This digital to analog converter is even smaller than our original Sabre DAC and offers most of the originals’ qualities at a even lower price and smaller size!
The HiFimeDIY Tiny was developed by DIY (do it yourself} enthusiasts in the purpose of making a really good but cheap dac that could compete against regular commercial DAC’s costing many times as much. It utilises a DAC chip from ESS Technology, whose DAC chips is highly regarded. The ES9023 chip is their simplest DAC chip which keeps many of the features of their bigger brothers at a minimal cost. We made this new familiy member even smaller and cheaper
What is different from the slightly bigger brother?
– It uses the PCM2706 USB receiver chip in place of Tenor TE7022, which limits it to max 48kHz/16bit inputs
– 12Mhz osc instead of a crystal used in uae23.
– No optical output
– Might work on more devices (Android etc.)
– Volume level can not be controlled by volume hot keys (updated, it doesn’t work in either MAC or Windows)
What is the same?
– Sabre ES9023 chip
– 2.2Vrms output
Which one should i get?
The new Uae Tiny is almost as good at a lower price. If you don’t mind paying the additional dollars, go for the uae23 version (Hifimediy Sabre DAC). If you want to save a few bucks and don’t need 96/24 this newcomer should be a good option.
Used for:
Model:UAE Tiny
Jean de Logiviere –
First, the sound is great and the form factor is perfect plugged in a laptop while traveling.
I enjoyed this tiny beast for weeks before it turned bad… The device started to constantly and erratically disconnecting with no apparent reason except moving my laptop.
I thought that was because of a dying USB port, but I finally found that’s because the short cable is faulty at the bottom of the DAC.
I then carefully opened it to see what is happening and found that the SOLDERING WORK OF USB WIRES IS AWFULL !
Two wires (red and white) are melted and so badly welded that they are touching together… VERY BAD QUALITY INSIDE, I’m sooo disappointed now !!!
🙁
Mark F –
I am using 4 of these plugged into a Raspberry PI 2B (running 4 instances of SqueezeLite) to play music (through a multi-channel amp) to 3 different rooms and a pair of wireless speakers. All are individually controllable through the Logitech Media Server interface. This is a high quality yet inexpensive solution for "whole house" audio. I have used these since 2015 and plan to buy more when I add more rooms to my "whole house" audio system.
Highly recommended.
A. Caesar –
Much better sound quality from my Rasperry Pi.
Now I can really enjoy the music quality on my Yamaha A-S501 amp.
Antons –
This device gifted me a lot of great moments. On long flights or just away from home it gave me comfort, the music that makes me feel. It still is my DAC of choice, I test my tube stuff with it as a source. The quality is amazing.
It just works. On android, on windows, on Linuxes… I modified it to fit my phones micro usb with a short flexible cable, and use adapter to connect it to PC’s. I replaced the box with a heatshrink and made LED to shine through the phone jack, no light is emitted when jack is inserted. This little cheapish thingy has evolved with me, grown on me and became one of my most beloved possessions, together with my ATH-M50(which is driven excellently). It is next only to my paraglider (a thing that lets me fly like a bird in the air, amongst real birds for hours).
I want to sincerely thank anyone who conceived this wonderful device and guided this little project to fruition. This is a great achievement. Thanks for all the hours of eargasms!
meszi –
I just received this piece of hardware and I am listening to music with it right now.
The sound is fuller with my HD558 and the bass is a lot better.
Definitely an improvement from my built in notebook jack.
happylistener –
Excellent little DAC, very pleased with the sound quality and also the device compactness (very convenient when traveling).
One gotcha for Linux users: the design includes a TI PCM2706, which includes a stereo DAC. This DAC is not used, instead the I2S output of the PCM2706 is used to feed the Sabre ES9023 DAC. By default on my Linux set-up (Debian Jessie) the PCM2706 analog output was used, so I had no sound. To fix this, I had to manually chose the digital output of the PCM2706 (labeled IEC958 digital output). Then the Sabre chip was fed samples, and sound worked. So if you don’t have sound out of the box on Linux, you may have to fiddle a bit with your configuration to force this (GUI was enough, or pactl worked too).
About the output level: also not extra loud, it’s sufficient for me. Ok even with intras with impedance on the low side (27 ohms).
AMG –
I tried this with my IEMs, and they sounded muddy and lacking treble. For those, I recommend the 9018D. I think the problem is that the impedance on this is too high for IEMs.
So it stayed in my closet unused for like a year, and out of curiosity I tried it with my HD800 — now it was clear, the highs were there — and the bass was POWERFUL. I’ll be using this when I want to hear pounding bass with my HD800!
BriceM –
Works perfectly on my Android tablets, the Asus Transformer Prime TF201 (with the Asus USB-Type A adapter) and the Cube U25GT Super Edition (with a micro-USB OTG to USB-Type A adapter), with Onkyo HF Player or USB Audio Player PRO.
So far the best compromise in terms of size/versatility/quality/price!
hifimine –
Wonderful little device. Use this mostly with a Google Nexus 7 2012 model running CM. Sound from my tablet is now so much better with this little dac. Have also tested it with laptop running Win 7 and a Chromebook, no problems with either. Considering what I paid for this it’s been one of my best bang for buck audio purchases.
buguibu –
I’m not ready jet for appreciate the sound quality improvement, maybe it sound more detailed and wide. But the first thing i really appreciate it’s that i can turn off the volumen near to zero and the sound quality continues being great.
anonymous –
Works perfectly plug and play with OSX and Windows. Inability to control volume with software mixer is a good thing, means the stream is bitperfect regardless of volume setting. Measures transparently and sounds great. Only downside is the flimsy plastic shell construction, but what can you expect for $30.
iuga2000 –
This DAC works perfectly with my galaxy note 2. The sound is very clear, detailled and punchy. It sounds better than others Dac more expensive. If you’re not completly satisfied with the sound quality of your Android phone, you should try this Dac and you will be surprised !
ported –
Have been using with my S3 phone for a couple of weeks now – very solid and sweet sound compared to native output – this is great product for mobile sound…