Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
IMO, comparisons based on pure objective measured performances with the ultra (too much) expensive DSC Rossini are irrelevant : they're not intended for the same market nor the same use, they're not based on the same technology as for the DCS. Yes, top range pro and high end brands like DCS, Merging, Prism Sound, etc, are making VERY expensive products, but they're also making VERY good ones. Reliability on the long term and brand services matter too, not only the price tag nor the pure SInad ! I never heard of a major recording, broadcasting or mastering studio using Sabaj or Topping Dacs (maybe it will change soon, but now, that's it). Sadly when I'm using the speakers either connected via RCA>RCA or RCA>AUX there is sometimes drop outs for a second here and there with the sound. These can happen anywhere to as often as every 5 mins to as little as once a day. The jitter performance of this DAC is exemplary. The DPLL setting might be helpful for compatibility if you connect an extremely jittery device to the DAC. Relaxing DPLL to >5 might help in those cases. I don't quite understand why this hasn't gotten more attention? Are people unsure of trying Sabaj? I don't think they are that new of a company. Overall, I have to say I’m pleased with Sabaj’s 2022 design overhaul. I took a look at the older units and they looked very plain and boring.
A simple system like this with balanced out from the Sabaj to a little Class D Hypex nCore amp would I bet provide higher fidelity than many very expensive "High End" products out there! Add good speakers of course, a Raspberry Pi streamer, set up a computer server somewhere on your home network, and you're good to go with a very high performance "Type 2" computer audio system! From there, enjoy the music, upgrade speakers when you can, add room treatments as needed. Good to avoid contracting audiophilia nervosa whenever possible,friends. ;-) T011bc: TL08: WASAPI EndPointVolume CH:2 PhysicalSpeakers:0x00000003 MixFormat CH:2 MixFormat Mask:0x00000003 I'm usually not a big band kind of guy, but a friend recently introduced me to Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band and their album Life In The Bubble (2014, Telarc, DR10) which I only later found out won a Grammy for "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album". With the 2023 Sabaj A20d High Res USB Audio DAC & Headphone AMP, prepare to embark on a sonic adventure like never before. Immerse yourself in the true essence of audio excellence and indulge in a world of unparalleled sound quality.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. 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). The remote is plastic in construction and quite typical of DACs at this price point. There's an on/off button, mute, toggle input, and volume control. The Fn button can be programmed in the menu system to switch to Bluetooth input or toggle between line out / headphone out. Maybe Sabaj could consider mapping other functions like cycling screen brightness. 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.
Think about computers. No one wants a vacuum tube computer for computation. It might be cool to own one as it would be cool to own an Antithykera replica. But technology moves forward. 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 ;-). I bought this from Hi-fi express ( @peterwen) and waited patiently for it to arrive from China. Overall impression is good and I enjoy using my headphones with the DAC/H.AMP These drop outs do not happen when using the headphone output and only when using the A20d as a pre amp.Sabaj A10d features x4 OPA1612 OP-AMPs (two for each DAC chip) and it can dish out around 1 watt of power into a 32-ohm load. The unit drives my Hifiman HE-R9 and Sennheiser 58X, easily without breaking a sweat. The unit does not get hot either. As for the output impedance, the values are perfectly fine. The XLR out has an impedance value of 100Ω and the HP outputs are nearly 0Ω. This means that it plays nicely with even the most sensitive IEMs out there on the market.
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