Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
hiliDAC Audirect Atom Pro Portable DAC/Amp
01 / 14
hiliDAC Audirect Atom Pro Portable DAC/Amp
bookmark_border
Where's the price?
To negotiate the best possible price for our customers, we agree to hide prices prior to logging in.
726 requests
·
407 Sold
Product Description
High-performing digital-to-audio conversion shouldn’t have to take up a lot of space. That’s the central idea behind the Audirect hiliDAC Atom Pro: a portable DAC/amp smaller than most USB drives Read More
You Might Also Like
search
close
Sort by: Top Conversations
keyboard_arrow_down
uw_g
12
Jan 25, 2020
Didn't want to wait and purchased one from aliexpress (lightning version for an Iphone 11 pro max). It's a good dac, very small and light but with a bit more power that the apple dongle. Strengths are sound quality and output power, weak points are build quality of the cable (textile sleeve seems to disintegrate quite fast) and issues connecting with the iphone: I have to connect the in-ears to the dac first and only then the dac to the iphone, otherwise it has troubles getting in sync. Prefer it to Audioquest Dragonfly red due to its smaller form factor and the fact that it doesn't need the camera adapter. Sound quality is equivalent. It can drive all of my IEMs and sensitive full-size phones, too, but not those with higher impedance/power needs.
uw_g
12
Sep 15, 2020
With inears the sonic difference between the two is very small. Where the S8 beats the Dragonfly red is regarding powering low impedance full size headphones. My favorite for this type of phones however is the E1DA SG3. As it supports IOS volume and has even more power this is the dongle to use for low sensitivity headphones - provided your phone/s is/are balanced. For highly sensitive inears I prefer the S8.
Hyde
1121
Sep 16, 2020
uw_gMy current headphone is Denon D2000 which is 25 Ohm, I guess it falls under low impedance full size headphone?
Lol I guess now I'm debating to either get the S8 or use Dragonfly Red as the dac and get Atom amp or something. I think the price difference isn't too high also I'm using it at my desk
Thanks!
tom_m
38
Jan 25, 2020
Anyone now which chip is in here? Pretty good price and looks potentially sturdy. Just got a FiiO BTR5, which is about double the cost but packs a TON of features and is wireless or wired. Would have loved to seen what a Drop for the FiiO BTR5 looked like.
Also curious how much this drains your phone battery and how it compares to the Dragonfly.
MQA is neat, but I think now players like Tidal already take care of it and I hate supporting proprietary lock in technology that adds no benefit over open standards. Interesting this decodes MQA for the price too, I assume it comes with licensing fees.
Any reviews for this guy at all? I couldn't find anything on Google.
tom_m
38
Apr 9, 2020
That's the gimmick MQA feeds us. Never heard such amazing marketing BS in my life before. I tried Tidal with MQA as well as Qobuz. Qobuz sounded leagues better. Sound quality has more to do with the source. Then the compression and MQA really wasn't impressive at all. Trying to come up with some middle-out jerk off fantasy compression over proven open-source is just stupid. MQA will end up disappearing. I'm sure it made someone a good bit of money from Tidal though.
Mc_365
42
Apr 9, 2020
tom_mAgreed on the importance of the source. MQA requires a high quality master with provenance be used in the MQA encoding process. That is why there is limited MQA material. So your point about source is valid and the MQA body agrees, and any MQA mastered material by definition comes from the best master or remastered source material.
(Edited)
jugtree
82
Jan 7, 2020
Could someone explain the bracketed portion of this to me? I get the glowy bit:
" It glows magenta to indicate that it’s rendering an MQA stream or file. (Note that a separate MQA core decoder is needed to achieve MQA audio.)"
Fayne
2587
Jan 25, 2020
For sure. As a systems and network engineer I disagree with the licensing and DRM aspects of MQA completely. It is the kind of stuff I try and avoid like the plague when dealing with anything mission critical (unless ordered to use by the powers that be). That said, as a Tidal HiFi subscriber and Roon user, it didn't make sense to ignore it if it sounded good. The latest batches of ESS DACs are coming with built in rendering support, so no longer are we stuck spending stupid monies to get support.
Yes, there are two stages of MQA. The first unfold is (usually) a doubling of the sampling rate and addition of a few significant bits of resolution using a magic decoding of dithered high frequency data in the low frequency regions. This can be done 100% in software, and is done this way in Tidal, Audirvana, and Roon (and other similar playback apps). The second stage is where a bunch of upsampling/oversampling happens in conjunction with DAC specific filter settings indicated via the MQA signaling. This cannot happen in software and must happen in the DAC hardware itself as it is very DAC specific. The DAC is decoding the data provided to it in the analog audio stream. One of the major sells with a full decode and render setup is that the audio output of a MQA stream should have nearly a 1:1 tonality with the master source.
As for the audio quality, I'll happily take the extra few bits of perceived resolution provided by a full decode and render (both unfolds) on a supporting software and hardware combination. That plus the fact a goodly portion of the MQA encoded tracks come from newer and remastered sources tends to make the encoded tracks sound a bit better (to me). Most of the perceived enhancement likely come from the filters associated with the MQA rendering, and can be reproduced with an EQ or high order filters.
Now I fully agree that MQA is not lossless, but the losses are inaudible to me as long as I'm using a device or software that supports it. When trying it without said software you get somewhere in the 13-14 bits of resolution range, which is meh at best.
(Edited)
Chenos
39
Aug 3, 2020
also the only choice as stated in their support page https://www.hilidac.com/support It's a paid app + paid add-on for the MQA support. Somewhat disappointing, don't you agree?
pmerritt
8
Jan 13, 2020
So I had ordered my Atom from another online retailer a day or two prior to this drop. I have received my unit and it has exceeded my expectations. This tiny little DAC drives my cans (Hifiman HE-4xx)much better than the one that came with my one plus 6T. Not only that, the mids feel like they got a much needed boost but overall the sound seems very neutral.
With Spotify I will report it sounds really good I had to boost the treble just a bit due to the lossy nature of the format. Next....I copied the thriller SACD from my PC to my phone and downloaded HiByMusic from the play store. This totally free player supports DSD playback. I fired up the app and started playing the first track. I noted the led on the Atom switched from red to blue signifying DSD audio. Let me tell you....the quality of the sound coming from these cans went up a few more notches and made me smile....a big ole grin across my face.
Sorry you guys have to wait for yours but at least you know it will be worth it.
(Edited)
tom_m
38
Jan 25, 2020
pmerrittThose hifimans are deceptive. They are easy to drive, but really benefit from an amp. It's pretty crazy and a good example of how an amp can help outside the obvious enough volume to hear it department. It just amplifies subtle stuff so despite same listening volume, you hear more. I was shocked when I first learned this and even my older gen 1 dragonfly helped my 400i.
I didn't see any mention of DSD on the specs page. I assume 256?
PeteMtl
448
Jan 8, 2020
30-40mw under 300 ohms is many times more than you'll ever need to drive the HD6XX. This headphone under 300 ohms needs voltage, and 2vrms is plenty. This is often misunderstood. The HD6xx is very efficient but with such a high impedance it needs voltage, not a lot of current, thus a very low mw output will be plenty, well under 10mw. The Dragonfly Red produces far less mw under 300 ohms than 30-40mw you propose, but it does have a 2,1v max output, and thus may drive the HD6xx quite well with very low mw output. The same reasoning may be done for this new low output dac/amp
(Edited)
SaskAudioGuy
438
Jan 7, 2020
ElzizoDefinitely don't want to be driving 600 ohm headphones off of this thing.
Resistance = 1ohm
16 ohm = 46mW
32 ohm = 60mW
600ohm = 6.6mW
But it's got more rated power than many other USB-C DACs.
(Edited)
VGiancola
12
Jul 18, 2020
How can this be out of stock and say 20 + purchasers needed for discount. Now I’m reminded why I never buy anything on Drop.
(Edited)
Showing 42 of 107
Recent Activity
Related Products
Drop Refurbished
Like-new products you can trustDrop Rewards
Get $5 for every 500 points you earn! Learn more
Drop Keyboard Club
Become a member and expand your keycap collectionCollaborate With Us
For Brands & DesignersFollow Drop