Review of TRN Black Pearl: Portable USB DAC & Headphone Amp with 10-band PEQ

[amanieux]

The TRN Black Pearl is in fact a product designed by TTGK, an ODM (original device manufacturer) of portable DACs and dongles. It is actually the TTGK TT39518F01-Pro module housed in a black case and with CS43131 substituted for CS43198:

on the photos of the circuit board it is not very visible, is there one or two external clock oscillators ?

 

[jkim]

on the photos of the circuit board it is not very visible, is there one or two external clock oscillators ?

I believe there's only one handling all sample frequencies. But the jitter level is well controlled.

 

[priser]

I’m using the TRN Black Pearl on my PC and I’ve run into an issue that’s getting quite annoying.

When there’s no audio playing, the DAC goes into "idle mode" (blue light). If a short sound plays while it’s in idle, for example a Discord notification, the beginning of the sound gets completely cut off or heavily muffled, so I often don’t hear the notification at all.

I tested this more carefully and it seems that whenever the DAC is in idle, the start of any short sound is clipped. When the DAC is active (green light), everything works fine.

I tried disabling windows power saving, 2 different cables, 2 different ports. Issue still persist.

It looks like the DAC goes to sleep too quickly and doesn’t wake up on time.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to disable idle mode completely? Or maybe if such an option is planned for the future?

And most importantly, has anyone else noticed the same problem?

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I’m using the TRN Black Pearl on my PC and I’ve run into an issue that’s getting quite annoying.

When there’s no audio playing, the DAC goes into "idle mode" (blue light). If a short sound plays while it’s in idle, for example a Discord notification, the beginning of the sound gets completely cut off or heavily muffled, so I often don’t hear the notification at all.

I tested this more carefully and it seems that whenever the DAC is in idle, the start of any short sound is clipped. When the DAC is active (green light), everything works fine.

I tried disabling windows power saving, 2 different cables, 2 different ports. Issue still persist.

It looks like the DAC goes to sleep too quickly and doesn’t wake up on time.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to disable idle mode completely? Or maybe if such an option is planned for the future?

And most importantly, has anyone else noticed the same problem?

Lots of DACs have a setting that puts them into low power mode when there's no signal. This can lead to muting the first parts of a sound, or clicks when audio starts and stops. My desktop DAC has this feature which I disabled. The instructions on how to do this are in this thread:

'XMOS driver settings for no cutoff/delay'

'XMOS driver settings for no cutoff/delay'

Aug 16, 2021

I was contemplating on creating a "tutorial" of sorts for all XMOS drivers on devices that have a cutoff -- latency between the start of a sound and the dac "reacting" and actually playing said sound...
So here it is:

XMOS drivers use a control panel not unlike this:

Usually the "Options" menu which is the interesting part for our needs is not present. Please be aware that *some* manufacturers still opt in to lock out that menu completely regardless of what we are about to do and you will still be unable to show and use it.

So, first we need to find where this control panel...

• Noodles
• audio delay control panel delay latency xmos
• Replies: 78
• Forum: DACs, Streamers, Servers, Players, Audio Interface

• 

 

[escape2]

Lots of DACs have a setting that puts them into low power mode when there's no signal. This can lead to muting the first parts of a sound, or clicks when audio starts and stops. My desktop DAC has this feature which I disabled. The instructions on how to do this are in this thread:

'XMOS driver settings for no cutoff/delay'

'XMOS driver settings for no cutoff/delay'

Aug 16, 2021

I was contemplating on creating a "tutorial" of sorts for all XMOS drivers on devices that have a cutoff -- latency between the start of a sound and the dac "reacting" and actually playing said sound...
So here it is:

XMOS drivers use a control panel not unlike this:

Usually the "Options" menu which is the interesting part for our needs is not present. Please be aware that *some* manufacturers still opt in to lock out that menu completely regardless of what we are about to do and you will still be unable to show and use it.

So, first we need to find where this control panel...

• Noodles
• audio delay control panel delay latency xmos
• Replies: 78
• Forum: DACs, Streamers, Servers, Players, Audio Interface

• 

My "Options" tab shows this, but for a different DAC:

 

[kkeretic]

I’m using the TRN Black Pearl on my PC and I’ve run into an issue that’s getting quite annoying.

When there’s no audio playing, the DAC goes into "idle mode" (blue light). If a short sound plays while it’s in idle, for example a Discord notification, the beginning of the sound gets completely cut off or heavily muffled, so I often don’t hear the notification at all.

I tested this more carefully and it seems that whenever the DAC is in idle, the start of any short sound is clipped. When the DAC is active (green light), everything works fine.

I tried disabling windows power saving, 2 different cables, 2 different ports. Issue still persist.

It looks like the DAC goes to sleep too quickly and doesn’t wake up on time.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to disable idle mode completely? Or maybe if such an option is planned for the future?

And most importantly, has anyone else noticed the same problem?

Yep, this is normal for TRN Black Pearl and many other dongles. You can use a tool that would keep audio device(s) awake by constantly playing a silent 0dB sound:

Keep Audio Alive
Sound Keeper

And probably some others. I tested both of these tools and they work well.

 

[amanieux]

i DRE on supposed to be audible ? i hear no difference between DRE on or off on melody (also a 2xcs43131 with peq around $40)

 

[MaxwellsEq]

i DRE on supposed to be audible ? i hear no difference between DRE on or off on melody (also a 2xcs43131 with peq around $40)

Yes. Clicks.

 

[amanieux]

Yes. Clicks.

so you mean audible in a bad way, not as a sound improvement ?

 

[MaxwellsEq]

so you mean audible in a bad way, not as a sound improvement ?

Yes. Loud music with little bass will sound identical between DRE on vs off. Quieter music, where you turn the sound up that has lots of low bass has clearly audible annoying clicks ADDED to it, when DRE is on. These clicks are not in the recordings. They are absent via ESS and AKM DACs.

There are two tracks discussed here which clearly demonstrate the effect.

 

[jkim]

i DRE on supposed to be audible ? i hear no difference between DRE on or off on melody (also a 2xcs43131 with peq around $40)

You are not supposed to hear the difference between DRE on and off on the FiiO Melody. As measured here, FiiO's implementation of the "DRE Enabled" is different from the CS43131's default DRE behavior. I believe @MaxwellsEq was confused between the old, default DRE behavior and FiiO's new "DRE Enabled" after their firmware update.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

You are not supposed to hear the difference between DRE on and off on the FiiO Melody. As measured here, FiiO's implementation of the "DRE Enabled" is different from the CS43131's default DRE behavior. I believe @MaxwellsEq was confused between the old, default DRE behavior and FiiO's new "DRE Enabled" after their firmware update.

I misunderstood the emphasis of @amanieux question. Their post in #189 seems to be asking whether the DRE-switching artefact is audible in general, rather than specifically about their device.

 

[jorg]

I can't update the firmware because their Walk Play software always crashes on startup. I tried it on different smartphones, and it's the same everywhere.
Maybe it has something to do with the need to connect to their portal. szwalkplay doesn't load on my phones because of some problems with certificates.
Oddly enough, it somehow started on the BlueStacks emulator, but it doesn't see the connected DAC to update the firmware.
It would be nice if they allowed to download a version of their software for Windows.

 

[jkim]

I can't update the firmware because their Walk Play software always crashes on startup. I tried it on different smartphones, and it's the same everywhere.
Maybe it has something to do with the need to connect to their portal. szwalkplay doesn't load on my phones because of some problems with certificates.
Oddly enough, it somehow started on the BlueStacks emulator, but it doesn't see the connected DAC to update the firmware.
It would be nice if they allowed to download a version of their software for Windows.

Just checked. I have no problem running the app on my phone. Were you able to sign up for your account?

 

[jorg]

Just checked. I have no problem running the app on my phone. Were you able to sign up for your account?

I can only log into my account from one browser - Brave, I don't know why. And that's only from a PC, if I could update the firmware just through the website, that would be great too. But I can't open the app on my smartphone at all, it crashes right away. And I can't log into the website from my smartphone either.

 

[gozaine]

My problem is that Windows automatically installs a generic audio driver for my TRN Black Pearl DAC. This prevents me from selecting the highest available sound quality, leaving me unable to configure the output to 32-bit and 384 kHz

 

[mc.god]

My problem is that Windows automatically installs a generic audio driver for my TRN Black Pearl DAC. This prevents me from selecting the highest available sound quality, leaving me unable to configure the output to 32-bit and 384 kHz

I had similar issue when using my dongle with a faulty usb c to usb a adapter or on a crappy usb hub working at full speed instead of high speed, so I'd check you cable\connection in first instance.
Also check if the dongle is set to work in UAC 1 mode.

 

[Chowchilla]

I had similar issue when using my dongle with a faulty usb c to usb a adapter or on a crappy usb hub working at full speed instead of high speed, so I'd check you cable\connection in first instance.
Also check if the dongle is set to work in UAC 1 mode.

Iirc when I asked them they said holding the "m" key switches it to UAC 1 mode. But yeah, does look like his is in UAC1 mode

 

[gozaine]

Hi everyone,
I'm sharing a solution for those frustrated with the TRN Black Pearl being limited to 24-bit/96kHz by the generic Windows 11 driver.
I discovered that by installing the FiiO driver (specifically the version from FiiO USB DAC driver v5.74.2), it successfully replaces the generic Windows driver. After installation, the system unlocked the full PCM format options up to 32-bit/384kHz, both in the Windows sound settings.
Important note: Obviously, the FiiO control panel won't recognize the device, but the underlying driver works.
Hope this helps others.

 

[VyseLegendaire]

I can only log into my account from one browser - Brave, I don't know why. And that's only from a PC, if I could update the firmware just through the website, that would be great too. But I can't open the app on my smartphone at all, it crashes right away. And I can't log into the website from my smartphone either.

I used to have this issue but I upgraded my phone to a Pixel 7 and now, even though the device won't play back due to USB power draw regulations on the firmware side, I was able to connect the Black Pearl and upgrade the firmware. Key thing is that the device won't recognize at all unless a stable audio connection is fitted either into 3.5mm or 4.4mm slots. This completes the electric circuit and activates the device.
Wait for blue LED light to turn on, then make sure your WalkPlay app is the newest version, register (also a buggy process) and log in (also makes it possible to get onto the PC web interface to check the settings and firmware v, mine now says .5 after upgrade), then click on device and it should appear. It took me a few tries and various buggy clicking on unresponsive firmware upgrade menus, restarting the app try again, etc., to get the upgrade to confirm. Now it will show .5 on the szwalkplay interface on Chromium.