Since I’ve gotten the OnePlus 6T, I’ve had to cope with my decision and there has been one more thing I’ve had to keep track of since day 1 of owning this phone. THE DONGLE. If you have a more recent phone, chances are that you are also in the same situation. You have to keep track of one more thing for your phone, which is the audio dongle for converting your audio from the USB-C which is also used to charge your phone. There are a few outstanding reasons why I had to switch to the OnePlus 6T, which is mainly that my previous phone, the Samsung Galaxy S7, bought used, had a battery that quickly deteriorated, and I couldn’t go a day without charging it twice or more. An opportunity came where there was a trade-in special for a new phone and this Oneplus 6T was included, and it brought the price down quite dramatically. So, I took the chance and got it. I knew going into it that I was going to have to live without the headphone jack so made sure to always have the dongle provided where necessary that I plug into a headphone jack. That happened to be my car, which doesn’t have Bluetooth handsfree features. So, I’ve recently realized that I wanted use my phone as a wired application whenever the battery on my headphones run out or if I wanted quality audio at home. The problem is that the quality audio isn’t quality as the dongle is a cheap one with what seems like a flimsy cable to the headphone jack. It was also troublesome to remember to bring it with me in the car and back. Therefore, I looked online and found this Audiolab P-DAC, a portable DAC what uses the USB-C port to power itself and the amplifier included. This dongle is larger than the usual dongle you’ll find from the phone’s manufacturer, but if you know enough, this contains a DAC so the added size is somewhat necessary.
If you have remotely considered getting yourself one, I know what you might be thinking. There are smaller DAC headphone amplifiers out there, right? Yes, but in my case size wasn’t an issue and really, I got it because it said in the specifications that the DAC inside is of the Sabre brand. Before I tell you about this purchase, let me explain that Sabre makes good DACs and is a reputable brand that even my dad knows about. The dongle DACs from the other brands that I’ve found were from brands that I’ve never heard of. Besides that, This was the cheaper of the two that used Sabre DACs and I’ve found and took a chance a purchased it. The box itself contains what seems like a sleeve for the DAC when you carry it around, and I found that looking at it, the size isn’t actually too big and it’s a nice size to carry around. I’ve probably ranted along enough, and I don’t want to give away too much in initial impressions before the actual review so I’ll stop here. I’m just letting you guys know that I’ve had to improvise and adapt while using this phone with its features, and this is another purchase towards more quality listening. I’ll also be looking more into this DAC as well, so stay tuned for the review! Until then, stay in pursuit of better audio!
HIFI Sound Enthusiast 