🎶 Unleash Your Audio Potential!
The Audioengine D1 is a high-performance 32-bit desktop DAC and headphone amplifier that delivers exceptional sound quality for both gamers and musicians. Its compact design and dual audio modes make it a versatile addition to any workspace, ensuring you can enjoy private listening or share your audio effortlessly.
A**.
Great sound, drives high impedance headphones with a good volume, no drivers required
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.
P**L
Looking for a DAC? Look no farther.
I've been an audiophile for a little while, but have never really decided to start pouring money into a setup until now. I own a pair of AKG K240's and a pair of AKG K701's. K701's are notorious for being picky about their source and amp (being highly analytically reference headphones), and K240's shine for every day use, but also lack character without being properly driven. Unfortunately, since both lacked an amp for well over a year, I decided to invest in a DAC as a first step and slap on a headphone amp with it. Lucky for me, Audioengine's D1 was one of a few finds for DAC's, amongst FiiO, nuForce and HRT. I needed something that would be compact, as I wasn't ready to make a step towards a desktop DAC. As a college student, saving space is a prime requirement.After doing plenty of research, almost all of it positive for the Audioengine, I bought it and had it delivered overnight. It had an integrated headphone amp, a volume control, and was USB based. It had an optical toslink input (great for gaming consoles) and RCA output, for eventually working into a full system. I didn't think it would be this small! I was expecting something with the footprint of a 3.5" HDD, but instead it's as big as a stick of deodorant. Smaller, even. Aluminum housing with soft-touch ends, excellent RCA connections, and an amazing pot for the volume control only made it seem a lot better. The headphone jack in front is a little odd; they decided to go with the common 1/8" (3.5mm) TRS jack, instead of the more robust 1/4" (6.35mm) TRS jack. I suppose it's more accessible seeing as many people do not use 1/4" TRS jacks, except for audiophiles. The D1 being more of a compact unit, this makes sense. I suppose it's the same argument as buying a DAC at this price that has XLR connectors versus TRS. The markets just don't really coincide.But I digress.I plugged it into my laptop and it automatically initialized, installing drivers. I plugged in my K240's and was rather underwhelmed. All it really did at the time was tone down some of the sibilant highs in my electronic music. That said, it wasn't burned in. So, I left my headphones in and let it play at a moderate volume (note my K240's have seen hundreds of hours of use). Six hours of work later, I take a listen and something definitely feels different. I unplugged from the DAC and plugged into the laptop headphone jack, then back to the DAC. There it was. A remarkable tightening of the low end. When instruments couldn't be told apart, when the music felt almost hollow from the laptop, the D1 filled in that gap. Each hi-hat, each drum hit, each synth key. That hollow nature could be best described as if someone had put low pass filters on the music, like they were playing miles away. Now I am center stage. This was only with 6-10 hours of burn-in! I plugged in my K701's and also noticed a wonderful improvement in instrument separation and bass response. Music just felt richer and fuller!I then decided to plug in my 2.1 computer stereo system into it. I've owned this system for almost six years now, an old pair of Harman/Kardon satellites and a subwoofer that comes as a single system. I think it came with a Dell I had back in the day. The bass, which before, always felt just fine, tightened up a lot, and became much more focused and responsive. Tracks like Kanye's "Power" have a lot of bass, and normally played through the laptop, it was fine. Now through the D1, there's a notable increase in volume, but almost a noticeable balance between the heavy beats and the strong mids in the rhythm. Despite similar volume levels, though the D1, the floor shook! Electronic music picked up a lot more precision, and it helped reduce the harsh sibilance/treble in some of my drum & bass tracks. Electrohouse became quicker, almost. Dubstep beats no longer drained out all the mids and highs.Now I'm at 25 hours of use, continuous, too. It's not even warm. I'm very pleased to see how the D1 is responding to my collection of music, and how it seems to improve with every second. My headphones actually sound like they're worth the money I paid out for them! I've used them to great effect in games, what with every footstep clearly audible, and its placement more accurate.Now, some greivances I have:-- Because the D1 is strictly powered via USB, an adapter has to be used if you want to plug it into the wall. Besides the USB and the optical toslink ports, there's no other way to attach an input. You basically either NEED a computer or another powered source that has optical toslink. Unfortunately, you cannot just slap an auxiliary 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male between the D1 and say, your mobile phone, and expect it to play.-- You don't get a USB to AC adapter.-- No indication of what the DAC is getting as far as signal. The HRT has multiple LEDs which indicate incoming signal (sample frequency). If you're using this DAC, you better be pretty confident of the signal entering it.My grievances are rather petty, and being a compact system, my first gripe isn't really applicable.Some things to note that the D1 does:-- Increase bass response, while cleaning it up. Less boomy, rattly bass and more controlled, tighter bass which leads to a cleaner, efficient sound.-- Neutral/flat response. You don't get a really bass heavy feel nor do the mids or highs feel like they are overreaching.-- Play lossless audio PROPERLY. The stock Windows audio mixer downmixes channels before playing them, which is why it's possible to hear your Skype "new message pop" over your music while you shoot people in a game. Depending on how you set up your system, you can have all audio channels sent directly to the DAC, or if you're like me, have foobar2000 with kernel streaming play all my music directly to the D1. 24 bit, 96 khz vinyl rips never actually sounded like vinyl until today! If I ever get my hands on 24 bit, 196 khz audio, I'll need optical toslink.Remember to practice your Google-Fu and find out how to properly use your D1 instead of using it purely to convert downmixed digital audio to analog. Use it to play super-high quality FLAC's, AIFF's, and OGG's. Computer audio is rather complicated.Looking for a DAC? Look no farther. Your answer is right here.
B**.
Still having TV and BluRay player setting problems
I'm still struggling with the setup of the TV and BluRay player to get rid of some intermittent noises, but when the D1 is working right, it sounds absolutely wonderful. with headphones, which is why I purchased the DAC in the first place.
Trustpilot
5 days ago
2 days ago