With more smartphone manufacturers removing headphone jacks and the demand for USB dongles getting higher, xDuoo decided to release the crowd-pleasing Link to provide a solution as well as a path to high resolution audio.
Introduction
xDuoo is an audio gear manufacturer from China. The main focus of xDuoo is to provide professional solutions to audiophiles without burning a hole in their pockets. They produce high-quality headphone amplifiers, both solid-state and vacuum tube. Besides amplifiers, digital audio players (DAPs) are part of their expertise, too.
Beginning with the iPhone 7, a trend of 3.5mm audio jack removal in smartphones grew. With this drastic change, the need for USB dongles increases significantly.
With the increase in demand, the quality of these USB dongles has improved as well. With better parts, such as a dedicated digital to analogue converter (DAC), the sonic quality improves as compared to the conventional, built-in DACs in phones. This is a “smartphone to Hi-Res audio enablement” because higher resolution music quality can be obtained when using the dongles.
xDuoo followed in the footsteps of iBasso and iKKO Audio and released the Link. Is Link a “smartphone to Hi-Res audio enablement”? We will find out in this review!