Cyrus Soundkey or similar portable DAC

[griffin dai]

My Audio Technica M50x headphones arrived a few days ago (HUGE step up in sq to my old Sennheiser ear buds!!!) great sound, comfortable and very little sound leakage when they’re on my dome!

They’re used mainly with my iPhone X max and old iPad for movies, the plan was to get a dedicated music player like the Colorfly C4 (I’ve come close to pulling the trigger a couple times but somethings always cropped up, money gone elsewhere, plus it’s not a cheap toy) so was thinking about a more affordable upgrade and adding a small portable DAC instead.

I travel/commute a lot to work so it needs to be pretty small/light as it’ll be in my jacket pocket.

Has anyone used the Cyrus Soundkey with the iPhone & these headphones? Or anything similar sized to consider? Also looking at the Dragongfly, I think they come in 4 different options so not 100% what’s the best to go for here?

Thanks Dave

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

Good timing... Mine arrived yesterday.

Richersoundscare selling refurb open box examples at 39. 99.

I would demo first as the improvement over my cheapo Chinese dac (so I can still use wired phones) isn't night and day... In fact it's slight if I'm being honest.

I was going to get a mojo but will definitely bemo first now.

Can't help with apple.

ETA I use with grados.

[Mr_Yogi]

I've got a Pixel 2 (Android) I use with the Soundkey and I'm very happy with the sound quality through my Shure SE425s. It dose cause a bit more of a drain on the battery but not too much and the sound is so much better than the supplied cable/ dac (USB-C only phone).

I've also tried it with my PC and a sennheiser pc headset (PC360?) and it sounded great, much better than the onboard or the Logitech USB soundcard I have.

Also they are currently available for under £50 in Richer Sounds, absolute bloody bargain.

[griffin dai]

That’s a great price!! I’ll look into then a little more today and see how they compare to the dragonfly, but for £49 I’m really tempted to try one

[griffin dai]

Lots of YouTubing and its done!

I’ve gone for the black dragonfly

https://www.richersounds.com/audioquest-dragonfly-...

[mgv8]

I have not used a dragonfly but i know a lot of people who have and love them.

[seveb]

I use a Cyrus Soundkey at work and for the price and size, it's very good. Bit of a bargain.

I also have a Chord Mojo which is 4x the price and probably 6x the sound quality, it'll take your breath away if you partner it with very good headphones and source. It's easy to think it can't be that much better so you'll need to audition it.

[griffin dai]

I’ve seen a few reviews on the chord, looks really good but out of budget for me, also wanted something light/pocketable for work (hope I’ve chosen right here!) The Dragonfly & adapter should be here tomorrow can’t wait to try it.

Just trying to decide on a decent hq streaming service now....headache!!!

[dvshannow]

I use the chord Mojo with e846 IEMs

It’s as good as people say esp with tidal MQA you can stream to mojo in high res from tidal app on iPhone


Only problem is the cable is a pain the Apple camera connect cable just want to replace that with a lightning to micro usb for commuting but having problems finding one!

I’ve also used it with the audio technia headphones you mentioned it works well but the 846s really show good the mojo is for its price

[griffin dai]

My Draginfly arrived Friday, pretty good! Hardly any weight to it so not really noticeable out & about, the iPhone camera adapters a pain in the arse though!

SQ’s a decent step up, I think for the headphones I’ve got here it’s more than enough, definitely louder with this fitted, I’ll keep these for a while but will probbaly upgrade to a nice audiophile set this year when I’ve got the spare cash and maybe upgrade to a better DAC

Issue I’ve had now is the streaming service, I subd to the Qobuz 30 day trial, not a hell of a lot of Hi-Res content on there but enough for me, thousands of CD & 48Khz quality tracks though and these sound better than anything I’ve got on iTunes/Amazon Music.

The problem was Tidal, I subd to their 60 day trial hoping to try a few albums back to back and then pick one to keep but they billed me £25.99 straight away for the Hi-Fi sub and put me on the 60 day trial so I had 2 accounts running! A lot of emailing & eventually calling Apple and it’s been sorted now. I haven’t clicked back on Tidal incase it happens again, took most of Saturday up sorting this out!