Tempotec Sonata BHD Pro's Review

 

General/Packaging/Build

Tempotec is known for producing products with a high price performance ratio. I have reviewed several of their products and most of the time i’m left with a positive experience. I got the new dongle from them today which is the Sonata BHD Pro which features dual CS41313 DAC. Packaging is rather minimal yet it doesn't look cheap. It came bundled with a Type C to A adapter, a short Type C to C cable. Build quality is also very solid all around as the dongle’s front features a small see through glass to view the FPGA chip, also the LED indicator, the whole dongle has aluminium case and it looks quite premium. The only thing that I noticed is that the volume toggle doesn’t sit that firm, it does exhibit a slight rattle when you are pressing the volume button.

Specifications

• DAC: 2*CS43131

• SNR: 131dB

• THD+N: 0.00012%(@32ohm  1kHz 0dB signal )

• OUTPUT LEVEL: 4VRMS@4.4mm/32Ω,2VRMS@3.5mm/32Ω

• OUTPUT POWER: 280mW@4.4mm/32ohm 

• Frequency: 0-40KHZ /+- 0.5dB

• RGB light: indicates working status

• PCM: up to 32Bit/384kHz DSD256(NATIVE) 

• DSD: up to DSD256

• MQA: MQA renderer 8X

• Volume Control: hardware buttons

• Platform support: Windows PC,MACOS and Android

Gears used for this review

• Tempotec Sonata BHD Pro

• Truthear Shio

• Tempotec IM05

• 7Hz Legato

• HifiMan Deva Pro

Foreword

My review is solely based on what I hear via my equipment and I never consider my reviews to be objective in any way rather a subjective approach. Do take into consideration that everyone’s ear anatomy is not the same, so the psychoacoustics perception might be different as well, but i believe it will not stray too far

Battery Drain

• BHD Pro is quite power efficient based on my test, i did not specifically measure the power draw but based on my observation

• BHD Pro is connected to Xperia 5 II at 100% battery, the volume is being set at +- 40% and i connected the Kbear Believe to it via 4.4 and let it loop through the playlist from 10pm until the next morning 9am (UAPP Pro on exclusive mode)

• That’s about 11 hours and the battery on Xperia 5 II is at 53% when i checked the battery%, that is quite efficient in my opinion based on my observation

Features

• Upgradeable firmware (i have yet to try that because i’m a Mac user and unfortunately, the flash tool doesn’t support Mac and my windows VM can’t detect the BHD Pro)

• Independent volume control that doesn’t control the OS’s volume but actually controlling the volume of the DAC

• Low power consumption

Sound Impression

Tonality wise, BHD Pro doesn’t add much coloration to the signature, i would say it is quite neutral with a slight hint of warmth for the signature. I have tested several dongle with CS41313, including BHD Pro, it does seems like they have this signature where it sounds quite airy and a little bit of meat at the low end.

Listening Impression with the following gears

Tempotec IM05

• Bass is punchy and tight, mid bass especially

• Sub bass has slightly better extension

• Mids are slightly being pushed forward instead of sounding slightly recessed prior to pairing with BHD Pro

• Slightly bigger soundstage

• Male vocal has slightly thicker texture and sounds fuller

• Female vocal is full sounding as well

• Not so much changes in terms of detail retrieval

• Overall, a very good synergy pairing the IM05 with BHD Pro, this is also probably it is their own in house IEM

7Hz Legato

• Legato is a bassy and warm IEM, aimed at delivering analog-ish speaker sound

• The mids are slightly recessed, but when paired with BHD Pro, the mids doesn’t sound that recessed anymore and it sounded a little bit more forward, both male and female vocal also have better texture and body to it

• Bass on the other hand sounds a little tame when paired with BHD Pro, the sub bass doesn’t rumble that much, but mid bass is still punchy, a very refreshing experience if you ask me, still very fun sounding

• Not much changes on the detail retrieval as well

• Soundstage is slightly better in terms of better height,depth and width perception

• Legato is not hard to drive, but BHD Pro does have more than enough power to push it hard as Legato scales really well with power and source

Hifiman Deva Pro 4.4

• Deva Pro is a Planar headphone from Hifiman, that’s not that easy nor hard to drive

• BHD Pro does have the capability to drive it to optimum performance with a 4VRMS voltage swing on balanced output

• Deva Pro on its own is quite neutral sounding with a slight hint of brightness in terms of tonality, pairing it with the BHD Pro seems to be a good choice where the overall presentation has a bit more body to it

• The low end is slightly elevated due to the added warmth, treble is smoother yet it doesn’t compromise in terms of resolution

Comparison (Truthear Shio)

• Shio sounds warmer to my ears

• The low end is way more elevated compared to BHD Pro

• Treble doesn’t sound as airy as BHD Pro

• It does have a low/high gain mode which can be toggled by pressing a certain button combination (Would prefer if BHD Pro have this feature as well)

• Although sporting different DAC, they difference are actually very minimal, the 43131 on BHD Pro is a DAC chip with build in amp section, where as on the Shio’s 43198, it is a DAC only setup and the amp section is designed/implemented separately

Final Thoughts

With the implementation of FPGA within the BHD Pro, having different kind of sound tuning by only flashing the firmware makes it quite a versatile unit in my opinion, although I personally wouldn’t want to flash it all the time, but having this feature is certainly handy.

On top of that, the sound is rather uncolored and air, not to mention with a slight hint of warmth, it makes pairing IEMs/Headphones very easy.

The tech within the dongle and the asking price, i’d say its fair and i have no issue recommending this dongle if you’re in search for a dongle that has good performance without breaking the bank.

*A big thanks to Tempotec for sending this over for the purpose of this review. I thank them for their support.

*At the time of writing, there is currently a sale going on for the BHD Pro with discount coupon, which makes it even more attractive and competitive

Head over to their official AliExpress Store and official website if you are interested in getting one:

Tempotec Sonata BHD Pro Official Webstore- Non Affiliated

Tempotec Sonata BHD Pro Official Aliexpress Store - Non Affiliated