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MayFlower Electronics ODAC & O2 review

orangecat

I bought a desktop O2 with added RCA's and a ODAC (rev. B) with added RCA's and I was blown away. Before I bought these I was using the onboard Realtek ALC 892 that came with my ASUS P8Z77M Pro and it was not very good. I've had both of these for a while and I've done tons of testing and listening and I can only say it was worth every dollar I spent, the sound is so accurate I started hearing small background sounds that I never even knew existed in my favorite music not to mention there was no audible distortion or noise (hiss) even with everything turned up to it's maximum.

 

The best way I can describe how these sound is that it's like finding something that has been lost. I tried a few different headphones and even my cheapo Apple EarPods sounded a bit better with the bass being more prominent and the highs being clear and smooth sounding. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile but I do appreciate good sounding audio and the guys at MayFlower Electronics and Nwavguy really pulled through on this product, I really can't recommend anything else since I don't have anything to really compare it to but from what I can hear with my HD 518's is enough for me to recommend these two products to anybody.

 

So is there anything I didn't like? Well the only thing I really have to complain about is the quality of the outside casing but even that is still pretty acceptable. Sure it's not like something from Apple but it still looks good and it built well so I'm not going to complain to much about it's looks. Also there is no easy way to add rechargable batteries to the desktop O2 so you need to order if with the configuration you want ahead of time but if you want the best sound quality and output power your going to have to use the AC power adapter anyways since the batteries degrade the O2's performance slightly.

 

So how is the O2 at driving headphones? My HD 518's are only 50 ohms but the O2 puts out more than enough power for even some 600 ohm headphones and can seriously destroy your heading and your headphones if you accidentally have it up to loud but if you're careful about it having this much power is actually really nice because I never have to worry about if I'm getting enough power to my headphones and they will play at more than acceptable levels.

 

Nwavguy also has very detailed measurements and other information on his blog that only backs up what I have to say.

 

Desktop Objective 2 with RCA

O2.jpg

 

ODAC Rev.B

ODAC.jpg

 

 

Links

 

Nwavguy's blog: http://nwavguy.blogspot.ca/

Mayflower Electronics ODAC: https://www.mayflowerelectronics.com/shop/digital-to-analog-converters/odac-stand-alone/

MayFlower Electronics O2: https://www.mayflowerelectronics.com/shop/headphone-amplifiers/desktop-objective2/

 

Score

 

Sound Quality: 10

Build Quality: 9

Functionality: 8

 

Overall I'd give this DAC and AMP combo a 10 out of 10 simply because it lives up to it's goal of providing unaltered sound to your headphones or other audio devices. They doesn't have much functionality but in a way that's a good thing because all they do it output sound but that doesn't mean it's disappointing. The ODAC and O2 did everything I needed them to do and I can't complain because they did way better than I expected.

 

(I'm not great at giving reviews but if you're looking into either the ODAC or the O2 I hope this tiny review was what you where looking for, If you have any questions or if I screwed something up in this review let me know)

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I bought mine from Tek Syndicate's store, but regardless of where you get it, if you care about a neutral audio interface for your headphones, I can concur that this piece of tech deserves the 10/10. Nice write-up though!

I'm not SAV1OUR. I promise. | Number of successfully bricked phones: 1 Samsung Galaxy S5 | 01001001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100101 01101100 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110010 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110010 01110101 01110011 01100101 00101110

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I bought mine from Tek Syndicate's store, but regardless of where you get it, if you care about a neutral audio interface for your headphones, I can concur that this piece of tech deserves the 10/10. Nice write-up though!

I'm convinced the ODAC and the O2 are audibly perfect.

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I'm convinced the ODAC and the O2 are audibly perfect.

All I know is that they are highly regarded as being awesome. Since I have no other audio equipment to test it against, I can't really say if they are perfect or flawed, but to my untrained ears, it sounds... Completely normal! Just like an AMP/DAC should!

I'm not SAV1OUR. I promise. | Number of successfully bricked phones: 1 Samsung Galaxy S5 | 01001001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100101 01101100 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110010 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110010 01110101 01110011 01100101 00101110

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All I know is that they are highly regarded as being awesome. Since I have no other audio equipment to test it against, I can't really say if they are perfect or flawed, but to my untrained ears, it sounds... Completely normal! Just like an AMP/DAC should!

The only thing i can compare to is my phone and my PC's onboard sound and the ODAC and O2 sound noticeably better than both and I can't hear anything that sounds like it doesn't belong =)

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