ЦАПы — Audioengine HXL

The HXL is a portable balanced headphone amplifier and DAC from Audioengine, the American company founded in 2005 that has steadily widened its range of converters. Released in October 2025 at USD 169, it is a dongle-sized unit that plugs straight into a phone, tablet or computer over USB-C and feeds headphones through either a 4.4 mm balanced socket or a 3.5 mm single-ended jack.

Key specs that matter

Two Cirrus Logic CS43131 converters work with an SA9312 USB controller, and an LME49726 amplifier drives the headphone outputs. PCM playback goes up to 32-bit and 384 kHz. DSD64 and DSD128 arrive over DoP, and DSD256 is decoded natively. Full-scale output reaches 4.09 V RMS from the balanced socket and 2.06 V RMS from the single-ended jack at full scale. Signal-to-noise ratio is 132 dB balanced and 125 dB single-ended, THD+N is 0.0002 percent, and crosstalk measures -129 dB on the balanced path against -96 dB on the unbalanced one. Output impedance is 0.5 ohm or less. The body measures 48 x 15 x 10 mm.

Engineering and use context

The dual-converter layout feeds two separate output paths, one balanced and one single-ended, and the published figures show the balanced route ahead on voltage, noise and channel separation. The HXL has no internal battery - it takes its power from the host device and draws only 120 mA while active, so there is nothing to charge and the unit is ready as soon as it is connected. Level is set by a 60-step digital volume control implemented in hardware rather than left entirely to the software mixer of the phone or computer. The housing is machined from aluminium on CNC equipment and then anodized. Audioengine describes operation as plug and play and covers the HXL with a three-year warranty.

Pairing

Audioengine specifies a headphone impedance range of 10 to 600 ohm, so the HXL is intended for everything from sensitive in-ear monitors up to high-impedance studio headphones. Headphones with a balanced plug can use the balanced output for the higher voltage and lower crosstalk, while models with a standard single-ended plug go into the single-ended jack. The source can be a smartphone, a tablet or a laptop or desktop fitted with a USB-C socket, since the HXL draws its current from that port.

Alternatives

Within the same catalogue, the Audioengine D1P is a 32-bit portable headphone amplifier and DAC also sold at USD 169.