This is a review, detailed measurements and listening tests of TANCHJIM Luna portable headphone amplifier and DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $139.99 with anime engraving or $129.99 without:
The look and feel of the adapter is excellent. The controls for volume have different shapes, aiding in adjustment without looking, with great tactile feedback:
As you see, we have both 3.5mm and 4.4 mm balanced output. Dual CS43198 combo DAC and headphone amps are used. Let's see how it performs.
TANCHJIM luna Measurements
As usual, with this class of device I can't run all of my tests. Let's start with the dashboard using balanced output at full volume:
We are getting (nice) desktop class DAC performance, landing at essential tie with the best tested in this category:
Unbalanced performance is also excellent:
Dynamic range is stunningly good in general, let alone in portable category:
That carries on even when the output is sharply reduced:
Jitter performance is just as good:
As is Multitone:
Filter response is typical but with excellent attenuation at higher frequencies:
Please ignore the noise level in the following power tests (the height of the graph). Just pay attention to max power and clipping:
As you see, we have one powerful portable adapter here. I am especially impressed with ability to drive low impedance loads with nearly 1/3 of a watt!
TANCHJIM Luna Listening Tests
I have loaned out my Sennheiser HD650 so started the testing with Hifiman HE400i. The fidelity and ability to drive this headphone was just insane. There was plenty of volume and superb detail and dynamics. Switching to Dan Clark E3 which is less efficient, still produced excellent results but needing to go almost to max volume. On one track, it clipped but on others, it sounded superb.
Conclusions
Objective measurements of Luna adapter shows best in class execution, being tied with just one other implementation of similar architecture. It costs more but it brings a very nicely executed enclosure and controls. Sound quality as predicted by the measurements is superb with ability to drive most headphones out there while being quiet enough for sensitive IEMs. There is simply no negatives here.
I am happy to recommend the TANCHJIM Luna portable headphone and DAC. We have arrived at a new era in portable products, achieving near top-end desktop class performance.
------------
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/
The look and feel of the adapter is excellent. The controls for volume have different shapes, aiding in adjustment without looking, with great tactile feedback:
As you see, we have both 3.5mm and 4.4 mm balanced output. Dual CS43198 combo DAC and headphone amps are used. Let's see how it performs.
TANCHJIM luna Measurements
As usual, with this class of device I can't run all of my tests. Let's start with the dashboard using balanced output at full volume:
We are getting (nice) desktop class DAC performance, landing at essential tie with the best tested in this category:
Unbalanced performance is also excellent:
Dynamic range is stunningly good in general, let alone in portable category:
That carries on even when the output is sharply reduced:
Jitter performance is just as good:
As is Multitone:
Filter response is typical but with excellent attenuation at higher frequencies:
Please ignore the noise level in the following power tests (the height of the graph). Just pay attention to max power and clipping:
As you see, we have one powerful portable adapter here. I am especially impressed with ability to drive low impedance loads with nearly 1/3 of a watt!
TANCHJIM Luna Listening Tests
I have loaned out my Sennheiser HD650 so started the testing with Hifiman HE400i. The fidelity and ability to drive this headphone was just insane. There was plenty of volume and superb detail and dynamics. Switching to Dan Clark E3 which is less efficient, still produced excellent results but needing to go almost to max volume. On one track, it clipped but on others, it sounded superb.
Conclusions
Objective measurements of Luna adapter shows best in class execution, being tied with just one other implementation of similar architecture. It costs more but it brings a very nicely executed enclosure and controls. Sound quality as predicted by the measurements is superb with ability to drive most headphones out there while being quiet enough for sensitive IEMs. There is simply no negatives here.
I am happy to recommend the TANCHJIM Luna portable headphone and DAC. We have arrived at a new era in portable products, achieving near top-end desktop class performance.
------------
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/
