Or plainly called the CriCri+ on the box. Amplifiers are essential if sound clarity is something to be desired, but most amps have unnecessary bulk. Many have said that if you want the best ever amplifier, get one with vacuum tubes – so how does this one fare out?
A very bare packaging. Plain white box with the Jaben logo, and that’s all you get. Also, one year warranty!
Opening up, there’s a piece of foam to protect the CriCri+ from any excess force. There’s also another compartment for other included accessories too.
Digging everything out of the box, there are a few things to be found – a mini USB cable, a very short male-to-male 3.5mm audio jack, a pouch, and the Hippo CriCri+ itself.
[nextpage title=”Design”]To begin with, the CriCri+ doesn’t really have much to talk about. It’s a portable USB DAC amplifier that is capable of handling 24 bit/96kHz.
At the front, there’s the Hippo CriCri+ name printed, the functions of buttons drawn, and the logo shown.
There’s a volume wheel at the bottom. At the right side there’s a switch to toggle charging with a red LED, and the mini USB port with another red LED.
At the top, there’s one power button which turns on the blue LED found between the output and input 3.5mm audio jacks at the left side.
The CriCri+ is minimalistic. Unlike its sibling, the CriCri, this one has no individual bass boost or treble gain switches – meaning that the CriCri+ will only have the option to control volume. For some users, this might be a disadvantage.
[nextpage title=”Testing the CriCri+”]I took the CriCri+ for a long time and really used it for every audio product I can find. I used it for the Edifier C3, my usual Beyerdynamic XP2, a Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro, and many more. Here’s that I found out.
The CriCri+ is one hell of a product. It’s small, offers the least possible controls, and yet does what it is supposed to do fairly well – a little too well to be exact. By default, the CriCri+ already had a certain noticeable amount of bass boost to give that extra oomph, and that made the XP2’s bass very unbearable to my ears, and that’s coming from me, a bass lover.
Taking the CriCri+ out with me was rather fun, it’s small enough to fit in the side pockets of my backpack with a whole lot of space to spare. That said, I’m impressed by the performance in general.
There was however, one very tiny problem – one that I wouldn’t worry at all. If the CriCri+ volume is tuned a little higher, the some hissing is bound to happen. Note that it’s never going to be possible to listen to music at such volume for a minute – that’s why it’s a very tiny problem.
[nextpage title=”Battery life”]What I can say for such a small product? The battery capacity is not specified, Hippo’s website has been waaaaay too useful to get any information, and they’re using some very tiny Allen’s key screws to secure the CriCri+.
With extended period of testing, I found out that the CriCri+’s battery can last for a whole day straight without any source. When the mini USB port is connected to a computer or a phone (yes, Android phones that support OTG can actually output digital audio) then it won’t even consume any battery, or at least very slowly. The downside of connecting the CriCri+ to a phone is that the phone’s battery will get drained out fairly quickly – drawing at 0.16 amps.
Remember that switch to toggle charging that I speak of? If that switch is turned off, the CriCri+ will not charge when connected to computers or phones, but when turned on, it drains nearly double the current – at about 0.30 amps. That can surely drain batteries dry!
One last thing that I found out – that CriCri+ did not change in its output quality despite the amount of current it drew. Everything was fairly consistent.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]
So what’s the conclusion for the CriCri+? It’s small, light, portable, yet very durable. It lacks on/off switch for both bass and treble gains, but still performs extraordinarily by default. Battery life is amazing, and it is great in doing what it is intended to do.
For the price of RM490, it’s pretty reasonably priced for a decent DAC with another optional analog input. Especially for all it can do without any fuss or worry.
It’s minimalist, yet works great.
Thanks Jaben Malaysia for letting us review the Hippo CriCri+! Check it out here!
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