![]() Punching up a playlist of Tidal Masters tracks, I first played Wilco's "Kamera." The sound had a muscular quality, with impressive drive and detail and clear separation of the instruments and vocals The same held true when I played "Guinnevere" by Crosby, Stills & Nash, with the song's three-part vocal harmonies sounding precisely layered, and acoustic and electric guitars maintaining a distinct presence in the mix. I used two different headphones: Sennheiser HD 598 over-ear and JVC HA-FW01 in-ear monitors. The result was Donglepalooza™, but it held together well and wasn't restricting for portable use. THX sent me an Apple Lightning-to-USB camera adapter, and I connected this between my iPhone and the Onyx using the USB type-A adapter. ![]() ![]() On the other end is a mini-jack output for head- phones, and the same connection supports microphone headsets.Īside from briefly plugging the Onyx into my Mac to confirm it could pass DSD and high-resolution PCM, most of my listening was via the Tidal iOS app. In the latter instance, you'll need to use Apple's Lightning-to-USB camera adapter, which allows for bit-perfect digital audio transfers from an iPhone or iPad. An included adapter allows for USB type-A hookups-a necessity for older computers and iOS devices. A flexible rubber cable at one end terminates in a USB type-C port for connecting a Mac, PC, or Android device. The slim Onyx's sturdy black metal case features the THX logo and a strip of LEDs that change color to indicate resolution of a connected playback source: 44.1/ 48kHz (blue), higher than 48kHz (yellow), DSD (red), and MQA render (pink). The company specs power output at 180mW and says the Onyx drives head- phone impedances from 22 to 600 Ohms-a range covering most cans you're likely to pair with it. A second chip holds the patented Achromatic Audio Amplifier, which, according to THX, uses feed-back and feed- forward error correction to reduce distortion and noise. Inside the Onyx is a ESS ES9281PRO DAC chip for digital- to-analog conversion. It also serves as an MQA renderer to "unfold" streamed or down- loaded MQA-encoded high-res music. While most other portable DAC/amps top out at 24-bit/96kHz decoding, the Onyx handles PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz plus DSD. Surprisingly, the company never released its own "THX" product, a situation that now changes with the arrival of the THX Onyx portable DAC/headphone amplifier. Home theater enthusiasts know THX for its certification program, an initiative responsible for the familiar logo emblazoned on all manner of gear for nearly three decades, along with the Deep Note trailer heard in certified movie theaters and on home video releases.
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