Periodic Audio Rhodium DAC Review - Better than Audioquest Dragonfly?
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- This is a review of the new Periodic Audio Rhodium portable DAC. I'll be comparing them to the Audioquest Dragonfly Black and Red DAC. The tiny Rhodium is a DAC AND an amp and retails for $50. It's capable of up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM.
periodicaudio.com/collections...
It's meant to replace the cheap USB dongle that came with your phone. As you probably know, those dongle sound absolutely terrible so the bar is set pretty low. But can the Rhodium beat the popular $100 Audioquest Dragonfly Black or $200 Dragonfly Red? Keep in mind these Dragonfly DACs max out at 96 kHz but it's MQA compatible. So you're technically able to get higher res output.
As far as performance, each DAC has its strength and will appeal to different people. The Red has shinier and more present treble. It's a brighter more vibrant sound. It has plenty of speed and air.
I think its strengths are in the highs. As for the Rhodium, it has more of a dreamy sound. It's warmer with truer to life timbre and tone. Bass plucks are more tangible. It's not as transparent as the Audioquest RED, but it sounds less digital and more lifelike. There's a cohesiveness to the sound while the Red outlines and makes the sound more piecewise.
For example, Billie Eillish's new single, Your Power. With the Red, the strings tickles the space with vibrance and shine. There's a lot of reach and extension. It's very expansive and dynamic sound. There's plenty of depth. Decay and resonances are very clear. But when her voice comes in, it's a little cold. You don't know immediately that it's Billie Eillish. She has a very distinct voice and tone.
On the other hand, her sultry, somewhat mellow, and warm voice is recognized immediately with the Rhodium. There's just this presence and weight to her voice that makes the listening experience more soulful. Now this is a MQA track so only the Red could leverage certain qualities. These are transparency, depth, air, body, and resolution. The Rhodium with Tidal Master files played at 96 kHz, has slightly less of these attributes...but holistically sounds more natural anyway.
Pulling up another MQA track, "I could've danced all night" by Chet Baker. Who is an astounding trumpeter. And the experience is a little different. The RED is tighter around the edges and somewhat thinner sounding. Highs are clean and snappy. There's this pristine and brilliant quality to the sound.
But on the Rhodium, while not as vivid or resolving, presents a warmer and fuller sound. Woodwinds, bass, and brass in the recording have a denser and more tonally variant sound. There's more gravity and presence. Again, instruments sound a lot more realistic with the Rhodium.
Finallly, a non-MQA track, The Scientist by Tyler Ward, Kina Grannis, and Lindsey Stirling. The Audioquest Red presents wonderful spatial clarity and detail. It just sounds like more music is happening from every direction.
The Rhodium is more grounded, more melodic, and romantic. You could hear the individual instruments and voices more clearly. The Red sound a little too bright and shiny at times but separates and layers better. Treble quality is also more accurate on the Red, but it's difficult to pick up the piano and violin at times. I describe it as a "fairtytale" sound. Very glittery and airy.
This is a stark contrast to the Rhodium. With the Rhodium, when the male and female vocals overlay and harmonize, it sounds more dense and sweet. Bass is also more satisfying when the kicks come in. Again, the tonality is much more natural with the Rhodium. But the Rhodium doesn't sound as spacious or deep.
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#periodicaudio #audioquest #dac - Наука та технологія
that Rhodium is sounding pretty tempting right now...warm and analog was about all i needed to hear!
Who wants bright and shiny right?? ;)
This channel is underrated. You deserve more subscribers
Thanks man! Gotta grind
this was a nicely informative review, and exactly what i was looking for in a review of the Rhodium. thank you.
Because DUH! Love that! :) Thanks for the great review!
Those Carbons........
shame it's out of stock
@@peetiegonzalez1845 Give it a few more days... ;) Back in stock this week!
I've been driving myself nuts trying to choose a dac, and was torn between the Rhodium, Dragonfly Red and the Astell & Kern HC3. I had the Rhodium and sent it back to try (without testing) to buy a Lavaudio DS100...I know, rookie mistake. The DS100 is OK, but had nasty distortion as full volume, whereas everything I've heard about the Rhodium is thumbs up, especially with the warmer sound that I like. I think I'll save my money and keep the Rhodium that should arrive tomorrow! Looking forward to testing it. Thanks for this review. I'm late, but it was right on time!
I'm pairing my Rhodium with my Topping NX7 and my Koss KPH40 with Yaxi or my Porta Pro with Yaxi pads will absolutely blow your mind.
Thanks for posting this.
great review!
Thanks 😊!!
I wanna try these and hear what you're talking about!
CARBON!!!
hope they'll launch a dac/amp combo next
Me too!
I'm almost certain that the dragon tattoo is just an otg cable. It just transfers digital bits to the dac, and it's up to the dac to convert the signal. Otherwise, the tail would actually be adac in and of itself.
Cool video! Interested to hear how the rhodium sound like! And maybe swap out some better ear buds!
Tiny and awesome!
Time to get a his and hers pair!
Wish I had doge coin!!
Hello If im using tidal on samsung s22 Ultra, do i still need to get the app ?
I use some generic eBay $1 USB C to A cable for my Dragon Fly Red and it sounds as good on my Samsung Galaxy s21 as it does on my desktop. No need to pay $30 for the Dragontail which is just a ridiculously overpriced USB 2 cable.
How does Rhodium compare to Earman Sparrow?
Whats the best solution for an iPhone user ? Looking to be more portable
For portability you can’t beat Bluetooth but you’re risking quality. You won’t be able to play lossless. If you want wired then you’ll need the iPhone camera adapter so you can enjoy lossless. Hope this helps.
I have a hard time to believe that the USB C to USB A adapter cable for the dragonfly will have any impact on the sound quality. as the name DAC suggests the input is digital and the output is analog. since the adapter is put in-between the digital source and the DAC any influence would be on the digital signal only. an influence on the digital signal would most likely make the signal processing of the DAC going to fail at all not 'muffle' the analog signal. same goes for the power supply - the 2nd duty of that cable. Did I miss something?
You could just go read a few Amazon reviews from normal consumers (non-audiophiles). It certainly impacts the sound (in a bad way).
I have not tried the ridiculously overpriced Dragontail, I use a cheap $1 USB C to A cable from eBay and I seriously cannot tell the difference when using my Dragonfly Red on my phone from directly plugging in to a USB A port on my desktop. Makes no difference if I am using cheap earbuds or my Sennheiser HD6XX, phone and PC sound exactly the same when listening to the same FLAC file.
I have just played with a few different FLACs on both Windows and Android and I can 100% confirm that the unprocessed audio is being sent directly to the DAC. The colour of the logo changes on different bit rates. Anyone claiming that there is a difference should not be reviewing audio equipment, they are completely full of shit or do not know how to setup it up so the original bit sequence is being sent unprocessed directly to the DAC. This is with a cheap USB C to A cable. I haven't tried the official cable I would doubt Dragonfly are gimping their DACs when you use the official Dragontail cable.
I have the Be’s for around 4 years now.. Not a fan of the cables tbh..
yeah not the most robust, but never had them break on me.
If all you listen to is Spotify or MP3/cd quality you don't need this at all. Apple dongle will do just fine
Anyone who didn't understand anything, vote up this
No likes lol.. everybody understands English