Questyle M15 First Impressions

Questyle M15. One of the Dongle DACs that not only carry a hefty price, but also carries the ability to make your tracks sound even more superb. Unlike IEMs, I don't have much Dongle DACs and its's genuinely hard for me to evaluate it - hence just a first impressions post for now. But just right off the bat : it's fricking amazing.

The amount of technicality this DAC brings on to the table is just phenomenal. As a guy who only daily drives budget Dongle DACs like the JM20, VE Avani, JM10, Trasam Q1, this was a major step up from everything.

SPECIFICATIONS

• ESS Sabre ES9281AC DAC, handles up to PCM384kHz/32bit, DSD256

• Two of their own patented CMA SiP modules with a total of 4 CMA Amp engines

  • Gives off strong output that can drive high impedence headphones & IEMs

• TOREX High-Efficiency Power Management (do not drain your phone battery easily)

• THD+N 0.0003% Ultra Low Distortion

• 3.5mm TRS

• 4.4mm TRRS

• Physical gain switch (low & high)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

As it is, the DAC is known to have a neutral tuning and before my purchase I was expecting this DAC to be somewhat boring, but there's nothing boring about this DAC. First of all, microdetails I've never heard of suddenly gets pushed out of songs I've listened to countless of times. It treats the nuances of tracks well and adds a whole new layer and ambience to your tracks. Overall, one best way I can describe this is the smoothness it delivers

Besides that, the technicalities that this DAC delivers from dynamics, imaging and separation just makes you wonder : if budget IEMs used this, will the IEM be bottle necked? Imaging of tracks just felt like it has been given more depth and more room for them to perform. Separation of tracks is just amazing and you can hear even more from budget IEMs with average technicalities. Again with the bottle necked thing I said, when I was reviewing the QKZ x HBB, I tried to use the M15 as a reference grade IEM for its neutral transparent signature, but with the amount of buff it got, I felt like it's more like I was reviewing the M15's prowess on a budget IEM more than anything.

With that said, instruments such as piano, guitar, synths all are being further refined by the M15, giving everything more energy, increasing its microdetails surrounding each note, yet does not make you feel fatigued of it.

And extensions. A heap of mid and treble extensions. We all know the general term of an IEM having treble extensions but the M15 somehow does justice in the midrange, bringing notes a natural airyness to it without any caveats.

And as for bass, I'll just say the dynamics and technicalities probably helped out this part alot for budget IEMs with bass bleed. This thing overall reduces the impression of bleed with the seperation. Other than that, notes felt more refined and sounds more lean, giving it more body. Subbass rumbles sound different, with a sense where the rumble is strong but does not overemphasize itself in the track, again it might be due to the technicalities helping it.

THOUGHTS SO FAR

Honestly, pairing this DAC with my XBA-A3 with cable rolling makes it sound something equivalent to an upgrade from a 400USD IEM to nearing double the price. Of course at that range, its literally the law of diminishing returns, hence I'll probably need to take time to subject budget IEMs to test how good this DAC is on budget/entry level IEMs.

So - stay tuned for that.