This is a review, listening test and measurements of the Meizu Mblu Lifeme portable DAC and headphone amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $23.
Not much to say about the form factor other than it terminates in 3.5mm unbalanced headphone connection.
If you are not familiar with these DAC measurements please watch this video.
Meizu Mblu Lifeme Measurements
Let's start with our dashboard:
SINAD of nearly 100 dB is quite good for a dongle, landing it in the competent category regardless of type and cost:
I do wish it had more than 1.5 volts out (minimum of 2 volts is my target). I have started to measure power consumption. Current consumption (at 5 volts) is 27 milliamps at idle and rose to 32 ma at 1 volt output into 600 ohm load.
Jitter shows a lot of random clock jitter (the large "skirt" around our 12 kHz tone):
Dynamic range is not the best we have seen in a dongle but nevertheless, good:
Multitone lands in the same category:
Power is just about everything so let's measure that starting with 300 ohm:
Seems that we are gain limited in the way there is no clipping. I think this leaves money on the table as otherwise would we get more power. And help with more quiet music tracks. Same is going on with 32 ohm load:
Here is how that compares to its competitors:
Meizu Mblu Lifeme Listening Tests
I started with my everyday Dan Clark Stealth headphone. On tracks that had high levels, the performance was surprisingly acceptable with excellent fidelity. But on other tracks with lower peaks, there just wasn't that much volume there and would only be good for quiet listening. Switching to Sennheiser HD650 we had at least double the volume which made it excellent on loud tracks and good on low amplitude tracks.
Conclusions
The performance of the Lifeme dongle is somewhat variable. On most of the tests it does quite well. My only wish would have been for 2 volt output instead of 1.5. That would have made it a huge winner given its price. As is, it is good for average to better than average headphone/IEM sensitivity.
I am going to recommend the Meizu Mblu Lifeme headphone adapter and DAC.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Not much to say about the form factor other than it terminates in 3.5mm unbalanced headphone connection.
If you are not familiar with these DAC measurements please watch this video.
Meizu Mblu Lifeme Measurements
Let's start with our dashboard:
SINAD of nearly 100 dB is quite good for a dongle, landing it in the competent category regardless of type and cost:
I do wish it had more than 1.5 volts out (minimum of 2 volts is my target). I have started to measure power consumption. Current consumption (at 5 volts) is 27 milliamps at idle and rose to 32 ma at 1 volt output into 600 ohm load.
Jitter shows a lot of random clock jitter (the large "skirt" around our 12 kHz tone):
Dynamic range is not the best we have seen in a dongle but nevertheless, good:
Multitone lands in the same category:
Power is just about everything so let's measure that starting with 300 ohm:
Seems that we are gain limited in the way there is no clipping. I think this leaves money on the table as otherwise would we get more power. And help with more quiet music tracks. Same is going on with 32 ohm load:
Here is how that compares to its competitors:
Meizu Mblu Lifeme Listening Tests
I started with my everyday Dan Clark Stealth headphone. On tracks that had high levels, the performance was surprisingly acceptable with excellent fidelity. But on other tracks with lower peaks, there just wasn't that much volume there and would only be good for quiet listening. Switching to Sennheiser HD650 we had at least double the volume which made it excellent on loud tracks and good on low amplitude tracks.
Conclusions
The performance of the Lifeme dongle is somewhat variable. On most of the tests it does quite well. My only wish would have been for 2 volt output instead of 1.5. That would have made it a huge winner given its price. As is, it is good for average to better than average headphone/IEM sensitivity.
I am going to recommend the Meizu Mblu Lifeme headphone adapter and DAC.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
