Detail levels, the definition of the soundstage, the extension and control of bass sounds. Even the cables it’s supplied with look and feel quite expensively braided.īest of all though, is the fact the difference the Sparrow can make to your smartphone-derived sound is out of all proportion to its, um, proportions. So good luck trying to find audio files or headphones it’s not compatible with.Īnd even though it’s hard to make a product of these dimensions seem like value for money, the glass-and-steel construction make it feel good too. It can handle most digital file types, from PCM and DSD to DXD and MQA, and it’s got both 3.5mm unbalanced and 2.5mm balanced headphone outputs. So the M-DAC nano makes an awful lot of sense.Īt a trifling 8 x 22 x 42mm, the EarMen Sparrow is hardly a burden to carry about - but despite its negligible size, it’s full of the right stuff. The headphone amplification of smartphones is improving at a pace best described as ‘glacial’. The headphone jack is going the way of the dodo. It supports Bluetooth 4.2 (with aptX, aptX Low Latency and AAC codecs covered), which is more than enough to squeeze extra performance from a portable player. You’ll get eight hours of playback under regular circumstances, and a still-respectable six hours with upsampling turned on too, and the Audiolab will drive headphones as demanding as 3000ohms with 7.5mw of power. An ‘F’ button on the unit enables 32bit/384kHz upscaling, bringing critical clarity and depth to your source’s sound. In effect, your headphones have a wireless connection to your phone, with a dedicated volume wheel on the M-DAC nano. It’s about as simple as a gadget like this can be: just connect the Audiolab to your smartphone or MP3 player wirelessly, plug a pair of wired headphones in and away you go. What's more, its control interface can be confusing.ĭon’t be fooled by the tiddly dimensions - the M-DAC nano is a powerful, pocketable piece of audio excellence.Ī portable headphone DAC and amplifier at a reasonable price, it’ll boost the audio performance of any device with Bluetooth connectivity. The Mojo 2 is bulky (the same size and weight as the original it's replacing) and it doesn't have wireless connectivity. In pure performance terms, the Chord Mojo 2 almost constitutes a bargain.īut there are several drawbacks, too. Just hook a digital source into one end of Mojo 2 and some wired headphones into the other.ĭuring testing, we found this to be a brilliantly accomplished device, able to deliver all the musicality, all the detail, all the refinement and all the excitement hidden in what previously sounded like quite humdrum digital audio files. Replacing a product that’s borderline iconic can’t be easy - which is maybe why it’s taken Chord Electronics seven years to replace its original Mojo DAC / headphone amp. The original Chord Mojo DAC was at the top of our list for a long time, but that's since been replaced by the Chord Mojo DAC 2. Music will sound crisper, clearer, more agile and just better compared to leaving this crucial converting process in the hands of the inexpensive DAC chip in your phone, tablet or laptop.Ī bit big and heavy to be a truly mobile device It will mean that the music you hear through your headphones bypasses the converter in your device and heads straight to the standalone option. That's why having a dedicated device (aka one of the portable DACs in this guide) is a good idea. However, converting digital to analogue is a big job, and one which the built-in DAC in your device might only be able to do so well – because when you consider the cost of your phone and the sum of all its parts, the cost of the DAC within in cannot amount to much. This means that you get to hear the analog sound made by your favorite bands and artists instead of the digital file that lets you store it on a device, such MP3, FLAC, Sony's DSD or Apple's Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). There needs to be, because humans can't hear digital signals. There is one built into your laptop, phone or music player. Of course, you don't need a separate DAC. A DAC – or to give it its full name, a digital to analog converter – is a device that translates the digital audio information from a phone or laptop into the analog sound that you hear when you listen to music.
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