ONYX FOR MAC REDDIT PORTABLE
ONYX FOR MAC REDDIT ANDROID
ONYX FOR MAC REDDIT PC
ONYX FOR MAC REDDIT BLUETOOTH

Audiophiles love to debate the merits of high-res but the evidence for its audible superiority for most music is slim.

When it comes to high-res PCM, according to the docs, the THX Onyx supports up to 32-bit 384 kHz input, and further, 'all PCM, MQA up-sampled to 705.6/768 kHz'. These LEDs are informative, but also likely to induce FOMO – fear of missing out – if you are seeing 'only' blue LEDs. Yellow means hi-res PCM, defined as greater than 48kHz sampling rate. The Onyx has three LEDs though they are always all the same colour, so one would have done. It would also still go much louder for those who do not value their hearing. We thought it still sounded better, with the same kind of difference: deeper, more defined bass, more detail, more open. The gross differences between the cheap adapter and the Onyx disappeared. But how many want to take HD600s out and about anyway? Next we tried Shure's wired IE300 earbuds, which have just 16 ohms impedance. The HD600 has an impedance of 300 ohms which is too high for most lightning or USB-C headphone adapters. The secret here is not so much the format flexibility as the built-in amplifier, called THX AAA-78, where AAA stands for Achromatic Audio Amplifier, and is specified for headphones with impedance from 22-1,000 ohms. The other big deal is that it goes loud – louder than anyone would want on normal music. Notable versus the official Apple headphone adapter or most cheap adapters (the Apple one only costs pennies after all) is that the bass sounds deeper and richer, the sound opens out and small details are more apparent.

ONYX FOR MAC REDDIT PC

Most of our testing was with Apple Music lossless or with a variety of lossless and high-res files on the Sony or on a PC including DSD and MQA. Plugging THX Onyx into an iPad and using trusty Sennheiser HD600 headphones was quite a revelation, same with a Sony NW-A105 Walkman, even though the Sony has a high quality DAC of its own.

ONYX FOR MAC REDDIT ANDROID

On a desktop PC or Mac, or Android with USB, everything works fine, and a recent iPad with USB-C works fine too. Another annoyance is that headsets with mics will not work for calls on an iPhone, though conferencing apps like Zoom do work. In the box is a USB-C to USB-A adapter, while for iPhone a slim Lightning to USB Camera Adapter is needed – not the wide USB 3 one, which will not work because it does not supply enough power.

A magnet on the case keeps the cable tidy when not in use. What you get is a DAC and headphone amplifier in a slim metal case, about 60mm long, with a 3.5mm jack socket at one end, three LEDs, and a short cable at the other terminated by a USB-C connector. This is a USB-powered DAC designed for use on the go.

The box warns of inadvertent high volume when setting up Lossy compression at levels like Apple's 256 Kbps AAC is excellent and not an issue for most people yet there remains the nagging annoyance that it is potentially compromising quality for the sake of convenience and efficiency.

ONYX FOR MAC REDDIT BLUETOOTH

Wireless has largely meant Bluetooth audio, for which none of the available codecs are lossless. Streaming audio has largely meant lossy compression, formats such as MP3 and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), which reduce data size by omitting parts of the signal that are inaudible or hardly audible. These two demands sometimes pull in opposite directions. Then there is a push towards higher quality, with vendors touting higher resolution such as 24-bit 192kHz digital, or exotic formats such as DSD (Direct Stream Digital), MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) – all of which are supported by the THX Onyx – and Dolby Atmos/Spatial audio, which is a new approach to surround sound. There is a drive towards greater convenience, which means streaming music and true wireless, as popularised by Apple's Bluetooth-driven AirPods, first introduced in September 2016. There is a strange cocktail of ingredients that flavours the music and audio industry.

ONYX FOR MAC REDDIT PORTABLE

We took a look at the THX Onyx, a portable DAC and headphone amplifier that claims to be just the thing. Review Apple introduced hi-res lossless audio to its music service last month, but third-party hardware is required to enjoy it – if indeed the difference is audible.

Onyx for mac reddit