Aiyima A80: DAC(ESS9038Q2M) + Amplifier(TPA3255 PFFB) - User Impressions | Owner's Thread

[Scrivs]

I find ironic that your avatar picture is reminiscent of a lil’ DR, of GR research. Your comments reflect the same

 

[ChivoEgg]

I think - YES.

It's supposed to be the upgraded one, as the notes in Amazon's product description indicate.
I ordered mine a week ago and they sent me the original instead of the fully upgraded unit.
The seller company on Amazon gave me a partial refund and made me an order for the upgrade kit so I can do it myself. The kit arrives in January because it comes from China, I'll not have the bluetooth reset button though, but I don't mind, the point is that I ordered a specific amp and they sent me the old one, not even offering an exchange, just the upgrade kit or a full return and refund. Even with reparations like the refund I received and the board on its way, this makes them look bad for sales practices and customer service (I'm talking about the official seller in Amazon for Aiyima, which is called Yima Top).

I'm waiting for the board to come for upgrading the amp to see if it solves some problems I've been having only when using the USB interface, consisting of audio dropouts and cuts of about 1-2 seconds that happen randomly. Everything else is working as expected.

 

[Guddu]

It's supposed to be the upgraded one, as the notes in Amazon's product description indicate.
I ordered mine a week ago and they sent me the original instead of the fully upgraded unit.
The seller company on Amazon gave me a partial refund and made me an order for the upgrade kit so I can do it myself. The kit arrives in January because it comes from China, I'll not have the bluetooth reset button though, but I don't mind, the point is that I ordered a specific amp and they sent me the old one, not even offering an exchange, just the upgrade kit or a full return and refund. Even with reparations like the refund I received and the board on its way, this makes them look bad for sales practices and customer service (I'm talking about the official seller in Amazon for Aiyima, which is called Yima Top).

I'm waiting for the board to come for upgrading the amp to see if it solves some problems I've been having only when using the USB interface, consisting of audio dropouts and cuts of about 1-2 seconds that happen randomly. Everything else is working as expected.

Agreed, I would expect better support as well.
Hope this post may help someone who is looking to order and care to check with seller to be double sure.

 

[yavormoskov]

I have my A80 now with the Sparkos SS3602 OpAmps and really enjoy that sound, it's wider soundstage than the OPA627s I had in before and both are nicer flavoured than the stock NE5532P. I also had the OPA828 but binned those off as they didn't seem to gel with the A80 at all creating a narrow soundstage and muffled sibilance in some music.

I also now run the A80 purely as a power amp being fed RCA input from the Fiio K11 R2R. This config seems to produce a slightly wider soundstage than the A80's own DAC as well as bringing vocals and centrally placed items in the music a couple steps closer to the listener and then opening up the imaging width a tad so it now feels even more lively than it did before.

I hear no addition of raise in the noise floor even at 100% volume when nothing is playing, the R2R is set to LO mode so fixed volume line out.

For all intents and purposes this feels like the perfect pairing and configuration for the type of sound I've enjoyed for decades, an analogue signature without the analogue hiss from my Rotel and NAD Bee amps from back in the day. I do believe I am the only person online using the Sparkos OpAmps in this configuration too.

My speakers are the Triangle Comete 40th Anniversary for reference, those Magnesium horn loaded tweeters REALLY set the soundstage and imaging on fire with this setup.

The VU meters I find cool, it's visually appealing and something nicer to just look at than a sterile faceplate. Can turn it off if desired...

No review mentions that there is display/coil whine if and only if the brightness is set to anything but 100%, my ears (age 41 here...) can hear these whine tones in anything from power bricks to RGB LEDs in keyboards so I just leave the display on max brightness and it's never really a distraction I find. I'm only using the 48v 5A power supply. not the 10A one as that has a fan and is even bigger and costs like £90 here, so no thanks.

My setup:
View attachment 432754

View attachment 432755

A playlist I am thoroughly enjoying currently on this new config is:

And my own curated playlist of stuff my ears enjoy on this:

The setup looks great. How many opamps you had to change? Currently I have two Sparkos lying around. And another question. When there is no 12v trigger signal detected does it turn off automatically? Thank you.

 

[Casimir101]

Do you also use the Equalizer APO with Peace via PC? I still have the 31-band EQ from Spinorama for my speakers; it's a real game-changer.

 

[robbiekhan]

Only the two opamps, I don't use any EQ of any kind no.

 

[ZeroInfinity]

Yup, I have the A80.

I liked the sound of the OPA828 the most. The OPA627 is the predecessor of the OPA828. Like I said, it could just be placebo, but it sounds better to me hahaha.

And I'm glad you like the Muses01. I still have the Muses02 just in case.

I stand corrected. None of the OP amps I used (OPA1612, MUSES02, OPA828) objectively affected the sound outside of expectation bias. Namely:

• The "airy" sparkle from the OPA828s was in fact, intermodulation distortion as a result of its overly high slew rate and GBP. Inside the noisy RF environment of the A80, the op-amp was acting like an RF antenna picking up these switching noise.
• The slew rate advantage is useless for audio. Consider the formula for a sine wave's maximum rate of change 2 pi * fmax * Vp. Even if we assume a worst case Vp of 10V, it would be SR = 2 pi * (20,000) * 10 = 1,507,964 V/s or 1.51 V/μs. The stock NE5532 has a slew rate of 9V/μs which is already 6x faster.
• Human auditory memory lasts a few seconds. It takes minutes to swap op-amps, and even then most people don't level match them rendering any comparison useless.

In short, I returned the stock NE5532P these things shipped with. I have since purchased a UMIK-1 microphone, and used Room EQ Wizard to create a room specific EQ that tames the various axial modes in my room. I can guarantee that proper room mode correction with Room EQ wizard will make a difference orders of magnitude greater than any silly op amp swap.

 

[Guddu]

I stand corrected. None of the OP amps I used (OPA1612, MUSES02, OPA828) objectively affected the sound outside of expectation bias. Namely:

• The "airy" sparkle from the OPA828s was in fact, intermodulation distortion as a result of its overly high slew rate and GBP. Inside the noisy RF environment of the A80, the op-amp was acting like an RF antenna picking up these switching noise.
• The slew rate advantage is useless for audio. Consider the formula for a sine wave's maximum rate of change 2 pi * fmax * Vp. Even if we assume a worst case Vp of 10V, it would be SR = 2 pi * (20,000) * 10 = 1,507,964 V/s or 1.51 V/μs. The stock NE5532 has a slew rate of 9V/μs which is already 6x faster.
• Human auditory memory lasts a few seconds. It takes minutes to swap op-amps, and even then most people don't level match them rendering any comparison useless.

In short, I returned the stock NE5532P these things shipped with. I have since purchased a UMIK-1 microphone, and used Room EQ Wizard to create a room specific EQ that tames the various axial modes in my room. I can guarantee that proper room mode correction with Room EQ wizard will make a difference orders of magnitude greater than any silly op amp swap.

You have landed to the ASR path.....

 

[ZeroInfinity]

You have landed to the ASR path.....
View attachment 502614

Thanks. It was tough getting over the fact I wasted ~$60 op-amp rolling, but better late than never.

 

[Petike1376]

HHello!
I'm thinking about buying such a device. I haven't seen much experience with the built-in DAC here in the forum. Are there any of you who use it connected to a PC? I currently use a Fiio JM21 DAP connected to an Edifier MR5. If I were to switch to an Aiyima A80 with a good quality speaker, would that make a noticeable difference compared to my current setup? Obviously in terms of volume, yes, but right now I'm mainly thinking about the quality. Or, until I buy the bigger speakers, I would connect the AUX output to the Edifier MR5 and use a PC as the input. Is this a viable option? Thanks in advance for your answers!

 

[RandomEar]

HHello!
I'm thinking about buying such a device. I haven't seen much experience with the built-in DAC here in the forum. Are there any of you who use it connected to a PC? I currently use a Fiio JM21 DAP connected to an Edifier MR5. If I were to switch to an Aiyima A80 with a good quality speaker, would that make a noticeable difference compared to my current setup? Obviously in terms of volume, yes, but right now I'm mainly thinking about the quality. Or, until I buy the bigger speakers, I would connect the AUX output to the Edifier MR5 and use a PC as the input. Is this a viable option? Thanks in advance for your answers!

The MR5 are DSP speakers with Bluetooth input and an active crossover. I would assume all inputs are digitized. Connecting the A80 to your MR5 would therefore not change the sound (unless you use the bass/treble settings).

If you switch to different speakers, it will change the sound. Since the MR5 are essentially EQ'd from factory and deliver a pretty flat response with a lot of bass for their size, you would likely need significantly bigger and more expensive passive speakers plus some manual EQ to get close or surpass the MR5.

In general, DACs are not the limiting factor anymore for sound quality and haven't been for decades. Speakers and room are what counts the most, by far.

 

[Casimir101]

HHello!
I'm thinking about buying such a device. I haven't seen much experience with the built-in DAC here in the forum. Are there any of you who use it connected to a PC? I currently use a Fiio JM21 DAP connected to an Edifier MR5. If I were to switch to an Aiyima A80 with a good quality speaker, would that make a noticeable difference compared to my current setup? Obviously in terms of volume, yes, but right now I'm mainly thinking about the quality. Or, until I buy the bigger speakers, I would connect the AUX output to the Edifier MR5 and use a PC as the input. Is this a viable option? Thanks in advance for your answers!

In this scenario, it makes absolutely no sense, since the MR5s are active speakers. They already have active amplification. The A80 is pointless in this case, as the signal already goes directly from the PC to the MR5s and is amplified there. The sound won't change significantly. To get better PC sound, you would need to replace the MR5s with active speakers, such as the Micca RB42, and then connect them to the PC via the A80's USB-C port. That would be a near-perfect desktop solution for very little money. You could then also use the Euilizer APO with Peace to achieve truly high-fidelity sound on your PC.