Loxjie D40 Pro DAC & HP Amp Review

[Hipster Doofus]

Not on purpose. Just getting beat up to get reviews out! Now going to sleep....

hope the crops are not suffering by you staying indooors

 

[amirm]

hope the crops are not suffering by you staying indooors

Thanks. I have had to cut back on gardening but still managing to a get a few things growing.

 

[dtaylo1066]

What a buy! Basically SOTA for less than 400 clams.

 

[Hayabusa]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Loxjie D40 Pro balanced stereo DAC and headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company. It normally costs US $430 but is on sale for $388.
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The enclosure is metal but the silver look makes you think it is made out of plastic. The 7 segment display is workable but certainly not as fancy as a graphic display. It is however aided with hard buttons for common functions. The included remote makes it easy to navigate:
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Overall, an attempt is made to save cost but not in a way that is too obtrusive. Let's see if performance is subject to same or not.

Loxjie D40 Pro Measurements
I must say, I was not prepared to see state of the art performance out of the D40 Pro:

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It nicely lands in the middle of top 20 best DACs tested as far as combination of noise and distortion:
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RCA performance as usual a bit lower but still way past transparency:
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For above, I set the volume to 0 dB. It goes to +2 which gives you even more output and performance:
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Noise performance is excellent of course:
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Multitone distortion is superb:
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As is IMD:
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Linearity is perfect:
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Jitter is perfect over USB and essentially the same over coax:
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We have our typical set of filters:
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Using the default filter, we get excellent wideband noise and distortion:
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So really, nothing to fault the DAC section on.

Loxjie D40 Pro Balanced Headphone Out Measurements
In the interest of time, I focused on balanced output. Unbalance would product 1/4 of power. Speaking of which, this is one powerful headphone output for this class of device:
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Even in low gain mode we have plenty of power meaning you can enjoy the benefits of it never clipping and ultra low distortion. There is no negative gain which is usually required to get state of the art noise performance at just 50 mv output:
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Still, performance is above average.

You can see the output stage power capability as we switch the output impedance form high of 600 ohm down to just 12 ohm:
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I expect the headphone output to drive just about every headphone out there in balanced mode.

Conclusions
We have seen price creep in state of the art DACs in the last two years. Loxjie attempts to reverse the trend by producing same state of the art performance but at more affordable price point, especially with their sale. You pay no price for the DAC performance. Headphone amplifier in this class of device is usually competent but short in power to drive the most difficult headphones. Not so with D40 Pro. It produces a lot of power courtesy of its balanced output. There is really nothing to complain about and a lot to praise!

I am happy to recommend the Loxjie D40 Pro.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Wow! if you have highly efficient speakers this could be the amp for you...

 

[eyecent]

I'm curious about the headphone output impedance of the d40pro.

I remember that the previous one had an impedance of 10 ohms.

 

[audiofun]

I'm curious about the headphone output impedance of the d40pro.

I remember that the previous one had an impedance of 10 ohms.

the hp out is just the same as topping a90 so 0 Ohm.

 

[amirm]

I'm curious about the headphone output impedance of the d40pro.

I mentioned that as being essentially zero. You can tell that from these sweeps:

Look at the start of the graphs. If they all start from the same point, then the output impedance is zero. Otherwise, if it is moving with changing load, it means it is not.

 

[eyecent]

I mentioned that as being essentially zero. You can tell that from these sweeps:

Look at the start of the graphs. If they all start from the same point, then the output impedance is zero. Otherwise, if it is moving with changing load, it means it is not.

Thank you for your kind reply. Since English is not my first language, I tried to read it carefully, but I was clumsy. I'm always grateful for every post.

 

[amirm]

Thank you for your kind reply. Since English is not my first language, I tried to read it carefully, but I was clumsy. I'm always grateful for every post.

No worries. That is actually a very fine point and technicality that few people know.

 

[MyCuriosity]

Excellent measuring dac/amp but boring. One of the lot

 

[TonyJZX]

yeah i think there's a lot here that doesnt seem right at $400... the remote and the display... i think there's hardly any modern dac that isnt measuring spot on now so its the day to day useability details we pick on

 

[renaudrenaud]

Sure, one can always complain about anything. Getting a SOTA DAC and an extremely powerfull headphone amp for under $400 is amazing. If only good headphones were that cheap....

Maybe something reviewed by Amir front Thruthear with the help from Crinnacle? 50$?

 

[3125b]

One of the lot

But at a more attractive price. Well, if one needs the power output, otherwise the SMSL C200 is a much better deal at half the price.

 

[kencreten]

So many good headphone amps.... I have a good one, but ... maybe I need more!

 

[MacClintock]

Maybe something reviewed by Amir front Thruthear with the help from Crinnacle? 50$?

For an IEM you don't need an amp. I am talking about over-ear headphones.

 

[MacClintock]

Excellent measuring dac/amp but boring. One of the lot

What do you mean by boring ? Because it is transparent to the source and does not add distortion or non-linear frequency reponse ? OR that we already had enough of affordable, excellent measuring amps? Well, the latter is true, but this is has an SOTA DAC and an extremley headphone amp. You will not need more for the next 20 years.

 

[Trell]

For an IEM you don't need an amp. I am talking about over-ear headphones.

What about a very low noise amp for very sensitive IEMs?

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Thanks. I have had to cut back on gardening but still managing to a get a few things growing. I better re up my subscription so you can at least go to the farmers market.

Thanks. I have had to cut back on gardening but still managing to a get a few things growing.

I better re-up my donation so u can at least go to the farmer's market.

 

[Robbo99999]

I gave this absolute top marks in the poll due to balanced DAC and superb headphone power whilst still offering that power clean - it's the only headphone DAC/amp you'd ever need to buy for any headphone courtesy of it's extreme power! It's not as clean at 50mv as my JDS Labs Atom Amp which would be the area that I'm more likely to be using headphones (& I don't need the extra power, but then again I probably don't need the extreme cleanliness of the Atom Amp at 50mv either!). I quite like the retro utilitarian looks of this device too, plus the price for it's specs is pretty good I think (although I've not rigorously compared). This could be an easy recommendation for difficult to drive headphones, but I'm not sure it secures top spot for measurements & power vs price for difficult to drive headphones, anybody want to comment who's looked into it?? I know we're talking edge cases here as simple quality stacks like Atom Amp can drive almost all headphones anyway.

 

[Robbo99999]

I wish they hired a professional industrial product designer. It performs like 2023 and looks like 1983. And not in a good way.

Ha, at least we both spotted the retro vibes! (I quite like it for that.)