I thought I would start a dedicated thread to share our experiences with Tempotec products.
I purchased the Sonata HD Pro last year. It seems to work as advertised. I have an Amazon Ultra HD
music account and when I check the stream quality, it shows device capability up to Amazons 24/192 max.
I don’t honestly use it that much anymore because I use my Sennheiser M2 BT fed from my iphone 12 pro when I go for my longish walks. To my 75 yo ears, AptX Bluetooth on my phones sounds darned good.
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Tempotec Variation V6, the best android dap under 300$
Pros:
Android OS, Great Sound Quality
Apps works smoothly
5 dedicated outputs
2* AK4493SE as dac chipset
Premium build quality
Huge power on outputs
Ldac, aptx-HD Hi-res low latency wireless codecs
Free pu leather case+screen protectors
Great pricing
Good Battery back up
Cons:
Display has flickering issue
Notification light does not work properly
Sometimes Colored tones on music
Old OS, atleast 9 is prefarable
Intro:
Tempotec seems to be very experienced while releasing their new products.
Previously their released items like sonata hd pro, sonata hd III / V, sonata e35, sonata MHD have already drawn attention among the music lovers. Their last released dap was the V1A(2019) which was obviously not android os supported but was full of good specs like AKM4377ECB dac that decodes 768khz/32bit, DSD direct stream digital, LDAC for Bluetooth,1200 mah battery at 0nly 100$
Now they have come with their latest Android dap Tempotec V6 Variations.I think .Tempotec team has done a lot of R&D works before launching the V6. Because it seems to be a great DAP with less price. The V6 is available now on kickstarter only at 279$ with a free 64gb memory card, one year warranty & Worldwide free shipping.
Many many thanks to Tempotec for giving me an opportunity to test the Tempotec V6 but of course that will not influence my review.
Specifications:
Android System: Android 8.1
Screen: 4.2", 720Pixel
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 425
ROM: 16 GB
RAM: 2 GB
Wifi: 5.0 and 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth:Version 5.0 (LDAC,AAC,APTX-HD)
DAC: 2x AK4493SEQ
Op Amps: 2x OPA1612 and 4x OPA1688
Audio sources: Micro SD Audio, , USB DAC
Supported formats: DSD512,MQA 16X,DXD,PCM 32bit/768khz
SNR: 124dB
DNR: 124dB
THD+N: -111dB
Battery Capacity: 4500 mAh
Charging Time: 1.5h-2 h
Dimensions: 11.6cm x 6.8cm x 1.7cm
Features:
V6 Pyramid DAC Circuit
2AK4493SEQ+2OPA1612+4*OPA1688 fully symmetrical pyramid digital-to-analog conversion circuit, let V6 have extraordinarily powerful support of the end output devices.
Output level: 2VRMS/3.5mm, 4VRMS/4.4mm
Output Power: 330mW/32Ω/3.5mm 610mW/32Ω/4.4mm
Fully supports APPs of 3rd parties
As long as connected to WIFI, you can enjoy music by stream media app including but not limited to TIDAL, Spotify, Qobuz ,Deezer and Apple music.
Deeply optimized OS: SRC bypass architecture makes music transferring efficiently at low latency.
Physical Appearance:
I am assuming Tempotec has decided to follow the trend and put a glass panel on the back of the dap. The device is robust and brickish. Although the weight is only 200 gram similarly to a phone but it feels that I am holding something heavy . The weight distribution is not like a phone as the dap size is slightly smaller than mobiles .It does not leave any space in my hand when I hold it but It can be held in one hand and easily operable with single hand . The upper bezel is tiny but the bottom bezel is a bit too large. The volume rolling button worked very effectively . After just rolling the button there is the appearance of the volume atmospheric layer on the display which helps adjust volume directly from the display.The volume is securely placed inside the groove of the body. So accidental volume level displacement will not happen. I still remember once I was travelling, keeping the hidizs ap80 pro in my pocket.Then it’s volume wheel got turned to the highest sound accidentally and I got completely deaf for a few seconds and got headache later on that day.
Under the volume button there is a Indication light which was supposed to work as below.
PCM ≤ 48kHz: Blue.
PCM 64kHz - 192kHz: Green.
PCM > 192kHz: Orange.
DSD: White.
Charging/low battery (< 20 %): Red.
I am saying it was supposed to work because these functions do not work on my unit.
It only shows red light while charging but does not change color according to the music frequency . It even does not show any responses. Under the indication light there are three buttons for play and pause, next track, previous track. These buttons works perfectly without any issues. On the left side there is a micro sd card slot which supports upto 1TB.
I have liked the provided free pu leather case very much. It feels very premium.It covers up the V6 splendidly. Every buttons and volume wheel was easily accessible over the cover.
On the bottom side of the V6 there are 4 output points
4.4mm Balanced Line Out(LO)
3.5mm Single Ended Line Out(LO)
4.4mm Balanced Phone Output(PO)
3.5mm Single Ended Phone Output(PO)
LO = Line Out for running into an external amplifier with stereo RCA plugs
I have used both PO and LO using only IEM .
The sound was very low on LO then the PO at the same volume level.
So the DAP can be used as a source using external Amplifiers on Line out port for power hungry IEM and Headphones. I must say it is a very useful thing for many people who have high impedance Audio Gears. The golden ports are made of well quality equipments and soldered farmly.Type C input port for charging can also be used with other amplifiers if required. Thus the sound and vrms can also be increased
Display:
Tempotec V6 has 4.2", 720 Pixel display which is okay as a dap. I have run a app called Cpu-Z which is actually an app that reads and verifies the internal specs then shows the results . That app is showing it has 4.68" display . I guess the app added the bezel size along with the display’s actual size . There is a slightly yellowish hue on the screen like a burn display which I didn’t like much but i cannot complain for a dap because there are some other 1000$+ dap whose displays are like this and moreover music quality is the main issue here. The picture quality is very sharp and the brightness is very high. I set the brightness at 20% only. But I have a big complaint about the display quality because I have found out light is flickering from 2 points from the bottom bezel. E books can easily be read from the dap .
Battery:
Battery is about 4550mah, I got a good battery back up from the V6. When I turned off the wifi at night and later checked the battery the next morning, battery drainage was only about 3 %. But if I kept the wifi on then the drainage would be about 15-20%. On average Battery performance is 12 – 15 hrs . It would take 1.5-2 hours to fully charge the dap. When I tried to charge the dap with a 10Watt (5V-2A) adapter the dap didn’t take any charge . It takes charge with 5/6W adapter only.
OS:
The operating system is 8.1 which is pretty old but for a dap i think it is okay . The apps work perfectly . I have installed Youtube, Tidal, Spotify, and Qobuz . These apps work smoothly without any issue , without any bugs, I can easily transfer files from my phone to my dap through the Share it app. 3rd Party apps can be installed from sites without any hassle. Although Qobuz is not available in my country, I could install it from a 3rd party source and could run well on my V6. 2.4 ghz and 5ghz both wifi bandwidth works flawlessly. I heard some v6 reviewers were facing issues with their v6 but I didn’t have to face any. But I wish if the android version was at least 9 .that would have been better.
Sound:
Now here comes the main part of the dap. I would like to describe about the bluetooth connection first. The V6 supports bluetooth 5.0 with latest Codec like LDAC,AAC,APTX-HD which are the latest codecs that supports low latency sound transfer . LDAC enables the transmission of audio content, including High Resolution (Hi-Res) Audio, at the maximum bitrate of 990kbps even over Bluetooth. When I connected the dap with my Anker soundcore boost speaker and played a song I was very amazed . The sound was so clear . When I played songs with other devices connected to my boost the sound be sounded like bloomy , bassy and the vocal was recessed . But this V6 dap as a source performs really amazing . The vocals were forward , the whole song got a new dimension. I was even able to hear the the residue voices while finishing a line and about to start the next line on my speaker which I get to hear with another device as a source.
Now it’s time to talk about the ports output. My Iems were Little dot cu red, Rose technics QT9 M2ks/QT 7 pro 2 , Tralucent 1+X plus 10th year Edition, tri audio meteor, Kinera skuld, Anew x1, Shanling ME80.
I have Actually used the high gain mode all the time when using the v6 with iems.its seems high gain always gave better output with great resolution to me. When using in high gain mode I have to set the volume to 50%-60. But It seems that high gain increases volume within a few decibels , not significantly high like my m15 dongle (near price). The v6 has opa1612 operational apmifier. Previously I have used Haa Fee H9 Amplifier which was so good using the same OPA1612 Op-amp. So the V6 has a very good equipment for amping.
Tempotec V6 is a kind of neutral sounding Dap, Sound is natural and clear, The provided sound is not bright or sharp .Rather, it is a kind of warm sound which was very soothing for me. I have downloaded 2 files from the tempotech v6 site page to check out the timber of Chinese Zither. Timber ( which does mean tone quality) was very much accurate .The echoes of the melody was easily audible. I did like the Zeither sound although I did not like this kind of instrument music. But this kind of instrumental music really helps to better understand the source/iem/headphone quality.
The bass is alright on the V6. Previously I liked boomy bass. But as I am growing older I am moving towards mid-centric . This dap can easily provide bass to bass heavy v shaped IEM/Headphones. Bas is enough, not excessive, do not bleed. Drum kick was punchy and was so satisfying for me for this dap
The vacal is okay as well. For me it seems to stay at a fixed distance all the time for most of the song. Clean and do not get mixed with other instruments. It’s neither recessed nor forwarded. But the guitar string’s edge was rounded . I wished it would be a bit more sharp.
I always remain afraid of treble, I cannot bear high treble and sibilance. But it seems the V6 has handled the treble perfectly .
The V6 was also providing me with a holographic realization while listening to music. There was not any hissing or noise while using it and no harsh.The way it was delivering sound from low to high without any compression was really superb. I could easily separate where the instruments were playing.There were remarkable spaces between the instruments with good texture.
The dap can be used for a long time . No heating issue, does not get any issue. Qobuz , Tidal, and Spotify were working great.There is a dedicated mseb to customize the Equalizer. If anyone has any bright sounding iem they can easily make their eq to make them warm sounding . MSEB is very helpful.
Conclusion:
There is a line that says “Shut up and take my money” when anyone is desperate to see the specs, features, reviews. I would love to use that line for this Tempotec variation V6 Dap. For sound it is definitely worth buying and the sound quality is impressive but I think they must have to work with the display, the notification bar, OS . The OS has some bugs which need to be updated by publishing a Firmware asap. For 279$ the display is okay but when it will become 400$ then the display should be updated. Under 300$ there aren’t any good options available for android as far as i know. So anyone can go for it blindly.
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Tempotec V6
The Tempotec V6 has been loaned to me by Cqtek of Hiendportable.com for me to try out. Cqtek already posted his review of the device on his web (here) so I suggest checking out his review which I haven’t personally read (I always try to avoid other reviews before testing something) but I know that he is usually very thorough in his reviews.
If there is anything that we (Cqtek and I) haven’t covered in our reviews, you can find out more about the V6 by visiting the official Tempotec page here: https://www.tempotec.net/
As always, I have no affiliation with the brand (or any other brand) and will try to remain as sincere and unbiased as possible in my opinions.
Intro…
The Tempotec V6 is a rather recent launch from the brand and it offers quite a feature rich DAP at a very reasonable price, at least in comparison to many other brands in the DAP world.
With native DSD512, MQA 16X, DXD and PCM 32bit/768kHz, it should cover almost any file format that you want to throw at it. It certainly hasn’t had any issues with any formats I have tried in my collection.
Based on Android 8.1, the main music player is Hiby Music, an app that will be familiar to many of you out there. However, as it is based on Android, you should be able to load just about any music app of your preference. Personally I don’t usually use Hiby Music, not because I have anything against it, but in this case I went with it as it was already available and I didn’t go through the installing/uninstalling of apps.
As far as other specs go, it runs on a Snapdragon 425 with 2GB of Ram and 16GB Rom, which should be enough to play music without issues but I’m sure you will be able to bog it down if you start getting trigger happy in the play store.
But anyway, let’s get on with the fun things…
Presentation…
There isn’t much to say in the way of presentation, it comes well packed inside a simple black box that sports the Tempotec brand an logo on the top.
Inside we get the player, a case to protect the DAP, a user manual and a USB to USB-C cable for charging.
Not a lot to get excited about here but enough to cover the needs of those hoping to open and enjoy the DAP.
Build and aesthetics…
The DAP is built from plastic, with glass on both the front and the back. At least I think it is plastic, it could be aluminium but it looks and feels like plastic to me. It does have a bit of a shaped bezel on the right hand side of the player, reminiscent of something from maybe Fiio, with a gold (or brass) coloured volume knob, but the rest is rather non-descript black with square corners.
Of course, if you are using the player inside it’s case, which I recommend, then you are not going to see much of the black or the sharp corners, as the case will cover altmost everything except the screen, wheel and connectors.
There is a fair bit of weight to the player and I also find it to be a little on the large side for my preferences but this is something that each person will have their own feelings about. Obviously the larger size makes for a bigger screen, although there is around 2cm of real estate at the bottom that is not used for the screen (this area sports a V6 logo in silver).
As far as build quality, I don’t thinks it’s bad, especially considering the price, although I am not overly impressed. I feel that a lot of the Shanling offerings are more impressive (also in the aesthetics department) but that could be bias from my part.
Once inside the case, which is a dark british racing green (at least with this one) and pairs quite nicely with the gold knob, then it does resemble something that can maybe be thought of as little more “up-market”, although that is again something that is totally irrelevant.
All in all, I can’t really complain at the build and aesthetics but I am not going to gush over them either.
Functionality…
This section could go on for days as this is a DAP that is based on Android 8.1, therefore you can basically do with it whatever you can do with a phone or tablet (except make calls), how it will perform is a different story.
However, I am not here to give my opinion on it as an Android device, rather as a Digital Audio Player, so I am going to stick to the basics.
So let’s start off with the hardware side of the player itself. We have the wheel located on the right hand side, serving as both volume and as a click button. The way that the wheel is located between the cutouts of the side means that it is only really accessible by using two fingers, one at the front and the other at the back. This also makes it difficult to turn the wheel more than a few millimeters at once, making large volume adjustments by the wheel difficult.
To assist with this, once you turn the volume wheel slightly, the volume bars appear on the screen and you can quickly drag the level to where you need it. This solution stops you accidently raising the volume while it is in your pocket, but does have its own drawbacks. First, if the screen of the player is off (which it turns off automatically after a set time, which you can change of course, it is Android) then turning the volume wheel doesn’t turn the screen on. That means that to get to the volume bars on screen, you need to wake it by pressing the button or double tapping, then turn the volume knob slightly, then make the change on screen. If the device is in your pocket, well, that’s just not going to happen.
Why is this something I am complaining about? Well, I have a lot of music, from all kinds of genres and years, which results in many different production qualities and levels. I am actually quite fond of hitting “shuffle all” and randomly listening to tracks from the whole library. On multiple occasions I have found myself listening to a track that is mastered at a low level and turning the volume up, only for the next track to come on a blast at me until I get chance to grab the player, double tap the screen, turn the wheel and then drag the bar. Not a fun experience 
Moving on… below the wheel there is a light that changes colour to show what format of file is being played and also serves to show that the unit is on. There is cut out in the case for the light and I have to say it gives it a nice touch.
Below the lights we have the buttons that make DAPs special. From top to bottom we have last track, play/pause and next track. These work well although it is difficult to feel which button you are on, especially with the case on.
Moving to the bottom of the player, we find multiple connections. From left to right we get 4.4mm balanced line Out, 3.5mm unbalanced line out, USB-C, 3.5mm unblanced headphone out and 4.4mm balanced headphone out.
It is great to see the line outputs on the player, being dedicated ports rather than just a setting in the menu to set headphone out to full and call it line out. I haven’t measured the outputs but I am sure Cqtek will have (so check out his review). They can also be set to fixed or variable, again, a nice thing to see on a device like this.
On the bottom and top of the unit we get nothing and on the left there is the micro SD Card slot. The card slot is a simple “push to click” without having to mess around with any little silicone covers. You could argue that the silicone covers stop dust from getting in to the socket but this is a moot point once you have the case on (there is no access to the SD without removing the case) and to be honest, I always have a card inserted into my DAPs anyway.
When I received the unit, I inserted a 256gB micro SD which had less than 1gB free, so about 9200 songs. The player took 8 minutes to read the songs and load them into the library, which is not bad but not exactly lightning speed either.
So, that is it as far as the hardware side of things. I am not going to go into the software side of things, I already mentioned (multiple times) that it is Android, so you can pick and choose your favourite player. You can also check out the Hiby Music app by installing it on your phone if you want to get a taste of it.
As far as the performance (running performance, not sound performance), it runs both Tidal and the Hiby Music app quite smoothly except for when I hit “Shuffle All” on 9200 tracks. In that case, when randomly playing the whole library on the micro SD, I found that I would get the odd glitch on tracks now and again, as if a packet was dropped. This didn’t happen when listening to individual albums (even with the same songs) nor did it always happen in the same places on the songs in question, so it leads me to believe that the player has some kind of struggle when using playlists that long (yes, I did try the same songs on the same SD in a different player).
Sound…
So far, I can’t really say I have been too excited about the V6 but here is where it gets much better, in my personal opinion of course.
Once the SD was loaded I grabbed the IEMs that I had on hand, which happened to be the Dunu Vulkan, and hit play. I was greeted with a sound that I can only describe as pleasant, detailed and highly enjoyable.
As some of you probably already know, my main source for IEMs is the iFi Gryphon and I must say that moving from the Gryphon to the V6 certainly did not feel like a let down. The V6 is not quite as warm as the Gryphon but it is by no means as sterile as something like the M2X which is my usual DAP (although I don’t actually use it direct, I use it more as a source to the Gryphon).
The V6 seems to have a very clear and detailed sound, while avoiding becoming too harsh in the upper ranges, something that other sources do exhibit on occasions. At the same time, it does not go too far towards the warm side of things. I actually like iFi as they manage to give a warmer sound without losing any sense of detail or becoming “vague” and this is a similar experience with less warmth.
During the time I have spent with the V6, I have tried a bunch of IEMs and I really can’t say that I dislike it with any of them. It seems to respect the individual characteristics of each IEM without pushing them too far one way or the other (bright or warm). I can’t say that I have found any of them to be a heavenly discovery of synergy but, again, none of them seemed to not work well together either.
I also decided to give it a run with some over ears, I mean, why not?
I have to say that I was very surprised by the results.
The first headphones that I plugged in were the Hifiman Arya v3 (connected to the balanced output with the beautiful Viking Weave Cable that I still need to talk more about) and I really wasn’t expecting much at all. In low gain, at around 75/100, I was already at my usual listening level and the sound was very very pleasing. In fact, I can say that I did not miss the Gryphon at all for powering these headphones. Switching over to high gain, 50/100 on the dial was enough for me to sit back and enjoy music for a very long period.
As the V6 surprised me with the Arya v3, I decided to connect the Arya v2, which I find to be more demanding than the v3. Again, the result was nothing to complain about! I did need to raise the volume level but the overall sound was very pleasing and the V6 performed far better than I would have imagined from a DAP. Ok, it wasn’t quite up to the level of my desktop stack but I didn’t find myself wanting to switch over in order to enjoy the music.
In order to make things even more difficult, I switched over to the HD6XX. These headphones are not only 300 Ohms (making them more difficult to drive), they are also headphones that impress me on not too many devices. Yes, they sound ok on most things with enough power, but the magic only happens on certain devices I have tried so far. Just to make it even more of a challenge for the the V6, I also went with the SE output.
In this case I did find that I needed to be around 75/100 on high gain to get to my usual listening levels, which are not very loud. In fact, I could max the DAP out without it becoming uncomfortable but it was still quite impressive power for the SE output. As far as sound goes, well I wouldn’t say it was magical but that is not really a serious complaint as there aren’t that many devices that have wowed me too much with the HD6XX, and in DAP or even portable form, I can probably only list the iFi Diablo as one of them.
I didn’t spend too much time with the line out of the V6, although I did some brief tests with the Atom and the THX789 being fed (both balanced and unbalance) and to bo honest, I have to say that I prefer the sound of headphones being fed directly from the V6. Yes the external amps did add extra power but that was only really necessary for something like the HD6XX and I didn’t find that the overall signature was that exciting.
That leads me to believe that the great sound of the V6 comes from the combination of the internal DAC and amplifier working together. Obviously I can’t test the amplifier section on its own, as there is no analog input, but I much preferred the sound straight from the device than feeding the external amps.
After playing around with headphones, I went back to IEMs and just enjoyed the performance of this DAP with anything I threw at it.
Conclusion…
As an overall package, I can’t say that I am overly crazy about the Tempotec V6. I find the device itself to be large and cumbersome, I don’t feel it’s beautiful or amazingly built, I am not keen on an Android based DAP, in fact, I would just personally say I don’t like it, if it wasn’t for one thing. The sound.
I really have to say that I am impressed by the sound this device puts out and how it performs with almost anything I have on hand. With IEMs I find it to be an extremely enjoyable listening experience, giving just a slight touch of warmth to things without ever being overdone. With easy to drive headphones, such as the Koss KPH40, it sounds great, and even with planar headphones it performs way better than I would have ever expected it to do.
I am very grateful for having the chance to give this DAP a listen, as it has reminded me of just how important sound is in the overall picture of things. Everything else becomes secondary when you can just relax and enjoy the music.
As always, this review is also available in Spanish both on www.achoreviews.com and on www.youtube.com/achoreviews
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I’m glad to hear that this does well with full size headphones, as that is the primary reason I ordered it. I want to be able to listen anywhere in my house, without a mess of cables going from phone to amp to headphones.
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