Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “THX Onyx – The Best Portable AMP/DAC Under $200”.
What’S up tech fans Chances are that if you listen to a lot of audio you’re, usually looking for a really nice solution that won’t break the bank and that’s what today’s video is all about., Let’s jump in and let’s check out the THX Onyx. Coming to market At $ 199 and offering a lot of features, this little thing is something to seriously consider. ( upbeat music ). Did you just build yourself, a brand new PC, or did you just upgrade your old PC but find you’re in need of a Windows? 10 key? If that’s the case, urcdkey has you covered and buying it’s never been easier.. All you do is go to urcdkey website find the Windows software that you want to buy.
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Have a valid Windows. 10 key to get your unit up and running. Set up is really really easy.. The device actually uses the power of whatever you plug it into whether it be your Mac, your PC, your phone, your laptop, pretty much anything that has a USB-C connection., You plug it in, and it uses the power from that device.. Now, unfortunately, for people who have an iPhone you’ll have to get an adapter, because the USB-C connection doesn’t match up with that, but that’s a pretty simple solution. For my Android it plugged right in, and I had amazing sound on the go.. This is truly a completely plug and play product with no drivers necessary to get you up and going.
Okay tech fans. Before we jump into the heart of the matter. I ask that you guys.
Please share this video on social media.. I ask that you like the video, if you like my style and if you’re, really cool with everything, hey please subscribe to the website and turn on that notifications bell so that you know I’m making videos. LucasArts has a long history in the audio field and THX. It’S a well-known name when it comes to the audio we have all heard and admired throughout.
All of the movies Lucas has made be it “, Indiana Jones, ,”, “, Star, Wars, ,” and others. They are no newcomers to this field. Personal audio. It’S come a long way in the past few decades and whether you are binge watching movies listening to music or playing games. Quality sound that does not cause listening. Fatigue has become a very sought after thing..
Now the box content, it’s pretty basic., You get the amp deck a USB-C standard, adapter some nomenclature about the product and even a free month, trial subscription to Tidal.. Now one thing of interest is the warning that clearly states this device is really loud., Something you don’t see every day in a product of this nature, and it’s a serious warning that we will talk a little bit more about in this review.. The THX Onyx is made of high grade plastic and the total length is six inches long.. All the components are housed in the slim plastic housing and the flexible cable is covered in durable rubber.
That makes it flexible, as well as keeping the core protected from sweat and the elements.. As far as the tech specs go, the Onyx uses THX’s AAA-78 Amplifier and an ESS ES9281PRO DAC.. This is the digital to analog converter. And as a point of reference, the ESS SABRE is the DAC using the amazing sounding Arcam SACD player that graces my desktop..
The specs in this bad boy are also excellent, offering 32 bit 384 kilohertz resolution.. Now. This is something that’s actually higher than the current high audio leader, Tidal that streams MQA, which is master quality, authenticated music at 24, bit 96 kilohertz, and it does this up to 118 decibels., The specs on the Onyx, even outshine the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt, a product that Costs more money, even than the Onyx does. AAA amplifiers stand apart from the pack due to their proprietary feed forward error correction technology, which is how they’re able to deliver their distortion free sound.. According to THX the distortion, the amp is removing, isn’t limited to static or other sounds that would necessarily stand out in normal listening either. Much of what’s being removed is quiet noise that reduces the detail in what you’re listening to and eventually leads to listening fatigue.. You guys know what I mean it’s when you listen to your headphones for a long time and your ears and head just start to hurt.. One thing I noticed right off to bat was how amazingly loud and robust the THX Onyx sounds. For an audio solution of this size. I have to say it’s pretty damn impressive. In comparison to other headphone amps that I have used. The sound stage is very well-defined and has a lot less ambient noise that is caused by all the other electronics in your computer and phone, which will eventually cause like. I said listening fatigue after long hours of use., The music production is crisp, clear and detailed, and whether you’re listening to it at low volume or at full blast, you get distortion, free quality sound across the board. Gaming. It was also pretty impressive with the detail level.
Better than the on-board sound on my Asus Maximus Hero Motherboard., The Onyx is a very powerful sound device and can power headphones up to 600 ohms., Although there aren’t many headphones that are at that range, it seemed to do very well with my 32 ohm headphones as Well, as a variety of others, from gaming to studio grade cans without a loss of power or audio quality., I listened to a variety of music tracks from SACD Direct Stream Digital to Tidal’s MQA. That also gets shown via LEDs on the Onyx that lets. You know what type of file you are listening to. In gaming, I was able to use my headphone mic without issue, and the reproduction of my voice was crystal clear and I even used it with a meeting with Nvidia using Discord without any issues whatsoever..
In conclusion, I have to say that I am very impressed with the THX Onyx. For a product: that’s $ 200. It offers a wide and wonderful sound stage., Whether it’s audio movies gaming. Everything is just crystal clear and I hate to use the term but crispy. It’S very nice listening.
And without a lot of background noise and stuff that you don’t really notice, you can listen to music and you can play games for a long time without actually having your ears start to show fatigue. Now something else that I did is. I have a Topping A90 and excuse me, I’m sorry, the Topping D90 excuse me, I’m confusing my headphone amp with my regular amp and I plugged this in and replaced it with my speakers. And honestly.
The only real difference that I could hear was a little bit of more crispiness in my D90 being that the highs were a little bit clearer, but that’s also an $ 800 product, and this unit was able to power those speakers without a problem. Whatever., I mean pretty impressive., Plus the fact that you can take this on the go with you wherever you’re at. If you have a set of decent headphones, you can take this with your phone and pretty much go anywhere around the world.. It fits right in your pocket.
You can carry it around.. I really like the fact that it lights up on the side and shows you what type of file you’re listening to so whatever different type of file that you’re listening to it’s going to show you that that’s what you’re listening to and I think that’s pretty cool.. So, at the end of the day I know some people might say: “ Wow. I could buy like a few games with that.” Yeah.
But honestly, the onboard sound on my Asus Maximus Hero was supposed to be really good. Sound. I mean it was quoted that it has great sound..
It’S all discrete everything else., But yet the sound on the THX Onyx is much nicer.. It has a much more detailed sound., It’s hard to put sound into words, because obviously sound is audio, that you’re hearing and they’re not really words that perfectly describe it. But let me put it to you this way., The bass was very clear.
It was never overwhelming.. The highs symbols and things like that. I could hear them all very nice and neatly and in fact I had the volume up to about 70 to 75 % and it was really loud..
In fact, I mean it’s kinda, crazy. It even comes, like I told you guys earlier it comes with a warning that says, look out this bad boy is loud And it does get really really loud. For a product.
That’S so small and I feel relatively you know, inexpensive. It’S a really good overall solution.. If you get a chance to try one, you can even buy one and you can always return it to Amazon.
But I think that once you listen to this and you see that you’re able to take it with you, wherever you go and honestly it’ll replace a lot of different things., You can go onto your computer, you can listen to it. You can take it in your laptop., You can take it on your phone.. So not only is the quality of the audio really really nice, you can take it wherever you go and, like I said, Tidal right now is pretty much like one of the absolute best streaming services that you get., 24 bit 96 kilohertz sound.
You have MQA a lot of people, don’t have that. Like I listen to a lot of different type of music.. I listen to SACDs, I listen to SHM Platinum, I’m into audio and MQA is really supposed to be the best in that there is and the features on this are better than that. 32 bit come on. This is even better standard than what you can get, which I feel is kind of future proof.. So that’s my take on the THX Onyx.
I’ll have a link down below.. You guys should check out other reviews of this product. And if you get a chance, you should seriously listen to it because it will power headphones all the way up to 600 ohms.. I know there’s not very many headphones out there, but some people do have them..
Most of the good headphones that I test were around the 32 ohm range., So I mean I was pretty impressed and I used a lot of different stuff.. I use Shure Headphones. I use Ultrasone sorry trying to remember everything all. At the same time, I tried some Sennheiser Headphones, a wide variety. I use gaming headphones., Like I said, I was able to use Discord with a meeting with Nvidia. They said everything sounded completely clear through the microphone and these were really honestly $ 49 Mpow Headphones and everything sounded clear.. So that’s my take peace out. The links will be below..
We’Ll see you guys back here on Tech of Tomorrow for more tech. ( tongue, clicking ), (, upbeat music, ) .