Astell&Kern USB-C Twin DAC Cable overview: A go-n-play audio toughen for every person with the exception of iOS customers

An increasing number of producers are following Apple’s lead and losing 3.5mm analog headphone jacks from their puny digital devices. Computer producers, meanwhile, generally style out audio as an afterthought. Sure, you’ll glean a headphone jack on your notebook computer or desktop machine, however the audio circuitry feeding it is invariably one of essentially the most inexpensive formulation on that product’s invoice of affords.

With its USB-C Twin DAC Cable, Astell&Kern objectives to quench tune enthusiasts’ and gamers’ thirst for excessive-quality audio. However you don’t can bear to be an audiophile to treasure excessive-quality audio, and likewise that you just can also rep it from successfully matched devices with out giving up an arm and a leg: A&Good ample has priced this extremely-compact machine at ideal-attempting $149.

Compose meets feature

The USB-C Twin DAC Cable finds its Astell&Kern heritage first and most well-known mediate about, sporting company’s characteristically asymetric industrial develop. Whereas there’s nothing spectacular about the matte-grey steel weak to manufacture its enclosure, there’s all forms of upright stuff internal it.

The wiring tethering the DAC to its USB-C interface is a customized-made, 4-core cable designed by Astell&Kern and bolstered with aramid fiber to withstand as much as 200n of tensile power.

Theo Nicolakis / IDG

If your system doesn’t bear a USB-C port, you’ll must steal a USB-C feminine to USB-A male adapter. The heart of A&Good ample’s USB-C Twin DAC Cable is a pair of Cirrus Good judgment CS43198 MasterHiFi DACs. One is dedicated to processing the left audio channel, and the second is dedicated to the honest channel. This gives develop most separation and putrid-focus on elimination.

The Cirrus Good judgment DAC supports as much as 32-bit/348kHz playback, plus native DSD256 decoding. It aspects an unparalleled 130dB of dynamic fluctuate, low energy diagram, headphone detection, and Popguard to set away with output transients when the unit is powered on or grew to turn out to be off. The DACs are paired with an analog amplifier that A&Good ample says can pump out 2Vrms.

The A&Good ample USB-C Twin DAC has no battery, so it by no draw desires to be charged. It draws energy in an instant from the connected playback system, so that you just don’t must distress about it running out of juice no longer lower than opportune moment.

Theo Nicolakis / IDG

The downside to this develop is that it’s no longer successfully matched with iOS devices. You are going to have the choice to go the USB-C Twin DAC Cable into a Dwelling windows PC, a Mac, or an Android-powered smartphone or tablet, but that you just can’t expend it with an iPhone. A&Good ample’s person guide aspects this out, but doesn’t sign why.

I on the replacement hand tried to go the USB-C Twin DAC into my iPhone 12 Skilled, utilizing Apple’s Lightning-to-USB digicam equipment adapter, and a warning popped as much as suppose me the DAC became unavailable on chronicle of “the hooked up accessory makes expend of too unheard of energy.” Certainly, the skill indicator on the Twin DAC merely blinked.

Theo Nicolakis / IDG

I obtained no such warning when I plugged the USB-C Twin DAC into my iPad Skilled, and didn’t detect any anomalies, sonic or otherwise, at some stage in casual attempting out. An A&Good ample consultant told me that since the corporate has no longer yet totally tested the Twin DAC on an iPad, its efficiency isn’t licensed.

Roon Examined

By the time you read this overview, Roon must bear presented that the A&Good ample USB-C Twin DAC Cable is Roon Examined. The purposeful Roon certification came at some stage in my overview duration, and once that came about, the A&Good ample USB-C Twin DAC seemed in my Roon system with its upright icon and its system settings, which bear been now auto-configured.

Listening checks

I tested the Astell&Kern USB-C Twin DAC Cable on a MacBook Skilled (2018, 15-spin); on a 2018 Dell Latitude 7490 running Dwelling windows 10; and the aforementioned iPad Skilled. Since Astell&Kern hasn’t formally recommended the Twin DAC on an iOS system, alternatively, I did no longer make a choice my iPad Skilled trip into chronicle when calculating my final verdict.

Theo Nicolakis / IDG

The Mac and Dwelling windows computers bear been running Roon 1.8 and connected to my Roon Nucleus, which served up both within the neighborhood saved media files and mutter material streamed thru Tidal. I weak Focal Obvious, Oppo PM2, Beyerdynamic Amiron Dwelling, B&O Portal, B&W P9 Signature, and Yamaha YH-E700A headphones for this overview.

Summarizing the Twin DAC’s overall efficiency, the A&Good ample Twin DAC brings instant transparency, dimension, element, and set watch over to the audio signal that the inventory sound playing cards and audio outputs merely couldn’t match. Taking half within the opening of Red Floyd’s classic, “Time” from the iconic album, Darkish Facet of the Moon, the ticking of the clocks became noticeably cleaner thru the A&Good ample Twin DAC—as if a melancholy veil had been lifted off the headphone’s drivers. This tonal attribute became accentuated more so because the scare clocks ring out in succession. The A&Good ample USB-C Twin DAC delivered a true, crisp top spoil, versus the constructed-in headphone output that had a miles duller and seemingly rolled-off top spoil.

Adele’s “Send My Love (To Your Sleek Lover)” served as a nearly supreme reference song that showcased the variations, which bear been starker on the Dwelling windows 10 field as as in contrast to the Mac. During the A&Good ample Twin DAC, Adele’s vocals bear been better defined and more nuanced, more tonally upright, and stood with a less assailable sense of space, time, and air—something particularly noticeable on the tail spoil of the song (on the three: 38 label). Bass strains on the song bear been tighter and better defined, with less bass bloat.

The 24-bit/48kHz version of Michael Jackson’s “Gentle Prison” from Gross is a completely mixed song that demonstrated the A&Good ample’s superior skill to rep a deep, detailed soundstage. The song’s dominant bass strains bear been more bellow and authoritative thru the A&Good ample. The overall tonal personality of the song ideal-attempting seemed more “honest.”

I will caution that how unheard of of a inequity you’ll gape between your source by itself and with the USB-C Twin DAC Cable plugged into this is in a position to most definitely per chance per chance also depend upon your headphones. To my ears the Focal Obvious and Oppo PM2 rendered more with out wretchedness discernible variations than the Yamaha YH-E700A. Whereas you’re going to bear to by no draw dispute a headphone’s (or as DAC’s) capabilities on label on my own, the more revealing your headphones, the upper earnings you’re more likely to rep from this particular DAC.

Conclusion

Astell&Kern has one other winner within the USB-C Twin DAC cable. For a corporation that sells multi-thousand-buck digital audio gamers, the $149 asking label for this product sounds like deal. The indisputable fact that it’s Roon Examined is icing on the cake.

This compact, portable DAC is a spectacular audio companion, whether you’re on the go or relaxing at home. Its excessive-spoil DAC and onboard amplifier diagram too unheard of energy to be connected to an iPhone, but it in actuality works sizable with Android devices to boot to MacOS and Dwelling windows computers.

Corrected rapidly after newsletter to file that Astell&Kern does no longer present a USB-C feminine to USB-A male adapter, which you’ll need in case your system isn’t geared up with a USB-C port. The company despatched one iwth our overview unit, but it does no longer consist of one within the retail equipment. We feel sorry about the error.

• Astell&Kern USB-C Twin DAC Cable

  Astell&Kern’s USB-C Twin DAC Cable is a simple, modestly priced draw of dramatically improving the audio quality of mobile devices and computers.

  Mavens

  • Superior analog audio vs. constructed-in sound playing cards and DACs
  • Roon Examined
  • Compact, portable develop factor that attracts energy over USB
  • Twin 32-bit/384kHz DAC with native DSD256 decoding

  Cons

  • Attracts too unheard of energy to be weak with an iPhone
  • Stage of audible impart requires a increased-efficiency headphone

Theo Nicolakis is a C-Stage technologist and digital communications official. He’s also a passionate audiophile and home theater aficionado.