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Their line up is somewhat confusing full stop. I also note that the android version of the actual sonata HD pro is out of stock on their site. Usually a sign it's being phased out.
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Tempotec Sonata HD Pro Review (headphone Adapter)
- Thread starter amirm
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YEah, seems the HD PRO is phasing out. Now I am at a dilema, if I keep the unit, with no existing measurement if this is actually a decent implementation vs the HD PRO, or if I try sending it back, but then I Will probably have to spend more for the HD PRO alternatives..
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I would say if the one you bought suits your purposes, I'd keep it.
Im probably staying with mine.. the trouble of sending this back to China is not worth the effort imo.
Is there a place i can suggest to have this HD III and maybe also HD V, both 2022.models, measured at this fórum? It seems Very appropriate, since the HD Pro is not even available anymore for sale
Is there a place i can suggest to have this HD III and maybe also HD V, both 2022.models, measured at this fórum? It seems Very appropriate, since the HD Pro is not even available anymore for sale
I believe VendorID/ProductID are tied to a firmware and change accordingly when device get re-flashed. Mine is 22E1/E206 at the moment and it seems to be HD III ID. It's even present in the filename of HD III's firmware executable. It was the same out of the box (i've checked original device which is still present but hidden in Device Manager) but it changed when I flashed it with HD Pro 1.0 and 3.0 firmwares. I remember this clearly because auto-populated values in flashing utility were always wrong, so I had to copy-paste them from Device Manager every time.
Btw Ali's Tempotec store recently answered my message in which I asked for my unit's original firmware (since those available for download were not working). They asked me to send it back. I refused and said that HD III firmware is working fine. They did not answer my question if this is HD III in HD Pro case.
Btw Ali's Tempotec store recently answered my message in which I asked for my unit's original firmware (since those available for download were not working). They asked me to send it back. I refused and said that HD III firmware is working fine. They did not answer my question if this is HD III in HD Pro case.
Yeah Tempotec can fudge the VID/PID anyway they want if they wanted to. But the most probable case for your unit is they put new hardware into old cases they don't want to waste. Probably ran out of old CS chip forcing them to go to new ESS version. They certainly want to benefit from the stellar reputation with the Sonata HD Pro name and wants people to believe this is a new/better HD Pro.
I don't have one of these so can't help much. But if you have not digged into the unit's detail with usbtreeview (https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html) you might want to try and may be you can discover something that is unique to the new hardware vs the old.
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Are we entering into FUD territory here? "most probably" and "probably..... Forcing them to" are pushing it a bit. Is there any confirmed cases of this company doing that?
Happens everytime I disconnect and connect the unit via USB, resets Volume to Full. Didnt test if it would hold if I kept it connected during a system reboot
Saidera
Senior Member
Windows 11 can be buggy.
Plug into the same USB port?
I am so disappointed that Sonata HD Pro is literally gone now. Replaced by random ESS stuff.
Slowly we can see Meizu Hifi has been replaced by some random 'mblu' DAC that uses a dubious CX chip. Why are these people not aware of the importance of quality? Of the three dongles which are both measured on ASR, inexpensive and famous, two are more or less gone. Maybe you can still get a Meizu but its price ain't great. All I can now recommend are Apple dongles...
Sure there are plenty of dongles using CS43131 or CS43198, but we're past the age where buyers can be certain what chips the random dongles are using. We're also past the age when dongles of high quality could be bought for low prices.
I don't think long-selling products should be phased out. Worse is the use of 'HD Pro' naming on products completely unrelated to it, and we can see here at least one person has made a mistake - been deceived by this naming.
Because of this, I’m taking off SHD Pro and Meizu from my signature; I am thoroughly convinced that DSD support, 2 Vrms output and other such features of CS43131 are not so different (in terms of improvement) from your common Apple CS46L06 which has arguably the best ADC on the dongle market.
Plug into the same USB port?
I am so disappointed that Sonata HD Pro is literally gone now. Replaced by random ESS stuff.
Slowly we can see Meizu Hifi has been replaced by some random 'mblu' DAC that uses a dubious CX chip. Why are these people not aware of the importance of quality? Of the three dongles which are both measured on ASR, inexpensive and famous, two are more or less gone. Maybe you can still get a Meizu but its price ain't great. All I can now recommend are Apple dongles...
Sure there are plenty of dongles using CS43131 or CS43198, but we're past the age where buyers can be certain what chips the random dongles are using. We're also past the age when dongles of high quality could be bought for low prices.
I don't think long-selling products should be phased out. Worse is the use of 'HD Pro' naming on products completely unrelated to it, and we can see here at least one person has made a mistake - been deceived by this naming.
Because of this, I’m taking off SHD Pro and Meizu from my signature; I am thoroughly convinced that DSD support, 2 Vrms output and other such features of CS43131 are not so different (in terms of improvement) from your common Apple CS46L06 which has arguably the best ADC on the dongle market.
Last edited:
staticV3
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I can only agree, with the Marketing trying to deceived the costumer, as it well did to me. You purchase in 2022, a Product that is mentioned as HD Pro sucessor, and it comes with a DAC Chip made in 2016? While the HD Pro that it suceeded used top of class hardware built in, there is no comparison. And at the same price as well. What I bought should have cost 20/30 euros, not more. It's the price for a similar dongle. I don't recommend the HD III for any user that wanted a HD Pro instead,
Saidera
Senior Member
Interesting, so a replacement for Meizu Hifi Pro has existed since late 2020! And by Ugreen, which I thought was a cheap dongle brand. https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-3-5mm-Audio-Adapter-Headphone/dp/B08NVRV6G9
Just gotta say that there doesn't seem to be a window to look inside at the chip, which made Meizu special.
I see plenty of ASR members have been talking about this Ugreen HiFi Audio Pro.
decayed.cell
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UGreen is a good brand. Build quality wise they're good, and a bit on the expensive side even on Chinese sites.
As a side note, I've lost my Type-C to USB dongle adapter - does anyone know if this is just a plain adapter? I've always been curious as to why Type-C to PC wouldn't just work
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