I asked for the Snowsky Echo Mini DAP (digital audio player) for Xmas. I got the Snowsky Retro Nano DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) instead, because it turns out those two devices look exactly the fucking same in pictures.
A DAC improves and amplifies digital music and allows it to be pumped through wired headphones. You can Bluetooth it to a networked device or USB it for a hard connection to a computer or anything with a USB-C hole.
My office speakers are actually an ancient Altec Lansing inMotion portable set that is no longer made. They connect to the computer through the computer’s headphone jack. I Bluetoothed the Retro Nano to my phone and plugged the speakers into the Retro Nano’s headphone jack. Suddenly all the podcasts trapped on my phone sound better.
There’s an app that goes with it called FiiOMusic, which can set equalisers – I’m on iPhone, so the app can only reach what’s in iTunes. I experimented with “Breath Of Odin” by Julian Cope, and on the “classical” setting it picks out all kinds of sound detail that is otherwise barely there just playing the mp3.
I was a little frustrated that I didn’t get the mp3 player – the sound is great on the cheap player I picked up last year but the UI is awkward – but I am finding uses for the DAC and I suspect I will uncover more. The thing comes with a lanyard, so you can hang it around your neck, plug earbuds or 4.4mm IEMs into it, Bluetooth it to your phone and then walk away from your phone and just listen. Which has an appeal to me these days.