ALO Audio Pilot
Compact DAC for phone or tablet
If you care a little about sound quality, then you are probably also aware that an excellent wired headphone is preferable, rather than a pair of the wireless kind. Now that you're walking around with your iPhone or Android phone in your pocket anyway, you might as well get the best possible sound out of it. The ALO Audio Pilot is an excellent solution to this and even has a few tricks up its sleeve.
Decoding of DSD and MQA
Even though this is one of the most compact yet serious DACs we have seen, the ALO Audio Pilot is quite prepared to deliver the best in mobile music consumption. This mini-DAC comes with an ESS Saber 9281C Pro chipset, which supports the decoding of common audio files, both stored on the phone and from streaming services. But it also supports DSD and full decoding of MQA - not just decoding but also unfolding! .. For example, if you have TIDAL Masters on your iPhone, you can stream the music in the highest quality and enjoy the sweet result in your headphones. ALO Audio Pilot is equipped with a small diode that lights up blue for ordinary music files, red for files over 48kHz, and purple when decoding MQA.
In short, the ALO Audio Pilot is a pocket rocket that will reward you daily when listening to music on the go. ALO Audio Pilot comes with USB-C to female 3.5mm jack, and includes a USB-C-to-Lightning adapter for iPhone. Note that some Android phones need to use a specific app to send bit-perfect audio out of the USB port - for example USB Audio Player PRO.
| Output, Headphone | 3.5 mm TRS |
| Audio decoding | DSD64 / 2.8 MHz, DSD128 / 5.6 MHz, MQA decoder and renderer |
| Supported sample rates, kHz | 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 352, 384 |
| Supported bit depth | 16 bit, 24 bit |
| Audio chipset (DAC) | ESS Sabre 9281C Pro |
| In the box | Users guide |