Eagle - USB DAC/Headphone Amp - Sabre ESS 32Bit/384kHz

Really impressed with this tiny little DAC! I've had a couple of Far East built DACs from iBasso and the like, and they have always left me feeling frustrated by shortcomings and concerns of durability. The Eagle causes none of those thoughts. The typically solid USB A plug means you have a USB cable that can be replaced if it ever wore out, and no socket on the DAC to fail. The cable is of high quality, and the unit itself is aesthetically brilliant to look at. The sound is so rich and detailed, night and day with a regular PC/Phone soundcard (provided you have decent headphones!). But, perhaps more interestingly, compared to the numerous cheaper DACs I've had, and again most recently the iBasso DC-05, I find myself not wanting to use any kind of EQ with this DAC. It sounds perfect out the box, and EQ settings I've used with other DACs sound too harsh/too muddy/too scooped etc. Again, YMMV depending on the headphones you use, but with my favourite Austrian Audio set, its just a joy to use. Take-away? You get what you pay for. This little thing is in a different league to all the sub £100 units you'll find on here. And I honestly don't know what I'd get if I spent more. Oh, and it has a glowing green head on it. Nice.

This is by far the best-sounding DAC I have found, I compare it to Fiio's new k3 and Cyrus Soundkey. Eagle sounds better than either of them. Works really well with my Shure se535, se215 and Phillips x2hr

Cable not reliable but eagle very very good,returned item but reordered as eagle is so good,hopefully include cable is better this time

Brilliant sound quality from this DAC, I use it with PC, Mac and my iPhone using the standard Apple camera usb connector - just plug it in and around 10 seconds later it’s working. Nice and small, no external power required, goes plenty loud enough (not crazy loud but that’s probably a good thing for your hearing). Update: having now heard one or two other sub £100 headphone DACs, I can tell you that this one has sound quality way above its price bracket. I suspect you would have to pay many hundreds of pounds to get a DAC with noticeably better sound than this. Also worth noting that it will drain your phone battery quicker than a cheap little adapter - that quality sound takes power - so if you want to listen all day on your phone you’ll want a power bank or have your phone plugged in.

the quality is amazing and does work well with windows 10, android devices, and ipad's however make sure to purchase the oficial apple usb 3 camera adaper lead not cheaper usb adpter lead by apple as their is a big quality difference, i purchased buth to see it sounds more like live sound than the sound without the dac a less compact and more natural sound, way better than i hoped

I was looking forward to this based on what I had read. However, the USB cable was defective. Out the box it was kinked in a number of places. I tried with an iFi cable and it worked perfectly. That said, the USB cable was the main reason I chose it over one of its competition.

Very good sounding dac, compact and powerful. Recommended to use with apple lighting to usb adaptor amd avoid any MFI or other adapter otherwise the dac will drain your battery because of the poor battery management chips.

Just works and great sound

Fantastic affordable, high build quality and high performance tiny DAC amp! Works surprisingly well with my Sennheiser HD 600's, iconic 300-Ohm (higher) impedance open-back reference headphones with 105 dB/V SPL sensitivity and my AKG K702, also iconic open-back reference headphones, but with 62-Ohm (lower) impedance and slightly lower sensitivity at 103 dB/V SPL. Admittedly, the HD 600's and K702's are reported by several reliable experts to be more suitably matched with more powerful DAC amps, including this Eagle's more powerful and highly-regarded big brother in the same EarMen product line, the EarMen Sparrow or higher. Many knowledgable reviewers, including Lachlan Fennen of "Passion for Sound" on YouTube note the properly-matched (higher vs. lower) headphone impedence and sensitivity factors as an important consideration to choosing which EarMen or other brand DAC amp to buy and most easily drive your IEM or over-ear headphones to their very best performance without losing sound quality. I bought this very capable widely-praised portable EarMen Eagle DAC amp with fingers crossed on a budget-driven plan to get higher-end or premium quality sound playing music via my smartphone as the transmitting source. Very importantly, my smartphone is a new Motorola "Moto G Stylus 5G (2022)." My Moto has a huge 5000 mWh lithium battery, a 3.5mm single-ended stereo headphone jack, a USB C charging/date port, and apparently some kind of Motorola audio secret sauce that helps it just match with and sufficiently drive my described headphones, but only to moderate and conservative listening volumes. I personally prefer listening at no louder than 80 or 85 decibels on average with peaks at no more than 105 or so on average. I do not want to blow out my ears by playing music too loudly over short or long periods of time. I have a new pair of iconic and well-regarded AKG K702 open-back reference headphones with a lower 62 Ohms impedance to compliment my beautiful sounding 300-Ohm HD 600's. The K702's have slightly lower sensitivity, but like the HD 600's, this EarMen Eagle just manages to drive the K702's very well for my described listening habits. I have to tweak the phone's volume level one step higher for the K702's than for the HD 600's to get to the same listening volumes. On the HD 600's, I get really great sound at my preferred lower to upper moderate volume listening level (not too very loud) with my phone volume set between 8 min and 11 max, with 15 being the maximum possible volume setting on the Moto phone. The K702's range for its best sound at my preferred listening volume levels requires me to set the Moto's volume setting between 9 and 12 out of 15 max phone volume level. I am surprised and excited about purchasing the EarMen Eagle. It reveals noticeably higher-end premium and very pleasing sound when I am listening to music from my Moto G Stylus 5G (2022) using the Eagle with either my HD 600's or my K702's. The EarMen Eagle does manage to deliver a very good amount of its sonic magic to the sound, separation, and soundstage for my listening tastes. Remember, though, that I am not playing music to very loud listening levels, and my volume settings on my Moto G Stylus 5G (2022) must be set at 8 to 11 out of 15 max available (for HD 600's) or 9 to 12 out of 15 (for the K702's) before it gets to my optimum moderate listening volume level. I almost ran out of room to keep turning the phone volume setting up higher than I did. The volume at the maximum phone setting of 15, though too loud for me for more than a few seconds, might not be loud enough or have enough headroom for you, if you have the HD 600, AKG K702, or headphones with similar DAC amp requirements. If you like your preferred listening very loud with headphones like mine, you may want to upgrade to the EarMen Sparrow or another DAC amp with higher power output. As for me, though, the EarMen Eagle sounds perfect with my other audio equipment and represents my best bang-for-the-buck audio gadget investment in many years. The amazing high-fidelity sounds, silence, soundstage, instrument placements, space, intimate richness, and nuances that this tiny device extracts and sorts out of digital music coming from my smartphone are simply grand and gorgeous. Old familiar songs I have heard hundreds of times sound new and improved, more like in-the-same-room or recording studio, or a concert stage right in front of you. Music just sounds much better in many noticable ways. You just have to hear this to appreciate the difference this Eagle DAC amp can bring to your listening experiences. I hope this is helpful.

I don't write many reviews unless I think I can really make a difference. I needed a portable DAC to use with my iphone 12 . (just needed a bit more juice and maybe some clearer vocals / trebles and not overwhelming BASS. I previous used my iphone with just the AirPods Pro (which was fine). But I own a pair of Wired Sennheiser HD 599 (50 Ohm) and Wired Sennheiser HD 25 (70 Ohm). I was thinking about getting an over ear bluetooth headphones but why not try what I have first ? just need a DAC to help power them. Let me tell u ... i can't believe how well this DAC performed. I music of choice is EDM (Alesso / Martin Garrix). I wanted this DAC to amp the vol a bit with out any distortion, and without the BASS drowning out everything else , i basically didn't wan't it to mess with the original source. I don't like EQ's etc. I don't want the the source messed with. This DAC did exactly that. Not only did it not mess with the music, it made it sound louder and more clear. It powered both headphones perfectly !! The HD 25 sounded amazing !!! I"m not gonna get into the Dargonfly Red, but it destroyed that thing for $70 less. I'd recommend this to power headphones up to 70 ohms impedance. The DAC EarMen Eagle was one of the best purchases i've ever made from this site (top 3). Highly recommend. It was hard to find reviews but one on youtube compared it to the dragonfly red and I came to the exact same conclusion as the the producer of that video. This is the portable DAC to get if u just want to use them with some mid tier wired headphones ($150-$200). Cheers

I use a chromebook and streaming as one source for an Elekit tube amp feeding into custom full range speakers. I was using the headphone jack and the music just felt flat as compared to other sources. As soon as I plugged in the Earmen Eagle DAC, it instantly changed. The music was slightly louder (which isn't a big deal, per se since you can use the volume knob). What really changed were the plucks of a guitar, the feeling of a bow across the strings, and the sound stage. The sound stage is something that I've always struggled to find with equipment. With this DAC, I immediately could here where the singer was as compared to the drums and the bass player, etc etc. It was amazing. I popped the DAC out, plugged the mic input back directly into the laptop, and it all disappeared. The reason I went with the Eagle is because of cost and input source. I don't think that I'd tell the difference between this and any other DAC over $100 while using a chromebook and non- HiFi sources. Zero regrets.

Works without any user intervention under IoS. True plug and play. Requires a USB to Lightning adaptor for iPhone. I purchased a rigid adapter because it was compact. Bad choice. The weight of the DAC and the very firm connection to the adapter causes intermittent connection problems as the Lightning connector is not sufficiently secure. An adapter with a short cord between each connector solves the problem.

I wanted a DAC for playing hi-res audio on my phone. I had read many good reviews of the AQ Dragonfly, but after finding out that it’s limited to 24/96 I started searching for something with the same form factor but with the ability to play hi-res files that I already owned in 24/192. The choices were limited so I took a chance on the Eagle. So glad I did. So far it’s sounded great with all the headphones I’ve thrown at it, HD600’s, Grado 80e and 225x, FitEar CIEMs, Ety/ACS ER4S and more. I do think their naming convention is a bit odd, you’d think Eagle would be the top of the line, but somehow the Sparrow holds that honor. I actually overlooked the Sparrow, thinking it was a lower end product, just based on the name. As an audiophile and birder, the names just don’t make sense. The build on this thing is top notch, glass and aluminum at this price? Made in Europe and not China, again it’s Amazing. I do wish there were more LED color options to show the resolution of the file you’re playing, but nowadays there are so many different types of files that it can decode they probably don’t have enough colors in the rainbow.