DAC Chip: Undisclosed
PCM 32bit – 384kHz, SNR: -95, Power: Undisclosed, USB Type-C Male, 3.5mm SE (Microphone: YES), Metal Chassis & OFC Cable

Listening Equipment: Etymotic ER4SR, HZSOUND Heart Mirror, Moondrop Aria, FOSTEX T40RP MK3, VE Monk GO, VE Asura 2.0. Source: USB 2.0 iPhone 7 (Deezer HiFi) ddHiFi TC28i Lightning Adapter

LISTENING EQUIPMENT USED IMPARTED HUGE INFLUENCE TO SOUND IMPRESSIONS & RATING

💚PROS

Analogue neutral warm timbre, super airy smooth
Mild, well controlled dynamics
Very smooth Treble with equally smooth decays
Balanced Mids with organic tonality, realistic vocals
Round edged tone for percussions and guitars
Strong and impactful Mid-Bass
Audible Sub-Bass presence
Wide soundstage with great spacing
Great speed and transients
Great layers separation and imaging
Works great with iOS via MFi certified adapters
Excellent with Lo-Fi and poor quality sources
Good Macro and Micro Details, depends on how resolving the paired IEMs/Buds/HPs are

💔CONS

Can be overly smooth and lean on warm IEMs/Buds/HPs
Weak driving power, anemic with high impedance or low sensitivity IEMs/HPs
Amazon only release
May suffer from QC issues, if you are lucky you get a great copy, with $9 there has to be a compromise since this is not a bespoke handmade unit, it is an assembly line product, probably with near zero QC (just like tons of other ultra budget Dongles)

VERDICT

BREXLINK. Probably one of the smoothest and round edged sounding Dongle tested so far. Not too long ago I have tested and reviewed JCally JA04, which offered similar sonic characteristics to this BREXLINK, that 1980-1990s analogue sound of Aiwa cassette players I loved so much during those times. Compared to JA04, this unit offers audibly better timbre and tonality which is faithfully neutral without honky mids observed on that JCally unit. In fact I believe the biggest strength of this BREXLINK, correctly presented analogue neutral sound – evident when paired with Diffused Field Neutral earbud/IEM (VE Monk GO, HZSOUND Heart Mirror & Etymotic ER4SR).

However it does not synergize too well with the already warm sounding Moondrop Aria and VE Asura 2.0. Especially with Aria being the “slowest” of my IEMs, the pronounced smoothness of BREXLINK does not jive in well enough. Aria shines the best with sparkly speedy source. For VE Asura, which is an already very smooth warm Mids focused Earbuds, the added smoothness from BREXLINK combo are a bit fuzzy sounding, VE Asura 2.0 sounds better with crisp sources. The silver lining of this, it means BREXLINK is super resistant to any type of sibilance and fatigue element.

The smoothness exhibited by this BREXLINK unit jive in well with highly technical and resolving IEMs/Buds/Headphones. Making it highly resistant to sibilance and very forgiving on Lo-Fi recordings. However, this also mean that BREXLINK itself is not technically focused, paired with a non technical IEMs/HPs then it will be largely musical and smooth. Details and transparency will not be as great.