AuralMadeline t1_j6l6lnd wrote on January 31, 2023 at 2:38 AM

Reply to comment by Affectionate_Club866 in Anyone knows which Cirrus Logic chip it uses or has measurements of it? Tanchjim Stargate by Captain_Diablo

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

AuralMadeline t1_j6haycv wrote on January 30, 2023 at 9:02 AM

Reply to Anyone knows which Cirrus Logic chip it uses or has measurements of it? Tanchjim Stargate by Captain_Diablo

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!