Joined in 2023 
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Well, all in all, one more very good performer for not much money from a now rather well know chinese brand. bits resolution is really not much to ask of modern DACs these days and the graphs basically look like they're layered on top of each other with minuscule variations. Notice that the only mentionable difference is that DACs do have slight frequency response variations, but even this is less than 1dB difference up at 20kHz (and often this is a reflection of the filter selected). Discover the ultimate audio experience with the 2023 Sabaj A20d High Res USB Audio DAC & Headphone AMP. This groundbreaking product combines state-of-the-art technology, unrivaled performance, and versatile features to redefine your audio journey. The DAC is really solid and on the SP200 I love the sound and 5.14 volts I think it does. No driver issues, standard USB drivers and ASIO like every SMSL DAC.
Discover the ultimate audio experience with the Sabaj A20d 2023 High Res USB Audio DAC & Headphone AMP. This groundbreaking product combines state-of-the-art technology, unrivaled performance, and versatile features to redefine your audio journey. Key Features: AK 4499 EX Chip Audio DAC with Headphone AMP Notice that I've turned on the "Peak" tracing as well to capture the highest values across the 8-average readings. Not unusual to see some 60Hz mains hum with harmonics getting into the measurements with unbalanced connections. We're basically looking at -110dB RCA and -120dB XLR noise floor and distortions otherwise. To my taste Sound Color 2 and 4 sound more pleasant on HE1000 Stealth on balanced output and the following EQ settings: So far, this DAC looks great and the performance is certainly very promising! And yes, it does sound excellent as a high-fidelity DAC. But let me not get ahead of myself quite yet - all in good time. ;-)T011bc: TL08: WASAPI EndPointVolume CH:2 PhysicalSpeakers:0x00000003 MixFormat CH:2 MixFormat Mask:0x00000003 I've had more time to try this and compare it to the SMSL SP200 using an M300 DAC with the same default settings. With the Beyerdynamic T90 I like it more overall, but the differences are few. Wednesday the 600ohm DT880 is coming in so I can adventure in high gain mode and really give it a workout. On the T90 in middle gain -24db is already feeling too loud to stay at. I'll try to keep a spare one here to send in for measurements if Amirm gets time, but with the move that's a big project by itself.
Over the years, there has been much talk about DSD within the audiophile hobby. The problem is that there's really very little actual native DSD content out there; I guess in a way similar to how in recent years there has been little native, pure analogue vinyl without digital processing. Given the limitations of analogue (generational losses) and 1-bit PDM (a.k.a. DSD, difficulty with editing), this should be of no surprise to most astute audiophiles. Temps not even very warm, the amp and DAC are the same temps to the touch, just to give an idea how not warm it is. Yeah, MQA is still floating around. I don't mind capturing a few of those impulse responses depending on how much detail I want to achieve with a product review just to see if there has been evolution in some of what MQA is doing under the hood. And yeah, sometimes we see that the MQA feature might actually have unintended effects like that "Processor" mode which users should be aware of.
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I played with the DPLL menu setting a bit; supposedly lower values could improve jitter performance, and larger number improves compatibility. I did not see any significant difference with the Squeezebox Touch so just kept the setting at the default of 5 for the remainder of my tests. With that, ladies and gents, I hope you're having a great Northern Hemisphere summer! And as always, enjoying the music...
The A20d 2023version boasts a preamp mode that enhances your audio output. With an output amplitude of up to 4.6Vrms through the XLR output and 2.3Vrms through the RCA output, you have the freedom to choose from three different output modes. Whether you prefer a fixed volume, variable volume control, or DSD pass-through, this device caters to your specific needs. High-Performance Headphone AMP The A20d's IR receiver actually receives IR signals. I was using a Harmony Companion Remote with Hub with the D90SE. I use IR blasters (more than and different from the two that come with it) and commands (from the remote or from start/end sequences) would frequently get missed. That was with the IR extender right over the IR receiver on the D90SE. With the A20d in the same place the D90SE was, and with the IR extender well away from the A20d's receiver (if it was this far from the D90SE's receiver all commands would be missed), I have yet to experience a missed command. Based on my listening (and our blind test results), filter phase effects are subtle assuming no significant frequency response changes and of the options available, I prefer a standard linear setting not just in testing but also in personal listening. Be mindful of potential intersample overload with loud, compressed music hitting beyond 0dBFS true peak. Use of volume normalization like ReplayGain or "Headroom management" (-3dB) in Roon will certainly sort things out. Other menu settings include the choice of 7 PCM filters, 4 DSD low-pass options (47/50/60/70kHz), the DPLL setting to fine-tuning jitter tolerance (level 5 default), and there's a switch for "SPDIF Mode" for "Normal" or "Processor" - the latter setting routes the S/PDIF interface data through the XMOS processor which allows MQA processing. Of note, there's also a headphone gain setting of LOW or HIGH (+8dB). Since I'm basically "throwing the book" of measurements at this device, we can see that certain characteristics are the result of the ESS DAC chip itself. For example the "hump" (THD and IMD) between -45 to -25dBFS or so, and the sinusoidal pattern of odd harmonic distortions when examined in very close detail with 0.1dB steps using a low-noise notch filter.
VI. Summary - Part II
The new A10d had no trouble producing superb loudness and dynamics in Sennheiser HD650 and Drop Ether CX. Resolution, detail, fidelity, you name it and it was amazing. It even managed to drive my difficult Dan Clark Ether CX headphones to very satisfactory volume. As the result, it does provide a nice warm and clean sound but less meaty and punchy than my Loxie D50 AK4499 dac+ SMSL AO200. It seems a bit harsh on treble or upper mid range. It is also less resoution than Topping E50 Dac with ES9068AS. Comparing it to Musician Pegasus R2R, Pegasus provides smooth sounding and wide soundstage than A20d, like the air blow smoothly to your face rather than directly point to your face. My rekon you should pair with EQ or Pre-amp (hardware). (* I dont like Roon EQ)
Yeah, going forward, I think it's good for these increasingly high dynamic range DACs to give a dB here and there to improve the overhead. With objective awareness, I think at some point even objective audiophiles will be very much satisfied with the numbers we're seeing and move on ;-). Sabaj is a company that manufactures DACs & AMPs under the wing of the same parent company as SMSL, one of the leading manufacturers in the industry. Similar to SMSL, Sabaj also has a wide range of desktop products including power amplifiers. Sabaj A10d 2022 Now, I would ask for an important precision : in his review, Amir says the first setting shows much more distorsion and spurious tones. How is called this setting, is it the default one ? Within the menu controls, you can change the brightness (5 levels). Also, you can set the "Dimmer" time which is how many seconds the display is shown (choice of always turned on, or auto-off up to 60 seconds). I like this auto-off feature but I wish it automatically turned on each time something changes like say the samplerate or switching between DSD/PCM. Also, I would have liked an intermediate setting where the screen stays on all the time but actually dimming to lowest brightness instead of turning off completely. Notice that there is no dedicated power LED so with the screen off, the DAC could still be on or it could actually be in off/sleep mode and we would not know the difference. Not a big issue IMO.My reaction wasn't focused on pure performances, because they're all actually very good models, but on reliability, brand services and advises, upgrading, etc. This has a price too, so these expensive products used every day fduring a long time in studios can't be compared with Sabaj, SMSL, Topping and co.
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