CrinEar Protocol Max

Sources split, and the split tracks the mode switch. On the bench and in Boost mode on the balanced output there is near-unanimity: GoldenSound measured about 500 mW into 32 ohms from a phone — more than a Mojo 2 or Hugo 2 — and owners run HD 600s, HD 650s, HD 800 S, Sundaras, Edition XS and even Susvara from it with headroom; Amazon's own tally is twelve positive mentions to one. Against that sits a run of reports — some from returned units — that it was quieter than an Apple dongle or a Moondrop Dawn Pro, and a video reviewer who needed 60 of 100 for an HD 600 and called it powerful but not powerful enough. Four things explain most of the gap: Eco is the default and rates only 31 mW into 32 ohms balanced and 7.8 mW single-ended; the dongle's own volume starts near minimum and must be raised separately from the phone's; iPhones cap USB current; and at least two units were confirmed faulty. A third, measurement-side view says the headline is overstated anyway — the Protocol Max clips only 3.2 dB louder than a Qudelix 5K into 32 ohms.

Sources split three ways. Listeners and the independent bench agree the background is silent: about −90 dB THD+N at 50 mV output, no audible floor with sensitive IEMs, and owners of low-impedance all-BA sets report the same. A measurement-side camp says the spec sheet oversells it — jkim finds the claimed 132/127 dB SNR unreachable with these op-amps and likely a dynamic-range figure taken with DRE engaged, notes that the Cirrus DRE threshold was lowered rather than made switchable (the KA15 can disable it), and an r/inearfidelity derivation from the published numbers puts its low-level THD+N in line with the other dual-op-amp dongles rather than ahead. A third, smaller camp is field reports: crackle from a phone's cellular radio, and buzzing or static in one channel on units that were later replaced.

Sources split, and the split is the usual electronics one. The larger camp — the bench, the Head-Fi reviewers, most owners — hears a neutral, uncoloured source that gets out of the way; GoldenSound found detail on par with or slightly above a FiiO KA17, more natural if a little less separated on dense tracks, and traced a slight softening at full-scale line-out to the Cirrus linearity dip. A second camp, led by the measurement-minded, says that is exactly the point: it is a competently built CS43198 dongle and should be indistinguishable from the KA15, the TRN Black Pearl or any other, with or without the equaliser. A third voice, a 3-star Head-Fi reviewer comparing against a Chord Mojo 2, heard it as neutral but lifeless — bass without weight, dull vocals — while saying it is objectively an amazing product for the money.

Sources split, and the split is about the same feature. The persistent 10-band PEQ — built in the Hangout.Audio graph tool against the largest measurement database in the hobby, auto-EQ to a target in one click, stored on the dongle so it follows you from phone to PC — is why most reviewers and owners bought it, and the headphones.com team named it DAC/amp of the year for exactly that flexibility. The dissenting camp lists what the feature cannot do: it can only be set from a Chromium browser on Windows or macOS (not Linux without a udev rule, not iOS, not Safari or Firefox), it holds one profile, there is no button or menu to switch the equaliser off — you delete every band — there is still no first-party app almost a year after one was promised, the web tool has gone unreachable, and on a PS5 the dongle cannot override the console's USB volume cap as a Qudelix can. Third-party workarounds exist (the WalkPlay web tool and Android app recognise the hardware and add presets and cloud sharing) and split opinion further: convenient, or a login with a Chinese developer nobody vetted. A separate measurement-side worry is stewardship — jkim doubts the TTGK/FiiO/Topping generation of PEQ dongles will ever get the firmware attention Qudelix, RME or JDS give theirs. Everyone agrees on the rest: 4.4 mm and 3.5 mm out, Eco/Boost, a UAC 1.0 fallback for consoles, DSD, and no microphone support.

Sources split. It is small (the size of a lip balm, 17.9 g), light, pocketable and — for most — pleasant: tactile buttons, a switch for gain, a status light that can be turned off, no battery to manage. The complaints are specific. On iOS and macOS the volume curve reads as linear, so the phone has to sit near maximum before the dongle's steps become usable; the dongle's own volume is separate from the host's and starts near minimum, which confuses newcomers and produced at least one 'defective' post; it runs warm in Eco and hot in Boost, and draws the same 132–135 mA in either mode, so Eco saves no battery; the USB-C socket is shallow enough that the cable can lose contact in a pocket; and the LED colours (they follow sample rate) went undocumented for months. A mixed middle finds the buttons loose and the Eco/Boost switch an afterthought but otherwise likes the footprint.

Mostly praised — an all-metal chassis that feels more expensive than $90, a braided USB-C cable, a window onto the board — but with a failure minority that is hard to ignore for a product this young: right-channel buzz or popping after weeks (two Amazon units, one refunded after the owner was asked to prove the fault), a left channel dropping out at six months with the owner paying return shipping, a crackling unit from Linsoul's AliExpress store, and an in-box cable that carried static and was not covered. Smaller gripes are cosmetic: shiny, rattly buttons, and glue visible through the window on one unit.

Sources split along the equaliser seam. The larger camp calls it the benchmark under $100: the cheapest dongle with this much balanced power and an on-device PEQ, GoldenSound's entry-level DAC and DAC/amp pick for 2026, the headphones.com team's DAC/amp of 2025, worth two or three Apple dongles by a sceptical Head-Fi reviewer's own arithmetic, and cheaper still bundled with a Daybreak or Reference. The other camp does the same arithmetic and buys something else: a FiiO KA15 with the same chips, three switchable profiles, a screen and a working app; a $35 TRN Black Pearl that measures the same and also has PEQ; or a Qudelix 5K whose software does everything this cannot. Several of those posts end with the Protocol Max sold or returned.