The Next Level with Perfection!

PROs: noticeable soundstage expansion of connected IEMs/headphones, neutral, resolving, rich tonality, expanded sound dynamics, pitch-black background, built-in battery with decent playback time, high output power and current drive, many configurable settings with an easy-to-navigate OLED screen, solid build with an eye-candy cassette design, magnetic (MagSafe) rear panel, and included high-quality USB-C OTG cable.

CONs: price, no Bluetooth connection.

The product was provided to me free of charge for review purposes in exchange for my honest opinion.

The manufacturer’s website: NiPO. It can be purchased from authorized retailers, such as Musicteck.

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Intro.

Last year, when I had the chance to test and review the NiPO A100 USB DAC, I didn’t expect a “dongle” to elevate my smartphone’s audio performance to mid-fi (and higher) DAP level. Despite its minimalist design and some shortcomings, such as the lack of a display, limited settings, and somewhat awkward charging, I was so focused on its sound performance that I didn’t mind them too much. With the “dongle” market becoming saturated, manufacturers are getting creative to stand out by adding more features, higher output power, internal batteries, and higher-quality analog components. NiPO managed to accomplish most of that in a very slim device, with a convenient built-in magnetic attachment.

Once the A200 Pro was announced, it looked, on paper, like they had taken every critical comment very seriously, addressing and implementing most of the suggestions, improving the design’s ergonomics and usability, and boosting the specs to the next level. And as a cherry on top, they updated the design to look like a classic cassette tape. Of course, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. After spending 2+ months with the A200 Pro, talking about it on Head-Fi threads, and featuring it in half a dozen of my latest reviews, I realized I had never put together a dedicated write-up. So, here is the full, detailed review of NiPO’s latest release: their flagship A200 Pro USB DAC magnetic dongle.

Unboxing and Accessories.

A200 arrived in a compact box, featuring cassette tape cover art on the exterior.  Under the box’s cover, the USB DAC sat on the top tray, secured in a foam cutout.  Once the tray is removed, you will find the accessories and a detailed multilingual user’s guide with a lot of helpful info, including the breakdown of all the settings.

The accessories included O-shaped and C-shaped magnetic stick-on rings for devices that don’t support MagSafe magnets. If you have an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy phone with a magnetic case, this shouldn’t be a problem. For older devices, or if you want to attach the A200 to the back of your DAP, these could come in handy. Also included was the new USB-C to USB-C OTG cable with a slim, right-angled connector. The cable is well constructed and very flexible for use on the back of the smartphone.

Design.

While A200 is not as small as a typical dongle without a battery, it remains compact, measuring 93.6mm x 60.5mm x 11.6mm, and is relatively lightweight at 112g. It is slimmer than a deck of cards and smaller (vs 94.5x61x10.8mm) and lighter (vs 131g) than A100. It has a solid build and features a unibody aluminum alloy chassis. I have a regular Galaxy S25 phone, not the Plus or Ultra, which supports wireless charging, and my UAG case already features a built-in magnet similar to MagSafe. Given the regular size of my S25, the A200’s width is even narrower than the phone’s case width and is approximately two-thirds of the phone’s length. This allows it to be hidden behind the phone when piggybacked without blocking the two top lenses of my phone’s camera.

The chassis is available in black or gold finishes, with gold buttons and a slider. The magnetic side features N52-grade Neodymium magnets that attach firmly and feel secure on the back of my S25. The opposite side of the A200, facing outward, features a real treat in the form of a detailed classic cassette tape design, including a hard glass surface with printed cassette “spools” and a crisp 0.87” 2-line OLED display that gives you a clear overview of many settings, such as Filter, EQ, Gain, Audio format and sampling rate, Play/Pause, Battery level, Volume level, and PO/LO/Coax selection. For those unfamiliar, the A100 didn’t have a display, and its functionality was limited, with some settings requiring guesswork.

Comparison of A100 vs A200:

Without exaggeration, A200 Pro’s functionality and usability are a HUGE step up from A100. At the bottom of the device, you will find 3.5mm SE and 4.4mm BAL phone ports, which can also be configured as Line Out, while A100 was PO only. Plus, you can configure the 3.5mm port as Coax. Next to it, in the middle, is a USB-C data port, and there is also an independent USB-C charging port, allowing you to use this USB-DAC with a separate charger while operating. This was a major drawback of the A100, because its USB-C port was shared between data and charging, and you couldn’t charge the device during playback while using it as a DAC. And, on top of that, the A100 battery level was limited and indicated only by the color of the LED light around the port, while the A200 offers a clear 3-bar battery level indicator right on the display with:

• 3 bars (above 80%)
• 2 bars (40%-79%)
• 1 bar (2%-39%)
• 0 bars (battery level around 1%)

Having a built-in battery is very helpful when using A200 with a smartphone, as it ensures you don’t drain the smartphone’s battery while using A200’s internal battery. And on either desktop or smartphone, you can also add a small portable battery to charge it during playback if you run low on power.

The button controls are located on the right side, relative to the ports on the bottom. They feel very solid and have a nice tactile response. At the top, there is a spring-loaded slide button (to one side) that you push and hold for a few seconds to turn on the device, or slide (non-spring-loaded) in the opposite direction to set the hold function. Below it, you have + and – buttons to change the volume or cycle through options under each menu setting. The last button, labeled “M”, is slightly spaced apart from +/- and has a multi-function assignment. During playback, you press M to conveniently Play/Pause the audio without turning on your Smartphone display or entering the app’s playback screen. Long-pressing it enters the settings menu, and continuous short-pressing steps through every menu setting, where you can use +/- to change/select options under each one.  The last value you settle on will be selected under that setting. To exit the settings menu, press and hold the M button again.  When the display screen turns off after a timeout, press either +/- button to turn it back on.

The following settings are very clear and easy to read, all accessible from within the menu since there is no app support.

Gain: Low/Mid/High

Filter (based on AKM DAC filters):

• SLI – Super Slow Roll-off I
• SR – Sharp Roll-off
• LR – Slow Roll-off
• DSR – Short Delay Sharp Roll-off
• DLR – Short Delay Slow Roll-off
• LDD – Low Dispersion Short Delay
• SLII – Super Slow Roll-off II

EQ: E0 – off, EQ1 – pop, EQ2 – Classical, EQ3 – Jazz, EQ4 – Rock, EQ5 – Dance

Lineout: Off, On

BAL: Left/Right, adjustable in 0-12 levels

POM (Power off memory): Off, On

Coax: Off, On

UAC (compatibility): 1.0, 2.0

BRIGHT (screen): 1..10

DOT (screen time out): 30s, 1min, 3min

LANG: Chinese, Eng, Japanese

VER (fw): A200Pro v1.7

RESET (to default factory): No, Yes

Under the Hood.

In the heart of A200, you will find an AKM AK4497SVQ DAC with support for PCM (32bit/768kHz) and DSD512; a change from A100, which featured an ESS ES9039Q2M DAC. A200 also uses the same ultra-low-noise SGM8262 op-amp chip as A100, and it features two of them.

The A200 signal path architecture is similar to that of the A100, starting with USB Isolation, an integrated magnetic isolation that prevents interference with the electronic circuit, followed by Data Reconstruction and USB Decoding, which send the digital data to the DAC. The DAC’s analog output passes through NiPO’s ultra-linear, single-stage gain-design headphone amplifier circuit. This block consists of a self-developed, fully discrete CMMT Current Mirror Technology I/V conversion circuit, a low-pass (LPF) filter, and a voltage amplifier (based on the SGM8262). While few details have been provided, NiPO mentioned that compared to the A100 design, the CMMT and amplification circuits in the A200 design have been further optimized to handle lower-voltage signals better and reduce background noise, despite the higher output power.

The output specs of the amplifier section of the design, scaled up in power, are as follows: 3.5mm SE, 2V output, 0.22ohm output impedance, and 405mW @32ohm; 4.4mm BAL, 4V output, 0.44ohm output impedance, and up to 1620mW @32ohm. The output power increased drastically from 125 mW (SE) to 525 mW (BAL) in A100. The output is optimized for both low-impedance/high-sensitivity IEMs and high-impedance/low-sensitivity headphones, all of which I tested and verified on the A200.

Furthermore, like the A100, the A200 features a built-in battery that serves as its sole power source. This approach prevents your smartphone’s battery from draining and ensures a stable power supply by filtering effectively. It features a 3900mAh battery with an impressive playback time of approximately 12 hours at the 4.4mm output, a slight improvement over the A100, especially given the A200’s higher output power.

In my review of the A100, I noted that the design was minimalist, lacking a display and many settings.  Many other reviewers and audiophiles echoed this; however, everyone agreed that the sound performance was very impressive.  The A200 has almost reinvented itself since its original release, retaining its impressive sound performance with a new level of finesse and an all-new design that takes it to a whole new eye-candy level, with greatly improved usability!

Page 2 – Sound analysis, Comparison, and Conclusion.