UGreen Adapter review
Throughwork
UGreen make every combination of USB/jack cable possible. Of all the headphone amplifiers available from cable manufacturers on EBay, this is the most expensive. The advertising proposes it offers ‘unrivalled Hi‐Fi sound quality’.
Contents
Build
Good quality. This is not a big‐commission amp, but has a matt effect housing, shrunk rubber stain relief and the fattest braided cable on any amp I’ve tried. Unless that cable braid splits, it promises to be very robust. When I plug in, it feels like quality. Blue‐grey matte will work with any device, I make it reasonable for looks.
Sound
Loud on a computer, slightly quiet on phone. Seems to have reasonable volume range. Low notes are quiet. An overall mutedness. Reasonable timing low down. Swell handling is reasonable. High frequencies are there, but lower frequencies seem dim, if not missing. Details are reasonable, but not much weight for brass and keyboards. Detail is only reasonable, there but not much, and lost on decay. It is good at balanced detail against weight. Positioning is only passable, and reasonably wide space.
Soundtracks are good through this, atmospheric though lacking in low notes. Solo instruments do good, with the timing, though there seems still to be mutedness and noise here. It’s reasonable for instrumental music and vocals.
Spec
| chip | Unknown BES3002 |
| bitsize/rate | 24bit/96kHz |
| features | |
| accessories | |
| support |
Assess
So, this is an item cable manufacturers put out as a range, when it is more, it is a DAC/amp. But for my doubts about the braided cable, I’d say it was an outstanding build. The sound is curious, It is somewhat muted, yet seems to have range. The timing is good, and swell handling reasonable, which is good for orchestras. The frequency range seems limited, yet it has some low and upper notes. There is a grey papery sound throughout. And it seems uneven, favouring mid‐strings. You can say the same for music and voices—it’s solid but muted and grey.
I suspect conversion distortion is creeping in and draining a reasonable performance. If I was given this as an adapter it would do it’s job well. I put it up against built‐in computer system, the UGreen had less volume and frequency range, but handled timing better. In this review I’ve used the word ‘reasonable’ too many times.