![]() Of course the interesting question is how one does compare two devices, essentially, on different grounds. Now, the main difference between Sparrow and Eagle is the balanced 2.5 mm output that the Sparrow has, and the Eagle does not. The sound testing on both Sparrow and Eagle was done with a variety of musical pieces from TIDAL, varying from the classical songs “You’ve got a friend” and “The look of love”, beautifully performed by James Taylor and Dianna Krall,respectively to the really powerful, but not for everyone, piece “Move” of the Japanese artist Hiromi or the wonderful orchestral piece “Fanfare for the volunteer” by Mark O’Connor. The whole of the audio spectrum is reproduced in a very articulate and engaging way, and there is a big difference from the usual one-dimensional output that comes out from a computer’s or a smartphone’s DAC. They have a quite big soundstage, both in width and depth, and a great holographic image and dynamics they truly do open your sound, and I am sure that they would be an absolutely worthy addition to every computer, laptop and certainly smartphone. Both devices are very revealing with lots of details and very transparent. Overall, the timbre is natural and smooth and the tonality is uncolored and very nice. Sparrow and Eagle have tight bass, in the right amount in both sub- and mid-bass mellow mids, with very nice female and male vocals and extended but not hissing tremble. Fully neutral means no engagement and musicality whatsoever, so maybe good for studio recording but not for listening to music. I do believe that very few manufacturers want to make a truly neutral product, and I very much doubt that they can actually do it even if they want to. One has to be very careful with this term, and because of that I very rarely use it. Soundwise Sparrow and Eagle share a lot of common behavior, and they also have certain differences.įirst of all, through the unbalanced 3.5 mm output the two devices sound completely identical, and their first characteristic is that they are very nicely balanced balanced does not mean what some people call neutral. I use the word performance, because both Sparrow and Eagle have a DAC and an AMP section, so I shall comment on each one of the two, and the combined effect is what I call performance. Also, both devices sport a 4 layer gold-plated Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and super low Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) tantalum capacitors the result of these high quality components is reduction of noise to minimum and improvement of super fine details especially in Hi-Res files where one can feel and hear the differences. The difference is that, on top of all PCM, DXD and DSD formats, Sparrow also supports MQA rendering and Qobuz Hi-Res playback, which might be important for some people. Technically, Sparrow and Eagle have top of the line ESS Sabre DAC chips, ES9281 PRO the former and ES9280C PRO the latter, both chips with HyperStream®II modulation and excellent specs. Also, both devices have smooth rounded edges, which make them look very nice, and the overall quality is truly outstanding and very pleasing to the eyes. This is a light-weight but robust enclosure, which protects audio signal from interference. Both consist of an aluminum structure design on the sides,created via CNC milling, with a front and back glass plate. Sparrow and Eagle share a lot of common characteristics. However, both share the same philosophy: Top sound and outstanding quality, and this is what characterizes the products under review EarMen Sparrow and Eagle. The difference between the two is that the former are hi end desktop products, while the latter are portable devices to be used with computers and smartphones. ![]() Obviously, for someone who has designed the exquisite Auris products is rather easy to design the EarMen products. It is no secret that behind both Auris Audio and EarMen is Milomir "Miki" Trosic who has designed and engineered all products of both companies. The idea behind every Auris product is to perfect neutral, natural and clean sound and package the final product in a stylish and quality design that please the eyes and last for many, many years to come. Of course, this is no by accident EarMen has an older sibling, Auris Audio, which is famous for making tube amplifiers characterized by their emphasis on purity of sound. Although, it is a relatively young company, it had a lot of activity since it was founded just a few years ago. Maybe the name EarMen does not ring a bell to everyone. ![]()
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