Been watching your stuff for a hot minute now. Awesome you are taking advice from folks on here. Real superstars on hifiš„. Like how you are changing the ways youāre doing your rankings. Respect brother,Happy thanksgivingš
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Working on a review of the Muse M4 Bluetooth dac amp. If anyone has any questions or things that I should or shouldnāt cover, I would welcome it.
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Looks like a smaller Questyle CMA 18 portable.
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Yeah, itās cool. It has good power and is pretty. Sounds transparent to me. No complaints. It switches color from Red to Blue depending on the gain setting as well.
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Were you able to demo the Questyle at CanJam SoCal @Jaytiss
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I was actually eyeing this thing recently to possibly replace my broken BTR7. By chance have you gotten the opportunity to try the FiiO?
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I wasnāt able to demo that amp dac at CanJam, so have no comparison for that. The queststyle cma18 does look interesting although!
Yes, I have tried the Fiio BTR7. I think this is competitive against it, and it is cheaper in price. (200 vs 130), and it looks better overall. The Fiio can come with a nice case and some EQ setting for you, and they have the BTR15 the new amp dac that seems like a good choice as well. I think this is a solid choice so far, but has no app that I know of. I only have my Quidelix 5k on hand to compare it to. Itās a lot more powerful than the q 5k which is nice.
Do you need a case clip like this?
Issue is if you need a dongle dac with a clip, Quidelix 5k has one build in for 110 with EQ, so thatās hard to beat. I think the major advantage of this device is the design and the 3.5, 4.4, and 2.5 outputs. I could be wrong, but Iām struggling to find anything that makes this insane, but a great value none the less.
I was going to ask about weight, and clip situation. With a BT receiver if it canāt be clipped and stay upright when clipped, itās dead to me and I might as well be faffing about with a dongle. The Q5K nails this.
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Only advantage i see it over the other Fiio and Qudelix, both with PEQ is that this M4 has all 3 outputs. But that advantage can in some cases be pointless if you are only using 3.5mm and 4.4mm as you will then have the BTR15 as an option and that has PEQā¦
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This and itās so good looking and measures well. I think that is the appeal. Versatile, pretty, and powerful for a reasonable price but nothing that makes it stand out too strongly.
No output impedance is specified though, that is one area it should beat the fiio in as fiio tends to have 1/2ohm OI.
I have a cheap and simple measuring setup for both OI and unloaded voltage measurements coming if it works like i want it to I will make a guide on it. (costs should be less than 30 usd in total, where 95% of the cost is because you need a multimeter.)
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I would love to hear more about this.
The BTR7 is a fantastic device, donāt get me wrong. The PEQ works fairly well, although itās missing a whole bunch of software features.
The BTR7 also has a rather high output impedance of I think around 4 Ohms out of the balanced output. Now for myself personally, I like that it has this high output impedance because it compliments my desktop stack well. The topping only has a 0.1 Ī© output impedance. It just allows me to have different flavors of sound depending on what Iām in the mood for.
The BTR15 looks to be a great little device with the same output power as the BTR7 in a smaller package + it seems to have the same PEQ function as the 7 as well.
The Q5K is a great piece of kit with superior software but the lack of 4.4mm means itās not for me, unfortunately.
Well, thanks for the words anyways, brother. I appreciate you.
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Keep your eye on my thread then.
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@Jaytiss Can you test if the Muse Hifi M4 can be used with your phone without BT? Just connected like a regular portable dac/amp.
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I canāt actually, I only have an iphone 13 pro max.
Damn it. Go Android, screw Appleā¦
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Here is a review of the M4.
This is a strong product that Iām happy to test and review. I like Bluetooth Dongle Dacs and Iām glad to review this one. This was a sample sent out by Hifigo. Itās a good product but not perfect, yet I really enjoy it and listen to it daily. I was on a personal kick about a year ago testing and trying multiple Bluetooth dongle dacs, before finally settling on the Quidelix 5k. But the Quidelix 5k has problems.
The Muse M4 has a similar design language of the Queststyle products. Yet this price is very affordable to those who donāt value the high cost of those products. Yes, this does give me reminisent of āWe have that at home memesā but I think itās important to note that scources can be a huge cost of money. We can spend a great deal on them when they donāt provide a major sonic impact in many cases. While for some a 600 price for the new CMA 18 might be very expensive, the question we must ask ourselves is this is good value not if it better than a product that is in a much higher class.
The Quidelix 5k is my other Bluetooth dongle dac that I use and enjoy. Itās small, lacks power, and its app can be a bit finicky in that there are a lot of choices. EQ while a powerful tool, can be problematic as if you forget to turn it off or on it can cause issues, as well as the case use for it. Generally, I only do a little bit of EQ for my iem testing, as I feel there is no need to EQ, and if I EQ I only EQ on the Go. So when I take my Quidelix on the go to meets, I just want power, clarity, and transparency, and this device delivers on everything. I feel for those who want a portable device for a reasonable price that is also beautiful, this could be a great choice for you despite some minor flaws.
You can buy it here:
Hifigo Web :- https://hifigo.com/products/muse-hifi-m4
Amazon USA :- https://www.amazon.com/HiFiGo-M4-Headphone-ES9038Q2M-Amplifiers/dp/B0CLRPTP71
Minor Flaws
It has some minor issues. It doesnāt come with a USB C to USB C cable, or have a lighting cable. It could use a cheap case as well. These are minor packaging issues, but important as for some 130 dollars is not a cheap amount. It is also a fingerprint magnet, and I feel that if one were to get this device I would recommend not taking off the protective cover as it might be good to help protect the device a bit.
Drivability and Power
As far as how did it perform with my devices? Very well. Not a single device had issues being driven by this Bluetooth dongle dac. My iems had no noise and it was a pleasure. I find myself listening to my Gizaudio x Binary Chopins a lot and they sound well on that set.
In my YouTube video, I do a short sound test of the device itself if anyone wants to hear it. It powers everything fine, with plenty of headroom.
Subjective Sound:
I currently own a lot of amps and dacs for different reasons as I have three desks all with different operating systems and issues. I own an iBasso DC04 pro that I enjoy a great deal, a few apple dongles, a Moondrop Dawn Pro and have tried other products as well. I enjoy the Muse M4 an find it to be clear like glass from a sonic perspective. Itās fully beautiful, and itās sound reflects that.
I find this device to be transparent and clean. I think it is power and no audible noise while connected to Bluetooth to my phone. Even hard-to-drive iems and Planar headphones sound good and supported on the device. No major faults with it.
I think dac/amps are generally transparent. But as far as my enjoyment of this iem, I find it better than my Quidelix 5k and able to power my devices a bit better. Itās hard for me to give long audiofile reviews of amps as I feel most of sound is related to Sinad, power, and noise from the source. This device sounds great over Bluetooth, an on most of my computers sounded great, but I did have some issues on my Windows 10 PC that is generally noisy. I did report this to Hifigo. Generally, at my desk I use a balanced DAC/AMP combo
Here is my video if anyone is interested.
MUSE HiFi M4 Bluetooth Dac amp
Summary:
Having tested more expensive devices, I find the Muse M4 to be competitive sonically and very beautiful. This competes with the Topping G5 and BTR7 for me and my uses. I like the price, look, and sound despite it having a few minor flaws in packaging and on use on my PC. I do wish it came with a case or had one and a working USB c to lighting and a USB c to lighting cable, but overall itās a solid product that could work for you.
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