Excellent DAC, available for Android!

I have this DAC as a substitute for the internal sound card in my MacBook Pro, which is now a little long in the tooth. In this I criticize lack of dynamism and a crackling by mechanical wear.
This DAC is not really cheap (I paid 149, better Chinese DACs, with whom I have compared the unit here cost 1/10 of the price, but also sound minimally worse), but I find that it worth the money is.

When unpacking the fairly high-end packaging and the high quality feel of the DACs is striking, which has the format of a normal USB memory sticks. It is small and very hard, one suspects rubberised metal as a material for the housing.
Then connects to it to the PC (I have a Mac, but also works on Windows, Linux (Mint) and even OpenBSD (!!) systems), the little dragonfly catches on the housing to glow. The color depends on the bit rate that is currently accessed by the operating system. On my Mac it was with 96kHz.
Compared to the onboard soundcard of comparison was really overwhelming: The space is clearly the details stand out more, music is just completely different, much clearer. From the sound forth for me is this stick the reference.

In operation, the stick is quite warm, the operation on the mobile phone (OnePlus One with USB OTG cable) empties this noticeably faster. Moreover, one need for the unfortunately paid app "USB Audio Player" that beats with 4 euros. On OnePlus the operation of an external (and expensive) DAC worth not really, because the built-in DAC is already outstanding. It works but ... And that leads me to a further advantage of this DAC: The desire to fairly high output level above the volume range extremely consistent quality.
The built-in amplifier with its own volume adjustment. In "normal" DAC usually there is a fixed gain amplifier performance. Volume is controlled by the amplitude of the digital-analog converter, which results especially at high and at very low volumes to a lack of dynamism or unclean sound.
Here we have a ESS Sabre DAC chip, which has a very good reputation in the literature and among audiophiles, which is accompanied by a separate, internal headphone amplifier. This has, like the other, related to the sound components to the unit, a specially filtered power that I have tested on an ancient hub with unclean power. Again sounds of DAC, especially compared to some Chinese colleagues, very clean.
The DAC has enough "oomph" to also drive demanding headphones like the Beyer Dynamics DT-550 or T-1 reasonably can - even concert volume is still there. Excellent!
Personally I use the DAC along with the ATH-m50x by Audio Technica. Here convinced of AudioQuest with high dynamics and brilliance.
For testing I used classical music and especially metal and a little hip-hop.
For fans of metal music I have to say a few words:
A large part of music from the metal genre benefits from poor quality of facilities. That means: This stick plays you music the same way, as it is merciless. You will at Slayer suddenly hear that who mastering total versiebt with the newer disks, it crackles partly as hell (see Loudness War), with Heaven Shall Burn one wonders at "Voice of the Voiceless", what is now and to beep on a channel. These are now only two examples - there are many more in which one wonders whether these are really professionals who have taken care of the mastering. But if then times true production, enjoys this stick to Metaler with a fine detail and precision, the fine from the "Metal-pabulum-pandemonium" that is known from bad MP3 players and car radios, making differentiated music that amazement a back - can rediscover his old and favorite discs.

All in all an excellent DAC, which is very suitable for rock and metal.

I hope to have helped you a little :)