An increasing number of producers are following Apple’s lead and dropping 3.5mm analog headphone jacks from their small digital gadgets. Laptop producers, in the meantime, usually deal with audio as an afterthought. Positive, you’ll discover a headphone jack in your laptop computer or desktop machine, however the audio circuitry feeding it’s invariably one of many least expensive elements on that product’s invoice of supplies.
With its USB-C Twin DAC Cable, Astell&Kern goals to quench music lovers’ and avid gamers’ thirst for high-quality audio. However you don’t should be an audiophile to understand high-quality audio, and you will get it from suitable gadgets with out giving up an arm and a leg: A&Ok has priced this ultra-compact gadget at simply $149.
Kind meets operate
The USB-C Twin DAC Cable reveals its Astell&Kern heritage at first look, sporting firm’s characteristically asymetric industrial design. Whereas there’s nothing spectacular in regards to the matte-gray metallic used to manufacture its enclosure, there’s all types of excellent stuff inside it.
The wiring tethering the DAC to its USB-C interface is a custom-made, 4-core cable designed by Astell&Kern and bolstered with aramid fiber to resist as much as 200n of tensile drive.
The Twin DAC Cable comes with a USB-C feminine to USB-A male adapter, so you should use it with gadgets that don’t have a USB-C port. As my evaluation unit shipped weeks earlier than being publicly obtainable, A&Ok included the USB-C adapter individually from the remainder of the retail package deal.
The guts of A&Ok’s USB-C Twin DAC Cable is a pair of Cirrus Logic CS43198 MasterHiFi DACs. One is devoted to processing the left audio channel, and the second is devoted to the fitting channel. This supplies design most separation and cross-talk elimination.
The Cirrus Logic DAC helps as much as 32-bit/348kHz playback, plus native DSD256 decoding. It options an astonishing 130dB of dynamic vary, low energy draw, headphone detection, and Popguard to remove output transients when the unit is powered on or turned off. The DACs are paired with an analog amplifier that A&Ok says can pump out 2Vrms.
The A&Ok USB-C Twin DAC has no battery, so it by no means must be charged. It attracts energy instantly from the related playback gadget, so that you don’t want to fret about it working out of juice in any case opportune second.
The draw back to this design is that it’s not suitable with iOS gadgets. You’ll be able to plug the USB-C Twin DAC Cable right into a Home windows PC, a Mac, or an Android-powered smartphone or pill, however you may’t use it with an iPhone. A&Ok’s person handbook factors this out, however doesn’t clarify why.
I nonetheless tried to plug the USB-C Twin DAC into my iPhone 12 Professional, utilizing Apple’s Lightning-to-USB digicam equipment adapter, and a warning popped as much as inform me the DAC was unavailable as a result of “the connected accent makes use of an excessive amount of energy.” Certainly, the facility indicator on the Twin DAC merely blinked.
I obtained no such warning once I plugged the USB-C Twin DAC into my iPad Professional, and didn’t encounter any anomalies, sonic or in any other case, throughout informal testing. An A&Ok consultant advised me that because the firm has not but totally examined the Twin DAC on an iPad, its efficiency isn’t licensed.
Roon Examined
By the point you learn this evaluation, Roon ought to have introduced that the A&Ok USB-C Twin DAC Cable is Roon Examined. The practical Roon certification got here throughout my evaluation interval, and as soon as that occurred, the A&Ok USB-C Twin DAC appeared in my Roon software program with its correct icon and its gadget settings, which had been now auto-configured.
Listening checks
I examined the Astell&Kern USB-C Twin DAC Cable on a MacBook Professional (2018, 15-inch); on a 2018 Dell Latitude 7490 working Home windows 10; and the aforementioned iPad Professional. Since Astell&Kern hasn’t formally endorsed the Twin DAC on an iOS gadget, nevertheless, I didn’t take my iPad Professional expertise into consideration when calculating my closing verdict.
The Mac and Home windows computer systems had been working Roon 1.8 and related to my Roon Nucleus, which served up each domestically saved media recordsdata and content material streamed by Tidal. I used Focal Clear, Oppo PM2, Beyerdynamic Amiron House, B&O Portal, B&W P9 Signature, and Yamaha YH-E700A headphones for this evaluation.
Summarizing the Twin DAC’s general efficiency, the A&Ok Twin DAC brings instant transparency, dimension, element, and management to the audio sign that the inventory sound playing cards and audio outputs merely couldn’t match. Enjoying the opening of Pink Floyd’s traditional, “Time” from the long-lasting album, Darkish Aspect of the Moon, the ticking of the clocks was noticeably cleaner by the A&Ok Twin DAC—as if a darkish veil had been lifted off the headphone’s drivers. This tonal attribute was accentuated extra in order the alarm clocks ring out in succession. The A&Ok USB-C Twin DAC delivered a exact, crisp prime finish, versus the built-in headphone output that had a far duller and seemingly rolled-off prime finish.
Adele’s “Ship My Love (To Your New Lover)” served as an virtually excellent reference tune that showcased the variations, which had been starker on the Home windows 10 field as in comparison with the Mac. By way of the A&Ok Twin DAC, Adele’s vocals had been higher outlined and extra nuanced, extra tonally correct, and stood with a firmer sense of house, time, and air—one thing particularly noticeable on the tail finish of the tune (on the 3:38 mark). Bass traces on the tune had been tighter and higher outlined, with much less bass bloat.
The 24-bit/48kHz model of Michael Jackson’s “Easy Prison” from Unhealthy is a wonderfully combined tune that demonstrated the A&Ok’s superior potential to create a deep, detailed soundstage. The tune’s dominant bass traces had been extra articulate and authoritative by the A&Ok. The general tonal character of the tune simply appeared extra “proper.”
I’ll warning that how a lot of a distinction you’ll discover between your supply by itself and with the USB-C Twin DAC Cable plugged into it’ll rely in your headphones. To my ears the Focal Clear and Oppo PM2 rendered extra simply discernible variations than the Yamaha YH-E700A. Whilst you ought to by no means decide a headphone’s (or as DAC’s) capabilities on value alone, the extra revealing your headphones, the higher profit you’re prone to get from this explicit DAC.
Conclusion
Astell&Kern has one other winner within the USB-C Twin DAC cable. For an organization that sells multi-thousand-dollar digital audio gamers, the $149 asking value for this product looks like a cut price. The truth that it’s Roon Examined is icing on the cake.
This compact, moveable DAC is a spectacular audio companion, whether or not you’re on the go or enjoyable at dwelling. Its high-end DAC and onboard amplifier draw an excessive amount of energy to be related to an iPhone, but it surely works nice with Android gadgets in addition to MacOS and Home windows computer systems.