![]() ![]() The Onyx is the first consumer product to be manufactured by THX. The THX Onyx is a powerful portable digital-to-analog (DAC) amplifier equipped with THX AAA™ technology, to ensure the highest fidelity mobile listening experience for music, games, and movies. It is selling for $199.99 and you can buy it from here THX never asked for a favorable review and as always this is my honest and subjective evaluation of it. The THX Onyx was kindly provided by THX and doesn't need to be returned. The first consumer product directly from THX. So it was with great anticipation that I found out about the THX Onyx earlier this year. I later had the chance to extensively use the Benchmark HPA4 headphone amplifier which uses THX AAA technology and the HPA4 remains one of my all time favorite solid state headphone amplifiers, regardless of price. ![]() I distinctly remember hearing the first prototype THX AAA headphone amplifier at CES several years ago and it was one of my personal highlights of the show that year. More recently, THX developed its AAA (Achromatic Audio Amplifier) technology for use in headphone audio products with a stated goal of providing the highest fidelity audio with extremely low levels of noise, distortion, and power consumption. THX certification became known as the gold standard in the audio/visual industry. THX became known for developing high fidelity audio/visual reproduction standards for movie theaters, with the goal of helping filmmakers translate their work to the big screen in the best way possible. A legendary company founded in 1983 by George Lucas. I can recommend the Ztella, the combination of a very small for factor, not high power consumption, audio quality and features is really good.Īs for the DC01, it can have some background hiss with certain ear/headphones and is a bit larger, still really good, a lot cheaper and with a balanced output.THX. I think what makes the Ztella so addictive to listen to is its 3D sounding soundstage, coupled with the smooth treble and strong sub-bass. I used a FiiO adapter to connect the balanced earphone cable to the single-ended connector of the Ztella.īoth DAC/Amp cables have good audio quality. Detail is better on the Ztella.Though interestingly a trumpet sound on Coming out by Diana Ross was more full/warm and textured sounding.Ĭomparing the two was a bit of a hassle, as UAPP can't handle swapping DACs and has to be restarted every time. The Ztella has a bit better instrument separation and a fuller, sweeter sounding spectrum. Treble on the DC01 is a bit more bright and harsh, vocals are more forward, which might also be because of its shallow soundstage (it is wide though). ![]() The Ztella has stronger/deeper sub-bass, while the DC01 seems to have a bit stronger regular bass. The most apparent difference is that the soundstage of the Ztella is holophonic sounding, like a circle, while that of the DC01 is like a straight line from left to right. Keep in mind that this means the DC01 is unable to unfold the tracks to higher playback frequencies and the Ztella will also prepare the audio for better digital to analog conversion. This is using MQA tracks, with some random tracks from the Tidal MQA party playlist. Here are some first comparison impressions between the Ztella and the DC01, using my **** earphones. ![]()
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