Fanmusic Truthear SHIO Dual CS43198 Lossless Portable DAC Amplifier with USB Type C Port 3.5mm Single-Ended and 4.4mm Balanced Output,Black

Been listening to this little DAC for a while now & it continues to keep impressing me. Over the years I've tried many DAC's be them Full blown Hi-Fi separates to little portable one's like this thing is... & I can without any shadow of a doubt thoroughly recommend this little gem. Just use it with your Phone & off you go. To be clear I've not tried this DAC hooked up to a PC or anything else, just a Phone ;) I run it with a diet of Flacs fed from Tidal & the phone's local storage then out to various IEM's & Big Headphones. This little thing can even drive my big Sennheiser HD820's (300 Ohm) cans nicely via it's 4.4mm balanced out. Any of my IEM's & my Overear cans sound great on this thing. It's very detailed & clear n clean sounding to my ears without any shrillness in it's high frequency treble range as can sometimes be the case with some other lesser quality DACs.When you remember that this thing is well under 1 hundred quid it kind of gives you a shock to your senses as to why good sounding portable DAC's are usually a lot lot more expensive than this thing comes in at.I still honestly cannot believe that it's so cheaply priced TBH ;)I haven't found any negative things wrong with it at all.It's quite simply put the best there is currently available price wise ! & it even puts most DACs three times it's price to shame too !It really is that Good ;)Liked it that much I recently bought a second one as a spare just in case anything bad happens to the first one ;)

For £69 this dongle offers up a performance WAY above it's price point competing with all the big players flagship dongles , this is coming from a fledgling company that has only released 3 products so far 2 iems and this Shio dongle.Honestly I've compared this to Hidiz S9pro, XO, iBasso DC04 pro, Apogee groove, Cayin RU6, Fiio KA 5, Moonriver 2 (uses the same VCirus chip set), Hiby FC4 to name a few and IMHO it beats them all for overall sonic performance, I'd say it's 95% the performance of my go-to dongle the Centrance Dacport which is an absolute beast of a dongle and costs £300 IF you can find one.I'm running this off windows 11 going into my IFi isilencer then IFi defender+ then into my desktop Asus (the ifi defender I highly recommend btw as it has galvanic isolation AND splits the power draw so you use power from the mains rather than the PC usb but that's another review)This Shio has to be the bargain of the year!I'm tempted to order another just for a back up as I can see this selling out quickly once word gets out on the forums etc.In terms of power output to give you some idea it drives my Hifiman Sundaras on high gain balanced 4.4mm around 40 to 50% on windows and I listen to my music loud! Single ended 3.5mm on high gain I have to pump it up to around 65% to achieve the same loudness levels , it's more powerful than my Apogee groove which outputs 5v while this outputs 4v.I know from experience you can't hold too much weight to output figures as this is 150mw at 32ohms balanced which isn't on the face of it earth shattering figures but it's how it's implemented that's important.Sound signature is I'd describe as warm smooth but with wonderful crispy highs, weighty presentation with excellent bass and sub bass , midrange is lush and organic.Soundstage is not the widest but it's certainly no slouch with holographic imaging and tactility.It doesn't have the attached apps or the LCD screen, filters and many settings (which are negligible) of other higher price dongles but it has a nice feel leatherette casing solid feel and switchable gain settings with 2 very usable outputs including 4.4mm balanced.Also the USB c to C cable supplied is very short and although of good quality is not practical for my desktop setup so I'm using a Amazon basics USB C to A cable (excellent quality btw)What the Shio does have is it's amazing sound and power , regardless of the price if this cost £150 I'd still recommend it highly.Andy EF at dongle madness on YouTube rates this Shio highly and he is someone I have much respect for with his opinions.Would I recommend this tiny dongle?I think you all know the answer by now......YES!

Maybe I went in with too high expectations as the reviews rave about this......All hi fi / equipment is very subjective. In my honest opinion this is very over rated. I have heard my fair share of dongles, maybe in excess of 15+ different ones and if I'm brutally honest this falls quite low in the list that I've heard. One review mentions the FC4 that is very similar money is worse i completely disagree the FC4 is sonically better to my ears. Something like the M15/W2 leaves this for dust but they are well worth it. Granted they are more but this isn't £70 good, £50 at a push maybe.

Amazing amount of power comes out of these things. Also, for once the power modes actually make a difference in power output. The fosi ds1 and ds2 power modes don't actually change anything as far as the ear can tell. Additionally, the sound is very clear and clean! No hissing like what I experienced with the fosi ds2's. Overall, a solid 10/10 for the price, functionality, and quality.

I purchased this after an absolutely terrible experience with the Fiio KA3. That portable DAC is about the same size, is *more* expensive, and has similar functionality. However, my unit--maybe all the units?--exhibited abominable electromagnetic interference (i.e., static, hum, buzz, etc.) when plugged into my Pixel 7 phone (and on a variety of cables and earbuds, including stock Moondrop Aria IEMs).So, it was with some trepidation that I purchased this as an alternative. To my absolute delight, the unit just works straight out of the box, with absolutely no detectable noise or interference after 6 weeks of regular use.One small criticism: Truthear *does* offer firmware updates for this unit, but the process made me uneasy. I did successfully flash new (maybe just different?) firmware on my device to allow for smaller volume steps on the included volume rocker. However, the process (mostly, the website and the instructions) could use some considerable polish. I think there's a second firmware that changes the LED color, but it's not clear if it can or can't be used with the volume firmware, and though I'm very tech savvy, the entire process was uncertain enough that I won't risk it just for a different color.

What an amazing sound quality, I’ve try more expensive DAC that didn’t offer the same quality level. Impressive device for the price!

I don’t know all the technical phrasing for this thing but from a regular user, this thing is amazing for the price. Voices and bass are just clean. I took off a star because it stopped working a couple days later. Amazon replaced it and I got it two days later. It still works so im holding my breath. Hopefully no issues. Im hoping it’s not because I have an iPhone.

Price to performance was unbeatable until recently. Slightly warm sound. Still a rec