J.me

Using an external DAC on Nintendo Switch

One of the issue I had with Nintendo Switch is the headphone output quality. Due to how compact it is and the fact that it houses an active cooling fan inside the same housing, caused audible hiss to carry over to the headphone output. The issue, in particular, made worse in sensitive IEM, while Switch itself isn’t capable at driving full size headphone very well. The use of standard USB-C port in Switch gave me some hope, but USB audio support isn’t there at launch.

Then the 4.0 update came and some big features finally arrive. Important one like system transfer finally there and addition of video capture allow sharing great moment as easy as holding the screenshot button. But the most important feature for me is not mentioned anywhere in the changelog and it is the USB audio support. Yes! Switch finally allow you to use external USB DAC.

A bold but very smooth IEM from Japan, Radius HP-TWF41 casual review

TWF41-1

Radius as a company is probably not widely known among audiophiles, unless if you are based or have visited Japan, chance are, you won’t find their products in stores near you. Their history actually started in United States on May 1986 as a subsidiary of Apple. In 1991, the company expanded to Japan. Not long after that, in 1996, the Japanese branch became independent and separated from their United States origin. Since then, the Japanese Radius has been focused on making peripheral for Apple devices and also on home and portable audio market. The United States branch however, changed their name to Digital Origin, allowing the Japanese company to keep the Radius name today. Quite a journey, eh?

The current product lines of Radius consisted of home and portable DAC and amplifier, earphones, the digital audio player software called NePLAYER and some other accessories for Apple and Android devices. What I’m interested in is their audio product of course, in the case of IEM, Radius has covered the market from the bottom into the mid-fi range.

Their highest-end IEM is unique that they have Dual Diaphragm Matrix (DDM) driver, possibly the first that combine dynamic and piezoelectric driver in each side of the IEM. That current lineup consisted of two identical siblings, TWF31 and TWF41. I have used their flagship, TWF41 for a couple of months now, while it’s not trying to compete with the (ridiculous) high-end market for IEM, it’s a quite impressive performer in their price range… and unique.