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THX Onyx Review (headphone adapter)

amirm said:
FYI THX told me the design is available to companies who want to build their own versions. That may lead to lower price points especially if the hardware is not as fancy as this one. This for example uses a fully machined chunk of aluminum. Has that fancy wire and grommet. A bare unit made out of a cheap enclosure possibly without MQA, sold direct should bring the price down.
Click to expand...

The build quality of the THX has appeal. I LOVE my TempoTec Sonata HD Pro, but the technique to use a 3.5 male-to-3.5 female adapter to trick it into high gain with medium power-hungry cans (like my HiFiMan HE-400se International and Sennheiser HD 560s) is a bit of a drag. And my biggest beef with the TempoTec is that it reverts to low gain after any time I get a call or email notification when listening to Spotify on my iPhone 12. After I get the call or notification, I must disconnect everything, shut down Spotify completely as an app, reconnect everything and relaunch Spotify to return to high gain.

Not sure if it's a quirk with the TempoTec, iPhone or Spotify. I'm guessing TempoTec, as I've used many other dongles with the same setup without this problem.

I do most of my headphone listening at night, when I'm not getting hammered with notifications. So, not a huge drag. But would love to find something as cheap and effective as the TempoTec without its idiosyncracies.

Dream on, right? :)
 
Hiby FC3 using the same DAC and with MQA Integrated and having a small form factor and cost almost almost thrice cheaper than the latter.
Probably picking up the Hiby and not to mentioned it packed with power, imo it can drive almost all iem.
 
How about MQA = Medium Quality Audio?

Do they recognize if an output device is not or not fully certified and revert to bit-perfect 16 bit automatically rather than continuing to send some crap buried in bits 14 to 16?
 
pk500 said:
The build quality of the THX has appeal. I LOVE my TempoTec Sonata HD Pro, but the technique to use a 3.5 male-to-3.5 female adapter to trick it into high gain with medium power-hungry cans (like my HiFiMan HE-400se International and Sennheiser HD 560s) is a bit of a drag. And my biggest beef with the TempoTec is that it reverts to low gain after any time I get a call or email notification when listening to Spotify on my iPhone 12. After I get the call or notification, I must disconnect everything, shut down Spotify completely as an app, reconnect everything and relaunch Spotify to return to high gain.

Not sure if it's a quirk with the TempoTec, iPhone or Spotify. I'm guessing TempoTec, as I've used many other dongles with the same setup without this problem.

I do most of my headphone listening at night, when I'm not getting hammered with notifications. So, not a huge drag. But would love to find something as cheap and effective as the TempoTec without its idiosyncracies.

Dream on, right? :)
Click to expand...

Someone at reddit flashed the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro with the BHD firmware, and it always goes into high gain mode. Read the discussion here

https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/ma1jh5

I still haven't tried it myself. Still waiting for more people to be the guinea pigs. :)
 
raistlin65 said:
Someone at reddit flashed the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro with the BHD firmware, and it always goes into high gain mode. Read the discussion here

https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/ma1jh5

I still haven't tried it myself. Still waiting for more people to be the guinea pigs. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. Saw that. Not sure if I have the stones to do that, as people also report the Sonata HD Pro runs pretty hot after you flash with balanced firmware.

Not sure if that's great for longevity, especially since the Sonata runs as cool as the underside of the pillow with proper firmware. I know it's only a $40/$60 dongle, but I don't like the idea of deliberately frying my stuff just to avoid a small technical trick.

We'll see!
 
Judging by the Onyx advertising hype I'm seeing everywhere, $100 of the price must be going to that..
 
pk500 said:
Thanks. Saw that. Not sure if I have the stones to do that, as people also report the Sonata HD Pro runs pretty hot after you flash with balanced firmware.

Not sure if that's great for longevity, especially since the Sonata runs as cool as the underside of the pillow with proper firmware. I know it's only a $40/$60 dongle, but I don't like the idea of deliberately frying my stuff just to avoid a small technical trick.

We'll see!
Click to expand...

Also check the HIDISZ S8 review thread here on ASR. I saw yesterday that they have been talking about this for the last week or so.
 
If I remember right, will not Android only send 24/48b out from the USB? So all above that will be downsampled then? Maybe is an app to bypass that that will cost some extra?

So this dongle is more usefull on laptops to me.
Not that I care, I am happt with 16/44 anyway.
 
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Kegemusha said:
If I remember right, will not Android only send 24/48b out from the USB? So all above that will be downsampled then? Maybe is an app to bypass that that wll cost some extra?

So this dongle is more usefull on laptops to me.
Not that I care, I am happt with 16/44 anyway.
Click to expand...
Hiby ,UAPP, and Neutron can all bypass the Android audio pipeline and send music to your DAC directly, so without sample rate limits.
Hiby is free, the other two cost money. I like UAPP best
 
Xulonn said:
I saw announcements of this new product in the "Technology" section of my Google News page this morning, including one from Engadget by a B. Steele, who wrote: ( )

Can someone please elaborate on what the "intricate sounds" "unfolded from a service like Tidal" by MQA actually are?
What is missing in other digital encoding methods that MQA magically includes?
Although Amir's review found a very good product with above average "fidelity", such comments sound a bit "snake oily" to me.
Click to expand...

Amir reviewed the device itself, not the MQA format. MQA capability is a "bonus". Everything else is covered. FLAC 24/96-192, 16/44.1, etc, etc.

(MQA is a contentious 'can of worms' and this is not the place to discuss it. It IS lossy, it doesn't ADD anything. It reduces the file size. It sounds OK, but does not surpass Qobuz or Amazon 24/96. (It also introduces some sort of "DRM-like" control over the streamed audio and a number of "toll booths" along the pathway to the user)
But you can use FLAC files of any kind from any streaming service. So if the device suits you simply ignore MQA.

THX is not making any wild claims. The Engadget writer has read the MQA press dossiers and seems to like the "origami" metaphor. This is routine work in tech news blogs. "Another day, another dollar". The writer may not know the basics of current audio gear. And the MQA organization is good at propagating catchy "memes".)

The point is: is the THX device good enough by itself? Does it meet your needs? (Whether it has MQA or not is a moot point unless you are a Tidal user).

THX may (or may not) introduce a future variant without MQA. Many companies do it in some products. This is called "hedging" and "fomo" (fear of missing out) in case MQA gains traction.
 
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jmillar said:
Amir reviewed the device itself, not the MQA format. MQA capability is a "bonus". Everything else is covered. FLAC 24/96-192, 16.44.1, etc, etc.

(MQA is a contentious 'can of worms', and this is not the place to dicuss it. It IS lossy, it doesn't ADD anything. It reduces the file size. It sounds OK, but does not surpass Qobuz or Amazon 24/96. It also introduces some sort of "DRM-like" control over the streamed audio and a number of "toll booths" along the pathway to the user) But you can use FLAC files of any kind from any streaming service. So if the device is right you can simply forget the feature.

THX is not making any wild claims. The Engadget writer has read the MQA press dossiers and seems to like the "origami" metaphor. This is routine work in tech news blogs. "Another day, another dollar". The writer may not know the basics of current audio gear. And the MQA organization is good at propagating catchy "memes".)

The point is: is the THX device good enough by itself? Does it meet your needs? (Whether it has MQA or not is a moot point unless you are a Tidal user).

THX may (or may not) introduce a future variant without MQA. Many companies do it in some products. This is called "hedging" and "fomo" (fear of missing out) in case MQA gains traction.
Click to expand...

Good points. The THX dongle looks like a quality product. I just think it's overpriced compared to competitors. For example, the Helm Bolt has MQA compatibility and is THX-certified, and it costs $100.

Whether the reason for the THX dongle's high price is more overhead because of the marketing and packaging costs not incurred by products direct from Chinese factories, the "THX tax," the "MQA snake oil" or something else, I'm not sure.

I'm not interested in the THX dongle at $200. Drop the price to $150, and I'll bat an eyelash at it. Drop the price to $100-125, and color me very interested.

The THX dongle reminds me of the DragonFly series. Solid products that please a lot of people, but all overpriced. :)
 
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