The hairy, spiky Rambutan fruit hardly screams ‘come hither’ to food shoppers, but give it a chance and from that moment onwards, no other exotic fruit will do. The same goes for the HRT dSp. An uninviting plastic design that looks nothing more than your average throwaway USB key casing, it is actually a wonderful thing. Once you’ve tried it, you won’t want to be without. High Resolution Technologies (HRT) calls it a digital sound processor. To you and us though, it’s a DAC. HRT has a handful of small portable DACs in its portfolio. Its microStreamer won an Award in 2013, taking the gong from the Audioquest Dragonfly before the rival’s mk2 version (v1.2) nabbed it back last year.
All Androids welcome
HRT strikes back again, only this time it separates itself from the computer-only competition. The beauty of the dSp is that it can be used with a wide range of portable devices: one microUSB cable connects it to smartphones and tablets, another USB wire is for PCs and laptops. Both leads are supplied and plug into one end of the dSp, while your headphones go in the 3.5mm jack at the other.
The dSp works with anything that runs Android Lollipop (LG G4s, Samsung Galaxy S6s and Sony Xperia Z3s, for example), Chrome OS, Windows or Apple OS X. According to HRT, some devices running Android KitKat are also compatible.
So what about iPhones and iPads? Unless you have an old Apple device with the original 30-pin connector (like the iPhone 4S or 3rd-gen iPad) and an appropriate adapter, you’ll have to buy the dSp’s purely Apple-centric sibling, the i-dSp, which comes with a lightning connector pre-fitted.
Supercharging smartphones
The dSp supports a range of audio formats including MP3, AAC and FLAC (up to 24-bit/96kHz), and is firmware-upgradeable to accommodate future updates.
Smartphones may do a thousand things, but good sound is rarely one of them. Want better? You could buy a second device, or you could invest in something like the dSp. Plug it into an LG G4 and clarity, detail and bass is jacked up a treat. A 24-bit/96kHz recording of Muse’s Supremacy is given an involving sense of life and vehemence clings to the orchestration and guitar riff.
The dSp has a stranglehold on bass notes, the track’s penetrating drum slaps are taut and precise, and energetic when they need to be.
Across-the-board upgrade
The HRT is careful not to tip the tonal scale, giving mids and highs bragging rights to decent clarity and insight. Bellamy’s vocal reach isn’t hampered, and cymbals simmer until they shimmer and decay.
There’s enough space around instruments to make one of the band’s most sonically anarchic tracks sound uncluttered and cohesive. It’s an upgrade in almost every way – not only with the LG, but with the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact and Samsung S6 too – timing and rhythmic know-how included.
It instantly finds its stride with the piano structure of Kanye West’s Dark Fantasy, and dynamic variances in his voice and the backing vocals are plain to hear. Take the HRT out of the equation and the scale of the song’s immense production feels flatter.
With a MacBook Air (swapping over the dSp’s lead in the process), the HRT is a consistent performer. Play Hans Zimmer’s You’re So Cool and the xylophone rings through with more fluidity and subtlety than it does from the MacBook’s headphone output, starting and stopping in stricter fashion.
Cheap/easy/brilliant
Compatibility with a vast range of devices is the dSp’s selling point, but if it’s purely laptop sound you’re looking to improve, the Audioquest Dragonfly v1.2 (£130) justifies the extra spend with greater clarity and precision. But giving our everyday devices the gift of better sound is something we’d like – but cannot always afford – to do. The £80 HRT offers a cheap, easy and functional way in, and a good one at that.
It adds clarity, precision and detail in spades, and its Lego-piece size merely makes it an unobtrusive and pocketfriendly extension of your headphone cable. After trying out the dSp, there’s no going back to basic smartphone sound.
VERDICT
A simple, aff ordable and effective way to boost the sound of your everyday portables.