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JCALLY JM20 Headphone Dongle Review

Rate this headphone adapter:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 17 9.2%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 164 89.1%

  • Total voters
    184
I asked customer service whether it pairs well with a 4ohms IEM (Elysian Diva), and they said no. So I guess either the OI is not so small or they simply don't know.
In fact, they cannot recommend any of their dongles for my Diva (I appreciate their honesty tho
The CS43131 has a current limiter feature, 120mA I believe. If this current limit is the total for both outputs, a 4 Ohm IEM may hit that limit.
 
L7audiolab measured mb quart mb21 dongle that is essentially the same as jm20 but only down to 16 ohms, so no clues at such low load as 4 ohms
1672920072-THDN-Ratio-vs-Measured-Level.jpg
 
After about a week, this warning suddenly started flashing on and off about once per second, This was the third ASR-highly-rated-dongle that I have had fail on me. At least the Tempotec Sonata made it easy to deal with a cable fail by using USBC. I don't have the ability here to determine where the fault is- in the hardwired cable or the internal circuitry. Definitely suggests a short of some kind though. Back to the '$9 phone dongle' so many look down on. No more buying no-name junk for me. Lots of luck getting customer service on something like this and not worth returning. At least it was cheap. I'm sticking with what works from now on and I like knowing that I can get another one the same day if it fails. It may not measure as well, but at least it plays music.

Changed my vote to one star to reflect my experience,
 

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This started out of nowhere after about a week, This was the third ASR-highly-rated-dongle that I have had fail on me. At least the Tempotec Sonata made it easyto deal with a cabl fail by using USBC. I don't have the ability here to determine where the fault is- in the hardwired cable or the internal circuitry. Back to the '$9 phone dongle' so many look down on. No more buying no-name junk for me. Lots of luck getting customer service on something like this and not worth returning. At least it was cheap. I'm sticking with what works from now on and I like knowing that I can get another one the same day if it fails. It may not measure as well, but at lest it sounds better... now.

Changed my vote to one star to reflect my customer experience,
I'm sorry to hear that. Would you consider sending yours to Amir for a test? This would be a valuable data point for us.
 
I'm sorry to hear that. Would you consider sending yours to Amir for a test? This would be a valuable data point for us.
If he wants me to, sure. Don't know what there is to test though; it's clearly a defective item. At least it was at a price that is easy to shrug off, although you might not know it by how annoyed I was when I posted last night. The video has more impact but the site doesn't support it. But my experience with both the products and support from so called 'Chi-Fi' companies has been uneven at best. Sorry if some might find that term prejudicial.
 
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This was the third ASR-highly-rated-dongle that I have had fail on me.
Do you have an idea if it could be related to ESD? Did these fails occur when plugging the USB or during operation?
Sure, a dongle should survive some ESD stress, but space and $$ are limited, so ESD protection for the USB bus may just rely on the specs of the USB bridge.

I got used to the habit to touch both, the unit I want to plug something into as well as the shield of the plug in order to make sure that the charge has been drained before I plug it in. We were working with very expensive high-speed IC test equipment (GaAs pin electronics) at the time and, of course, very few of us used the ESD strap consistently in the development lab, so touching the grounded chassis before attaching a loadboard or inserting a chip was mandatory.
 
It was in operation, plugged in and playing music. Just plugged it in with no load and it's doing the same thing. FWIW the Tempotec pops sometimes on removal or insertion. Reversing the insertion stopped that... sometimes. The '$9 phone dongle' is quiet every time. Puzzling,,,
 
It was in operation, plugged in and playing music. Just plugged it in with no load and it's doing the same thing. FWIW the Tempotec pops sometimes on removal or insertion. Reversing the insertion stopped that... sometimes. The '$9 phone dongle' is quiet every time. Puzzling,,,
Before you trash it… just cut the wires and try one last time: you’ll know whether it’s a short in the 3.5mm port, or on the USB-C side—the internal chips. In any case, not worth saving :)
 
My obsession with buying kit that gets reviewed on ASR continues to be rewarding....ordered this JM20 Max last Monday and it arrives yesterday.....cannot get some domestic UK deliveries as quick as that. Tried it in two Android phones and a Windows PC with some AKG371s, HE400SE and SR80s.....works very well with no popping, clicking or unusual noises. Initial impression is 10/10

jm20.jpg
jm20-2.jpg
 
My obsession with buying kit that gets reviewed on ASR continues to be rewarding....ordered this JM20 Max last Monday and it arrives yesterday.....cannot get some domestic UK deliveries as quick as that. Tried it in two Android phones and a Windows PC with some AKG371s, HE400SE and SR80s.....works very well with no popping, clicking or unusual noises. Initial impression is 10/10

View attachment 422985View attachment 422986
Which vendor did you use? I am keen on placing an order but there are so many sellers I am unsure of who to trust.
 
Which vendor did you use? I am keen on placing an order but there are so many sellers I am unsure of who to trust.
Click on the link in my post or posted it here for each - JM20 Max
 
My obsession with buying kit that gets reviewed on ASR continues to be rewarding....ordered this JM20 Max last Monday and it arrives yesterday.....cannot get some domestic UK deliveries as quick as that. Tried it in two Android phones and a Windows PC with some AKG371s, HE400SE and SR80s.....works very well with no popping, clicking or unusual noises. Initial impression is 10/10

View attachment 422985View attachment 422986
Which of those three sounds better through it?. I'd like to get the grados because now I prefer on-ear.
 
The QC on this product is horrible from my experience.

I ordered 3 of them half a year ago (2 in one occasion, and another later), and all of them ended up failing within a couple of months. Started off by sound cutting off and coming back, based on whether inserted and removed it from my PC or mobile phone, and ended it with not giving any sound at all. The technical numbers speak for themselves, but what point is there in that if the dongle fails as easily as it does. Incidentally, the Apple Dongle, with its cheap-ass cable buil and extremely thin cable, never fails me. I've used 10-15 of them over the years, and some are stressed a bit (like the one I have on the back of my PC, which is always bent), but they've never failed me.
 
Incidentally, the Apple Dongle, with its cheap-ass cable buil and extremely thin cable, never fails me. I've used 10-15 of them over the years, and some are stressed a bit (like the one I have on the back of my PC, which is always bent), but they've never failed me.
Is 10-15 Apple dongles over the years that much better than 3x JM20 over half a year?
I guess, I don't understand your comment "they've never failed me": then how did you end up using 10-15 of them?
 
Logically, if your usage is spread across 10-15 devices over years it's pretty light usage for them to bend.

Next if cutoffs develop I would not keep using the same dongle until the output disappears completely, especially not with two spare dongles on hand.

I appreciate real QC reports but this sounds suspect.
 
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Is 10-15 Apple dongles over the years that much better than 3x JM20 over half a year?
I guess, I don't understand your comment "they've never failed me": then how did you end up using 10-15 of them?
I didn't ruin any of those dongles, though. None of them stopped functioning. I just treated them without much care, due to how cheap they were, by either giving them away or losing them.
 
I appreciate real QC reports but this sounds suspect.

What's suspect? There's no reason for me to report the issues I've had with the JM20s for no reason. I bought these way before most people on here.

Here's proof of my purchase on Aliexpress:

1737751748942.png


Notice that I ordered all at different instances, and also not all from the same store.

Should also be noted that I never mained any of those on my PC, but strictly on my smartphone (Pixel 8), and just occasionally on the PC for testing. They didnt go through any more of a rough time than any other dongle would.

My I was super unlucky, or maybe I'll be proven right over the next few months, with people in here reporting similiar issues as I've had. Or maybe the QC of JM20 has been fixed in later batches...
 
Which of those three sounds better through it?. I'd like to get the grados because now I prefer on-ear.
I have no favourite, each pair sound really good and pleasure my ears.
 
I've frequented a discord channel for years where CX31993 dongles are recommended regularly. No one complained about the other party not hearing them clearly in calls. On the other hand, numerous complaints about reduced output from Apple dongle when consuming content. You could say it's a discussion of theory versus practice that we are having.
May I ask which channel?
 
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