Syba USB 24 Bit 96 KHz DAC Digital to Analog Headphone Amplifier 2 Stage EQ Digital/Coaxial Output and RCA Output (SD-DAC63118)

Summary: Excellent sound for the price and a really good basic DAC for PC and Playstation. My listening is exclusively through a pair of Philips SHP9500 headphones, so take that for what it's worth. This DAC can drive them uncomfortably loud but clearly. It is a mostly neutral sound stage with little or no effect to the sound or sound stage. In fact it is quite flat. You can change that with the front panel switch but it just toggles between three positions: treble boost, neutral, and bass boost, there is no fine tune adjustments of any of the switch positions. The unit does not seem to support any digital decoder formats like Dolby ATMOS or DTS, when I sent those signal formats down the pipe it was just noise. There are supposedly software solutions to enhance the experience but I haven't searched yet. Speaking of volume, the volume knob on top controls the unit's internal output volume and does NOT control Windows volume in any way. This can be both good and bad depending on how you normally use external volume controls, but make sure you adjust both before calling it a dud. As for input I am using an Audio-Technica ATGM2 boom mic attached to the headset and it is able to get good sound and volume. My only "hiccups" were with the way Windows 11 handles basic USB input methods and trying to wrangle the system to listen to the correct input. Since this is simply a "USB Audio Device" it may take trial and error to find which one it is. I like the bit rate/hertz display (44.1, 48, 96) and visual feedback of the sound (might be distracting to others to see a flashing LED). Because this is a basic USB audio device it requires no software for setup on Windows 11 (and *should* be the same for a fully updated Windows 10 computer).

Overall, I think this USB amp is a great, cheap addon for the setup I have at work. I have a laptop in a docking station for work, and I am constantly undocking it to carry it around, but when I'm at my desk, I like my music loud and bumpin' (in my own headphones of course.) The audio device in the laptop is pretty weak, and the only options to change the sound is a general 'enhancement' option that just make everything sound like garbage. I wanted to get a headphone amp, but I need to be able to pass through the microphone on my headset at the same time for video conferencing (most desk amps in this price range lack that critical feature.) Until this, my solution was to listen to music with a portable, battery-powered amp I use with my phone, and to switch over to the jack on the laptop when I call into meetings. All that said, here's a rundown of what I think: PROS: -- directly USB powered (don't have to worry about draining a battery when laptop is undocked) -- USB interface (only need to run one cable to docking station/laptop, no worry of noise from running analog cables) -- Microphone jack (now I don't have to switch cables all the time!) -- 'hardware' EQ switch (I just leave it in bass boost mode all the time.) -- Large, easy to turn volume knob -- Visual indicator of bitrate via LED's (though TBH there isn't a difference if all you use is a music streaming service like me) -- Pretty blinky light flashes with the music when it's turned up high -- Bass boost is good quality for a $40 amp, and in general the amplification doesn't seem to distort the sound at all. CONS: -- No ability to feed the mic back into the headphone jack to hear it live. I'm used to this with my setup at home, and I find it easier to talk while wearing over-ear headphones if I can hear myself clearly. -- Line-in port disables USB audio out. Would have been nice to be able to plug my phone in and hear both it and my laptop. My phone's vibration feature is pretty weak, so it would be nice to jack it in and hear the dings and whistles from notifications instead, but I can't do that without losing the sound coming from my workstation. -- Dimple on volume knob is nearly useless. When I try to use it to change the volume, my finger almost immediately slips out unless I apply a lot of pressure. Much easier to slide my finger along the side to change the volume (thankfully the rubber feet plant the amp on my desk pretty well, so it doesn't slide around.) If the dimple was more prominent, it wouldn't be an issue. Overall, I think this amp is an excellent piece of equipment for the price, as long as your use case is similar to mine. I can see how some of the 'cons' I listed might be deal breakers to others who are used to higher quality, more fully-featured amps, but for me, I don't mind at all.

I bought this around September (2019) to go along with my recently gifted Philips Fidelio X2HR and I would classify myself as a "beginner" audiophile if there is such a statement. Heard from some reviewers that this was a great cheap option for someone who doesn't have a lot of money, but would like to improve their sound and drive their headphones much better than your onboard sound card could, and for the price it does exactly that! The ability to use either 3.5 mm or 6.3 mm is nice for such a small compact DAC/amp, and it supports 3.5 mm microphone input as well for those with dual cord headset setups. I have even tested using two pairs of headphones at the same time (SHP9500s and my X2HRs) and it output sound to both at relatively high volume like a champ! Though I didn't do so for very long as I was only testing, so I don't know the effects of long term dual use as I only use one pair of headphones, nor do I know the effects on headphones with high impedance. I don't have standalone speakers and haven't used the other connections on the back of the DAC besides USB, but USB has worked great so far and I haven't had any crackling or muddy audio while using this. The sound comes out very crisp and clear, and my ears have been enjoying all the new nuances I can pick up from the music I used to listen to daily! The EQ on the front also works fine, albeit the notch is very stiff as others have stated, with three options for Treble (T), Direct (D), and Bass (B). I keep it on Direct most often for all of my listening and gaming as there is no boost to any frequencies, but there is a slight difference when switching between the "presets" if you will and the option to change based on your preferences is nice either way. The DAC itself is relatively cheap looking, so care should be taken in making sure this doesn't fall or rapidly disassemble on any hard surfaces. My only gripe with this DAC/amp is the problems it has with environments that experience more static than usual. In the room I used to have this DAC in, there was a washer and dryer a room over, but still far enough away that I never had any problems with static on any other electronics. When using this amp for the first time, it cut out on me after about 3-4 hours due to static discharge leading me to have to plug the DAC out and back in again. I eventually figured out that every time someone opened the dryer, the DAC would cut out due to all of the static electricity released into the environment, so fair warning for those of you looking at this product living in a similar situation. The DAC was never damaged, however, and worked for over 10+ hours after re-plugging it back in again, but it was an annoyance. After moving and being far away from any static sources, it hasn't cut out on me since. Overall, very pleased with this product as a temporary solution until I can afford something much better.

My Encore mDac has been working intermittently as of late. I have the pleasure of listening to headphones for about 6 hours of my work day, so having a DAC/Amp combo at my desk is nice. However, with a 4 week old baby, my budget was super limited. I came across the Syba Sonic SD-DAC63057 and decided to give it a try. It checked all the boxes. Cheap ($37). No driver install needed (work computer, can't install anything). Enough power (100mw) to drive my IEMs and more sensitive over ears. USB only power. Full specs can be found here The unit features variable line outs, top mounted volume knob, optical out, coax digital out, usb in (for power and signal), mic input, 3.5mm input, 3.5mm headphone out, and 1/4" headphone out (both headphone outputs work simultaneously. The unit has indicator lights to show what signal is being received (96, 44, or 44.1), and an indicator light of sorts that flashes with the music, that comprised of a red and blue LED. Kind of neat. The unit also features a hardware EQ that includes a 7db (yes, 7db!) treble boost, a direct no EQ option, and a 7db bass boost. The hardware EQs are a bit much for me, and I find I leave the unit set to direct most of the time. However, there is one expectation. I have set of custom reshelled Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi 10's, and in the process, the treble took about a 6db drop. So, for that one set of CIEMs, the treble boost is just right. However, that is a pretty oddly specific scenario, and I would imagine most people won't want to use the hardware EQ. Of note, the device is always on, as there is no power switch. The volume knob has the most minute channel imbalance as the absolute lowest setting. And, there is an uncomfortable audible crackle / pop when plugging in sensitive headphones to the 3.5mm headphone out. All be it, it doesn't seem to be enough to damage anything. I have successfully used the Syba Sonic DAC/Amp with my Chromebook, MacBook Air, and my Windows 7 work PC. I have not tried it on a Windows 10 device, but after scouring the Amazon “reviews” it seems that it may not play nice with all Win10 installs so YMMV. As the unit is not battery powered, it won’t work with mobile devices. When compared head to head with my Encore mDac, the Syba Sonic unit sounds a tad better. The bass is a bit fuller and the treble has just a hair more sparkle. Detail representation is on par, if not better than anything in this price range. All in all, for $37 I am super pleased with the purchase. I love the design with the volume knob on top. And the fact that the RCA outs are variable makes this a great option for those that want a budget option to use with powered monitors. I have run the unit, as mentioned, with my CIEM reshelled TF.10's, as well as with my UM3X, Fischer Audio FA-003 wooden cup over ears, NAD VISO HP50's, AKG K7XX, and handful of other mid-range to lower IEMs. I did find that it struggled a bit to run the K7XX with any authority, but all the other headphones / IEMs I have tried have worked just fine. The only other negative is that, with the volume knob at full tilt, there is an audible hiss on most sensitive headphones (read: 32ohm and below). I would recommend this unit for anyone with a tight budget that wants a somewhat feature rich DAC/Amp. It would also make a great external sound card thanks to the mic input.

I bought this back in October when there were practically no reviews on this unit. There were no reviews on youtube, and nothing to guess what I was getting. I figured at $35 it was a cheap solution for the office I could use. If it didn't work I could return it, and if it got swiped by the cleaning crew I wouldn't be distraught over it. All that being said, I was only hoping it would be an ok improvement from my laptop out at work. Anything would be an improvement though as my work laptop has mono out only and sounds like literal dogpoop in my ears. After I first tried it, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is. While it would be nice to have the amp push a bit more power, that would defeat the fact it doesn't require a wall wart. I have plenty of portable, low resistance, high sensitivity headphones to use with it. It has worked flawlessly with all them. The hardware EQ is surprisingly good too! The bass boost is nice with some of my shoutier and rolled-off bass headphones. The treble boost has a bit too much grainy-ness with the sound change for my liking though. For most headphones though I leave it in neutral position. It is overall a nice feature to have instead of not have. As I said before, this is not a wall powered amp so don't expect hard to drive headphones to sound loud. They won't. It will provide more power than the soundcard from the PC usually, but it isn't going to be a huge amount more. The mic line in is great as well for gaming setups. Seriously great. I don't use it much personally at home, but I bought a unit for a friend to use for his exclusively gaming setup and he has loved it since. He doesn't have to reach around the back of the computer to undo both 3.5mm plugs. It's all on the front of the unit on his desk. Which makes this unit very convenient. As for durability, it's lasted 10 months for me. I've moved it around a few times between home and the office, but not that many times. Still it basically sits on a desk and does the job I need it to do. I wouldn't expect it to survive being flung across a room, and nor would I attempt that. As I sit here right now I am using this Syba Sonic with Spotify premium and my Beyerdynamics Custom One Pros. Sounds and works wonderfully.

Update: I sent the unit back after it died 5-10 minutes into testing. No sound from my laptop even though all lights were on. Tested on another laptop. Tested after letting it sit another 10 minutes to cool down. Original Review: This is for the 24/96 DAC BLK. If you only have onboard sound and cheaper headset then you'll probably like the device. I got it because it has a separate 3.5 mm mic input and 3.5mm out and took a chance since I couldn't find any info on impedance rating. I attached a picture of the manual for anyone else out there facing the same dilemma. I have Sennheiser Game Zeros (50 ohm) plugged into a cheap, base model Lenovo Yoga for reference and it did help boost my headset a tiny bit after going into the settings and changing to 24 bit, 96 KHz. I have it 3 stars instead of 2 due to being a somewhat decent price. I'm still debating on sending it back or not but I'm a bit picky with sound quality. If you're an audiophile this is not what you want. If you're just getting it for work, go for it.

Well, we were not sure this would be the right solution for us, but we are very happy with our purchase. My uncle's laptop was old, slow, vulnerable, and in need of replacement. His use of a laptop was primarily e-mail and surfing the internet - he had no need for a high powered machine, so we purchased a fairly inexpensive model with Windows 8 and a decent size screen. The one thing we didn't consider was my uncle's music habit. He loves to hear music from his generation, found at various websites on the net, and play the songs over his modest, but surprisingly good PC speaker system. The system is basically a pair of desktop speakers combined with a second pair that are wired to a sub-woofer. When all of them were connected to a headphone port (using a splitter) on the old laptop, it worked and sounded good. What we learned was that the old laptop had a far superior sound card as compared to the new laptop. When the system was connected to the new laptop, only 2 speakers worked and the sound was horrible. But the addition of this amp and external sound card to his modest system has restored and enhanced his listening experience. The sound card was literally 'plug and play' for us - we hooked it up and it worked immediately. We did go to the computer's control panel and make some adjustments to the audio controls, but even without those adjustments, the sound card worked well out of the box. It delivered much more sound volume and fullness when compared to the laptop's internal sound card. We recommend this sound card for anyone looking to improve the sound quality and power output of a cheap internal sound card.

if you want to remove noisey buzzing you need a portable usb power bank to power this. i cant find a usb port in my home that dosent produce some kind of buzzing noise when i use it to power this BUT my portable usb power bank. does the best that way with that in mind know this as well; in optimal conditions i cant seem to request much more than 60% of the volume before begining to puckup noise from this device. i do fix this by amping the signal further after this unit with another device before i send the signal into the recording device. other than the slightly low volume limit it does well. the nobs move at the same resistance with a nice all metal body. for the price i would have appreciated an included quiet power suppl for this unit, or if it is even possible to make this unit in a way that scrubs the power supply coming in to remove the noise. 3 stars bc it was not cheap and has one job of processing audio, dosent seem like alot to ask it to do that quietly out of the box without a special usb power bank just for it.