Review: Apple vs Google USB-C Headphone Adapters

[Emlin]

You can search for cs43131 on Amazon/eBay/AliExpress and get one of those dongles (JCally JM20, MB21P, etc).

Those measure better than the Apple dongle, however, not all of them have a microphone imput and they draw about 3x as much current from your phone as the Apple dongle.

Hmm, I think my cheap experiment has come to an end...

 

[Emlin]

Anyone know if the hiby fc1 measures at all well?

 

[Ib0z]

I just double-cheched on my Tab S5e and Oneplus 6T with both versions (A2049 and A2155). Couldn't replicate the issue.

Two questions:
After launching UAPP and setting Hardware volume to Max, do you close UAPP properly with the side bar menu->Exit?
View attachment 332890

Afterwards, when playing music on Spotify, how loud do you put the regular Android volume?

edit1:
this worked for me very well in galaxy s10 but my phone got broken so i had to buy new one
i have got galaxy s23 once i use UAPP i get similar issue as the guy mentioned of that wiggle/cracking/stutter in all other apps
i have tried afew combinations from uapp usb tweaks settings and no luck

edit2:

for some reason this worked :
1. open neutron player and connect the dac
3. go to homescreen
2. open UAPP connect the dac
3. force stop neutron
4. hit exit in UAPP
5. open uapp again
6. use exist

think uapp driver is bugged?

edit3 issue fully solved :
i came across a reddit thread that solved my issue using Neutron Player trail:
"open Settings -> Audio Hardware -> Direct USB Access -> Release Inactive Device

With these settings on, put dac volume to max and play a song in Neutron Player.

Then pause the song. You will get this max volume in all other apps now."

 

[Emlin]

edit1:
this worked for me very well in galaxy s10 but my phone got broken so i had to buy new one
i have got galaxy s23 once i use UAPP i get similar issue as the guy mentioned of that wiggle/cracking/stutter in all other apps
i have tried afew combinations from uapp usb tweaks settings and no luck

edit2:

for some reason this worked :
1. open neutron player and connect the dac
3. go to homescreen
2. open UAPP connect the dac
3. force stop neutron
4. hit exit in UAPP
5. open uapp again
6. use exist

think uapp driver is bugged?

edit3 issue fully solved :
i came across a reddit thread that solved my issue using Neutron Player trail:
"open Settings -> Audio Hardware -> Direct USB Access -> Release Inactive Device

With these settings on, put dac volume to max and play a song in Neutron Player.

Then pause the song. You will get this max volume in all other apps now."

I've tried this but other apps now play on the phone's speaker. Anything I might be missing?

 

[Ib0z]

I've tried this but other apps now play on the phone's speaker. Anything I might be missing?

did you make sure you enabled release inactive device did you hit the ok button at bottom or just went back in page?
it will have red circle at right side once activated

the detailed steps i am using now
1. connect the dongle and allow access to neutron
2. play song and make sure max volume is set
3. pause the song
4. exit the app with back button in navbar
5. waits afew seconds then plays with poweramp or youtube or anything else

 

[Emlin]

did you make sure you enabled release inactive device did you hit the ok button at bottom or just went back in page?
it will have red circle at right side once activated

the detailed steps i am using now
1. connect the dongle and allow access to neutron
2. play song and make sure max volume is set
3. pause the song
4. exit the app with back button in navbar
5. waits afew seconds then plays with poweramp or youtube or anything else

I restarted my phone, checked that things were selected properly, which they were, tried again and this time it worked! Brilliant, thank you so much!!!

 

[Baneat]

@Baneat
So it turns out that both the iPad Air 5th gen (17.1.1) and the iMac 27" Late 2012 (10.15.7) can disable the EU Voltage limit of the A2155 Apple dongle, and so I got the same volume with both versions (A2049 and A2155), on those two devices.

Whether you may get that 0.5V limit on your Apple device, I can't tell.
All Windows, Linux, and Android devices will encounter the EU limit on EU dongles, afaik.

I highly recommend you get a basic multimeter though, with which you can measure output voltages yourself.
This can be extremely helpful when troubleshooting audio equipment.

Interesting findings! Are those Apple devices also EU? It’s also interesting that a bypass is actually possible with the right data sent to it! I am mainly now using it with IEMs so end up more around half the volume slider anyway (or less). How do you measure with a basic multimeter? Play a 50Hz sine wave and set it to ac? Play a wav file at maximum amplitude through a 3.5 m-m cable and measure dc on pins then convert to root mean square?

 

[staticV3]

Are those Apple devices also EU?

Both were bought in the EU.
The iPad's system language was set to German, while the iMac was set to English.

How do you measure with a basic multimeter? Play a 50Hz sine wave and set it to ac?

Yup!

Play a wav file at maximum amplitude through a 3.5 m-m cable and measure dc on pins then convert to root mean square?

Most DACs are AC-coupled, so this wouldn't work.

 

[Sak]

Will A2049 be better than CX31993 for the same price?

 

[0%_Audiophile]

Found this dongle at home (bought a two years ago) and it is nice, use it on Windows 11, selected 24bit 48KHz (max available format), enough power for my iems and Meze99.

Will A2049 be better than CX31993 for the same price?

This dongle has no QC and each item can be different.

 

[Sak]

Will A2049 be better than CX31993 for the same price?

In general, I bought both. A2049 sounds much better, but need to perform manipulations to remove the volume restriction on Android. It's inconvenient. CX31993 sounds like it's coming from a barrel, the high frequencies are very poor. Perhaps there is a quality discrepancy, as mentioned above. Overall, I do not recommend buying it.

 

[0%_Audiophile]

In general, I bought both. A2049 sounds much better, but need to perform manipulations to remove the volume restriction on Android. It's inconvenient. CX31993 sounds like it's coming from a barrel, the high frequencies are very poor. Perhaps there is a quality discrepancy, as mentioned above. Overall, I do not recommend buying it.

A good dongle should transfer digital signal to analog without any "sounds better, darker, crispier etc".
A good example is the Apple adapter - just a flat signal, what is received on digital input - the same will be sent from the analog output.

 

[unpluggged]

what is received on digital input - the same will be sent from the analog output.

That's not how DACs work

 

[Emlin]

It`s exactly how does it work.

Digital-to-analog converter - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But of course, you can believe that small hobbits are sitting inside each cable and improving sound.

But you said that the dac would output the digital input!

Probably not what you meant, but it is what you said.

And the hobbits bit is just off.

 

[threni]

It`s exactly how does it work.

Digital-to-analog converter - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But of course, you can believe that small hobbits are sitting inside each cable and improving sound.

But why would a chicken cross the road in the first place?

(I guess neither the deadpan sarcasm nor the emoji was enough...)

 

[unpluggged]

Advice - start to read.

Three advices:

1) get an oscilloscope and check it yourself — you might be surprised;
2) no need to be too serious, especially on Friday night;
3) no need to be rude. Better learn to recognize well-intended irony, it's not that hard. English is not my native language, either.

Have a nice time.

 

[Sak]

without any "sounds better, darker, crispier etc".

I mean, that I have no complaints about the sound of the Apple DAC (except the volume restriction on Android), but this CX31993 is impossible to listen to. Therefore, I do not recommend buying it.

 

[Chromatischism]

Trying my Zeros with my new Pixel 8 with Apple USB-C adapter.

First impressions are zero noise, unlike the Amazon dongle I tried.

Volume is definitely lower and takes more juice to get levels I normally listen at (which isn't high). Volume is at 75% instead of about 30% as on my Pixel 4a 5G.

 

[Ib0z]

I restarted my phone, checked that things were selected properly, which they were, tried again and this time it worked! Brilliant, thank you so much!!!

new update!
my neutron trail has ended and it required me to buy the app which not in my list currently
so i had to return to UAPP and the stuttering issue been bugging me out badly after 2 days of contacting with UAPP dev in email we tried multiple things till it got working
my s23 turned out to be initating the driver at 44.1Khz and once releasing it back to kernel's driver it stays at 44.1 but the apple dongle is made to be 48khz 16/24bit
so to fix it using UAPP do this:
UAPP settings -> usb audio -> upsampling ->on
UAPP settings -> usb audio -> bit perfect -> OFF (dont use bit perfect)
UAPP settings -> usb audio tweaks -> turn off play silence on android
restart your phone and now its same steps as neutron !

1. connect the dongle and allow access to UAPP
2. play song and make sure max volume is set
3. pause the song
4. exit the app with exit button from side menu
5. waits afew seconds then plays with poweramp or youtube or anything else

 

[Ib0z]

another good news
UAPP dev made a test build that fixes that issue so android driver handles things correctly next update will fix the issue in universal
without the need for the upper configuration changes just the same old way