Audioengine D1P

Hands-on (and ears-on) with the D1P

The D1P arrived for me to audition in a well-packaged box. After breezing through the owner's manual, I connected it to my PC first, then my phone. Next, my wife let me try it on her phone and her gaming laptop. I experienced zero hiccups across the board.

Fantastic sound reproduction on different headphones

I'm a headphone fanatic, so I wanted to see how the D1P did with everything from entry-level headphones to high-end pairs. I'm pleased to report that this little-DAC-that-could exceeded my expectations on everything I tried. It delivered spectacular sound on the easy-to-drive Grado SR125X all the way up to the beefy Cleer Next and some higher-end closed-back Focals that I own. For the purposes of this hands-on review, I decided to stick with the Cleers since I enjoyed their airy, open-backed performance.

My diverse playlist

I started my listening session off with a live rendition of "Lion" by Brandon Lake and Elevation Worship. I am not exaggerating when I say that I got chills on the opening verses. I've listened to this track on other DACs, but this time I picked out the crowd singing along, plain as day. The width of the soundstage impressed me too, with Chris Brown and Brandon each taking their respective sides of the stage.

I then moved onto Sleep Token's "Take Me Back to Eden," which I've played many, many times since the album's release. The title track's chorus gets progressively more layered as the song goes on. By the final chorus, things tend to blend together on weaker DACs and headphones. With the D1P, each vocal and guitar layer were beautifully distinct, with a gritty texture that I hadn't picked up on during previous listenings.

The final track I played was "Kaidoku Funou" by Jinn, a Japanese rock track released in the early 2000s. It's raw, layered, and a bit roughly produced. The D1P performed admirably and did a great job of separating all the instruments in the song. It also gave the track a surprising amount of depth. With other setups the drums and vocals can sit on top of each other, but the D1P put the drums a little behind lead singer Hiitan and allowed her voice to shine.

All-in-all, the D1P is a powerful little DAC that could see using for years to come. It's impressive that a sub-$200 digital-to-analog converter can perform so well across a wide range of headphones and genres.