Fosi Audio DS1 Review

                                                                                                                              

The DS1 from Fosi Audio is a budget entry-level Dongle Dac/Amp, it sells for 99€ in Europe.

It is well build, casing is full metal it is equipped with Single Ended 3.5mm & 4.4 Pentaconn Balanced jacks and 2 buttons for volume control. There is no gain setting on the device.

On the accessory side you get usb-c to usb-c cable, a usb-c to usb-a adaptor an a user manual.

 

  3.5 mm SE & 4.4 mm BAL outputs

 

It has a power rating of 240mW into a 32Ohm load on the BAL output with THD of 0.001% and a signal to noise ratio of 120db on the 3.5 mm SE output it offers 120 mW into 32Ohm.

The Dac-chip inside of the DS1 is an ESS9038Q2M supporting sampling rates up to DSD512 and 32bit/768khz PCM, there is no MQA support. There is an LED light that changes colour depending on the sample rates.

 

                                                                                                           The DS1 dongle with all accessories

 

It’s time for an update on the the Fosi Audio DS1, i have been playing around and testing it for 2 weeks connected to my surface via USB-C cable and to my Iphone via 3rd party USB-C to lightning cable and i must say that i’m very surprised with it’s performance, i didn’t have big expectations when ordering it, i mean for a price under 100€ what can be expected? Well….. it sounds great and drives all my headphones and IEM’s with ease to very high listening levels, it sounds very clean & detailed, i couldn’t detect any background noise with IEM’s. The bass is very good too with good dynamics. Definitely a big step up against the basic headphone output of a laptop or a phone (Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter Iphone).

How does it compare to other dongles i have on hand? It comes close to the performance of a Fiio BTR7 which is more expensive (priced at 220€") this one is also more versatile, it has a screen, bluetooth capabilities, has a battery while the DS1 is drawing the energy from the device it is connected to. Overall the Fiio is the slightly better performer.

 

Final Word: I think the DS1 is a bargain, it’s an ideal starting point for newcomers to the hobby, it is very compact, easy to use and is very powerful.

 

Used listening components:

Drop/Sennheiser HD-6xx (SE)

Hifiman Sundara Closed (BAL)

Fiio FT3 (SE & BAL)

DCA Ether C-Flow (SE & BAL)

Linsoul TIN P1 (BAL)

Moondrop Blessing 2 (SE)

Kinera Idun Golden (BAL)

Hart Modular Audio Cables