Audioengine D1 Unboxing and Comprehensive Review

[@mktreo]

I finished watching your entirely 21min review, thank you

[@baldmetalnerd]

Thanks for watching glad you enjoyed it.

[@ismalakas]

Great review! I was wondering what was going to happen when you have the toslink plugged in but inactive. It is good to know that you can plug both and it will only use the toslink when it has power.

[@baldmetalnerd]

Glad you liked it, yeah it's a useful and in my case essential feature.

[@dokanyon]

Hello mate. I just switched to the A5+ , coming from Edifiers Luna Eclipse. I was kinda disappointed because I didn't notice and difference in sound quality etc.. If I buy that thing you have there , the D1, you think I will notice any difference in sound quality?

[@baldmetalnerd]

Good question but honestly I would dial into the right pair of speakers before worrying about a DAC as they just somewhat enhance the sound rather than giving you a much different experience like different speakers do.

[@andy16666]

Could you please do a teardown and detailed list of ICs in this? I suspect it uses one of a handful of high-end DAC chips that I'm familiar with, high end opamps and boosted supply rails. I was considering the possibility of putting together my own DIY solution. But if my suspicions are correct, this thing probably has close to $100 worth of ICs in it, making the price point a bargain for a finished product. Thanks. :)

[@sawolaja65]

Thanks for the great review. I have one question. Does the toslink connect from the DAC straight to the monitor/TV and the HDMI cable from the DAC to the PC/HTPC? I don't have an analogue set up. Just the speakers from the TV which is then connected to my subwoofer and from there my 5 satellite speakers connect to the sub. Currently I'm getting only 2.0 sound distributed around the system. So not true 5.1 surround sound, using internal sound card of the PC/ HTPC. Want to by pass this internal sound card using the configuration described, to produce true 5.1 surround sound from the DAC. Will my Configuration work as described or will I have to connect red and white cables on the speaker L and R connection ports also to the TV?

[@baldmetalnerd]

Well there's no hdmi connection on the device at all. You can run the device in a few different ways, you can connect it via usb to your pc and use that connection for both power and audio input, you can plug in the usb cable and use it for power only and the toslink cable for audio input, or you can have the usb connection in a pc and the toslink hooked up to something else and if the toslink device is powered off the usb audio will play. But as soon as you turn on the toslink device it will take precdence over the usb device and to hear what's coming thru usb again you need to turn off the device hooked to toslink, there's no way to manually switch between the two inputs.

[@sawolaja65]

baldmetalnerd so I connect my HTPC to the DAC via USB provides power/audio. Then I connect DAC to TV and surround sound system using RCA cables? Sound now heard from system using DAC as sound card rather than sound card in HTPC? Forgot to mention TV has own internal amplifier powering intergrated 80w sound bar

[@baldmetalnerd]

Yes it will output audio to anything that accepts an rca input. That should be obvious from the review as well as the design of the unit.

[@sawolaja65]

baldmetalnerd thank you for your advice and answers to my questions, I completely understand how this device could work in my set up.

[@baldmetalnerd]

Excellent, I'm glad I could help.

[@DBoy176]

Do you recommend these now, if not what do you recommend for under 100?

[@baldmetalnerd]

I would still recommend this item, also for under 100 I'm pretty sure creative labs has some good solutions in that price range.

[@davidliddell5716]

What audio player software did you use on your pc

[@baldmetalnerd]

I use musicbee as my main music player, foobar for abxing and other tasks, and vlc when I want to play individual files

[@davidliddell5716]

baldmetalnerd so would vlc automatically play 192khz over optical out? Giving all my motherboard settings are set to 24 192

[@fatherlandchild2780]

IS IT AMP?

[@baldmetalnerd]

AMP IS YOU?

[@Icelake84]

Only a question. Can i connect this DAC to my cd player and to PC at the same time? How does it switch between those two sources? My Cd player has classic analog output (white and red) and a coaxial output, but no optical output

[@baldmetalnerd]

+The Spirit of AOR The unit only has 2 inputs USB and optical. It has no coax input on it. If you have a usb and optical unit hooked up at the same time the unit automatically gives the optical input priority when the optical source is turned on but as soon as you turn off the optical source the unit automatically switches back to the usb input. You can also use usb exclusively for power if you want by running a usb cord into one of those adapters that come with most mobile devices where you can plug in a usb cord to an ac adapter.

[@Icelake84]

+baldmetalnerd Thanks, man :) you're so kind. I'm seriously considering the Musical Fidelity V90 HPA also. It seems incredible! :)

[@baldmetalnerd]

+The Spirit of AOR No worries man I know details like that are important in deciding what to get. I mean how the unit functions is critical to how someone uses it. I don't know how the D1 stacks up to that other unit as I only have the D1. Good luck making the right decision!

[@Icelake84]

+baldmetalnerd Thanks man!

[@KoLjAx]

Incoherent. Waste of time.

[@baldmetalnerd]

Idiotic dumb comment. But thanks for interacting!