JCALLY JM20 MAX Headphone Dongle Review

[Somafunk]

My dongle arrived a few days ago, sounds perfectly fine but it can get warm which is no real surprise. Happy with it for £20

My little collection below (after being thinned out), covers every possible eventuality.

From top

2.5mm balanced to 4.4mm balanced for use with Qudelix 5k (balanced not really needed as everything I use can get enough power/headroom from 3.5mm)

USB C to USB C tail to hardwire Qudelix 5k to iPad

Lightning to USB C to hardwire Qudelix 5k to iPhone XS (to be retired later this year - rip)

Left to right

Moondrop Echo-B USB C to 4.4mm balanced dac/amp

Qudelix 5k

Jcally JM-20 Max USB C to 3.5mm

 

[klirren_65]

Short and sweet - Where do I get driver for windows? Google does not help.

 

[staticV3]

Short and sweet - Where do I get driver for windows? Google does not help.

Officially, there are no 3rd party audio drivers published by JCally.

The JM20 is designed to be used with the universal device drivers that all modern operating systems come with, plug-and-play.

If for whatever reason these universal drivers don't work for you, then you can try using the Bravo-HD driver.

That one you can google.

 

[klirren_65]

The download of the Bravo-HD driver is tied up with cripple-software.

 

[mc.god]

The download of the Bravo-HD driver is tied up with cripple-software.

You can download it form here:

Windows drivers for Hifime DACs - Hifime Audio

Windows drivers for Hifime DACs There are two different drivers depending on the DAC model. Savitech SA9023 driver (download) For these models: Savitech SA9227 driver (download) New driver Updated Dec 2023 For these models:

hifimediy.com

Savitech SA9227 driver

 

[klirren_65]

Bravo does not support JCally - no problem.

 

[mc.god]

Bravo does not support JCally - no problem.

JM20 Max uses the same Savitech SA9312 bridge than vanilla JM20, the driver i linked works flawlessly with my JM20.

 

[dark132]

Short and sweet - Where do I get driver for windows? Google does not help.

If you use an asio-compatible player such as foobar2000, you can use all4asio or flexasio. You only need to adjust the buffer size to make it work properly. Generally, it is adjusted to 1024.Flexasio need
[output]
wasapiExclusiveMode = false; “other DAC set this 'true'，but it not work for this DAC"

 

[boswell]

In windows Equalizer APO recognizes it as CS43131 Hifi Audio DSP and it works

 

[klirren_65]

Okay, I had to tell you at the beginning, that the driver problem concerns Windows 7.

No worry - my working OS is Linux LMDE.

 

[Matt_Holland]

Apologies if this has been mentioned already. Is there an iOS app for this to allow access to the EQ settings?

 

[lewdish]

My only issue w/ hifi dongles is just not being able to support mic. Even for the DAC chips that do support mic input and pre-amp, the manufactures dont even make use of it. Anyone confirm if this dongle has Mic support?

 

[CedarX]

Apologies if this has been mentioned already. Is there an iOS app for this to allow access to the EQ settings?

JM20-Max does not support onboard PEQ if it is the question... Regardless, iOS doe not allow apps to communicate with HID or Serial interfaces over USB, at least not yet (it's an Apple restriction. May be lifted in the near future). So none of these dongles/DACs supporting HW PEQ settings via USB are accessible from iOS apps.
What is perhaps confusing is that these PEQ-enabled dongles/DACs "work" fine with iOS... as UAC 1.0 or 2.0 audio devices. So, if you set the HW EQ from an Android App, or PC, or MAC, these EQ settings will carry over when connected to an iOS device... you just can't change them from an iOS app.

There are actually two work-around... 1. Bluetooth-enabled devices (e.g. Qudelix 5K): you can access the EQ settings from iOS, via BT (no Apple restriction), and play though USB.
2. RME has implemented a trick MIDI interface allowing PEQ adjustments from iOS (iPad) over USB. The trick is that MIDI is not restricted by Apple unlike HID or Serial communications...

 

[CedarX]

My only issue w/ hifi dongles is just not being able to support mic. Even for the DAC chips that do support mic input and pre-amp, the manufactures dont even make use of it. Anyone confirm if this dongle has Mic support?

This JM20-Max does not support Mic... others SE (3.5mm 4-pole) do, but not always, and sometime supporting either OMTP or CTIA, but not both...

 

[mc.god]

Apologies if this has been mentioned already. Is there an iOS app for this to allow access to the EQ settings?

My only issue w/ hifi dongles is just not being able to support mic. Even for the DAC chips that do support mic input and pre-amp, the manufactures dont even make use of it. Anyone confirm if this dongle has Mic support?

Just to makes things clearer, you are both referring to functionalities available in JM20 Pro, NOT this Max version.

 

[markanini]

Just a heads up, if you need a mic input and if you only plan to drive IEMs, 2V output will be overkill anyway. A 1V dongle like JCally JM12 or Fiio JA12 will have the same level of fidelity, and a more useful gain range to boot.

 

[MC_RME]

The JM20 MAX has more headroom than the other two, so would likely work better with more demanding headphones, but with easy to drive IEMs, they all sound just fine and I can't discern any difference in sound quality *.

* Multiple tests have shown that my ears are far from golden.

Isn't it the other way round? If you can't hear differences (that not exist) your ears are golden?

 

[Matt_Holland]

Just to makes things clearer, you are both referring to functionalities available in JM20 Pro, NOT this Max version.

Thanks.
To clarify then, was @CedarX comment above correct?

@CedarX many thanks also for your detailed response.

 

[klirren_65]

@mc.god, dark132, boswell ... Which version of Windows do you use?

 

[mc.god]

Thanks.
To clarify then, was @CedarX comment above correct?

Yes, it's all correct, it applies to hardware peq capable devices that can store an eq profile in their dsp, like the JM20 PRO, and not to the Max version reviewed here, just as he said in the very first sentence.