Conexant (CX-Pro) CX31993 USB-C Amp/DAC Review – Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
Conexant (CX-Pro) cx31993: $13 (!) dongle caught my eye after reading some effusive praise on the Head-fi forums. It arrived from China six days after I ordered it on Ali (faster, I note than most of my USPS mail) in a nifty little Altoids-type case with a USB-A adapter.
The dongle itself seems well-made and is quite a purty thing, with silver wire and nicely-engraved connectors. The cx31993 is strictly plug and play (no drivers needed) and its advertised 96/384kHz sampling is legit. It runs cool and doesn’t hog a lot of battery.
The cx31993 presents a lean, neutral-to-slightly-bright tonality without audible coloration or grain; background is very quiet and presentation is open and airy. Connected to my LG V50, the cx31993 paired well with my more efficient IEMs, noticeably improving the resolution and placing more space between the performers.
Combining it with the $5 KZ EDR1 was sublime. The cx31993 was also a big improvement over the flat, colorless stock soundcards in my Kindle Fire and Dell laptop.
However, it became readily apparent that the 31993 lacks the output power to effectively drive less efficient buds and cans (such as 150 Ohm Beyerdynamics); it particularly struggled to control the low end on more challenging loads.
Even the Blon A8 whose 32 Ohm impedance doesn’t seem daunting, seemed to lose composure and sounded somewhat flabby and bass-shy when paired with the 31993.
Unless you’re really budget-impaired, the $23 Meze Master HiFi is the better buy, with more power and overall presence, although I actually thought the cx31993 was a tad cleaner and more transparent (though less energetic) than the $42 Tempotec Sonata HD.
This isn’t the megacheap miracle its proponents claim and probably won’t work as your daily driver. It is, however, a useful upgrade on to PCs and other devices and ultimately earns a place in my ever-expanding collection of dongles
Non-disclaimer: bought it myself
how is it compared to V50’s Quad Dac?
It’s pairing dependent… With certain high sensitivity iems the cx pro is more revealing and faster. Overall tho the v50 has better bass control but is less detailed
I wonder if this works well with UGREEN USB 3.0 to Type-C adapter?
If it fits, yes!
i recently bought ios lighting version of this, and compared to the apple dac converter, it feels more airy and transparent with bit more separation in instrument, but agreed the bass kinda lack and this one doesn’t have good power like apple. they both struggle drive my sennheiser hd 25. tested with apple music hi res lossless.
have you compared them too? i would like to hear.
No, sorry, the author is not on WordPress…and I have not.
how is it different from abigail