Earman sparrow android#
Earman sparrow pro#
Earman sparrow windows#

Timbral balance for Earmen Sparrow is assuredly good, Sparrow managed to avoid the pitfall of sounding outright sterile, metallic and digital-ish.

Earman sparrow pro#

All these were observed through extensive listening throughout all of my regular listening devices from Etymotic ER4SR, Shure KSE1500, TRN VX Pro and all the way to Beyerdynamic DT880. On the other end of the spectrum, I am hearing pronounced sparkle that is crisp and borderline bright in the Treble region. I can clearly hear that the lower frequencies are elevated above what is neutral, with evident hump in Mid-Bass. It is balanced enough exhibiting mature tuning, but it is not as neutral as how I normally prefer my DAC/Amp should sound like. What is evident to me, Earmen Sparrow does not present itself as a neutral sounding unit. Up until now, out of 114 dongles I owned, more than half of them ESS Sabre based, so it would not be too extreme for me to say that I can immediately appraise the output of an ESS Sabre DAC the moment I listened to them. Earmen Sparrow being an ESS Sabre unit, sounds exactly like most ESS Sabre DACs I have ever listened to. I will be as concise on this as much as I can. After prolonged use, the Sparrow seems to have good heat dissipation as well even when subjected to high load, mildly warm to the touch. That is exactly on par to the battery drain score of Cayin RU6, iBasso DC05 etc. That’s quite a relief.Įndurance wise, Sparrow clocked a respectable 6 hours of continuous drain to my Sony Xperia X Compact (AndrmAH Battery, UAPP Bitperfect, Airplane Mode, driving TRN VX Pro). Tidal native app can be quite finicky with some dongles but not with Sparrow. Most importantly the MQA unfolding works as intended without any hint of issues with clipping or occasional artifacts as would be observed with almost half of MQA dongles I tested so far.

Earman sparrow android#

On the subject of MQA, I have found my Sparrow unit to connect flawlessly with Tidal Android app in Exclusive mode. As per industry standards, Purple for MQA and Green for PCM. To complete the look, at the front is a large led indicator for playback resolution. Sparrow is not exactly new, as such it has 2.5mm BAL instead of the more popular 4.4mm Pentaconn which is the normal standard nowadays. Sparrow being spartan, offers simple interfaces and ports of which a female USB C on one end and two Audio ports on the other end.

So, care is needed if I want my unit to look pristine. Being glossy, the Sparrow will also pick up fingerprints quite easily and this can smear the elegant look. For the record all of my cables are terminated in 4.4mm configuration hence the need for 2.5mm adapter. The caveat that I experienced first hand, my Sparrow already picked up small scratches on the front plate, something that happened on the 2nd day when I placed it in my pocket and probably had abrasive encounter with the 4.4mm to 2.5mm adapter that I use. Which can cause for a bit of concerns because it can be slippery if not handled carefully. Holding the unit in my hands I was immediately greeted by smooth glazed feel to the touch. Aluminum chassis sandwiched by glossy glass on both sides. Build, Functions, UsabilityĪesthetics wise, Sparrow is a very elegantly designed dongle. The unit that I received came labelled with an additional decal on the box indicating it is an MK2 unit, and I believe that this is a revised unit from the model of yesteryears.Įarmen Sparrow is a DAC/Amp built on ESS Sabre ES9281PRO, basically a top tiered ESS DAC which offers native MQA capabilities. It is one of the few Dongles that are entirely designed and made in Europe (Serbia). Sparrow is a device that has a good following and for good reasons.

But only managed to buy one for myself this year.

I have been wanting to get myself an Earmen Sparrow since last year. LISTENING EQUIPMENT USED IMPARTED HUGE INFLUENCE TO SOUND IMPRESSIONS & RATING HiBy Music Player App (USB Exclusive Mode).Sony Xperia X Compact (UAPP USB Exclusive Mode, Bitperfect).LG V50 ThinQ (UAPP USB Exclusive Mode, Bitperfect).

Earman sparrow windows#

Windows 10, Foobar 2000 (USB 3.0 Power).Beyerdynamic DT880 (Dynamic Drivers, 600 Ohm, 96db Sensitivity).FOSTEX T40RP MK3 (Magnetic Planar, 50 Ohm, 91db Sensitivity).SeeAudio Yume Midnight (2BA + 1DD Hybrid, 32 Ohm, 106db Sensitivity).Kinera Idun Golden (3BA + 1DD Hybrid, 32 Ohm, 112db Sensitivity).TIN HiFi T3+ (Single DD, 32 Ohm, 105db Sensitivity).

TRN VX Pro (8BA + 1DD Hybrid, 22 Ohm, 106db Sensitivity).

Shure KSE1500 (Single Electrostatic 200V, KSA1200 Energizer).

Etymotic ER4SR (Single BA, 45 Ohm, 96db Sensitivity).