DAC Expectations vs Reality: Audiocular D07 Review

Dhanush

Dhanush

Beginner
Hey fellow audiophiles and mateys
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I recently purchased the Audiocular D07 DAC from Concept Kart, which has the same specs as the more expensive Headphone X DDFi, but at half the price. I was excited to improve my PC gaming and music listening experience, but I have to say, I'm not blown away by the difference.

I also tried it with my Samsung F62 mobile, but the sound quality seems the same as without the DAC. I'm using KZ ZEX IEMs, and I'm starting to wonder if all the DAC marketing hype is just that - hype.

Can someone explain to me what the 32bit/384000 Hz spec means? I'm not an expert audiophile, and I'd love to understand the technical aspects.

On a separate note, I'm having a connectivity issue with my mobile F62. Since it already has a 3.5mm jack, I'm guessing that's causing the issue. When I connect the D07, the audio works, but it crackles every second, like it's pausing and resuming. Has anyone else experienced this issue with a mobile device that already has a built-in 3.5mm jack? Is there a workaround or a solution to this problem?

Overall, I'd say the Audiocular D07 is a good value for the price (I paid 850rs). It has high output power, which is great for my Razer Blackshark V2 X headset. The build quality is also great.

However, I'm still not convinced that it's made a significant difference in my audio experience. Maybe I'm just not audiophile enough to appreciate the nuances?

Thanks in advance for your help and insights!
 
Audio quality will be the LEAST of (source quality, dac, iem/headphone) . That being said, D07 is really basic, so chip would be very similar/worse to F62's/motherboard's inbuilt DAC and unlikely to create any difference.
 
All DAC sounds the same with few rare exceptions and is expected to be invisible in the audio chain,so if your headphones needs more power get an amp. If you want better audio experience for gaming like soundstage/Imaging , get a better headphone. If you're happy with current headphone, don't bother with DAC/AMP.

Headphone (only thing that matters the most) -> Amp (Only if required) -> DAC (dongle is enough) in that order.
 
Dhanush said:
improve my PC gaming and music listening experience
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Maybe you should first explain what is it, that you are trying to improve ? As mentioned above, a good DAC is supposed to be transparent i.e. not change anything to the audio. So if you are not noticing any audible difference that means that the DAC is doing an excellent job.
 
The sub 1k dac segment is really intended for phones without a 3.5mm port. You will not see any difference if your phone has a decent onboard sound. The gold standard for a usb c DAC is the apple 3.5mm dongle.
It's been measured to have great performance beating many 10k+ DACs.

To be honest the difference between a good and great dac is not noticeable unless you are looking for it with very revealing equipment.
24 bit means it it capable of reproducing very faint sounds (ratio Between faint and loud is 2^24 or 144 decibels)
384 khz means it can reproduce sounds up to 192khz.

These are capabilities well beyond that of the average human being. 16 bit/44khz works just fine. The rest is marketing.
Of course there are people who claim to be able to hear them, and have the money to achieve those levels. In the meantime, if you're not able to hear the difference, you're just a normal human being
 
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