Audioengine D1P 32 Bit Portable Headphone Amplifier - Audio DAC Amp Switcher for Gaming and Music

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.

I use JRiver as my music player in WASAPI-Event Style to bypass the Windows Mixer. Even the laptop soundcard sounded very good through my headphones with this setup. Certainly better than hearing my .WAV or mp3 files in iTunes as I used to. I was intrigued by this new wave of usb dacs that are getting so much fame now, and the D1 is one of the most popular under $200. There are others that go up to $4000! But let's not talk about those. I got this DAC for my laptop as a "portable hi-fi" solution. I work a lot on the road and most of my music listening I do outside of my home where I can hook up my laptop to my system through HDMI. So, After hooking up the D1, there was a very noticeable improvement. I never thought this would happen, but as I kept using the D1, it kept sounding better. I didn't believe it when it said that it needed to be "burned in" in order to sound its best, but that seems to be case. Now it sounds fantastic through my headphones. I get a very good stereo image with a detailed, clear and welcoming sound. Listening to my 24bit/96khz tracks through here is a total pleasure. Even my 192khz files sound awesome downsampled to 96khz. Now, when I try the laptop soundcard it's a no contest, it even sounds harsh by comparison. I can see that now very easily. This thing sounds awesome!! I did notice some pops/clicks as some other people commented, specially when playing my DSD files and regular FLACs/MP3s upsampled @ 88.2khz. I played with the hardware buffer size in JRiver (using WASAPI - Event Style and 25ms buffer)and the pops went away. Also wanted to comment on its features, the optical input is a plus for me as I can connect say my PS3 and play with my headphones through it. And the analog output has high quality connectors, even better than in my Onkyo receiver. I use them to connect the DAC to external speakers and it even works as a pre-amplifier (though its really signal attenuation). When you hook up your headphones, the analog output mutes. That is a plus. All of this in such a small/portable package and its price makes this something special. Note to those who are not well versed in computer audio. In order to get the best from this or any other USB DAC, you need to use a player that can bypass the Windows mixer in order to send the untouched bit perfect music stream straight to the DAC. Otherwise you won't much better sound as it goes through the windows mixer. This is done with players like Foobar2000, MediaMonkey, or JRiver that can do it either using WASAPI, ASIO, Kernel Streaming, etc. There is a lot of info online about it. Just wanted to point that out. thanks

I must have got a bad unit because the casing came loose without effort, leaving the DAC chip exposed to all creation. I'm rather disappointed but hey ho, that's life. Will return and order a new one. Hopefully, it fairs better than its sibling did.

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.