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AuralMadeline t1_j6haycv wrote

One of the promo images from Tanchjim shows the chip, and the numbers on the chip can be barely made out in the image. To me, they looked like 338S00140 ACAD1841.

Googling the first number gives a bunch of articles discussing Apple’s lightning adapter, so it might be the same chip. The Apple adapter chip has a different second number, but that second number might just be a number indicating manufacturing run.

In any case, I own this dongle and I quite love it. I haven’t rigorously compared it to the Apple lightning adapter, but it certainly sounds very clean and noise free, and has a suitably low output impedance that works well with my very picky Andromedas. It is a bit physically heavy but the build quality is extremely nice, especially compared to the Apple adapter.

Shamefully, I actually got the Stargate because it looks pretty. It annoyed me to no end that the Apple adapter doesn’t match the silver cable for the Andromedas. If all that is in the Stargate is the same chip in the Apple adapter (which is audibly excellent and measures well) but in a package that’s substantially more robust and less ugly, well that’s great!

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Affectionate_Club866 t1_j6kswsh wrote

It is indeed the same chip. One of the Taobao customers was furious to see the exact chip when he tore down the dongle. As aesthetically pleasing as this dongle looks, one cannot justify its cost over the Apple dongle.

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AuralMadeline t1_j6l6lnd wrote

On the contrary, drastically overpaying for extremely minor benefits is what audiophilia is all about!

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Captain_Diablo OP t1_j6mzy9m wrote

Ah someone did a teardown, good. By any chance you still have the url? I would like to read see it

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Affectionate_Club866 t1_j6n85hz wrote

It’s probably been discontinued since the search did not return anything. But their newest offering Tanchjim Space is really solid.

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