ddHifi TC44Pro M3's Review - Tiny powerhouse

 

General/Packaging/Build

ddHifi is a brand that I believe needs no introduction. Most of the audiophiles should be familiar with their adapters as well as cables. The brand produces a wide range of products ranging from adapters, cables, portable dongle dac/amp, and even IEM. Packaging is taking on the minimalist approach, very straightforward yet premium looking at the same time. The box contains the dongle itself as well as a mini lanyard.

Build quality itself is very solid, T-Shaped design, the Type C jack, the 3.5 and 4.4mm port itself is very high quality and doesn’t wobble when it is plugged into my iPhone 16 Pro.

Specifications (Grabbed from ddHifi’s product page)

Gears used for this review

• EarAcoustics SPA LTD Edition

• Letshuoer Mystic 8

• Kiwi Ears Etude

• TC44 Pro M3 -> Fiio M21

• Macbook Air M2

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

• TC44 Pro M3 is quite power efficient based on my test, i did not specifically measure the power draw but based on my observation

• TC44 Pro M3 is connected to iphone 16 Pro at 100% battery, the volume is being set at +- 30% and SPA Limited Edition is hooked to the 4.4 out and let it loop through the playlist from 10pm until the next morning 7am (Tidal streaming)

• That’s about 9 hours and the battery on my iPhone 16 Pro is at 40% when i checked the battery%, that is quite efficient in my opinion based on my observation

Sound Impression

Tonality wise, The TC44Pro M3 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 dongles with CS43198 but they don’t sound the same at all. That pretty much explains implementation and tuning is the key, mainly on the analog stage, which in my opinion, something that ddHifi is good at

Listening Impression with the following gears

EarAcoustics SPA Limited Edition

• 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 TC44 Pro M3

• Male vocal has slightly thicker texture and sounds fuller

• Female vocal is full sounding as well and also slightly smoother (upper mids slightly being tamed)

• Not so much changes in terms of detail retrieval

• Overall, a very good synergy pairing the SPA Limited Edition with TC44Pro M3

Letshuoer Mystic 8

• Mystic 8 is a very balanced sounding IEM overall and features one of the best mid range available

• One of the minor gripe that i have with the Mystic 8 is the slightly lack of bass quantity, but when i paired with the TC44 Pro M3, i wouldn’t say the bass is boosted, but somehow the bass has got better texture, slightly more in terms of quantity and making it a more enjoyable

• Not much changes in terms of the treble but slightly better extension and contributed to a slightly wider soundstage

Kiwi Ears ETude

• For those who are not familiar, ETude is a tribrid setup featuring DD, BA and Vibration transducer as they call it

• Pairing the ETude with TC44 Pro M3, the upper mids somewhat have better clarity and not that pronounced, the overall soundstage is still very very 3D-ish

• Bass is somewhat tighter and has better speed

• Not much changes in terms of treble

Comparison (Dunu DTC480)

• The DTC480 sounds slightly leaner compared to TC44 Pro M3

• The low end is slightly elevated compared to TC44 Pro M3

• Treble is more or less similar 

• Dual voltage mode which in a way behaves like a high/low gain, TC44 Pro M3 does not have the gain switch sadly

• Although sporting similar DAC, the difference is actually very noticeable, in terms of the tuning of the sound

Final Thoughts

After weeks of using the TC44 Pro M3, i’m actually very happy with the performance and the size of it, there’s no additional cable dangling around and the dongle is directly attached to my mobile, although the headphone out port is positioned on the side, i just switch the position of my phone in the pocket to face other direction and problem solved, or just put it in the ddHifi C2023 bag and walk about with it.

While the specs on paper may not please the crowd, however, the sound and the power output is actually very sufficient for most IEMs out there, when i’m using it with the IEMs i mentioned in this review, the Mystic 8 that is quite sensitive to noise, exhibited no such behaviour and dead silent, also the shielding is very well done as there’s no RF interference detected throughout the time i attached it on my phone

The tech within the dongle and the asking price, i’d say it's fair and i have no issue recommending this dongle if you’re in search of a dongle that has good performance, solid build quality and very portable. The price may be leaning towards a more premium side of things, but you get what you paid for, high quality sound as well as solid build quality all in a tiny package!

*A big thanks to ddHifi for sending this over for this review. I thank them for the support as always.

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

ddHifi TC44 Pro M3 - Non affiliated