Replacement of Sabaj A20h

[jkim]

I was looking for a headphone amp for my secondary use. My only dedicated headphone amp is Topping L70. I wanted to try something different and less expensive.

Tested the Sabaj A20h and did not like it.

I wonder if any of you can think of a product that meets my criteria:

• Has balanced inputs---but its headphone amp circuit does NOT need to be balanced.
• Has volume-controllable preamp outputs---balanced connections are preferred but RCAs are fine.
• Can be had at less than $250 used or new.

To my knowledge the following amps meet these criteria:

• Drop HO150X
• Schiit Midgard
• JDS Labs EL Amp II+ (w/ balanced TRS inputs)

Do I miss anything?

 

[staticV3]

Topping A30 Pro
Soncoz QXA1
SMSL H300
another L70
iFi Zen Can

That's all I could find.

 

[jkim]

Topping A30 Pro
Soncoz QXA1
SMSL H300
another L70
iFi Zen Can

That's all I could find.

Thanks! The A30 Pro does not have pre outs (only passthrough). Soncoz has way too low power and output voltage.

SMSL H300 is a candidate but its price seems to be on the borderline.

Zen Can is not very interesting due to its unimpressive measurements and has weird line-level connectors (4.4mm).

 

[Roland68]

I was looking for a headphone amp for my secondary use. My only dedicated headphone amp is Topping L70. I wanted to try something different and less expensive.

Tested the Sabaj A20h and did not like it.

I wonder if any of you can think of a product that meets my criteria:

• Has balanced inputs---but its headphone amp circuit does NOT need to be balanced.
• Has volume-controllable preamp outputs---balanced connections are preferred but RCAs are fine.
• Can be had at less than $250 used or new.

To my knowledge the following amps meet these criteria:

• Drop H150X
• Schiit Midgard
• JDS Labs EL Amp II+ (w/ balanced TRS inputs)

Do I miss anything?

The first thing I would recommend is adding 10% of your budget and getting an L70.
The L70 is very good in all respects, especially the channel balance, the high power of 7 watts, and the low impedance capability down to 12 ohms.

Given your requirements, the L50 from Topping is the first thing that comes to mind.
Otherwise, HiFi-Express has an SMSL H300 with a defective cabinet for $235.79.

May I ask what problems you had with the A20h or what you didn't like about it?

 

[jkim]

The first thing I would recommend is adding 10% of your budget and getting an L70.
The L70 is very good in all respects, especially the channel balance, the high power of 7 watts, and the low impedance capability down to 12 ohms.

Given your requirements, the L50 from Topping is the first thing that comes to mind.
Otherwise, HiFi-Express has an SMSL H300 with a defective cabinet for $235.79.

May I ask what problems you had with the A20h or what you didn't like about it?

As I said I already own an L70 and wanted to try something else. And I tested the Sabaj A20h. See the link in my post.

Btw the L50 does not have pre outs.

 

[Roland68]

As I said I already own an L70 and wanted to try something else. And I tested the Sabaj A20h. See the link in my post.

Btw the L50 does not have pre outs.

That's right, the L50 only has pass-through.

I've had well over 50 HPAs here in recent years, and the L70 truly stood out in every respect, not just in its price range, and is one of the few that has survived.
Symmetrically, there's also the also very good A50 III.

 

[jkim]

That's right, the L50 only has pass-through.

I've had well over 50 HPAs here in recent years, and the L70 truly stood out in every respect, not just in its price range, and is one of the few that has survived.
Symmetrically, there's also the also very good A50 III.

I totally agree on the L70. It is a sweet spot in many aspects. It is amazing a sub $300 device can be comparable to devices selling 10 times more several years back like Benchmark Media products. We no longer need to pay that much for state-of-the-art performance from DACs and headphone amps.

I simply wanted to own something different. For now, Drop HO150X and Schiit Midgard are very appealing in their own regards. What do you think? Have you had either of them?

By the way, relay-based volume control is nice but not a must have IMO. And I prefer an unbalanced headphone amp circuit because there's no advantage of balanced headphone amps from the performance point of view.

 

[Roland68]

I totally agree on the L70. It is a sweet spot in many aspects. It is amazing a sub $300 device can be comparable to devices selling 10 times more several years back like Benchmark Media products. We no longer need to pay that much for state-of-the-art performance from DACs and headphone amps.

I simply wanted to own something different. For now, Drop HO150X and Schiit Midgard are very appealing in their own regards. What do you think? Have you had either of them?

By the way, relay-based volume control is nice but not a must have IMO. And I prefer an unbalanced headphone amp circuit because there's no advantage of balanced headphone amps from the performance point of view.

The JDS Labs EL Amp II+ is a good amplifier, but I find the umpteenth reincarnation (from dozens of different manufacturers) of an LME49600-based design a bit boring.

The Drop HO150X looks very interesting to me. Supposedly based on the HO200, the only internal picture I could find shows that it's a transistor-based design, not a chip amplifier. It's also supposed to use a new generation of potentiometers, which supposedly have better channel balance.

The Schiit Midgard is also interesting. Apparently, the power amplifiers are controlled symmetrically, as the RCA inputs are balanced and run through a quad potentiometer. It would be interesting to take a look under the circuit board, as I can't imagine two such small op amps producing almost 5 watts per channel at 32 ohms, and without a heatsink.