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Replacing Aiyima A07

Fendooz

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Feb 12, 2023
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I have a couple of Aiyima A07 amps in my house which in my main listening room and a second one in a bedroom.
They're great in terms of sound quality and build quality for the price. I use them with Rpi's and DAC's (hifi berry and a topping via USB) and also a turntable with built in pre amp in my main listening room. No complaints whatsoever.

I'm setting up a third system in a garden room where I need to amplify a turntable via a separate phono pre amp, RPI with dac hat, and Xbox one. I'm currently using a third A07.
The rpi and phono pre I can use an RCA splitter to input both. Not ideal but it works. The Xbox one however (used mainly for netflix, Amazon etc) needs an optical input.

My attention has been drawn to the Aiyima T9 as an (almost) all in 1 solution.
This has a built in DAC for for Xbox, tone control (which I would like esp when listening to records), Bluetooth (less likely to use but handy to have) and a remote control.

The T9 undoubtedly has a lot of features but how do they actually stack up separately compared to other similarly priced equipment?
As an amplifier, how does it compare to the a07? Is the built in DAC actually any good? The quality of the DAC is less important as I will only use the optical in for the Xbox for watching films rather than music listening. I'm more interested how the Amp itself compares.

Thanks.
 

Snix

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Sep 16, 2022
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If you are OK with Aiyima quality, I would recommend A07 Pro.
It comes with "usable" bluetooth, which is useful in a pinch, as well as so-so tone control that you can play with.

I also own T9, which I like it but tbh honest if you already have 3 A07, then just buy a dedicated DAC for your main system.
Anything <200$ should do the (a lot better) job.
80$ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-su-1-stereo-dac-review.44029/
or my favorite D-6 https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-d-6-dac-review.36235/
 
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Fendooz

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Feb 12, 2023
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Hi. Thanks for replying. I bought a T9 and tbh, I love it! I haven't used the built in dac much so far, so can't really comment on that. I'd say the amp itself in the T9 equals the A07 (to my ears). I use a topping DX3 pro in one setup with an A07 as and it sounds great. So I need to use the built in T9 DAC some more to compare. I've mainly been using the T9 listen to Vinyl via a phono pre. Sounds great. Nice to have a bit of treble and bass control built in.
 

Snix

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Sep 16, 2022
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Ah, I see.
Well, its internal DAC is not terrible but not that good either. (T9 Pro version has a lot better DAC)
Its Bluetooth is also kinda dated, but oh well, as I mentioned I like it as a small size do-it-all box.
and yeh, tone controls are nice touch for chill-out listening.

JFYI, if you are down this route and intrigued in tube rolling, Voskhod 6ZH1P-EV is one of the better choices.
 

Kip

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Joined
Mar 11, 2023
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Location
Colorado
I have a couple of Aiyima A07 amps in my house which in my main listening room and a second one in a bedroom.
They're great in terms of sound quality and build quality for the price. I use them with Rpi's and DAC's (hifi berry and a topping via USB) and also a turntable with built in pre amp in my main listening room. No complaints whatsoever.

I'm setting up a third system in a garden room where I need to amplify a turntable via a separate phono pre amp, RPI with dac hat, and Xbox one. I'm currently using a third A07.
The rpi and phono pre I can use an RCA splitter to input both. Not ideal but it works. The Xbox one however (used mainly for netflix, Amazon etc) needs an optical input.

My attention has been drawn to the Aiyima T9 as an (almost) all in 1 solution.
This has a built in DAC for for Xbox, tone control (which I would like esp when listening to records), Bluetooth (less likely to use but handy to have) and a remote control.

The T9 undoubtedly has a lot of features but how do they actually stack up separately compared to other similarly priced equipment?
As an amplifier, how does it compare to the a07? Is the built in DAC actually any good? The quality of the DAC is less important as I will only use the optical in for the Xbox for watching films rather than music listening. I'm more interested how the Amp itself compares.

Thanks.
I used to own the T9. The version I had used some power save method that would deactivate the tubes in the absence of sound.
This was a showstopper for any use case other than a constant stream of music. I had mine on a center channel coming off of my pc. In the game, I missed entire leading pieces of dialog in the center because the tubes didn't switch back on fast enough.
I don't know if they corrected this issue in later T9's. I know this issue doesn't occur in the T9 pro.
 
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Fendooz

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I can see how that would be an issue. I'd seen this mentioned in various places but my understanding was that it was clicking sound itself that bothered people. Didn't realize it casus a delay in the audio coming through. I'm not a gamer so hopefully I won't be effected by this as much.
 

Kip

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Mar 11, 2023
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Location
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I can see how that would be an issue. I'd seen this mentioned in various places but my understanding was that it was clicking sound itself that bothered people. Didn't realize it casus a delay in the audio coming through. I'm not a gamer so hopefully I won't be effected by this as much.
From what I can tell on Amazon, they have worked the problem, but I have never owned the updated T9. I have a couple of T9 pros that I love. I don't have as much interest in tubes as I used to. I may decide that the impact to longevity of tubes are too much of a down side. I have made mistakes evaluating speakers when using these 3255 based amps when I didn't assure I wasn't mixing tone controls with non-tone controls. This is namely, the A07 versus the A08pro and the A08 pro versus the Douk Audio H7. If you are like me, and every time you get in a car and discover separate Bass and Treble controls, you always turn them both up, you like dynamic audio.
I have performed failed experiments where I failed attention to the different amps and thought a Sony SS-CS5 had more bass than a Klipsch RP-600M and 160M.
I also thought I was getting bass cancelations when fading up a JBL Stage a170 with a SVS ultra bookshelf. The root cause was the JBL was adding so much more treble it sounded like it was subtracting bass. Repeating the process feeding the a170 with the A09pro instead of the Douk H7, this problem was eliminated and fading up the volume was correctly adding to the bass.
My failure to keep the amplification more consistent is embarrassing.
The positive take away is I know I should never buy another 3255 based amp without tone controls.
 
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