Questyle M12 DAC/Amp: Proprietary SiP Modules and ES9281AC Chipset

The Chinese company Questyle Audio Engineering has released the Questyle M12 pocket USB dongle, a mobile headphone amplifier with a built-in DAC.

The digital part of the novelty is assembled around the flagship USB-DAC chip produced by ESS – the ES9281AC model. With it, Questyle M12 decodes PCM up to 32 bit/384kHz and DSD256. In addition, the device works with the MQA Core signal, fully expanding the MQA stream to its original resolution, if the bitrate allows it.

Questyle M12

The LED indicator Questyle M12 then glows magenta. He also shows how the M12 “understood” the headphones connected to it. The fact is that the M12 is equipped with a headphone amplifier based on the proprietary independent SiP Current Mode Amplifier module.

Questyle’s patented Current Mode technology virtually eliminates impedance-based power limitations, according to Questyle. The novelty is ready to work with headphones with impedance from 8 to 600 ohms. Specifically for the Questyle M12, the distortion level is declared better than 0.0003%.

Questyle M12

When headphones are plugged into the Questyle M12, a detection system is triggered, which detects their impedance and adjusts the gain. For high resistances, the display color is red. For low ones – green. At the same time, Questyle M12 is fully compatible with gadgets running Android 5.1, and also works with PCs running Mac OS and Windows 10 version 18.3 and higher – without additional drivers.

Questyle M12

The Questyle M12 is housed in an aluminum casing that is anodized black or silver after sandblasting. In Europe, the recommended price for the Questyle M12 mobile headphone DAC is 119 euros.

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