#Thx onyx portable#
#Thx onyx android#

The THX Onyx has a logical design to serve a logical purpose, but the sonic execution lets down what is an otherwise well-considered product. And it’s this lack of transparency that makes its laudable efforts to support hi-res formats and MQA seem pretty futile. It’s a more mature presentation that makes the Onyx sound rather crude.

We play Destroyer’s Savage Night At The Opera and, while the Onyx delivers Dan Bejar’s vocals with clarity and solidity, the DragonFly Red gets under his deadpan delivery more convincingly, while revealing more insight into, and tighter interplay between, the starry haze instrumentation. Even the five-star Astell & Kern AK USB-C Dual DAC Cable and Audioquest DragonFly Black v1.5, both around half the Onyx’s price, fare better on these fronts. The THX is second best when it comes to communicating the dynamics and timing, and therefore the rhythm and musicality of a track.

#Thx onyx portable#

The five-star Audioquest DragonFly Red (£169, $200, AU$280) – the class-leading portable DAC at this price – provides a much wider window into a song, bringing musical details and instrumental textures to the surface that the THX overlooks. An alternative to the Fulla or Hel, you can always combine one of those dongles. Tempotec Sonata HD Pro, HIDISZ S8, or iBasso DC03 will perform about as well as the THX Onyx and are a lot cheaper. However, we have concerns about its inability to enhance the source’s sound in every aspect – and as well as other similarly priced portable DACs can. onyx isnt really worth tbvh, the most i would spend on a dongle is like 60-80 bucks, something like a ibasso dc02 or sth. There’s a hefty dose of clarity and degree of polish to the presentation that wasn’t there before as the THX certainly improves on the typically paltry output of such portable or desktop devices. A noisy and compressed sound, this is not. Compared with the sound coming straight from the devices’ outputs, the THX amplifies the music, making it much bigger, more direct and more involving to listen to.

#Thx onyx android#

We use a range of earbuds and over-ear headphones, from reference models to more price-appropriate pairs, and various source devices, including Android phones and Apple MacBooks. Whatever way you arrange the Onyx, it delivers sound much more powerfully than your source device – it’s cleaner and clearer, too. The THX Onyx delivers 180mW of power compared to the DragonFly Cobalt which only offers 32mW of power into the same load.