YONGSE Y01 Balanced Headphone Adapter Review

[amirm]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the YONGSE Y01 USB-C/A to balanced 4.5mm headphone dac and amplifier. It was kindly drop shipped by a member and is on sale for US $2.49 on Aliexpress.

The feel of the adapter is solid with its shiny and robust case, gold connectors and soft cabling. The usual adapter to USB-A is provided which you see in my review picture.

YONGSE Y01 Headphone Dongle Measurements
Starting with our usual dashboard we see both good and bad news:

Good news is the very low distortion at -110 dB, setting SINAD not much lower at 102 dB:

Bad news is the output voltage maxing out at just 1 volt. This is just not enough to drive high impedance headphone. The main benefit of "balanced" output is differential signaling, capable of producing up to 4 volts out in competing (but much more expensive) adapters. With just 1 volt, you could go with standard 3.5mm, non balanced output.

Dynamic range is good:

But predictably, available power at 300 ohm is lower than it could be:

Performance is a bit better with 32 ohm load:

Here are the sweeps:

Conclusions
At its price, the YONGSE Y01 beats typical phone dongles from likes of Apple and Google. But with balanced output, it had the potential to leave them in the dust but it didn't due to low output voltage.

I am so disappointed in low output voltage that I can't recommend the YONGSE Y01 even though for the price is pretty good.

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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/

 

[Jimster480]

Wow, over 100 SINAD for $2.49? The SINAD problems should be gone from all new products now. Honestly what chip is this even using at such a low price to deliver 100 SINAD?

 

[caocaolatre199x]

sale for US $2.49 on Aliexpress

Are you confused? I just made a try to search on Aliexpress. It is sold for ~$10 on Aliexpress from the Yongse Offical Store. With $10, is its performance notable? Apple dongle has power output better than a few mW, but SINAD is worse than a few dB.

 

[Michael Fidler]

Thanks for this! It would probably be useful with low-Z headphones, but very strange to see that we only get 1V RMS output

If we used a rail-to-rail output IC running single-ended off 5V USB rails, we could expect at least 1.7V RMS, so for balanced, we could expect 3.4V - so we're looking at over 11 times more power available than what we see here.

Perhaps this was done to limit power dissipation, as we don't have much surface area to work with, by the looks of things here? In any case, this represents very good value for money on account of the low price, but I'd be happy to pay 11 times the price for 11 times the output power.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

The question I would have is whether this dongle has enough power to drive most IEMs. Its power output is comparable to the Apple dongle at 300 ohms (3.2 vs 3.6) and 33 ohms (29 vs 33 milliwatts), so probably yes. And it's the cost of a large order of fries at McDonald's. So I can't be too hard on it.

 

[taotone]

The point of the balanced jack for this use-case is not really about providing more power, but rather that you don't need to switch out your IEM cable if you want to be able to use it with this kind of adapter.

I usually have a BT DAC/AMP like the Fiio BTR15 or BTR7 to listen with my IEMs which all have a 4.4mm adapter. But what if I get stuck with a flat battery? Well this device will allow me to plug directly into my phone. Useful, cheap, perfectly fine.

 

[Jimster480]

Thanks for this! It would probably be useful with low-Z headphones, but very strange to see that we only get 1V RMS output

If we used a rail-to-rail output IC running single-ended off 5V USB rails, we could expect at least 1.7V RMS, so for balanced, we could expect 3.4V - so we're looking at over 11 times more power available than what we see here.

Perhaps this was done to limit power dissipation, as we don't have much surface area to work with, by the looks of things here? In any case, this represents very good value for money on account of the low price, but I'd be happy to pay 11 times the price for 11 times the output power.

Well not if it is $10 as the above post shows. Definitely I wouldn't pay $111 because that would be more than a FiiO KA13 which is the best dongle I have found recently which is still affordable.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Unfortunately not $2.49. Cheapest I could find it for was $9.67 while I'm finding the Apple USB C to 3.5 MM Headphone Adaptor for $8.48 at Amazon. Maybe we should see if it's for sale on Temu?

 

[Rja4000]

It is sold for ~$10 on Aliexpress from the Yongse Offical Store.

Yes, 13€ here

Don't know where they got that 128dB SNR figure from..
Maybe from the DAC chip specs?
Obviously, the reality is far off...

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Yes, 13€ here

View attachment 371322

Thing is, when I'm buying from someplace like Ali Express, I want to wring the very last nickel of value out of the transaction. I was actually thinking about picking one of these up myself because I thought I could use it whenever I was listening over IEM's and using my tablet while reading in bed. That way I could drive them with the tablet through a good dac and not use my phone for that purpose. And for $2.48, that seemed like a no-brainer. But at $10+, it's a nope. I expect Ali to undercut the competition price-wise, and they haven't done that here.

 

[Lunafag]

The architecture is not balanced, 4.4 is just for connectivity, if you measured crosstalk you'd see it's typical single ended crosstalk.

 

[amirm]

Are you confused?

Nope: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806221292972.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

 

[Robbo99999]

Well, that's gotta be fine for the price! $2.49!

 

[Rja4000]

Nope: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806221292972.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

View attachment 371329

Seems to vary with your location
Here is what I see when clicking on your link.

 

[MZKM]

Nope: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806221292972.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

View attachment 371329

I see that (when I am in private mode and logged out of AliExpress) for 3.5mm, I see $4.49 for 4.5mm.

 

[tune]

Thanks for the measurements.

Its sister chip, cx31993, has the ability to vary its output depending on the power supplied.
It has the feature of continuing to function even at very low power.
It is possible that the cx31988 may also change its output and sound quality if the power supplied is increased.

 

[wwenze]

I wonder if the 1V is due to safety limits

 

[amirm]

Seems to vary with your location

Or maybe it checks your background to see if you have been good to everyone and if so, gives you a larger discount!!!

 

[Grotti]

Nope: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806221292972.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

View attachment 371329

I used your link and was shown this price:

9,25€
Price includes VAT

YONGSE Y01 TypeC Light-ning to 3.5mm/4.4mm Chip CX31993 CX31988 C100 Earphone Amplifie Digital Decoder Cable OTG DAC Adapter​

4.9 | 1,000+ sold

Bundles : TypeC-3.5 CX31993
TypeC-3.5 CX31993TypeC-4.4 CX31988IOS-3.5 C100


But since this device is of no use for me, I don't bother

 

[caocaolatre199x]

Nope: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806221292972.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

View attachment 371329

It seems that price is only limited to certain locations. When I clicked on the link you gave, it was still $10.