TANCHJIM Luna Portable HP Amp & DAC Review

[Monamtb]

Seriously, though: I wonder if any listener could hear the difference between the Fossi DS2 and this Tanchum which costs more than twice as much. (Is the anime engraving worth a 237% increase in price over the unadorned Fossi, I wonder?)

The Tanchjm produces 1.86 dB more power into 33 ohms, a difference which some listeners could hear on careful A/B listening - just barely.

The Fossi has a a SINAD of about 117 dB, whereas the Tanchjm offers a 116 dB SINAD. I doubt anyone could hear that difference - but if we are judging these devices by SINAD then the Fossi is superior according to Amirm's testing.

I suppose that sometimes it just comes down to price. Price and anime....

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Hi, I had the Fosi DS2 but what absolutely got on my nerves was that volume control didn't get increased or decreased by staying on the volume button - instead of pressing the button a dozens of times - maybe not an issue for others, but for me it was.

Soundwise it was quite powerful and the build quality is impeccable.
9
But for that reason I gave it away.
I also wanted a DAC unit with a display.

I ended up with the (3 butyon) Shanling UA6 - staying on the +volume button or -volume button increases / decreases the volume faster.
I really love the Shanling sound signature of my UA6.
I also love the menu options - I usually run it in NOS mode - that is my favorite driving my ThieAudio Hype 4.
Ai Kawashima is addicting - can listen to her music literally for hours. Mike Batt's music also sounds awesome on them.

I didn't like any of the Fiio dongles and IEMs tested - they seemed to be geared for younger listeners/ those who want heavy, bass oriented sound signatures - and also the highs oftentimes sounded like there is a slight veil in front of them - fir me. None of the Fiio products appeared to me - on top of only having the one-step volume control option - when I stayed on the button longer it switched songs! Not my preference.

 

[Monamtb]

As already mentioned, only Tanchjim Space is using CS43131. Others are using:

• Fiio K3 - ESS ES9038Q2M
• Dragonfly Red - ESS ES9016
• Samsung dongle - ???
• JCally JM6 - Conexant CX31993
• Fiio JA11 - KTMicro KT02H20

My Shanling UA6 uses a quad/ dual configuration of the CS43131

 

[Carlo2AC]

I didn't like any of the Fiio dongles and IEMs tested - they seemed to be geared for younger listeners/ those who want heavy, bass oriented sound signatures - and also the highs oftentimes sounded like there is a slight veil in front of them

Are you sure you are on the right forum friend?

I've bought the KA17 which also has a PEQ, but uniquely you can power it from a USB-C power source (aka desktop mode). The problem with high power dongles is they're going to drain your phone battery very quickly. However, I've started a bit of a collection of dongles so tempted to add this Tanchjim to it. Didn't compare the KA17 to the 15 at the time, not sure why. However, even in desktop mode, in high gain using more sensitive IEMs you still find yourself well towards the top end of the volume scale, so I'm dubious about fiio's power measurements.

non-balanced? i was interested in getting one for how much power it advertised balanced

 

[Bernard23]

Are you sure you are on the right forum friend?




non-balanced? i was interested in getting one for how much power it advertised balanced

Yes unbalanced. I have some dunu EST 112 that have a balanced cable but they're sufficiently sensitive to make it redundant. The zero reds are much less so, in unbalanced mode I'm using the volume around 100 out of 120. There's less headroom than I expected. No measurement so purely subjective but desktop mode doesn't seem to make any difference to either the volume headroom (tried with LCD-X) or battery drain. I have wondered if mine is faulty, but since I use it so little as my V30 is just as capable but fewer cables and faff the return window has long since expired.

 

[dreunion61]

Which setting should I apply in the app when using it as a pure DAC?

I have bid to a Stax SR-407 & SRM-006tS from Japan on Yahoo Auctions. I want to connect the Tanchjim Luna over the balanced 4.4mm to 2xXLR 3pin on the SRM-006tS amp.

Any recommendations? Like low/high gain, filters, db settings?

 

[Curupira]

Which setting should I apply in the app when using it as a pure DAC?

I have bid to a Stax SR-407 & SRM-006tS from Japan on Yahoo Auctions. I want to connect the Tanchjim Luna over the balanced 4.4mm to 2xXLR 3pin on the SRM-006tS amp.

Any recommendations? Like low/high gain, filters, db settings?

Given that the Luna measures far better in regards to SNR and THD than the SRM, any corruption of the signal chain will be on the energizer and tranducer end, therefore it's best to maximize the volume on the Luna rather than to reamplify the signal by the energizer.

So, generally, you'd go with high gain on the highest volume on the Luna so you get the lowest distortion and noise. In that scenario and when connected to the SRM, the input impedance of the energizer will be interpreted as almost infinite to the Luna, and so the dongle will provide a line out signal just like it appears on amirm's dashboard:

 

[tcpip]

My Tanchjim Luna just doesn't have enough power to drive my IEMs loud enough. I'm playing at max volume and it's, well, clearly audible, but not loud enough.

I'm trying it with the Moondrop Chu II and the Truthear x Crinacle Red. Both are quite middle-of-the-road devices to drive properly, I think. My desktop amps can drive them very well. I'm driving my Luna from my laptop, so there should be enough power to drive a USB device. I'm no basshead or headbanger.

I've tried single-ended and balanced cables, and I've tried connecting the Luna to my laptop's USB C port and USB A port. My eight-year-old laptop has a few USB 3 ports plus a USB 2 port with an A-type connector.

The sound is very clean, no complaints there.

One last question: does a Linux user need to do any special settings to (a) supply enough power to the dongle, or (b) unlock some higher volume levels? I'm running mplayer from command-line most of the time, and in the Ubuntu control panel, I've set max volume, and also maxed out the volume of mplayer. I'm trying to control the volume from the dongle's volume buttons.

EDIT: Problem solved. It was a Linux problem. Apparently you need to start alsamixer (if your Linux uses ALSA) and then increase the max volume of BOTH the master control and the sound card. In my case, my master volume was at 100% but my Tanchjim Luna volume was at 41%. Now that I've set both to 100%, I have lots of headroom to set volume using the buttons on the dongle.

 

[VientoB]

Bloody hell how loud to you listen?

 

[tcpip]

I too wondered whether this was due to me wanting a crazy high listening level. But after I fixed the Linux problem, I'm left with lots of headroom, so I can now see that the Luna delivers far higher levels than I need.

This is what I saw in alsamixer when I opened it:

See how the Luna (showing as PCM 1 here) is at a level of 41. I then needed to raise its level using arrow keys, and it became:

Having gone through a connect-disconnect cycle of the Luna, I can now see that I'll probably have to do this every time I plug the Luna i.