I got my Tanchjim Space a couple weeks ago now, and I've used its 3.5mm jack to power 250 ohm cans.
For its EXTREMELY SMALL size and EXTREMELY LOW power consumption (to output ratio), it's an excellent value. Regarding sound quality, I'd put it on par with the Topping DX1 (see bottom, updated after re-listening) The DX1 is the same price, but it also weighs 18 times more (258g vs 14g..) This isn't a knock on the DX1 at all - it's meant to be a desktop DAC. In fact, they probably tried to make it heavier using thicker-than-necessary aluminum for the chassis, which is nice. It's just not the best for portability or sticking in your pocket, which the Tanchjim is. And my primary focus here is the Tanchjim Space (obviously lol)
If you like to listen to your music really loud and your headphones aren't very efficient, or you need to compete with background environmental sounds (train etc.), the port you're going to need to use is the 4.4mm "balanced" output. Not all headphones are compatible with this, so if you need more than 11mW for your 300 ohm cans, or more than about 125mW for your 32-60 ohm cans, and your headphones don't support balanced operation, the Tanchjim Space is not for you! When you use its 4.4mm balanced output to drive your headphones, each DAC runs one of its channels completely out of phase with the other, and those two channels, out of phase, are then used to power one driver, the voltage is doubled. Into the same impedance, doubling the voltage doubles the current as well, and since power is voltage multiplied by current, you get FOUR times the power output (provided the current is able to be provided at these elevated voltages). With the 3.5mm jack, bridged mode is impossible. Oh, and I think you're only using one of the DACs in the dongle (or maybe half of each DAC).
So yeah, the Tanchjim Space 3.5mm output power is just 11mW into 300 ohms, while the DX1 is 51mW.
But when you use the 4.4mm output with balanced-compatible headphones, the Space is pretty much on par.
Buying a new 4.4mm cable for your headphones can sometimes cost $50+. I'd say, if you need to buy a new cable to use the Space, and it's going to cost you more than about $20, you should find something else to buy. (11mW is often more than enough for use at home)
The soundstage is wide, the bass is full and controlled, vocals sound quite natural but can come across thin in some circumstances. Frequency response comes across as very flat and extended. The listening experience isn't entirely non-fatiguing though - and I find the fatiguing nature of this specific device isn't due to brightness (as I said, frequency response sounds flat), it's how things like cymbal crashes and speech sounds like "s" "f" "th" etc. are rendered.
They will do headphones in the $120 to $200 range justice.
Phone Alone ("Phone") @~3.67V
lowest two of twenty measurements taken every 30 seconds:
500mA
501mA
501mA
3.67V average voltage over these readings:
Phone 1.83
Space @~3.65V
lowest two of twenty measurements taken every 30 seconds:
647mA
653mA
650mA
3.65V average voltage over these readings:
2.37W = Phone + Space
(Phone + Space) - Phone = 2.37 -1.83
Space = 0.54W
DX1 @~3.61V
lowest two of twenty measurements taken every 30 seconds:
861mA
865mA
863mA
3.61V average voltage over these readings:
3.11W phone + DX1
(Phone + DX1) - Phone = 3.11 - 1.83
DX1 = 1.28W
So the Space takes about 3/8 the power of the DX1. Pretty good! Not a bad thing for the DX1, it has three op-amps that the Space doesn't, and it isn't especially designed for portable use...
My phone has a 3,590mAh battery, 3.88 nominal Voltage. This makes it 13.92, or basically 14 watt-hours.
A phone charged to 100% and not touched, just running background apps, receiving e-mails and texts, should last 48 hours or so. If that's playing music from cell data, halve that:
3,590mA / 24 hours = 150mA,
150mA * 3.88V = 0.58W
So it's 0.58W to run the phone, and 0.54W + approx. double the audio power emitted from the DAC/HP amp combo "Space". Let's be really conservative and say we're using low impedance cans to maximize power draw - average music power is about 1/10 of an amplifier's rated "RMS" level before the peaks of the music start clipping. To illustrate, if you're playing ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man, and you turn up the volume so that the loudest peak in the song is 0.01V below clipping on a 100W amplifier, the average music power would be about 8 watts, with the louder (busiest, most instruments simultaneously+singing) parts being 10-12 watts. Back to Space - 280mW down to 28mW * 2 + generous = 100mW, or 0.1W
So now it's 0.58W and 0.64W = 1.22W. We don't have to be that extreme, so let's call it 1.2W
14/1.2W = just under 12 hours music playback from the phone instead
If you remember the text like this at the beginning, I had to change what I wrote there because when I busted out my DX1 for this, I listened to it, and, turns out: the Space sounds like I remember the DX1 sounding! Unfortunately my memory is wrong... I remember the DX1 sounding better than it does now... So the Space is elevated in relation to the DX1. Yes, the DX1 does have line level RCA outputs, but if they sound like the HP outputs, cheap nickel/gold plated 1/8" to RCA adaptors are available!
Wow that's longer than I thought it'd be. Took some time as well!
Anyone have any specific questions about this thing, for someone who has one?
