– SGM8262 × 2 – Dual Op-Amp
– 550 mW @ 32Ω – Powerful Output
– Multiple Ultra-Low-Noise Power Chips
– High/Low 2-Stage Gain Adjustment
– 3.5mm & 4.4mm Dual Jacks
– upto 32Bit / 768kHz DSD256 playback
Total Score
Introduction
Greetings to all Hifitopia readers on these hot June days! Today, I’m here to introduce a product from a company I consider audiophile-friendly and whose products I personally admire—a product that offers incredible value for its price. Here it is: the Octave from Nicehck, a brand you’re all familiar with!
The Nicehck Octave is a product I’ve been testing as part of my Synergy equipment reviews for quite some time, and I’ve been working hard to bring you a thorough review. I know you love this kind of high-quality, affordable product—and so do I!
Before diving into the review, I’d like to thank Nicehck for sending me this unit for an independent review and for adhering to our principles of honesty. I spent about 120 hours with the unit before starting the review (excluding burn-in).
Design & Build
The Nicehck Octave comes in a fairly compact box that includes everything you need. It focuses on a good price-to-performance ratio rather than excessive costs: the box contains the Octave, its cable, a USB-A adapter, and the documentation.
The Octave’s build quality features a sturdy plexiglass body and a well-designed metal chassis. The front panel, made of plexiglass, features a status LED. On one side are the volume up/down and control buttons, while the other side houses the gain switch. Yes, the gain switch 🙂
The 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs are side by side, while the USB-C port is located directly across from them. The cable has a braided design and looks like SPC; it feels quite high-quality. They really went the extra mile with the data cable 🙂
Technology
Here’s where the rubber meets the road:
The Nicehck Octave features the 9039q2m DAC chip and is equipped with an amplifier stage powerful enough to require a gain switch. This fantastic combination delivers 550 mW of power at 32 ohms. It features 100-level volume control, and they’ve managed to achieve this with extremely even isobaric intervals. All of this is incredible for this price range.
App
As if these amazing technologies and high-quality components weren’t enough, there’s also app support! The Nicehck Octave comes with an app that offers a 10-band EQ, lets you select DAC filters, and makes it easy to perform active firmware updates.
The flexibility in tonal adjustments here holds a lot of potential. Among the DAC filters here are even NOS options! For this price range, it’s simply incredible.
Synergy
Here, you’ll see a detailed explanation of the results from pairing the Nicehck Octave with various IEMs. Let’s start with a general observation: It’s powerful enough to drive any type of IEM with ease, even those that are difficult to drive. Tonal-wise, it’s so well-balanced that it pairs well with virtually any IEM in a versatile way.
Moritz Audio Aura & Nicehck Octave
H gain, %30–35 volume.
The Nicehck Octave, which delivers incredible performance for its price and size, is a real standout in this pairing as well. The total setup cost for this duo comes in at around $500, and the technical performance you get is outstanding. The result is a dynamic, detailed, relatively balanced sound that pairs well with many genres of music. Tonally, the resulting sound profile reflects about 90% of the Aura’s own sound signature while also hinting at the body added by the Octave. The Octave is surprisingly successful at bringing out the Moritz Aura’s technical capabilities. Of course, it’s narrower and slightly more confined compared to its bigger siblings, but it still offers excellent separation and handles multiple instruments well. It’s a setup that makes you pause and think before spending a thousand dollars on a source. My score for this high-performance pairing is 9.5/10.
Sivga Que UTG With Nicehck Octave
4.4mm, L gain, Slow-LL Filter
Priced under $100 and featuring neutral-sounding tones, it’s no surprise that these two devices pair together perfectly. The Nicehck Octave is a dongle that uses the new entry-level 9039 chip and has a sound profile to match. Additionally, since the Octave is supported by an app with built-in EQ, this pairing offers considerable tonal flexibility. Although I’m generally against EQ, I can’t deny the versatility it adds. In any case, even when I listen without an EQ, the Octave and Sivga Que UTG sound excellent together. This duo really takes value for money to the next level.
It has a very balanced tone—an incredibly consistent timbre for this price point. At the same time, the sound is detailed, textured, and high-resolution. The technical execution is homogeneously distributed. An excellent price-to-performance ratio. A very clear 9.9/10 pairing.
Sound
Let’s move on to my general assessment and opinion regarding the sound. First of all, it’s very clear that the Nicehck Octave is a dongle DAC that outperforms its price point. That’s for sure. The sound it produces is, technically speaking, far superior to what you’d expect for the price, and the tonal character it delivers is versatile and practical. The Octave lets you enjoy the new 9039 at a very reasonable price, with good amplification—and app support to boot. When you put all this together, the result is truly commendable.
It boasts incredible transparency across the entire spectrum, yet it’s by no means thin—there’s always sufficient body. 98% of the sound is colorless and neutral. Finding this at this price point is truly rare. Its resolution is excellent, and the timbre consistency is incredible. Even the subtle analog touch it adds to the sound when you switch to NOS mode is extremely professional. The technical distribution is nearly flawlessly homogeneous, and the resolution and overall detail retrieval are exceptionally successful. Both the soundstaging and the overall imaging capabilities are above average. The background silence is flawless.
Last Words
There’s really not much to say here—just a few key points. The Nicehck Octave is amazing. It definitely deserves a spot on my list of recommendations. I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone reading this review, and I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Nicehck for producing such a great product. The Octave is one of the best value-for-money audio devices of 2026.
