Sabaj A10h Review (Headphone Amplifier)

[staticV3]

I was wondering about that actually. Why does a relay fire as the volume is being adjusted? The amplification is obviously digitally controlled via either the remote control of the rotary encoder...

The audio signal path including volume control is fully analog. But the analog resistor ladder volume is being controlled digitally.
A processor receives volume commands via an ADC behind the volume pot or via the remote and switches the relays accordingly.

 

[vext01]

I had no idea! Thanks.

 

[Roland68]

I was wondering about that actually. Why does a relay fire as the volume is being adjusted? The amplification is obviously digitally controlled via either the remote control of the rotary encoder...

The relay click should only be heard when switching on or changing the volume.

 

[vext01]

Replacement came today and this one is working fine.

I notice that it is a little prone to noise. If I stack it on top of my Loxjie D30, then with a sensitive IEM i hear a little chatter. It's not a big deal, you move it and it goes away.

What do you folks think of the matching a10d dac? It has a very similar feature set to the D30. I see there is a 2022 version of the a10d, but I don't like the design. Is the older design discontinued now?

 

[Roland68]

Replacement came today and this one is working fine.

I notice that it is a little prone to noise. If I stack it on top of my Loxjie D30, then with a sensitive IEM i hear a little chatter. It's not a big deal, you move it and it goes away.

What do you folks think of the matching a10d dac? It has a very similar feature set to the D30. I see there is a 2022 version of the a10d, but I don't like the design. Is the older design discontinued now?

The old A10d (not 2022) still has the AK4497 DAC chip, which has been out of production at AKM since the fire.
Some time ago, when it was still much more expensive, I compared it to DACs up to €1000. If it had balanced outputs I would have kept it.
The last of the old A10ds are on sale on Amazon right now and for the price and features you can't beat this DAC but that's just my opinion.

 

[vext01]

The old A10d (not 2022) still has the AK4497 DAC chip, which has been out of production at AKM since the fire.
Some time ago, when it was still much more expensive, I compared it to DACs up to €1000. If it had balanced outputs I would have kept it.
The last of the old A10ds are on sale on Amazon right now and for the price and features you can't beat this DAC but that's just my opinion.

Having realised that the a10d was discontinued and becoming hard t find, I actually bought the second to last a10d from Amazon UK! Really enjoying the setup!

Were you able to hear any difference between the three sound timbres (SC1/SC2/SC3)?

 

[Roland68]

Having realised that the a10d was discontinued and becoming hard t find, I actually bought the second to last a10d from Amazon UK! Really enjoying the setup!

Were you able to hear any difference between the three sound timbres (SC1/SC2/SC3)?

I just had it toggled briefly to hear what it is. There was a difference, but that's too long ago to comment on that.
Funny, the description says "Equipped with the second level OPA1612 OPA chip of German Instruments (TI)"....
I wonder what "TI" stands for.....?

 

[vext01]

Did they mean to say "Texas Instruments"?

OPA1612 data sheet, product information and support | TI.com

TI’s OPA1612 is a SoundPlus™ Audio Operational Amplifier with 1.1nV/√Hz Noise, Low THD and Precision. Find parameters, ordering and quality information

www.ti.com

 

[Veri]

Definitely has to be Texas Instruments. Ha

 

[RoA]

That sucks for sure, maybe their quality control is not up to scratch. I have zero issues with mine and have it for almost a year now.

What do folks expect with cheap crap like that. Just add to landfill sites. If you can afford £300 plus HP's spend a little on something decent.

 

[Roland68]

What do folks expect with cheap crap like that. Just add to landfill sites. If you can afford £300 plus HP's spend a little on something decent.

I own both the A10h and A20h and they both work for me with no problems.
But when I bought it, I was already aware that these products save on development costs, but above all on quality control and support.
The decisive factor was clearly the relay-based volume control and, with the A20h, the balanced option.

If you look at what these devices cost the buyer on sale, after deducting all taxes and duties, the seller's profit, transport costs, etc., then you have to ask yourself how the manufacturers manage to finance the production (components, circuit boards, assembly , housing, power packs, cables, packaging, proportionate costs of the company, etc.). And that's not even counting the high development costs.

But I've had a Violectric headphone amp on my desk for a very long time, and it will only make room for a newer amp from this manufacturer.
This manufacturer has been building high-quality devices for over 35 years and places great value on development, product quality, quality control, warranty and support. And quite apart from the excellent and personal support, you can give your devices for repair even after 30 years. There aren't many manufacturers that have had their devices in use for so long.

But with the good sound quality, functionality and reasonable prices of the L30 (II), Sabaj A10h/A20h, etc., who is willing to pay that much more (more than double) for quality and support?

 

[Veri]

But with the good sound quality, functionality and reasonable prices of the L30 (II), Sabaj A10h/A20h, etc., who is willing to pay that much more (more than double) for quality and support

Competition is indeed extremely fierce. Especially with the volume control on A10h/A20h. For me it just.. works. Unbelievably cheap for what you get. Maybe a Violectric looks sexier on your desk though but that's personal taste..

 

[Roland68]

Competition is indeed extremely fierce. Especially with the volume control on A10h/A20h. For me it just.. works. Unbelievably cheap for what you get. Maybe a Violectric looks sexier on your desk though but that's personal taste..

I actually stripped an A10h and just use the volume control part in a DIY preamp. It was simply cheaper with the remote control than corresponding DIY products.
For a real balanced preamp there are already 2 more A10h here. They respond so well to a remote that I don't need to pair them. Perfect channel separation.

The Violectric is simply absolutely reliable and also my reference as a headphone and preamplifier.
You can easily use it to hit multiple burglars until you flee and then continue listening to music. Ok, I might wipe off the blood first...

 

[Veri]

You can easily use it to hit multiple burglars until you flee and then continue listening to music. Ok, I might wipe off the blood first...

Hahah yeah I can actually imagine that

 

[Coll]

I set my a10h, and it works great with my HE-4xx, and Sennheisers, but I don't listen that loud, I could even use the H1 middle goin (0 db) most of the time, but can certainly understand loud users with ~600 ohm headphones wanting more power and/or balanced. For me, the preamp line outs are great, giving me remote volume and mute capabilities for my amps w/o remotes, also the 3 gain levels work in the preamp mode. Now I need something similar for balanced, something like the SMSL C200, mainly for balanced pre out, with occasional headphones use.

Have I got this right that the gain settings work on the preamplifier as well as the headphones.
I have a source that is only 775mv and need to boost it for my power amplifier which requires 2.5 volts to drive it to full output.
If I set the gain to max what would my 775mv end up as

 

[Dennis_FL]

Amazon price is now $75 ... substantially lower than what I paid.

I'm trying to figure a clever way of streaming Roon to the headphones and not to my room speakers

I now have a DAC with XLR output to an amp and simultaneous RCA output to the A10h. It works but I have to power off the amp when I use the headphones or else they both play.

I guess I'd have to buy another DAC and I don't want to do that.

​

 

[Drew456]

Just wondering what would be the best ref level (auto ref off?) from a rme dac-2 fs to a A10h via rca? thanks

 

[staticV3]

Just wondering what would be the best ref level (auto ref off?) from a rme dac-2 fs to a A10h via rca? thanks

The A10h can take at least +13.2dBu before clipping, so I would set the RME to +13dBu and use Low or Med gain on the Sabaj.

 

[mc.god]

I just ordered one, even though I don't really need it at the moment since I own all easy driven cans and iems
I use
- Laptop -> Ugreen HiFi Audio dongle (aka meizu hifi pro)
- Desktop -> Khadas Tone Board -> Old Denon PRA1500 (headphones to the preout)

Either have plenty of power and quality for my headphones since I rarely use EQ.

Some time ago I tried a Shiit Magni 3+ to replace the Denon old school 150 ohm headphone impedance output (before knowing that the preouts have a good 4.7 ohm impedance, thank you again @solderdude ), but it went literally in smoke after few days, so I decided to stay with the old good Denon and just wait for future bargains with adjustable gain, perfect matching volume control and easily portable from the laptop to the desk and vice-versa.
And at the actual price shipped from Amazon Italy I know that I'll surely regret not ordering it the exact moment it will be not available anymore.

Maybe it's retirement time for the old good Denon (the only complaint I have is it's full 43 cm size just for a single source and headphones) or maybe he'll just have a new little cute friend that will give me more freedom of using EQ with the laptop.

 

[mc.god]

Just arrived.
As expected , feeding it 2v from the Ugreen dongle, there is plenty of clean power for my phones, with iem like the 7Hz Zero I can set it to L gain and keep level between -50 / -60 db for the volume level I usually listen to music.
I'm not going to discuss all the good points that everyone already confirmed about it, so just first quick impressions about a couple of things i noticed:

1. the volpot is not perfect, sometimes it skips a step, you feel the step physically with your finger but the relays don't click and level don't change. It's clearly a flaw in the pot since from the remote it's always perfect, not a real issue as it is, if it doesn't worsen with time it's perfectly acceptable for this price.
2. with real sensitive iem (TRN MT1, 22ohm/106db) in H2 gain mode you can hear a hissing noise floor, but I consider it normal in this conditions. What I noticed is that it is independent from volume level in the sense that not increase going toward 0 db, but it changes from a step to another, for example, at -16db you can barely hear it, turning up to -15db it increases, then turning again up to -14db it decrease as at -16db, and so on. At some steps it's more noticeable, at other steps it's less, independently if that steps are more or less -db than the others. Not thtat I'll ever keep H2 setting to listen with those iem, it was just a test.
3. The led dimming at level 2 and 3 is very close, you can't almost notice the difference. Not really matters since I'll keep it at level 1 (as almost everyone I suppose).

For the time being I'm pretty satisfied, hopefully I'll not see magic smoke this time.