have minor issues, The CRA's largest ear tips are too small for my ears, The Artti T10 seems to have a slight stereo imbalance and slight frequency response difference between the left and right - but that could be my own ears having an imbalance!, and the Tempotec definitely has a worsening stereo imbalance over time, cos ever few hours, if I disconnect and reconnect it, the stereo balance improves! That last one is a bit strange, cos I would expect a DAC, to have no discernible left to right differences, when playing back a mono signal, and would not expect the stereo balance to worsen over time. Really strange.
But this is a case of - we pays for what we get. Apple sells tons of these Dongles and Earpods, and any design cost has been recouped ages ago, most of the Asian based manufacturers of these devices are still in a startup phase.
In a way, it's a bit of a lesson, for me. I can now appreciate why institutions and professional studios will spend hundreds and thousands to buy devices from RME or Antelope Audio, or UAD, etc, etc, which may not measure as well as a Tempotec Sonata BHD or a Fosi Audio DS2, but these other devices, especially RME's are in service for decades, with decades of continuing software driver support.
In fairness, the focus of test on this forum, as well as in most magazines, are directed at only one aspect of the performance of a product, sonic quality, and cannot cover usability issues, or reliability issues - these other issues are not that interesting, and would be a humongous effort and an expensive one, needing a large team. In the case of audio products, its a bit pointless to test reliability, as a reviewer, cos by the time all the issues with the product's reliability may have become apparent, a new one is already out, and the product may have been discontinued.
It is what it is, the outstanding products with legendary reliability, from RME, Chord, Apple are all there - cost in some cases a fair amount more than the products designed in Asia, and in some cases we may need to sacrifice a bit of measured audio performance, cos their primary focus is NOT the chasing of inaudible but measurable extremes of superb sonic quality, but the whole package, including usability and end user support, for which we have to pay more, a lot more.
Nevertheless, in the areas where the cheaper products excel, it provides a window for many, into what better quality would sound like, without having to spend too much initially. When I do have some extra cash, I look forward to higher quality and more reliable product acquisitions, but the cheaper products have given me a good idea of what to look out for when investing more, so they do have their uses. It's not all bad.
The point I made about MQA above was - features. These small scale manufacturers of dongles have to pack in so many features, such as support for DSD, balanced outputs, with enough power from a USB port, and also try not to use too much power - so they do not drain batteries of a smartphone, then add volume knobs, and different gain settings, - its a lot of features, then they have to sell these for peanuts. That's part of the issue, to do all this properly, needs a bigger budget. Someone has to pay for all this. We.
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norcalscott
Active Member
In my case, the issues seem to have been solved with an uninstall and re-install of USBAPP. I had another issue where USBAPP would take a long time (~60 seconds+) to read a folder I recently put around 1,500 FLACs into. That issue seems to have been solved with the re-install, although it still take significantly longer to parse that folder than HiBy player and other apps like Neutron, which are nearly instantaneous. I have noticed with Samsung updates through the years since I bought the S21 that USB operation with these devices has gotten less reliable for some reason.
Unfortunately it's unrelated to UAPP-most of the time I'm listening to podcasts. And when I do listen to music it's usually not via UAPP, although I have tried Qobuz via UAPP-mostly Apple Music. Unfortunately the dongle doesn't seem to capable of playing at full volume w/o drop-outs.
Hammeredklavier
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I think you're on the money here. The market has obviously moved in favour of very cheap, essentially disposable products that - as we see - often don't even work properly. There's no doubting the amazing noise and distortion figures and I don't want to be negative about the technical achievement, but as we all know, they don't make any audible difference. Meanwhile the generic drivers are basically dog turds and as we see here, the DAC can't even play a single track from start to finish without weird problems. I know it's cheap but if it doesn't work properly then what's the point?
I'm starting to feel very glad I hung on to some of my older DACs - my two Arcams and RME ADI-2.
raif71
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It should work the same. Probably just labeled differently.
klirren_65
Member
Windows 7 - 64 driver wanted ...
Is there any (old) driver supporting this piece?
Thanks in advance.
Is there any (old) driver supporting this piece?
Thanks in advance.
klirren_65
Member
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