The driving power is enough for pretty much any portable IEM, and even for some headphones, including Brainwavz Alara, which is impressive, to say the least. At the end of this review, if you're looking for a clean, clear, powerful, crisp, dynamic and punchy DAC/AMP that has a good amount of speed to its bass, can drive most IEMs and even a good number of headphones, and which is pretty practical, you should totally consider the Cyrus Soundkey. It’s likely no surprise to anyone who has heard of the Questyle M15 to see it top our ‘best-of’ list for this year. Liquid gold describes the M15 aptly, with musicality meeting technicality. If combined with Cyrus’s unique MC-BUS communication system, the iR14 becomes the hub of your system, controlling everything with a few button presses. You can easily switch between controlling your hi-fi, TV and Satellite at the press of a button and the responsive remote control even shows you which item you’re currently in control of.

Cyrus Soundkey vs FiiO K3 - Starting with FiiO K3, they are pretty different devices. The thing that is interesting here is that K3 is a desktop device only, and drains a portable way too fast to be practical as a portable DAC/AMP, and its physical size and shape makes it even less ergonomic for portability. In terms of sound, when placing them side by side, the Soundkey sounds more bright, more open, more airy, where K3 sounds more hot and a bit metallic in the treble. Both have good details and similar size for their soundstage, and both are pretty clearly good products, but they are intended for different usages, but, this being said, you can use the Soundkey both for portable and desktop usage, while K3 is only for desktop. Set up is pretty straight forward, as all we have here is a 3.5mm headphone output and a micro USB connection. If you use anything other than an Apple product it couldn’t be easier. Plug the mini USB into your phone or tablet and attach the headphones. However if you use iPhone or and iPad, you’re going to need to buy a separate Apple camera kit to make this all work. This does add some additional bulk and wires to the process, but the DACs small stature does aid this a bit. You can also use the soundKey with your laptop via the USB connection so if that’s your thing, you’re more than covered.

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It’s affordable, compact and high-performance – only iOS-fanciers, with their convoluted method of attachment, will be less than all-around thrilled by the difference it can make to mobile listening pleasure.

There’s plenty of power on hand for most headphones (160mW SE, 320mW balanced), and the FiiO Control application allows for even more output power using the “Boost BAL” mode. But let’s get the hard truths out the way first. This small device is not meant to drive large headphones. It will do the job somewhat, but you’ll have to turn the volume up to the brink of its amplification capabilities and the results are not always pleasing. If the FiiO sounded better, then we’d be more than happy with the extra bulk and could easily see the Q1 Mark II carving out a nice little niche for the discerning iPhone user. Right now, however, we can’t quite see its place.Switching to Hifiman HE-400i was less satisfying. Bass performance was not there. And at high volumes I thought the highs got a bit distorted. Like most iFi products, the GO bar supports most technical standards, 32-bit/384kHz, DSD 256​, and full MQA decoding. Additionally, it features both single-ended and balanced outputs.

Those curious about resistor ladder DACs will take note of the affordable Cayin RU6. The RU6 is Cayin’s first foray into the dongle USB DAC/amp market, and they’ve created something new with a 24-bit discrete R-2R DAC circuit, balancing low power consumption with high-quality audio. Amir, I work as a designer with caraudio and pro-audio customers 12 years, and this industry uses another approach to measure Amps. Once the chorus comes in, the soundKey gives you a vast, open space for the vocal (and the rest of the midrange) to fill. By comparison, the Q1 Mark II is foggier and smaller-scale. We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!The AK HC3 is Astell & Kern’s latest portable headphone amp/DAC dongle device – and thanks to a combination of wide-ranging compatibility and deft audio quality, it’s well worth a spot in our list of best DACs. The sound can be described as neutral, slightly bright, clear, clean, fun, well extended, detailed and slightly analytical. Overall, the driving power is also pretty good, and so are the dynamics, making the Soundkey a very impressive DAC/AMP in terms of sonics. We switch to Mahler’s Symphony No.4 and the iFi responds with a spacious and composed rendition. It’s a little smooth tonally, but that just serves to make it less critical of recording and source quality – an important consideration with a product such as this. The midrange is generally very clean, clear, well textured, and a bit on the analytical side. The soundstage of the Soundkey is wider than it is deep, but it has a really good width for the 150 USD price range. There is a good amount of texture, so instruments that are textury, like trumpets, really shine with it. The upper midrange is not enhanced in a special way, so you don't get a hot or metallic tinge with your music.

It also boasts a dual high-density battery customized power system designed to separate digital and analog power to eliminate digital circuit noise from the source. The Chord Mojo 2 is the long-awaited follow-up to one of our all-time favorite portable DAC/amps. It sports a similar unusual design as the original, but this time, the three large iconic colored marbles are replaced with four smaller spherical buttons. The treble is clean and very nicely extended, with a lot of air between the instruments. This is actually what impressed me the most about the SoundKey, most DAC/AMPs that are uber portable, especially in this price range, tend to have a rolled off or smooth top end, but the sound key doesn’t it has a really nice amount of bite and sparkle, making it a really good fit with metal music. The main body of the DAC is 59 x 18 x 11mm (WDH) and connects to the USB-C plug housing via 50mm of braided, flexible cable. This is a clever configuration because it means the HC3 has a male USB-C connection and doesn’t need an additional cable to connect to the output of your source player. And the digital signal travels through a length of noise-shielded cable before it’s processed.

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There’s a pair of LEDs, one on either side of the volume dial, that indicate the sampling rate and type of file. They’re not particularly informative, as they don’t differentiate between the most common PCM file types. For example, 44.1kHz and 96kHz files are both represented by the same green light. Equally, everything from 176.4 to 384kHz files is indicated by yellow. Even the DSD files are lumped together without much thought. iFi needs to do better here. Cyrus Soundkey vs Audirect Beam - I noted in my review that the Beam is a bit on the smoothly textured yet bright in signature. Since both are DAC/AMPs, the only thing I want to mention about the differences in build quality between the Cyris soundkey and the Beam is that the Beam gets MUCH hotter during actual usage, and that the Beam is smaller physically, and has a volume / song change knob, which may be good, or bad, depending on whether you assume you'll be using that. In terms of sound, the soundkey feels like an upgrade from the beam, with more textures, more resolution, more details and clarity, and with more impact. The Soundkey is also almost 50% more expensive though.