Very exciting.... They emailed me i will get mine shipped in 2nd batch...
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Khadas Tea - New smartphone dac and amplifier
- Thread starter Cofra
- Start date
Very exciting.... They emailed me i will get mine shipped in 2nd batch...
alekksander
Active Member
no opinions?
Oh yeah, I almost forgot I bought one !!!
It's in a drawer somewhere...
No doubt it's a fine battery-powered, BT, DAC/HPA combo. I have not seen measurements, but I don't doubt Khadas specs are accurate and it is transparent-enough. But here is my problem: I also have a Qudelix 5K... and It does may things better--or much better (balanced, PEQ)--for less money. The promised Khadas App has not been released AFAIK and I'm afraid it's going to be fairly basic anyway (hopefully I'm proven wrong!).
For now, I am left with a cute, super-slim, "portable KTB", but what for? Desktop use...? I have a Topping DX3 Pro+ for the same money, and I honestly doubt Tea is any better. Portable use...? Again, my 5K is as "pocketable", has a clip, and many , many more valuable features. A Fiio BTR7 is most likely better as well. The iPhone MagSafe thing...? Ok... But first it's one of these weak MagSafe, only usable with a naked iPhone (no case), and even then, I would almost always yank it getting the combo out of my jeans pocket.... And second, I still don't know what problem Khadas was trying to solve with MagSafe...
So yeah, a portable KTB... Just my subjective opinion!
Metronomy
Active Member
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- Mar 7, 2022
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MAh I use a blue ifi go which has triple the power autonomy of 9 hours and input 4.4.
In my opinion it's much better. In addition, you put it in your pocket or cable it.
It's like buying the machine that puts the egg back inside the chicken
In my opinion it's much better. In addition, you put it in your pocket or cable it.
It's like buying the machine that puts the egg back inside the chicken
Mine arrived last year.... I don't have much to compare it to, but damn..... it got power, my Bang & Olufsen H4 headphones suddenly sound so musical, clear, powerful, and strong base and lots of details in mid and top but lush !!!! My headphones also have an internal DAC/Amp via Bluetooth, but this is MUCH better! I had a Schiit Fulla 2 and a 300 USD Creative PC based but for headphones.... the Khadas Tea is MUCH better !!!
Do you want to send it over to Amir to measure, Khadas doesn't seem to put much info out there on their website about it. We dont know what power output is tbh. The only thing I was surprised about was that it had an 1100 mah battery but only 8hrs of battery so im curious how powerful it really is.
staticV3
Master Contributor
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There's a 2-page PDF full of specs right on the main product page of the Tea: http://dl.khadas.com/products/tea/specs/khadas_tea_specs.pdf
Again, right on the main product page of the Tea:
Edit: and from there you can use curve fit to predict output power at any other load impedance.
For example, at 40Ω, the Tea should be able to output 2.42Vrms (=146mW):
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Surprisingly low output, voltage might be slightly above avg but its strange that its going thru 1100mah+ in 8 hours, esp for a device that doesnt have like an interface.
So here we are, around two years (more? I lost track...) after the introduction of Tea, and Khadas has finally released their "Khadas Audio" app !!! HURRAY !!!
I bought Tea in April 2022, so I had to to find which drawer it was and dust it off. I don't use Tea--I simply have better options to play music from my iPhone. It was still at 80% charge.
After connecting Tea to my iPhone through BT, the Khadas iOS app immediately offered a FW update to v1.2 (I was on 1.0), which went through with no issue. Well... you have to "forget" Tea in BT and re-do the pairing, but it's understandable after an upgrade, and the app gives a clear warning & directions.
The app is nice, allowing you to control volume & mute (but why would you use the app to adjust the volume...???), gain (low / auto / high), the right-side buttons assignment (vol. or track), choosing between the three ES9281AC DAC filters and... HURRAY !!!
THERE IS AN EQ !!!
The EQ has 6 presets + default (flat). I was thinking "OK, this is no PEQ, but a 10-bands GEQ is still very usable..." That was until I tried to adjust some of the sliders: WTF ???They are fixed !!!??? Really Khadas?
So although the app displays a 10-band GEQ--see below--it may be just a picture. We have no idea of what's going on under the hood. Khadas may only uses 3 filters for their presets... Who knows! Actually, displaying an actual FR without these sliders would have been less misleading IMO.
The app does not work with a USB-Lightning wired connection. I mean, it's typical iPhone: the music does play with a wired connection, but the iOS app can only control Tea through BT. You can have both wired and BT connections at the same time, playing audio through the cable, and using BT to control Tea, but the EQ is greyed out:
I think what's going on is that the EQ has been implemented into the Qualcomm QCC5125 BT chip (it has a fairly powerful DSP), but the wired audio is either not routed through that chip (using another USB bridge chip) or, for whatever reason, the QCC5125 can only do EQ on BT but not on USB input. I believe FiiO faced the same problem on some of their BT/USB DAC-Amp.
So, for example, if you set Tea with one of the EQ presets when playing BT (it works and clearly affects the sound), plugging Tea to the iPhone switches the audio out to a wired connection, BT remains active to configure Tea through the app (minus EQ), but the EQ preset you selected is no longer active (it does not carry over the wired connection).
The most useful feature in the app? A remote shutdown... so I can put Tea back into its drawer!
I am hopeful that in another two years, Khadas will release an app update with a "real" 10-band EQ, and say 5 years after, we may get something close to the Qudelix 5K... Way to go Khadas !!!
Note: haven't tried the Android version of Khadas Audio, but since Tea was mainly aimed at iPhone users (the Magsafe thing...), I am not sure Android is very relevant.
I bought Tea in April 2022, so I had to to find which drawer it was and dust it off. I don't use Tea--I simply have better options to play music from my iPhone. It was still at 80% charge.
After connecting Tea to my iPhone through BT, the Khadas iOS app immediately offered a FW update to v1.2 (I was on 1.0), which went through with no issue. Well... you have to "forget" Tea in BT and re-do the pairing, but it's understandable after an upgrade, and the app gives a clear warning & directions.
The app is nice, allowing you to control volume & mute (but why would you use the app to adjust the volume...???), gain (low / auto / high), the right-side buttons assignment (vol. or track), choosing between the three ES9281AC DAC filters and... HURRAY !!!
THERE IS AN EQ !!!The EQ has 6 presets + default (flat). I was thinking "OK, this is no PEQ, but a 10-bands GEQ is still very usable..." That was until I tried to adjust some of the sliders: WTF ???They are fixed !!!??? Really Khadas?
So although the app displays a 10-band GEQ--see below--it may be just a picture. We have no idea of what's going on under the hood. Khadas may only uses 3 filters for their presets... Who knows! Actually, displaying an actual FR without these sliders would have been less misleading IMO.
The app does not work with a USB-Lightning wired connection. I mean, it's typical iPhone: the music does play with a wired connection, but the iOS app can only control Tea through BT. You can have both wired and BT connections at the same time, playing audio through the cable, and using BT to control Tea, but the EQ is greyed out:
I think what's going on is that the EQ has been implemented into the Qualcomm QCC5125 BT chip (it has a fairly powerful DSP), but the wired audio is either not routed through that chip (using another USB bridge chip) or, for whatever reason, the QCC5125 can only do EQ on BT but not on USB input. I believe FiiO faced the same problem on some of their BT/USB DAC-Amp.
So, for example, if you set Tea with one of the EQ presets when playing BT (it works and clearly affects the sound), plugging Tea to the iPhone switches the audio out to a wired connection, BT remains active to configure Tea through the app (minus EQ), but the EQ preset you selected is no longer active (it does not carry over the wired connection).
The most useful feature in the app? A remote shutdown... so I can put Tea back into its drawer!
I am hopeful that in another two years, Khadas will release an app update with a "real" 10-band EQ, and say 5 years after, we may get something close to the Qudelix 5K... Way to go Khadas !!!
Note: haven't tried the Android version of Khadas Audio, but since Tea was mainly aimed at iPhone users (the Magsafe thing...), I am not sure Android is very relevant.
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