Audioengine D1 32-bit Desktop DAC and Headphone Amp, Preamp, Laptop, Amplifier, Gamers and Musicians

This is a very preliminary review, but I think it's still worth providing to help others. First, when I was reviewing the product info, it said it was plastic. I thought that was kinda whack given the cost and the quality of my Audioengine A5 speakers. However, upon opening the amazingly-well packaged box, it turns out most of the DAC is really metal, even the volume knob is metal. The only plastic on the outside is the edges of the box (the black in the picture; the grey is metal) and the power button. Like I said, this was very well packaged. It shipped in an Audioengine box, but a branded shipping box: inside was another box for the DAC. That box in and of itself could've survived shipping, but I appreciate that it was double boxed. Inside the DAC box was a nice piece of soft foam, and the components were snuggled inside heavier duty foam. (I don't know what the different types are called, but this isn't your typical white styrofoam like for a cooler). It also includes a carrying bag if you wanted to travel with the DAC, but the bag would mostly just protect against scratches. However, given the metal construction, I don't think you need much more than that. Setup was super easy once I realized I made a mistake: I kept thinking I needed two USB cords, one for audio input (I have optical out, but not a cable) and one for power. No, the USB cord, which is included, provides both power and audio. I was looking at picture in the manual thinking it was the front telling me that's where the USB audio input was, but after I double-checked, that was really the back of the DAC, then I read it closer and realized my mistake. It was 100% my fault. I write user manuals for a living so I can say with confidence this is one of the best I've encountered. I just didn't drink enough coffee. Compatibility: it works with my Audioengine A5s with no problem, which is part of the reason I bought this DAC. Yes, it has other great reviews, and, yes, my speakers are the bomb dot com, but having no doubts that it would work before it even arrived gave me peace of mind. To my untrained ear, everything sounds fantastic. I mostly stream music, and it sounds fantastic. I'll see what my music teacher/musician wife thinks, but she'll most definitely agree. I should note that I don't have a subwoofer, but whether it's the speakers or the DAC, the music still sounds fine. I'll put it through the paces gaming at another time, but I can't imagine anything would be different. Now, when I write my reviews, I try my best to not just gush over how great everything is so it doesn't appear as though my review is fake or paid for. The only thing I can think of from only having used the product probably no more than an hour is that I wish more cables were included. It's nice that it comes with a USB cord, but I had to dig through my box of cables for an RCA cable, and I'm not sure I even know what an optical cable looks like to see if I have one of those. I do understand the choice not to include these things because everyone's setup is different, and it minimizes waste, but it still would've been nice. I'm not deducting stars, however, because of a lack of cables. This is still a 5-star product.

The amplifier is rather tiny, but creates a big sound. I used it with Sennheiser HD-600 high impedance (350 Ohm-cm) reference headphones, as well as Sony WH1000XM4 noise cancelling headphones, but Sony headphones sound so distinctly worse than Sennheiser with a good quality headphones amplifier.... There is no comparison. The sound was very sweet and balance right out of the box. There is a (never ending) discussion about burn-in of audio equipment, even though there is not much, if any at all, data confirming that such thing as burn-in even exists. I actually think that mechanical parts of headphones may break in and headphones, if new, may sound better after some hours, but I cannot explain why transistors would change in any way. Anyhow, the manual recommends an up to 50 hours burn-in. I put together a very simple 30 Ohm per channel passive load to use instead of headphones, and played music into this passive load for two days. I did not notice any difference at all after this burn-in compared to "out of the box" sound. Plenty of power to drive HD-600. As an experiment, I plugged in a Creek headphones amplifier into line out of the motherboard, and sound was quite unpleasant, Audioengine D1 sounds way, way better! I also tested the sound with a setup with Audioengine D1 converting digital signal to analogue, and then connected Creek to Audioengine via RCA stereo cable. I found that base was a little cleaner and punchier with the Creek, but overall they were close, and this confirms that the analogue part of Audioengine D1 is also well designed. I am very happy with this purchase, HUGE improvement compared with sound directly from the computer headphones jack or motherboard line out. Of course high quality headset is a must to hear the difference. Very well packaged, nice box which projects quality. A small but good manual (although who reads it, the operation of this little unit is self-evident). I rally like it and happy with this purchase, an excellent value for the money! I need to mix some piano recordings in my home studio, and this amp will be of huge help. I'd say, it sounds cleaner and better than amp in Focusrite Scarlette and Clarette interfaces which I used until now.

My bookshelf Bluetooth speakers have analog RCA input along with Bluetooth. And I was always wondering how they would sound with the signal via RCA inputs. And it worked! With this DAC connected, (how I understand) I eliminated sound-degrading Bluetooth transmission, substituted speakers' DAC with this premium one and sent pre-amplified signal directly to speakers' amplifier. The result is awesome - I got a premium version of my speakers! Even when listening to a less sophisticated music as a popular genre track in mp3 quality I hear an improvement in sound quality, like my speakers are 30% better - better bass, better treble and deeper, clearer sound. But when it comes to music like modern jazz and a track is higher than CD quality, OMG. It will now take longer before I'm spending on new speakers. Rich in sounds music, when quality of recording is high, appreciates if a device is capable of reproducing 24bit/96kHz sound. Apparently, I can not get such a high quality sound from my relatively inexpensive speakers, but, for sure, they get the best possible input signal.I have to mention it's not always just plug-and-play and get good sound. In the beginning I couldn't figure out why this DAC was not providing good sound being connected to my Chromebook - I just had devices connected to other USB ports and the Chromebook, probably, didn't have enough resources for all. In a Windows computer there are a few things to be checked if something is going wrong - specifically, Sound and Power Options settings in the Control Panel. By the way, a streaming service I use shows my Chromebook is able to process 24bit/48kHz sound quality at max, but it's above CD-quality anyway. And when this DAC is connected to the Windows desktop, my streaming service says music (selected tracks) will be played with 24/96 quality. A tip: "Power on" light on the D1 is the power on/off button too :)

Audioengine N22 (ampli) + Audioengine P4 (enceintes) + Audioengine D1 (DAC) L'ensemble fournit un son d'une très grande qualité musicale. Y compris dans les basses. Sans doute les A5+ sont-elles plus intéressantes pour le Home Cinema. Mais pour la musique, les P4 sont mieux ! Il y'a moins de basses, le son est plus clair. Je suis TRÈS satisfait. Enceintes : super Ampli : super. On peut même faire jouer source 1 et source 2 en même temps (pas besoin d'appuyer sur un bouton pour passer de l'une à l'autre) DAC : plus l'ordinateur est pourri, plus ça change tout ! Avec ça le son est bon, très bon, incontestablement meilleur que quasi partout où vous irez. Pour le DAC, si vous utilisez linux il vous faudra un "sound server" tel que "pulseaudio" (il est installé par défaut sur la plupart des distributions). En effet, la carte son du DAC n'accepte qu'une seule source à la fois (=pas possible d'émettre du son simultanément dans deux logiciels différents).

Urun gercekten harika. Ses kalitesini inanilmaz derecede degistiriyor. Tek problem gorselde goruldugu ve yazdigi gibi usb-c cikisi olmamasi. Urun uzerinde usb-b cikisi var. telefonuma baglamak icin farkli bir kablo daha almak zorunda kaldim.

Es la segunda versión del D1 de audioengine que he usado. La marca goza de gran reputación, calidad y soluciones con diseños únicos. Es un DAC desktop con control de volumen y amplificador para audífonos, que incorpora doble fuente de entrada. USB Audio con conector tipo C y fibra óptica TOSLINK. En la salida un par de conectores RCA balanceados y salida frontal de 3.5 mm para audífonos. Conversión de 32-Bit mediante un chip ESS ES9018 el dispositivo es homologado audio Hi-Res. Funciona con el voltaje que suministra la conexión USB C no necesita alimentador externo. Puedes usarlo en el escritorio o de viaje porque funciona con todo, smartphone, tableta, computadora, servidor de audio etcétera. Después de años muy satisfecho con este modelo que se adecúa a mis necesidades y gusto.

Para los que vamos buscando mejorar poco a poco el sonido, una de las primeras dudas que siempre surgen es, ¿merece la pena un DAC? Y si que lo merece, al menos este en concreto. No he probado otros, siempre había escuchado la música que reproducía la tarjeta de sonido del ordenador y sin duda alguna este "aparatito" la mejora con creces. Tanto con los altavoces como con unos cascos buenos, el sonido es más claro, más preciso y enérgico. El aparato en sí, está realizado en materiales solidos, de buena calidad. El tacto del control del volumen es suave y preciso, dando esa sensación de producto bien terminado. Además lo he probado y funciona tanto con Windows 7 como con Ubuntu. Totalmente recomendable.