Assessment and Measurements of Apogee Groove DAC and Amp

This is a evaluation and measurements of the Apogee Groove moveable DAC and headphone amplifier. It is on type financial loan from a forum member. As little portable DAC+Amps go, its retail cost of $295 is fairly substantial. I see manufacturing facility refurbished types at $149 although on Apogee website.

Apogee is greatest identified for their specialist audio products so their entry into personalized audio is very a departure for them.

As USB audio "thumb push" form elements go, the Apogee is really a little bit more substantial:

Apogee Groove Portable DAC and Headphone Amplifier evaluation.jpg

Volume sensible, it is most likely double the dimensions of normal thumb drives. The larger dimension enables rubberized up/down volume buttons with outstanding truly feel. There is no "plastic" come to feel to the device both, creating you think you can sit on it and nothing at all negative would happen to it.

The a few LEDs around show the quantity degree. In the course of music playback, they alter to shade to green and are fully analog. Every single has individual depth which when maxed out, lights up the a single above it.

How we check wi-fi and Bluetooth speakers 2018 , I am quite positively impressed with match, finish and quality of the physical device.

Let's get into measurements and see if the high price is justified by goal info.

Measurements
Let's start off with our normal dashboard at 2 volts to see the fidelity as if it were a DAC:
Apogee Groove Moveable DAC and Headphone Amplifier Measurement.png

Hey, this is fairly very good for a moveable solution! It puts it in the tier two of codecs analyzed as much as distortion and sounds:

Apogee Groove Moveable DAC and Headphone Amplifier SINAD Measurement.png

Let us search at the 2-tone SMPTE intermodulation distortion as opposed to degree:
Apogee Groove Moveable DAC and Headphone Amplifier IMD Measurement.png

The groove is no match for the Topping DX3 Professional little desktop amp+dac but beats the Chord Mojo at mid to greatest amounts! The Chord is practically three occasions its cost with quite higher claims of goal fidelity so this is quite an accomplishment.

Of course, we see the "ESS hum" which is typical of ESS DACs in most implementations with a increase in mid-amount distortion. It is milder listed here since the sounds ground is increased.

Jitter performance is visually disappointing but audibly transparent:
Apogee Groove Portable DAC and Headphone Amplifier jitter Measurement.png

Linearity is also really great for a portable unit, losing accuracy earlier mentioned eighteen bits:
Apogee Groove Portable DAC and Headphone Amplifier Linearity Measurement.png

Dynamic variety is really great and falls in the middle of pack (max quantity):

Apogee Groove Portable DAC and Headphone Amplifier Dynamic Assortment Measurement.png

Let's seem at the all critical, distortion as opposed to electricity at 300 ohm:
Apogee Groove Transportable DAC and Headphone Amplifier Energy at three hundred ohm Measurement.png


As soon as yet again, the Apogee Grove comes near to performance of Chord Mojo, making the same seventy one milliwatts of electricity. To set this in standpoint, standard smartphone audio dongle outputs 1 to ten miliwatts of electrical power. So this is very an essential bounce as it relates to high impedance headphones such as the common Sennheiser High definition-650 and its clones.

Identical measurements with 33 ohm though, produced odd benefits:

Apogee Groove Moveable DAC and Headphone Amplifier Energy at 33 ohm Measurement.png

At all around 1.five volts of output, the unit would shut down. This created whole energy of seventy eight milliwatts which is way limited of specified 225 milliwatts. I even examined one channel with the identical outcomes.

Channel balance versus quantity position was best considering that these combo DAC+headphone amps are able to execute attenuation utilizing the DAC handle:

Apogee Groove Transportable DAC and Headphone Amplifier channel imbalance Measurement.png

Sadly we have some negative information when it comes to output impedance:
Apogee Groove Moveable DAC and Headphone Amplifier output impedance Measurement.png

Oh, no. 21 ohms? Why did you do this to us Apogee? You had been doing so nicely.

This signifies that you need to not use low impedance headphones that have variable impedances them selves or else, their frequency response will be modified. This may be a great result or poor depending on what is exaggerated and your preference for such.

Listening Assessments
I commenced my listening checks with my Sennheiser Hd-650. Here, output was cleanse up to max volume as measurements demonstrate. Alas, whilst comfortable, the bass was not as impactful as I am employed with desktop products. Relying on your desire below for quantity (I like it loud), you could or may possibly not be content.

Things enhanced a lot with the Hifiman HE-400i. There was plenty of quantity and a quite satisfying time was experienced listening to a assortment of music. So possibly with a reasonable load and audio alternatively of tones, the Grove is in a position to produce considerably much more electrical power at lower impedances with out shutting down.

Conclusions
The Apogee has the greatest top quality feel and layout of any moveable, thumb generate sized, DAC and amplifier I have reviewed. It just feels great in hand and seems to be good on the desk also.

As a DAC, its overall performance is really great, virtually a amount of desktop products.

As a DAC+headphone product, its functionality is variable. Objectively there is anything incorrect with lower load impedances causing it to shut down. But subjectively, it sounded great there. It will not have a ton of energy for three hundred ohm loads but then again, what it has is a lot, much a lot more than inventory headphone amp in your cellphone.

Substantial output impedance of 20 ohm indicates you want to be cautious about its impact on the seem of some headphones.

All in all, you can notify the Apogee Groove is made by proficient individuals seeking to produce a top quality merchandise in the extremely transportable type issue. If they experienced gotten there with out that 20 ohm output, I would give them an A. As it is, I have to get them down a notch and give a guarded advice.

10 of the best tracks to test your speakers

Every reviewer at What Hello-Fi? has their own very carefully curated listing of songs they use to check stereo speakers, spanning all kinds of genres and musical preferences. This is crucial for testing speakers, specially if they are new - it is greatest to use music that you know genuinely effectively to listen to what the speakers are able of.

We have place together a record of 10 music (together with some additional ideas) that we use to check each aspect of a pair of speaker's functionality, from treble and bass quality to the way they handle rhythm and dynamics. This is by no implies a comprehensive checklist – we’d be here for days if we tried to record each and every solitary tune we use for tests – but it really is a start.

To get you listening to these tunes right absent, we've set collectively a playlist of these songs on our favourite audio streaming services:

Radiohead - The Nationwide Anthem

To examination total equilibrium

As is Radiohead’s wont, The Nationwide Anthem is a dense, multi-tiered marriage ceremony cake of a song, with acoustic and digital instruments firing off in all instructions – not to mention a brass ensemble that seems to have turned up to the improper reserving. Everything is dialled up to eleven, from the treatment on Thom Yorke’s vocals and the overdriven bass guitar sound, to the Theremin-y wailing in the background.

Your speakers need to strike the perfect equilibrium in between organisation and assault, amongst dynamism and poise and, most importantly, among manage and abandon, all through the frequency range. Accomplished properly, this is a thrilling cacophony. Completed badly, it’s just a cacophony.

Also pay attention to these:

The Cat Empire - Fishies

Scorching Chip - All set For The Floor

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Switch Your Lights Down Reduced



To test area

Bob Marley receives a lot of the credit score for bringing reggae to a around the world viewers, but Island Records’ insistence on a higher-gloss hi-fi seem created the usually rough-and-prepared style a lot more accessible. Switch Your Lights Down Reduced demonstrates this fantastically: it is such a spacious recording, with each instrument secure in its very own location of the soundstage.

Your speakers need to explain each player’s place on the stage and, most crucially, the area between them if the minimal-heat simmer and depth of the tune is to have complete effect. Not a lot of tracks use room as an instrument really as successfully as this.

Also hear to these:

Nine Inch Nails - Proper The place It Belongs

Jóhan Jóhannsson - By the Roes, and By the Hind of the Discipline

The Chemical Brothers - Das Spiegel

To examination assault and decay

A more end/start off, truncated and altogether abbreviated selection of electronically derived sounds you’re unlikely to locate – so Das Spiegel is a splendid examination of your speakers’ self-control as much as attack and decay go. Apart from strummed rhythm guitar and blown melodica, each and every sound listed here has seemingly been developed to show up from nowhere and conclude just as abruptly.

From the four-square boom-bap of the drum pattern to the squeals, hisses and squeaks in the track record as the tune builds, manage wants to be martial. And the thrumming, practically unbroken bass seems only incorporate to the check.


Also hear to these:

The Useless Climate - 60 Ft Tall

Igor Stravinsky - The Ceremony of Spring

Can - Spoon



To take a look at rhythm and timing

Drummer Jaki Liebezeit establishes an irregular, complicated cage for his bandmates to work in, and the consequence is a remarkably complete test of your speakers’ capacity to integrate a fiendishly off-kilter and disparate collection of instrumental strands into a cogent and unified whole.

At close to two:23, Liebezeit unleashes a volley of generally risky fills and pads that would be challenging adequate for your speakers to manage, rhythmically, on their very own. But there are burbling bass phrases, guitar choosing and keyboard outbursts complicated items additional - and which is just before you factor in the obtuse vocal inputs Damo Suzuki delivers in his 2nd language.

Also pay attention to these:

Radiohead - fifteen Stage

65daysofstatic - Prisms

Anne Sofie von Otter - Little one Performs Close to

To check midrange high quality

Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter’s 2001 album with Elvis Costello, For the Stars, is a pitiless examination of your speakers’ powers of midrange communication.

Not only is this open, roomy and relentlessly hello-fi recording loaded with miniscule details – of von Otter’s phrasing, of her tongue, tooth and palate noises - it also reveals some of the strategies of her breath-management.

It is a hi-fi cliché, but in this instance it’s true: if your speakers are up to it, this will sound like she’s appropriate there in the area, singing with equivalent portions of emotion and management.

Also hear to these:

Tom Waits - I Hope That I Don't Drop In Adore With You

Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You

Max Roach - Lonesome Lover



To check treble high quality

Jazz stunt-drummer Roach is bandleader right here, and his impeccable hello-hat and ride cymbal enjoying is a first rate take a look at of treble fidelity in by itself. But it’s saxophonist Clifford Jordan’s wailing, keening and strident taking part in that actually separates the higher-frequency gentlemen from the boys.

His squeals and flurries of higher-register notes need to shine, but not spill above into grating sharpness. From 3:00 to 3:12, he assessments your tweeters’ ability to management a notice although even now retaining its grit and attack. Singer Abby Lincoln and chorus weigh in with some higher-frequency fidelity evaluation of their very own at 4:38, and again from 6:04 onwards.

Also pay attention to these:

John Williams - Topic from Jurassic Park

Bruce Springsteen - Terry's Track

George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

To take a look at dynamic variety

The ability to change from ‘very quiet’ to ‘very loud indeed’, whether or not it's a voice, a solitary instrument or a huge-scale symphony orchestra in full assault method, is an important loudspeaker expertise. And there are not a lot of items of songs as beneficial at demonstrating the dynamic potency of an orchestra as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Inside the first two minutes it switches from plaintive piano to strings/brass/percussion overload and back again once more numerous times – and every single time it does, your speakers must make the switch instantly and with no displaying any undue tension. Which is not as effortless as you may feel.

Also listen to these:

Ramid Djawadi - Mild of the Seven

Mike Oldfield - Pran's Departure

Thundercat - Uh Uh

To test bass control

Massive display-off Thundercat (Stephen Bruner) shipped a single of the more critically acclaimed albums of 2017 with Drunk. And on Uh Uh ( https://zonescene3.skyrock.com/3318614134-How-We-Check-Wi-fi-And-Bluetooth-Speakers.html but exhausting exploration of the six-string electrical bass guitar), he performs with such frantic virtuosity your speakers have no hiding spot.

Bass extension, pace, tonal variation, and assault and decay all get the sort of assessment that speaker engineers dread. What’s required right here is well outlined, nicely explained variation in note tonality and depth. In the correct hands it’s a remarkably athletic piece of actively playing, but in less capable care it is just a lower-frequency mess of overlapping info.

Also pay attention to these:

Substantial Attack - Angel

SBTRKT - Wildfire

Sergei Prokofiev - Montagues and Capulets


To test element

The devil’s in the element, evidently – certainly that is exactly where complete enjoyment of a piece of music exists. And in a massive symphonic established-piece like this there are many odds for your speakers to demonstrate off just how capable they are of selecting up the nuances.

The audio of a flute-player’s embouchure, the rattle of a snare beneath a drum-pores and skin, the blare of a trumpet as it seems the charge, even the squeak of a timpani foot-pedal – tiny details like this are what can make a piece of tunes genuinely alive.

Do your speakers choose up on the little inputs of the triangle in the qualifications of this piece? No? Put them on eBay and audition some new kinds.

Also hear to these:

Hans Zimmer - Coward

Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa

Sexual intercourse Pistols - Rather Vacant

To check stereo focus

Even though at the time regarded a hazard to British civilization, forty years on the Sex Pistols really don't audio like any sort of threat at all. They do seem brilliantly produced, although.

Offered what he had to operate with (guitar, bass and drums of a fairly rudimentary type, and a vocal that, while powerful, is barely a melodic paradigm), Chris Thomas’s production of Fairly Vacant is tiny quick of miraculous. Full and widescreen, with the form and format of the drum-kit completely explicit, it completely assessments your speakers’ potential to form a coherent entire-stage impression.