Meizu Hifi USB-C Headphone Adapter Review

[Jimbob54]

This is the Male to female cable I use made by deleycon from amazon. I'm sure any 3.5 to 3.5 would work.

Just ordered a load of cheap jack extenders should I find any of my IEM need more juice *gives Ety 2SE the hard stare*

 

[Benpowell]

Just ordered a load of cheap jack extenders should I find any of my IEM need more juice *gives Ety 2SE the hard stare*

I prefer the sound of high gain mode on most of my headphones I have er2 sr and er4 sr but i feel it may possibly be to loud for those. I'm looking into ess new built in solution they seem to be far more successful than companies trying to peice together an amp and dac. These all in 1s are the future compact powerful and consistent.

 

[amanieux]

Iv worked out part of the reason for the variation between the these different dacs it's to do with enabling high Impedance mode if you put a 3.5 male to female on adapter before you plug in your headphones the volume jumps up massively going into high Impedance mode I'm now thinking that this would sound remarkably like the s8 although circuit is closer together so may pick up some usb noise. Can others please confirm can you remeasure in high Impedance mode I'm fairly sure you will get near 2v not 1v

this voltage therory is interesting, can someone explain the difference between 1v and 2v on iem ? can 2v destroy low impedance iems ? powerbuddy is just a 2 resitors voltage divider (5x divider if i rember well so 1v becones 0.2v) as if lower voltage/high current was better sounding than higher voltage/low current . so if i can choose between 1v and 2v on my 43 ohms bqeyz spring1 should i get better sound under 2v than under 1v ? thanks for explaining the basics, i am not an expert.

 

[amanieux]

I have meizu non pro and can confirm volume trick works on youtube spotify etc I just leave the 3.5 female plugged in and any headphones I plug in get extra volume.

if your iem is low impedance and you are in high gain you may have problem adjusting fine gain for low impedance high sensitivity iems ( meizu hifi is supposed to have 100 steps from 0% to 100% volume but if you have installed nothing you are stuck with the standard android "media volume" slider that only has 32 steps so 3% increments) does uapp let you use the 100 steps ? (the free version of neutron only has 64 steps) ? is there a way to get 100 steps on standard media volume slider without rooting phone so we can use full meizu features/power gain on all apps such as youtube or spotify? thanks

 

[staticV3]

if your iem is low impedance and you are in high gain you may have problem adjusting fine gain for low impedance high sensitivity iems ( meizu hifi is supposed to have 100 steps from 0% to 100% volume but if you have installed nothing you are stuck with the standard android "media volume" slider that only has 32 steps so 3% increments) does uapp let you use the 100 steps ? (the free version of neutron only has 64 steps) ? is there a way to get 100 steps on standard media volume slider without rooting phone so we can use full meizu features/power gain on all apps such as youtube or spotify? thanks

Uapp let's you use all 100 steps and so does Windows. Afaik there's no good way to change the number of steps Android uses. You could install some volume control app, but I find them rather dodgy tbh.

 

[amanieux]

Uapp let's you use all 100 steps.You could install some volume control app, but I find them rather dodgy tbh.

does uapp let you handle the 100 steps outside of uapp (youtube, spotify etc...) or is there a free volume control app (without root) that can do that in android ? thanks

 

[staticV3]

does uapp let you handle the 100 steps outside of uapp (youtube, spotify etc...) or is there a free volume control app (without root) that can do that in android ? thanks

That depends on the phone. The only way to access 100 steps of HW volume is in UAPP, but you can't play anything else (Spotify, YouTube) while UAPP is open. That means you have to adjust volume, exit UAPP, and then resume playback in another app. The issue is that on some phones the HW volume resets to 100% as soon as you exit UAPP. On most phones however, the volume you set in UAPP remains even when you exit the program.

 

[Benpowell]

The problem really is android, all these little dongles have power saving modes built in to save battery life not to mention android outputting an odd sample rate. The lowest volume on high gain with blon 03 is to loud in android. USB audio player solves some of the problems, But ultimately when you plug them into a windows 10 pc you can adjust correct sample rate and the volume adjustment is perfect and volume level is higher. All these dongles are the same I have the Qualcomm 1 and volume is unreal on windows think I could blow the 650s with it unbelievable for such a small device not really sure what the point in a desktop amp is when these exist. Sabre have just released there rival to the the cirrus logic CS43131. The ES9280C PRO And the es9281c pro with mqa already flooding the market would be interested to see measurements cirrus vs Qualcomm vs ess. Tbh the less the audio company do to the basic chip the better all they are. All they seem to do is make performance worst It seems too difficult to implement a dac circuit and separate amp correctly better to just buy a built in all in 1.

 

[amanieux]

Uapp let's you use all 100 steps and so does Windows. Afaik there's no good way to change the number of steps Android uses. You could install some volume control app, but I find them rather dodgy tbh.

on dell laptop under windows 10 there was not 100 steps, more like 64 steps and volume was lower than in neutron free player on android, it was about the same level as android when i do not install neutron app.

 

[staticV3]

on dell laptop under windows 10 there was not 100 steps, more like 64 steps and volume was lower than in neutron free player on android, it was about the same level as android when i do not install neutron app.

I'm fairly certain the effective maximum volume is the same. It's just that one uses a linear volume table and the other uses a logarithmic one.

 

[Stipes90]

I just bought this dongle, will it power my hd58x headphones to their full potential?
The impedance on the hd58x is 150ohms and the efficiency is 96dB/mW.

Audiophile newbie here, sorry.

 

[Benpowell]

I just bought this dongle, will it power my hd58x headphones to their full potential?
The impedance on the hd58x is 150ohms and the efficiency is 96dB/mW.

Audiophile newbie here, sorry.

It will power them no problem using a pc or usb audio player on your phone will allow full volume. in android it is possible to trick dac into high gain using a 3.5 Male to female cable or adapter ensuring whatever you plug in it will be set to high output mode.

 

[Stipes90]

It will power them no problem using a pc or usb audio player on your phone will allow full volume. in android it is possible to trick dac into high gain using a 3.5 Male to female cable or adapter ensuring whatever you plug in it will be set to high output mode.

I'm mainly going to use this on my PC through a USB-C to USB-A adapter (my computer only has USB-A ports) and for console gaming like my nintendo switch lite through usb-c. So itll have no problems for that usage?

I know the PS5 isnt out yet, but the PS5 controller will have a USB-C port as well, would I be able to plug the dongle into a playstation controller and use it that way with no issues?

Thank you for your help, much appreciated.

 

[Veri]

I know the PS5 isnt out yet, but the PS5 controller will have a USB-C port as well, would I be able to plug the dongle into a playstation controller and use it that way with no issues?

At this point that's hard to say.

 

[Stipes90]

At this point that's hard to say.

But the dongle is perfectly fine for using with a USB-C to USB-A adapter with my computer? I was a bit concerned I didnt get a good enough dac/amp for the hd58x.

 

[amanieux]

It will power them no problem using a pc or usb audio player on your phone will allow full volume. in android it is possible to trick dac into high gain using a 3.5 Male to female cable or adapter ensuring whatever you plug in it will be set to high output mode.

does the high impedance trick work only inside a bit direct audio player such as uapp or will it work in all apps (youtube, spotify etc...)

 

[Jimbob54]

does the high impedance trick work only inside a bit direct audio player such as uapp or will it work in all apps (youtube, spotify etc...)

You trick the adapter, not the player. But the volume limiter on android (in EU at least) makes it still too quiet for me- hence UAPP is all I use it with.

 

[amanieux]

Uapp let's you use all 100 steps and so does Windows. Afaik there's no good way to change the number of steps Android uses. You could install some volume control app, but I find them rather dodgy tbh.

on uapp (free eval) i only get 20 steps and sound is exponential, on neutron(free eval) i get 64 steps ans sound is linear, it may be my phone that is incompatible with meizu hifi pro (sony xz premium), note that i get the high impedance boosted gain in neutron without the cable hack. if someone knows an app or a trick that can give 100 steps, please share

 

[amanieux]

Iv worked out part of the reason for the variation between the these different dacs it's to do with enabling high Impedance mode if you put a 3.5 male to female on adapter before you plug in your headphones the volume jumps up massively going into high Impedance mode I'm now thinking that this would sound remarkably like the s8 although circuit is closer together so may pick up some usb noise. Can others please confirm can you remeasure in high Impedance mode I'm fairly sure you will get near 2v not 1v

assuming the meizu hifi could switch between 1v and 2v, does headphones sound different at 1v vs 2v ( volume change to get same listening level) ? i am worried/interested about this cable hack : if cirrus logic or meizu engineers detect the headphone impedance and choose 1v instead of 2v, they must have a good reason no ? (lower power consumption, lower noise level, more precise volume control on the volume slider)

 

[Jimbob54]

on uapp (free eval) i only get 20 steps and sound is exponential, on neutron(free eval) i get 64 steps ans sound is linear, it may be my phone that is incompatible with meizu hifi pro (sony xz premium), note that i get the high impedance boosted gain in neutron without the cable hack. if someone knows an app or a trick that can give 100 steps, please share

I really don't know what problem you are trying to investigate /solve. Does the meizu give clean sound at a good volume into your headphones of choice?

If yes, there is no problem. You seem hung up on the volume number between different applications. You know they are at best pretty arbitrary, don't you? If the headphone is the same SPL on 2 different apps but they are at different "volumes", you know its not a fault with the device? The The Spinal Tap amps go to eleven.