Impressions: Tempotec Sonata IDSD

A crowdfunding product I stupidly backed last year. The JD crowdfunding page probably has a fairly detailed writeup.

And as I said a while back, the company had no real intention of crowdfunding — they were just using it as a presale. Plenty of KOLs had already reviewed the thing before the campaign even finished.

The box was actually pretty decent when it arrived.

Inside there wasn’t much: a pouch, a few cables, and the unit itself.

As for this portable DAC/amp… after using it for over a month I figure I can say a few things.

First, build quality. I think it’s not bad, but it’s way too fucking light — it feels floaty in the hand and gives off zero sense of heft. Completely different feel from the Sony PHA-1 and PHA-2 I’d used before. Bluntly, it feels cheap, and that’s the complaint I see most often. Honestly, if they’d bothered to stick a piece of iron inside as a counterweight, it would’ve been way better. Right?

The power switch feels okay in the hand. It’s extremely stiff. Not a big deal, but a small one — I don’t know if it’s intentional or just bad manufacturing. That stiff switch is hard to flick even once, and there’s barely any tactile click, so it’s a real chore.

Plugging it into Linux needs no drivers — it’s recognized right away. That’s pretty much standard for Android-compatible portable amps these days.

The biggest complaint is charging. First, the thing doesn’t support “charge while using the USB port” — meaning you’re stuck with the internal battery. The funny part is the battery life is actually great. They claim 10 hours, and I tested it and got roughly 10 hours. Way better than the Mojo’s somewhat inflated claims. But it doesn’t charge over Micro USB — it uses a Mini USB port.

Yes. Mini USB. The last time I saw this connector was on my car’s dashcam, the kind I bought two years ago. Now you have to keep a dedicated cable around just to charge this thing. Absolutely maddening. But given the battery lasts long enough… and I have another cable at work, so it’s not a big deal for me. If you use it often, though, it could be genuinely miserable.

Finally, sound. Honestly there’s not much to say. First, there’s no serious background noise — I didn’t hear any. For laptops and similar devices, it’s a solid external upgrade. The sound is the standard… uncolored kind. Highs, mids, lows all flat. Maybe I just haven’t heard anything like Sony’s old “flavored” sound in too long — only the Mojo’s slightly forward vocals give it any character to me. Everything else sounds about the same. Maybe I really am getting out of the hobby; nothing does much for me anymore. I’ll just say the sound is passable. It also has two outputs so you can A/B headphones, but that’s about it. No LO, I think, and no optical.

For the product overall, I think it’s fine — at least worth the crowdfunding price. They said the crowdfunding price was low and a higher price would come later, but I haven’t seen that higher price. Probably still under a thousand yuan, in which case the value is pretty good. The weight and charging are just maddening.

If you want a cheap external amp for a laptop and mainly use Linux, this might be a fit — the charging will probably annoy you, though. If you’re on Windows, keep an eye on the official site; some people say the drivers are problematic under Windows, but I don’t use Windows, so I wouldn’t know.