The paw s1 is built to last.It sounds perfect with the added eq settings u can customize the sound for the iems connected.

Great little dac/amp from Lotoo. I was astonished to hear it's capability using Tidal with UAPP. It is as if I was hearing music from Accuphase amp with Proac speaker from such a little device. So much detail retrieval that I hardly hear vinyl. A must buy for an Audiophile. Great discovery from LOTOO brand.

This is amazing dac amp at this price! Not sure if its this dac or is it AKM dac chip that results in an amazing .. not sound .. but music!
Build quality is excellent.
It has 4.4 mm balanced out also!
It has inbuilt amp with gain setting. It drives my Sundara in balanced mode on high gain setting easily. I keep vol at 85-90/100.
It also has preset EQ settings (jazz, techno, dance, classic, game, movie etc) to change them as per your liking. I keep it at Radio for fuller sound both for vocals and games.
A good source e.g Spotify-> Lotu Paw S1 -> a good earphone or headphone, preferably in balanced mode -> Amazing music!!

Shopping experience:
- 5 out of 5 for theaudiostore. I am a happy customer.
- Great price for this unit.
Support:
- Mr. Pritam supported to me the fullest extent. 5 out of 5 again.
Pros:
- Works with any source out of the box [But iPhone needs addtional cable costing 3k]. I wish theaudiostore makes this clear upfront.
- Two gain modes (Low and High) to drive various outputs.
- Two outputs (unbalanced and balanced Pentaconn). Satisfies every music nerd out there.
- Extremely helpful display for EQ/ATE mode, volume, gain and source resolution.
- Does not need external battery or power source (Thanks Mr. Obvious).
- Heavenly music quality and zero noise (critical for sensitive IEMs). You dont even need a Hi-Res source. Regular source will do. I use PC and iPhone as source, and Sony XM3 and Blon BL-03 IEM as outputs.
- Lotoo's legenday ATE mode available on this DAC.

Now for some (minor) cons:
- No Bluetooth.
- No music playback controls on the DAC unit.
- No companion app to fine tune EQ and other things.
- The bit rate or sample rate display is inconsistent with source. It shows 32/48 for 256 AAC from PC. Sample rate is always accurate though.
- iPhone->CCK->USBA-USBC->USBC-USBC would be your dongle hell for iPhone.
- No volume controls from iPhone when DAC is connected.

Must buy for any music enthusiast. Just go for this for the display alone. Never buy a dongle which has color indicators for source quality.

Good usb c dac amp.

Firmware update available on Lotoo website. Updated from 1.0.0.7 to 1.0.0.10. (It accepted the file transfer only after updating first to 1.0.0.8). Strangely after the update the MQA titles on Tidal downsampled to 44.1 (OFS 4x) from the preupdate 88.2kHz ! Also the L/R reversal noted in the 4.4mm balanced output was not corrected after the update.

Titles tested - (all Tidal versions in Hi-Res) -
1. Speed Demon by Michael Jackson - The stereo reversal is noted well here - the bike moves from right to left on the 3.5 and from left to right in 4.4 (seriously ?... actually shouldn't matter but can be disconcerting when hearing favorites).
2. The Man Machine by Kraftwerk (they are the forgotten Fathers of Electronica/Techno) - the MQA version on Tidal showed a lowered sampling rate (44.1 KHz) after the update.
3. The Wall by Pink Floyd (the magician was the sound engineer Alan Parsons) - ABITW 1,2 and the Happiest Days of my Life in between them - shows off the value of 'gapless playback' (which appeared after the update).
4. Tum Hi Ho - Mithoon/Arijit Singh - Sound stage and transparency evident in this song.

Gear used -
1. Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro - on the 3.5mm SE - decent amplification that drove these 250 ohm cans. On high gain - could enjoy them at 80/100 volume. On the Lightning-3.5mm cable from Apple I had to drive the volume up to 100 to get a decent sound.
2. iPhone 12 Pro Max - Lotoo showed up to be better than the proprietary Apple Lightning-3.5mm cable (which also is a DAC without amplification).
3. Fiio FH5s (open-back) - Lotoo made these shine to their potential - real open and wide soundstage - more than the closed-back 770. Comfortable volume - 45/100 on High gain and 60/100 on Low gain - through balanced 4.4mm with IEMs.

The USB C-Lightning OTG cable was worth the extra cost for (finally) turning an iPhone into a music player. (I cribbed about it initially about tight fit of the USB C male end but realized it actually clicked into place securely). I think this cable should have been included in the cost of the device like Earmen Sparrow and Beats 2.

Decent Amp / Beware - it is a transparent DAC - so GI/GO

Overall - 7.8/10

Excellent ordering and delivery experience from Audio Store. Got it within 24h of ordering - keep it up Folks !