![]() In digital audiophile parlance, this means Android OS is not ‘bit-perfect’ with USB DACs. Android’s resampling even recooks CD-quality (44.1kHz) streams, upsampling them to 48kHz. A 48kHz stream isn’t passed through untouched but (instead) resampled to 48kHz. A 192kHz stream will be downsampled to 48kHz. All three stitched together does make for an elegant portable solution.Android smartphone users seeking to board the hi-res audio train via Tidal, Qobuz or Apple Music must mind the gap: Android OS resamples digital audio heading out of its USB port to 48kHz. What about the iPhone? Its Lightning socket is built to spill bit-perfect digital audio streams – hello hi-res PCM, hello MQA – but we need Apple’s Lightning to USB adapter and USB-A-to-USB-C adapter to get there. Gotcha! The only way around this OS-level resampling is to use USB Audio Player Pro (UAPP) which loads in its own USB driver but (at the record labels’ insistence) does not permit offline content. Hi-res fanciers will find their efforts to access higher sample rates or MQA stymied by the Android OS: it resamples everything to 48kHz. The Onyx will plug into (almost) any Android model to pull digital audio from its USB socket, convert it into analogue and drive a pair of headphones, just as it does on a PC/Mac. On a desktop/laptop PC/Mac, that would come from the Tidal app itself or third-party apps like Roon or Audirvana.įor those wanting to go ahead and pull hi-res from their smartphone, the story becomes a little more complex. (Tidal Masters) MQA support however is restricted to ‘Renderer’ status (like the AudioQuest DragonFlys), which means the first unfold must be done in software on the host device. Hi-res support? You betcha! PCM up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD up to DSD128. Not specified is the device’s output impedance, crucial intel for anyone rocking low-impedance IEMs. The specifications sheet boasts output power of 180mW into a 22 Ohm headphone (not atypical for phone-friendly over/on-ears) and a dynamic range score of 118dB. This technology also enables maximum output power for greater dynamic range and sound pressure level (SPL).” THX AAA nulls conventional distortion mechanisms to reduce harmonic, intermodulation, and crossover distortion by up to 40dB, resulting in a realistic and fatigue-free listening experience. THX Onyx has the same power as a desktop THX AAA DAC/Amp, but in a dramatically smaller package.”Ī bizarre claim that raises the question: why bother with the more costly desktop AAA implementation when we can have the same power for fewer dollars and from a smaller, more portable package? Does the new dongle deliver 6 Watts into 32 Ohms? No, it does not.Ĭircling back to the THX Onyx’s press release: “This patented technology ensures the ultimate no-compromise headphone audio experience by delivering extreme highest fidelity audio with infinitesimally low levels of noise and distortion. Inside the CNC-machined metal body, between the USB-C digital input and 3.5mm analogue output, sit an ESS ES9281 PRO DAC chip and THX’s AAA-78 analogue chip, which according to the Californian company is “the highest-powered mobile THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier configuration. This week THX has announced a more portable take on their AAA technology in the form of the THX Onyx: a dongle DAC. Numerous other examples can be found here. We’ve also seen THX certify the SMSL SP200 headphone amplifier and the Monoprice Monolith headphone amplifier, both of which contain THX’s AAA amplifier technology. In fact, this bridged-output amp’s performance figures speak for themselves: It’s powerful (2 x 6W at 32 ohms) and quiet (136 dB SNR) with a record-low THD of -140 dB at 300 ohms, 100 mW. Made in collaboration with THX Ltd., it features the company’s groundbreaking THX AAA and feed-forward topology, which reduce distortion by 20 to 40 dB for realistic, fatigue-free listening. It’s designed for objectivists who appreciate an incredibly clean, transparent amp-the sought-after “wire with gain” whose amplification is wholly uncolored by a sound of its own. “Announced at CES 2018, the Drop + THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier (THX AAA™) 789 is a linear bipolar amplifier with feed-forward error correction. More recently it has turned its hand to the home audio market: In the two decades since then, THX has gone on to certify home theater equipment, computer speakers, gaming consoles, car audio systems, and video games. The company of the same name has been certifying cinema sound since it was spun-off from Star Wars director George Lucas’ Lucasfilm in 2002 to ensure the proper in-theatre reproduction of the Return Of The Jedi soundtrack. Many of us will have seen these three letters in cinemas or movie theatres as a sign of good sound quality.
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