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TANCHJIM Space Portable Headphone Adapter Review

Rate this DAC & HP Amp

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 3 1.0%

  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 4 1.3%

  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 38 12.2%

  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 267 85.6%
  • Total voters
    312
VientoB said:
Filters shouldn't really be affecting bass at all
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know. The difference wasn't large at all with the bass,) so I edited -moved it from the first thing in the list (things should be in order of importance - I reworded a couple things and removed a paragraph from before where I mentioned it which is why it was first in the group)

I think what it is, is the clearer, less irritating treble probably allowed me to pay better attention to the bass.
Have you ever noticed that when you add a proper amount of bass to a song when bass was previously missing, it kind of balances the treble which also sounded a bit recessed when the bass was missing? I think it might work a bit in reverse like that, too (but less so, significantly less - just a possible contributing)
 
mike7877 said:
Yeah, I know. The difference wasn't large at all with the bass,) so I moved it from the first thing in the list (things should be in order of importance - I reworded a couple things and removed a paragraph from before where I mentioned it

I think what it is, is the clearer, less irritating treble probably allowed me to pay better attention to the bass.
Have you ever noticed that when you add a proper amount of bass to a song when bass was previously missing, it kind of balances the treble which also sounded a bit recessed when the bass was missing? I think it might work a bit in reverse like that, too
Click to expand...
Yes you're right a change in treble can affect the overall impression. How much treble was being cut by the filter though? I need to check what filter mode mine is in. It's the one frustrating thing about this device there is no visible indicator.
 
VientoB said:
Yes you're right a change in treble can affect the overall impression. How much treble was being cut by the filter though? I need to check what filter mode mine is in. It's the one frustrating thing about this device there is no visible indicator.
Click to expand...

There are instructions on page 32 in here just above my post. To go high gain mode, it's just a quick press of both buttons and the max voltage goes from 1V to 2VRMS, or, if you're using the 4.4mm-from 2V RMS to 4V RMS. And long press switches between the 5 filters: when the light blinks on a filter change, you're back on filter 1. There! If you didn't look already, there are the filter instructions! lol

Most often I'd say it's filter 1 that seems to cut the highs, but sometimes it works the other way around- it depends on the sound itself (remember the tambourine in the first song I listened to sounded great through the NOS filter - very much like I've come to know it's supposed to sound from listening to it through many systems over lots of time and through a good amount of different high-fidelity systems). The filters actually all have a kind of treble cut, in a way - The Tanchjim Space still isn't perfect in its presentation, but I find it a lot better than it was, however I was listening to it configured before. It is a tiny, budget piece... I was just ever, everrrr so slightly disappointed in it before - now I'm very happy at the value and size. Btw, the headphones I'm driving with it are HD 650s, right now I'm using the included single-ended cable, but soon I'll switch to balanced 4.4. There wasn't a noticeable difference before (except volume, of course..) and I don't expect there to be one - it's the cable I usually use and I don't need the length of the included 10-footer

Actually, now that I've spent a bit of time listening since writing that post, I'm pretty sure I was on NOS before this.. Unless the thing resets itself to something else (which is the default) every single time it loses power - then I was listening to that. But that, I haven't determined yet... I think it must remember your last setting, though. It remembers gain, so

I'd recommend filter 4, or filter 2, depending on taste. There's a slight imaging difference between the two as well, I prefer 4.

I haven't listened to it like this through speakers yet, and the way that headphones image vs. speakers in a physical room, I think whether 4 or 2 ends up being better could be up in the air. 2 might be better through the speakers. It could also end up being better through the headphones eventually - this discovery is still fresh - developing a full understanding of the sound takes more time. I've only listened to 3 different artists, and not critically (this is my portable dongle, not my main rig! haha)

How is yours coming?
 
mike7877 said:
There are instructions on page 32 in here just above my post. To go high gain mode, it's just a quick press of both buttons and the max voltage goes from 1V to 2VRMS, or, if you're using the 4.4mm-from 2V RMS to 4V RMS. And long press switches between the 5 filters: when the light blinks on a filter change, you're back on filter 1. There! If you didn't look already, there are the filter instructions! lol

Most often I'd say it's filter 1 that seems to cut the highs, but sometimes it works the other way around- it depends on the sound itself (remember the tambourine in the first song I listened to sounded great through the NOS filter - very much like I've come to know it's supposed to sound from listening to it through many systems over lots of time and through a good amount of different high-fidelity systems). The filters actually all have a kind of treble cut, in a way - The Tanchjim Space still isn't perfect in its presentation, but I find it a lot better than it was, however I was listening to it configured before. It is a tiny, budget piece... I was just ever, everrrr so slightly disappointed in it before - now I'm very happy at the value and size. Btw, the headphones I'm driving with it are HD 650s, right now I'm using the included single-ended cable, but soon I'll switch to balanced 4.4.

Actually, now that I've spent a bit of time listening since writing that post, I'm pretty sure I was on NOS before this.. Unless the thing resets itself to something else (which is the default) every single time it loses power - then I was listening to that. But that, I haven't determined yet... I think it must remember your last setting, though. It remembers gain, so

I'd recommend filter 4, or filter 2, depending on taste. There's a slight imaging difference between the two as well, I prefer 4.

I haven't listened to it like this through speakers yet, and the way that headphones image vs. speakers in a physical room, I think whether 4 or 2 ends up being better could be up in the air. 2 might be better through the speakers. It could also end up being better through the headphones eventually - this discovery is still fresh - developing a full understanding of the sound takes more time. I've only listened to 3 different artists, and not critically (this is my portable dongle, not my main rig! haha)

How is yours coming?
Click to expand...
Hmm, how do you know there is a treble cut with all of them? Subjective listening? Measurements?
 
VientoB said:
Hmm, how do you know there is a treble cut with all of them? Subjective listening? Measurements?
Click to expand...

Like I said "like I've come to know it's supposed to sound from listening to it through many systems over lots of time and through a good amount of different systems"

The Tanchjim Space isn't bad - it's great for the price. I don't know what its default filter setting is, but if it's NOS and most people don't end up switching the setting, Tanchjim left a good bit of sound quality on the table. I find filter 4 the best

Something to add - since my last post I've come to learn that the filter setting is kept through power cycles & plug/unplug
 
mike7877 said:
Like I said "like I've come to know it's supposed to sound from listening to it through many systems over lots of time and through a good amount of different systems"

The Tanchjim Space isn't bad - it's great for the price. I don't know what its default filter setting is, but if it's NOS and most people don't end up switching the setting, Tanchjim left a good bit of sound quality on the table. I find filter 4 the best

Something to add - since my last post I've come to learn that the filter setting is kept through power cycles & plug/unplug
Click to expand...
Subjective then. Thanks.
 
I bought mine a few weeks ago after i put my last one in the washing mashine. how do i know if i should do that update?
 
VientoB said:
Subjective then. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes - did you get your firmware updated? Why are you updating - having an issue or just trying to update for best stability/performance?

edit: also, to elaborate a bit about the treble - the amount it's diminished when not in NOS (1), is very very small, and smallest in (4). If I didn't have other things to compare the Space to, I probably wouldn't think the treble diminished.

It's my opinion that this $100 DAC/Amp combo is effectively identical to almost $2k of DAC/headphone amp for listening at moderate levels- at least through high impedance (300 ohm) medium sensitivity (97dB/mW) headphones There are sonic differences here, too (of course), but they are so mild and so often imperceptible that I don't fault the thing! The difference in subjective brightness between the output from the Space and a better DAC, is probably smaller than the variance between different serial numbers of the same mid-high-end dynamic headphones.
 
Last edited:
I took some pictures!

Of course there was more on the rear!! Tanchjim didn't include it in their drawings. Still interesting IMO

The little screws were so hard to get out! I'm pretty sure I didn't have the right size/type head... I used the smallest Phillips from my specialty [tiny] set - I had to use a lot of downward force while twisting to get them out lol. And back in? ...only enough to keep the board snug! (I'm going to go back in and put a couple drops of hot glue to keep the screws from slowly dislodging themselves over probably weeks to months and shorting out the board. That'd suck!

Pics: (forum made me shrink them.. There wasn't a lot to be gained from the pixels, but they could've been a bit better :/ )

1739596565955.png

Above is a bit more of the part you can see through the window

1739596048388.png

Here you can see how close the parts come to touching the chassis - some might actually be touching!!
See the two screws (one in either corner)? The one on the left was still partially attached, holding the board in place, while this picture was taken. The one on the right which looks more crooked is completely detached. Now both look like the one on the left, it was the best I could do! I pushed probably 30-40lbs to no avail... I don't want to break the board! A couple dabs of hot glue will be the price paid for these photos haha
(this picture: ISO100 F40 1.3 second exposure)

1739596739308.png

Aaaand the one we've all been waiting for!! Is that a clock on the back too?
Don't mind the small scuffs on the left corners (left in the picture, top and bottom on the left - those are aftermath left from wedges I used to apply pressure upwards while twisting the two screws...)



That was interesting... Other than adding the glue I mentioned, I'm never opening this thing again! lol.

One observation - the way the buttons are connected to the case is good - not like you might assume. If you thought it was probably just a piece of plastic poking through a machined hole, with the piece of plastic just sitting there, squashed between two board-mounted switches and the inside of the case, well, that is not true! The buttons stay right where they are and function without the board even installed. There's no tactile click from the switch without the board, of course - point is , t held in place with
 
Torx has 6 points, this one is a pentalobe, 5 points.
 
VientoB said:
I just found this on AliExpress:
￡8.31 | 7 Pcs 5 Point Torx Screwdriver Bits 50mm S2 Magnetic Star Screw Driver 1/4" Hex Shank T10 T15 T20 T25 T27 T30 T40
Click to expand...

That literally comes up at $1.44 CDN...

I've been doing my best to avoid places like AliExpress and Temu (and have been very successful - I'm determined) because of the negative effect they have on literally everyone involved.

Somehow China is a "developing country" (with a space program...) so they get US/CDN taxpayer funded shipping for their businesses - that's right! Dong Tai Wong in Xichan, Henan, he has a small workshop with 12 employees (migrant workers) cranking out kitchenware. He wants to sell to William T. Brown somewhere upstate New York. They market through Facebook as a normal company, William has no clue - he sees the pots, they're a great price, he orders, and when they come, that's when he sees, on the outside of the box, a bright green sticker with one word in all caps in size 30 font: CHINA.

The company paid those workers next to nothing, they all live in the same room, they all eat the same thing every day, it's always cheap. The metal they use to make the pots is recycled, Dong's uncle is a contractor that does renovations for medical clinics, this is where the metal comes from. Dong's uncle ain't the most edumucated and neither's he. Uncle grew up during the cultural revolution, Dong's just a bit slow (might've been the formula he got as a baby that had melamine added to it to manipulate the protein content test to read 21% instead of 13...). Anyway, Dong usually gets the stainless stuff to use -no problem, right? It's melted! That kills everything, even aids!! Unfortunately, the stainless steel stool bases they've been getting from all over for years (they only sold one model back in the 70s for the whoooole countryyyy...), this last place had lead weighs added because they were for children to sit on and the kids were light and the stools were tipping too easily. Dong didn't notice the weights and melted things down for William's utensils and pots from an alloy 17% lead.

When Dong declared the $ amount of the goods in William's package, he put $45 "anything over 50 and they'll look. I can't afford any fees, I can barely feed my workers - I already owe them 5 months wages and have no idea how I'm going to pay them THAT..."

Under a new anti-corruption effort - one weekend, all packages over $20 were to be opened and checked- , Dong's scheme was discovered by the guvvermint. They then went through his books and talked to his employees. Dong, even though he was barely making enough to keep the roof over his and his wife/2kids' head with no extras, had his business license stripped from him, his employees sent packing without any compensation, his machinery was sold to pay the rulers as much as it was worth, and Dong was sentenced to hard labour, 5 years. His wife divorced him and she and kids went to live with her parents, those migrant workers had worked almost the entire season were returning to their families with nothing, and William's package, it arrived at his door. "Feels a little heavy for steel - it's probably just really thick! China is so advanced and far ahead of the west these days!!"

Will loves to cook and is great at making sauces. Slow, simmered, sauces. Sauces he's used for his family meals - sauces he's given away as presents for more distant relatives and friends, at parties. Of all the sauce he's made, he's probably eaten more than half himself. He does have two kids as well, 9 and 7. The older is his son, youngest, daughter. Both are nice kids, but they're not as quick as most of the other kids. Both have independent education plans and Ben was diagnosed with ADHD/Autism last year. Will hasn't been feeling great himself, either, lately. Especially lately... Everything up until today could be the result of being overworked, but today... today Will noticed his coordination was off, and he was feeling emotionally, unregulated... After he visits his doctor this afternoon and faints while registering with the receptionist, he'll get an ambulance to emerg where they'll do some bloodwork, find out his kidneys are shot, do some more diagnostic tests, and discover he's been slowly poisoned with lead. Later on he'll find out that both of his kids will likely never be fully independent and will never lead the lives they could have if they hadn't been exposed to a toxic metal through their most delicate formative years.

Will will get a new kidney from his cousin, but his future health is much less certain than most other people. His home life will be much more stressful. His kids will need so much help throughout school. Hopefully they will be able to recover enough that they can lead normal lives, but that remains to be seen. School, socializing, family life, everything is affected. And why? Because Will bought something unregulated and made to the bottom bottom bottom dollar. He didn't know, though! But he did when it came... No he didn't, but he should have. No, normal people shouldn't have to think about things like this - our governments shouldn't allow poisonous things into the country to harm citizens
 
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