• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

THX Onyx Review (headphone adapter)

Darwin

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2017
Messages
304
Likes
139
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. :)

It is a much better product than any of the Dragonflys including the Cobalt.
 

gofishus

Member
Joined
May 25, 2021
Messages
16
Likes
8
The Helm Audio Bolt and Shanling UA2 is what I'm interested to see how it compares to given that the THX costs $100 more than those products.

In fact the Shanling UA1 only costs $45 - https://www.linsoul.com/products/shanling-ua1 - and has the exact same DAC (ESS ES9218P) so is it the THX AAA tech and MQA support adding the extra $150 premium on it?
 

jmos

Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 22, 2021
Messages
12
Likes
28
Anyone know if I were to pick up a headphone amp like say the A90, could I use the onyx as a dac and feed the output to the a90 via a 3.5mm to RCA's cable? Or is the output too hot to input into the A90 line in and needs to be line level?

I eventually want to get a dedicated desktop DAC as well. But doing this would allow me to step up to the A90 and then save for a good DAC to pair with it.
 

staticV3

Master Contributor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
7,538
Likes
12,004
Anyone know if I were to pick up a headphone amp like say the A90, could I use the onyx as a dac and feed the output to the a90 via a 3.5mm to RCA's cable? Or is the output too hot to input into the A90 line in and needs to be line level?

I eventually want to get a dedicated desktop DAC as well. But doing this would allow me to step up to the A90 and then save for a good DAC to pair with it.
As you can see from the first measurement of this review, the Onyx outputs 2Vrms under no load (=plugged into an external Amp).
That is precisely line level for RCA DACs.
That being said, I'd be surprised if the A90 couldn't handle a fair bit more than 2Vrms on its RCA inputs.
 

D700

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2018
Messages
311
Likes
370
Any reason this wouldn’t work, permanently connected to a 2018 Mac Mini driving HD650 all day? I am pondering a DAC/AMP combo but if this is 80% of say the L30/E30, it would be a lot less clutter.

Or would I be fighting noise from the USB connection?
 

jmos

Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 22, 2021
Messages
12
Likes
28
Any reason this wouldn’t work, permanently connected to a 2018 Mac Mini driving HD650 all day? I am pondering a DAC/AMP combo but if this is 80% of say the L30/E30, it would be a lot less clutter.

Or would I be fighting noise from the USB connection?

I have zero USB noise using this on a windows laptop.
However, I find my HD650 sounds a little flat through the onyx alone. My lower impedance headphones sound great. But when I want to listen to my hd650 I send the onyx out through an O2 amp. I find this to sound better with the hd650's.
I am currently in the market for a desktop stack and will strictly use the onyx for portable duty on my phone with lower impedence cans.
 

symphara

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Jan 24, 2021
Messages
632
Likes
592
WhatHiFi didn't like the device: https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/thx-onyx

"fails the all-important second by not delivering the level of detail or rhythmic quality required at this price"

When is our host going to measure "rhythmic quality" properly??
 

MalinYamato

Senior Member
Joined
May 3, 2020
Messages
420
Likes
218
Location
東京都世田谷区
No balanced = bad.
How can this expensive thing possibly complete with my E1DA9038S G3 Susumu and my Fiio BTR5?
 

MalinYamato

Senior Member
Joined
May 3, 2020
Messages
420
Likes
218
Location
東京都世田谷区
No balanced = bad.
How can this expensive thing possibly complete with my E1DA9038S G3 Susumu and my Fiio BTR5?
I wouldn't rely on what-hifi.
 

symphara

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Jan 24, 2021
Messages
632
Likes
592
No balanced = bad.
How can this expensive thing possibly complete with my E1DA9038S G3 Susumu and my Fiio BTR5?
Assuming you meant ”compete”, it’s rather easy.

The Fiio seems to be a completely different kind of product - it’s large, with a rechargeable battery, has Bluetooth etc.

The E1DA9038S G3 Susumu is a similar kind of product, and, for me, with a very similar price. The THX Onyx is CHF 170 here, in Switzerland. The Susumu is $100 without shipping, VAT and customs, which will probably put the final price in the CHF150-160 region, were I to import one. The THX Onyx arguably has a much nicer design. It also has MQA decoding, for Tidal subscribers who want it.

Having no balanced output is simply irrelevant for people who don’t have headphones with balanced input, such as myself.

Try to expand your thinking just a little bit. If a product is bad, useless or overpriced *to you*, try to imagine that it could be different for others. Making sweeping statements of the likes you made is just silly.
 

morespinach

Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2020
Messages
34
Likes
7
This is a review and detailed measurements of the THX Onyx MQA DAC and Headphone Adapter. Company was kind enough to send me one prior to its announcement today. The Onyx costs US $200.

There are a lot of "dongles" out there but the Onyx is the first one to bring good bit of class to the category:

View attachment 122559

As you see, the device is a bit long but also sleek. An integrated USB-C cable has a large custom strain relief and is made of lovely silicon. Better yet, it has a magnet at the end which mates with the same on the device itself to give a mechanism to wrap your headphone cable around:

View attachment 122560

I didn't have a use for that but would play with it for hours, attaching and detaching the magnetic latch! :)

There are three LEDs that show the various status of the device. I didn't care to memorize what they do so I leave it up to you all to figure out.

The Onyx uses the THX amplification module which became famous in desktop configuration. At the time, it broke all records as far as low level of distortion and noise. Interestingly enough, the marketing material talked a lot about its low power requirements (due to lack of need to bias the output stage) but all the products based on it were desktop, powered units. Later, a headphone with the amplification was released but no stand-alone such as we see here. While I did not measure the power consumption, the Onyx ran cool to touch after some use.

THX Onyx Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard:
View attachment 122561

Distortion is at the limit of audibility which is to say it is transparent. With a bit of noise, SINAD slides to 108 dB which while not class leading, is still excellent:

View attachment 122562

Dynamic range follows suit:

View attachment 122563

Dongles tend to show a lot of spurious but usually inaudible tones in our jitter test. Onyx is the same although it is much better than many dongle including the free or $9 ones you get with your phones:

View attachment 122564

At -130 dB, the spikes are 15 dB better than best case threshold of audibility so definite a problem for the eye but not the ear.

Multitone test shows the low distortion levels:

View attachment 122571

The filter is a rather slow one:

View attachment 122565

Most important measurement for a portable dongle is not the above but availability of power. So let's start with 300 ohm load:

View attachment 122566

Nice to see no clipping. Output power is limited by 2 volt output which is almost the best we get in this class product without resorting to differential ("balanced") output:

View attachment 122567

Switching to 32 ohm load though, allows the Onyx to shine more with its high current delivery:

View attachment 122569

View attachment 122568

Testing for load dependency we see an amplifier that simply doesn't care (in a good way):
View attachment 122570

It only goes into protection (tall lines going left) when impedance is at 12 and 16 ohms. Above that, there is no clipping at all.

THX Onyx Headphone Listening Tests
With my Sennheiser HD-650, the Onyx was capable of driving them to very nice loudness with superb fidelity. It is nice to be able to crank up the volume to max and not notice any distortion. For normal listening though, I had the volume down -6 dB (software DSP volume in my Roon player).

Switching to Drop Ether CX low impedance headphone resulted in similar experience. Again, there was no distortion and plenty of volume although maybe a hair less than I had with Sennheiser HD-650.

Conclusions
THX's take on portable headphone adapters is up the industrial and look and feel of the product. And bring it under a much more recognized brand name. Its subjective and objective performance are near or at the top of the class. The only two misses are rather high price of $200 and lack of balanced output for very inefficient headphones.

Overall, I really like the look and feel and execution of THX Onyx and such, I am going to put it on my recommended list.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Only for Android though?
 

symphara

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Jan 24, 2021
Messages
632
Likes
592

eebogaine

New Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2021
Messages
4
Likes
0
View attachment 122570

It only goes into protection (tall lines going left) when impedance is at 12 and 16 ohms.

Does this mean the Onyx is incompatible with the Aeon RT at 12.5 Ohms? If so, does the E1DA 9038D/S also go into protection with such low impedances? The E1DA review doesn't contain load dependence testing.
 

staticV3

Master Contributor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
7,538
Likes
12,004
Does this mean the Onyx is incompatible with the Aeon RT at 12.5 Ohms? If so, does the E1DA 9038D/S also go into protection with such low impedances? The E1DA review doesn't contain load dependence testing.
Neither the 9038S, nor the 9038D have any load-sensing capabilities or protection modes.
However, the 9038D's Opamps limit its current to roughly 90mA, which makes it not very suitable for high loads (=low impedances).
The 9038S is much more capable in that regard.

Edit: here's how well the 9038S handles different loads:
reference-audio-analyzer.pro_en_report_amp_e1da-9038sg3.php.png

And here it is compared to similar devices (gif):
Dongle_Comparison.gif
 
Last edited:

Pepefer96

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2021
Messages
8
Likes
3
I'm interested on how things like PC38X/PC37X could scale with something like the Onyx, but with stuff like Qudelix 5K having TRRS 3.5mm with in-line mic support, dual ESS DAC, balanced output and costing half the price, bluetooth (with LDAC and APTX Adaptive) is even worth considering.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20210725-172343_Chrome.jpg
    Screenshot_20210725-172343_Chrome.jpg
    81.9 KB · Views: 103

eebogaine

New Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2021
Messages
4
Likes
0
I'm interested on how things like PC38X/PC37X could scale with something like the Onyx, but with stuff like Qudelix 5K having TRRS 3.5mm with in-line mic support, dual ESS DAC, balanced output and costing half the price, bluetooth (with LDAC and APTX Adaptive) is even worth considering.
The difference in power between the two is irrelevant to you. The PC38X is 109dB/mW at 28Ohm, so you need just 13mW to drive it at 120dB (deafeningly loud). The biggest advantage of the Qudelix aside from bluetooth is the parametric EQ, so you can correct the sound to your liking.
 

Pepefer96

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2021
Messages
8
Likes
3
The difference in power between the two is irrelevant to you. The PC38X is 109dB/mW at 28Ohm, so you need just 13mW to drive it at 120dB (deafeningly loud). The biggest advantage of the Qudelix aside from bluetooth is the parametric EQ, so you can correct the sound to your liking.
I see... at this point I just got stuck between Hiby FC3 (still possible the use of hiby app) and the 5K since this 2 have in-line mic support, but in my head the 5K sounds like the less headache device
 
Top Bottom