(Unofficial) Moon Drop Dawn Pro Balanced DAC/Headphone AMP Measurements

[Vamp898]

looking forward on this. can I use the unbalanced and balanced output simultaneously on different earphones?

That is impossible. When you use the Balanced Output, both CS43131 are used for the balanced output. That means there is nothing left to feed the 3.5mm Output.

And the other way around. If you would use one CS43131 for the 3.5mm, there would be only one left for the 4.4mm which needs two.

So its not possible, the DAC would need 3xCS43131 with independent clocks and power supplies.

Its much easier and probably cheaper to just get two DAWN PRO^^ i use two DAWN PRO when i watch movies together with my wife. We both use open back Headphones (HD 490 Pro) and both are connected, via balanced, to an DAWN PRO.

That way we can talk naturally (thanks to zero isolation of the headphone) to each other and both watch the movie in the volume we like

 

[Nam]

Thanks everyone, I purchased a Moondrop dawn pro because of your measurements.
It sounds great for $30, very much better than my old DAC Khadas tone. I wish I saw the measurements sooner.

 

[Romario]

Spotify and tidal 16 (and 24) bit 44.1 khz turns the led into red.
Tidal high res 24bit 192khz and 96khz flac turns the led blue. And once blue, it stays that way even for normal flac playback, (but not for spotify) and not after restarting tidal.
It should also be possible to turn it to green and yellow, for dsd maybe.

Great little dongle dac amp that doesn't get much attention here.

 

[Abstracted]

My Moondrop Dawn Pro driver version is 6.0.1.14031.
Is that the lastest?

 

[Bleib]

My Moondrop Dawn Pro driver version is 6.0.1.14031.
Is that the lastest?

.02 is perhaps newer?

Download | MOONDROP Official Website

moondroplab.com

 

[Pictus]

My Moondrop Dawn Pro driver version is 6.0.1.14031.
Is that the lastest?

The default Windows driver is newer and is working ok.

The Moondrop driver is only needed to update the firmware.

 

[jamonbread]

Does this dac support hardware volume? I use usb audio player pro in direct mode, it can then directly control the dacs internal volume with my phones volume keys, both are then insync.

The reason I ask is a lot of user reviews of the dawn pro mention the volume control failing over time and being flimsy.

 

[noel_fs]

Does this dac support hardware volume? I use usb audio player pro in direct mode, it can then directly control the dacs internal volume with my phones volume keys, both are then insync.

The reason I ask is a lot of user reviews of the dawn pro mention the volume control failing over time and being flimsy.

It does but its separate from its own physical buttons volume. Personally i only use that one just to avoid confusion.

 

[kayson]

Has anyone used / measured these with something like HD 490 Pros? From these measurements, it seems like it shouldn't have any issue driving them, but curious if performance changes at all:

Sennheiser HD 490 Pro Headphone Review

This is a review, detailed measurements, listening tests and equalization of Sennheiser HD 490 Pro open back headphone. It was kindly drop shipped to me and costs US $399. The headphone is ultra light courtesy of plastic composite that manage to also feel extremely solid. The included cord...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[noel_fs]

Has anyone used / measured these with something like HD 490 Pros? From these measurements, it seems like it shouldn't have any issue driving them, but curious if performance changes at all:

Sennheiser HD 490 Pro Headphone Review

This is a review, detailed measurements, listening tests and equalization of Sennheiser HD 490 Pro open back headphone. It was kindly drop shipped to me and costs US $399. The headphone is ultra light courtesy of plastic composite that manage to also feel extremely solid. The included cord...

www.audiosciencereview.com

yeah more than enough

 

[daos]

Can anyone share please their experience of using Dawn Pro on Linux? Any problems or drawbacks?

 

[Jean-Paul Petrosyan]

I have measured the Moon Drop Dawn Pro with Audio Precision APx555 recently and I would like to share with you. I bought the Dawn Pro myself.
View attachment 371660

View attachment 371661

Here's the specifications from the manufacture. Just in case.
View attachment 371666
The Dawn Pro is a small and light DAC/Headphone AMP, Only 42mm * 22.45mm * 12.39mm and weighted 13grams. According to the manufacture, it can drive a 16Ohm headphone with 120mW.
Although I know it has been designed as a Headphone amp. Due to it has the 4.4mm balanced output. I prefer to use it with a 4.4mm to 2XLR cable as a regular DAC, and this is exactly how I measured with AP.
Here's the measurements with the Bench mode. I'm using the ASIO and set Dawn Pro volume all the way up. Sampling rate set to 48KHz and the output set to 0dBFS by the way.
View attachment 371764
Very shocking data to me for the tiny size and USB bus powerd device. And almost exactly the same as the Moon Drop official measurement.

As this DAC using CS43131 chip, I have tested the Multi-tone to see if this DAC also has the bug that most CS43131 powerd DAC do.

This is test with 0dBFS output.
View attachment 371663

And here is the -1dBFS output. I assume that Moon Drop has avoided that bug? Or maybe there's some mistake I made. Please leave a comment if I did something wrong.
View attachment 371664


Since it's so small that I often can't find it, I made an adapter for it, so it can attached with my key rings. lol
View attachment 371665

Conclutions
I'm pretty happy to see such small but powerful DAC on the market. I tried this with my Moon Drop Para Planer headphone which has 8Ohm Impedance, Unfortunately it can't drive it well even with balanced cable. But I'm sure it can work well with higher impedance and sesitivity headphones.
And it works as regular DAC for me.

-----------
I'm newbe here and tring to manipulate the APx555 well.
I would like to know how to test the jitter. I have tried to run the jitter vs freq in sequence mode but it seems it won't work with ASIO output. Hope to get your help, Thanks.

I'm sorry, but CS43131/198 issues with multitone tend to show up on lower signal levels (somewhere in the -6 to -27 dBFS range), from what I've seen.

 

[VAV]

@Vamp898, @seanyang Do you know how the balanced connector on the Dawn Pro is wired internally (e.g., common ground)? Is the output balanced and differential? Are the volume up and volume down buttons independent of the software volume control? I’m searching for an affordable and ultra-compact DAC to use with a pair of active monitors.

 

[jamonbread]

@Vamp898, @seanyang Do you know how the balanced connector on the Dawn Pro is wired internally (e.g., common ground)? Is the output balanced and differential? Are the volume up and volume down buttons independent of the software volume control? I’m searching for an affordable and ultra-compact DAC to use with a pair of active monitors.

I believe it has 2 separate dac/amp on a chip solution.

The cirrus Logic CS43131 is an all in one dac and headphone amp. The Dawn runs 2 in parallel in I assume bridged mode for each channel.

 

[zany.ninja]

Tempted to get the Dawn Pro. Have a couple of questions, would appreciate if anyone could answer:

1: Are you able to update the firmware through the Moondrop Link Android app? Or can you only update it via Windows?

2: Has anyone verified that it has the NOS filter mode? Someone on Reddit said it's hidden, but shows up in the app when selected - you have to cycle through the filters manually for that. To cycle through them, press and hold both buttons together until the light blinks - supposedly it blinks twice in NOS mode.

3: Any issues of using it with iPhones or iPads? And do the iPhone/iPad volume buttons control the actual Dawn Pro volume, or are they separate like on Android? In my experience iPhones/iPads volume buttons generally control external dac/amp hardware volume, which I prefer, and ultimately sounds better I believe.

Thanks!

 

[zany.ninja]

Ok never mind. I got the Shanling UA1 Plus instead. Same dual CS43131 layout and same CT 7601 USB IC as the Dawn Pro, so performance should be basically identical. Doesn't have a balanced output but I wouldn't have any use for it anyway. Output power from 3.5mm should be similar, but is sufficient in any case. It has better build quality for sure, has better app support too and is about 20$ cheaper.

Best of all it also got the seal of approval from those renowned audio experts at the New York Times Wirecutter which obviously made all the difference

 

[mc.god]

Ok never mind. I got the Shanling UA1 Plus instead. Same dual CS43141 layout and same CT 7601 USB IC as the Dawn Pro, so performance should be basically identical. Doesn't have a balanced output but I wouldn't have any use for it anyway. Output power from 3.5mm should be similar, but is sufficient in any case. It has better build quality for sure, has better app support too and is about 20$ cheaper.

Best of all it also got the seal of approval from those renowned audio experts at the New York Times Wirecutter which obviously made all the difference

It surely is a more than fine dongle, but honestly I don't understand how in the world they came out with that absurd one-button volume control And dual CS43131 without balanced out seems a bit of a waste

 

[zany.ninja]

It surely is a more than fine dongle, but honestly I don't understand how in the world they came out with that absurd one-button volume control And dual CS43131 without balanced out seems a bit of a waste

I imagine they used dual CS43131 instead of using a separate amp for increased power? And lower crosstalk too perhaps?

And yeah, the one-button control is very odd, hopefully I won't have to use it much. Fingers crossed it has a unified volume control on iOS so I can just control the hardware volume from the phone.

On the other hand, the Dawn Pro buttons break easily apparently, I saw several complaints about it on Amazon...

 

[mc.god]

I imagine they used dual CS43131 instead of using a separate amp for increased power? And lower crosstalk too perhaps?

Specs say 80 mW @ 32 ohm and 71 db channel separation, I'd say on par with other single CS43131 dongles, but we should see measurements to say something.

 

[Andyoms]

Can anyone share please their experience of using Dawn Pro on Linux? Any problems or drawbacks?

no problem at all, just plug it in my laptop with Debian and choose output device in volume control.
But my setup works not in bitperfect mode - only red light on DawnPro during playing 192k music... some problems with Linux setup I believe. In Android and Win10 everything is ok.