As the name suggests, the goal is a thoroughly colorless amplification of your audio signal. THX Onyx AAA AmplificationĪlthough Onyx is THX’s first consumer product, the company has been involved in audio research for many years and one of its developments has been a new amplifier topology it calls Achromatic Audio Amplifier (AAA). In Onyx, THX has entered a competitive market and is gunning for top spot among heavyweights like Audioquest’s Dragonfly Cobalt. THX’s first-ever product is a new high-powered USB-dongle headphone DAC/Amp that promises “best in class” performance. This is where THX Onyx comes in with the intention of taking its place as a premium portable audio solution. USB gives it access to power while providing a digital audio signal and it works outside the computing device itself where electrical noise can compromise an analog audio signal. A small, external device attached to your laptop’s USB A port or USB C output on a phone happens to be the perfect place for your device’s sound quality upgrade. When it comes to the specifications of the average phone, headphone amplification and DAC implementation tend to live way down the priority list.įor years, the USB dongle DAC/amp has been a popular form-factor for portable hi-fi audio. To get the best sound possible, you’ll want to feed your headphones more power and a better DAC than you’ll get from the average computing device. Your phone’s 3.5-mm jack may be fine for the stock earbuds that came with your device, but once you upgrade to better quality headphones or IEMs you’ll also want to upgrade what you plug them into. But the sound you get from most device’s built-in headphone jack is notoriously poor. When that time comes, those of us who like to quietly sip coffee while working on a laptop at a local coffee house will be able resume work in public spaces, and that's when we’ll want to listen to music on our headphones. It also delivers a dynamic range (DNR) of up to 129dB and total harmonic distortion plus noise of -120dB (THD+N) – a performance level that will satisfy the most demanding audio enthusiasts.Someday soon, we’ll put COVID-19 behind us as restaurants, bars and cafes slowly reopen letting some normalcy back into our lives. HyperStream II allows for the incredibly low noise that remains stable over all input levels, avoiding the noise modulation that can become perceptible in competing solutions. The ES9038Q2M SABRE DAC is a high-performance 32-bit digital to analog converter and uses the new patented 32-bit HyperStream II architecture previously only available in the PRO series of DACs. The ES9038Q2M is a mobile version of the ES9038PRO, the PRO version is currently the benchmark in audio performance, and is the favored part in the audiophile community. The below link gives all the juicy details of the new COBALT: We'll see how it pushes the HiFiMan Edition XX with a sensitivity of 93dB/mw. The COBALT will have the new ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip with a brand new controller chip that brings spaciousness, smoothness, and better dynamics over the DFR. Obviously, the iFi will trounce it but how will it stack up? I had the DFR and it was sort of sibilant with edgy treble. ![]() Will be comparing how it stacks up to my iFi Micro iDSD Black Label. Ordered the Audioquest Dragonfly COBALT today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |