Sabaj A20d 2022 Review (DAC & Headphone Amp)

[renaudrenaud]

This DAC is currently on sale at hifi-express for 305.99USD which is shocking for this sort of quality.
I received mine a week ago and its hard to believe you can get this kind of quality for 300USD ...
Also for newest drivers its best to go for those from SMSL site, you can get newest XMOS package there and it works perfectly fine with SABAJ.
I replaced my 700USD DAC from 10 years ago with this and it really is unbelievable what sort of a progress these DACs from China made over the years. My last chinese DAC was Topping D30 and it did sound horrible to my ears but from that point the progress they made is amazing.
This Sabaj is a keeper for sure.

I told myself hey, it's time to buy another DAC... But my wife explained me I bought 2 last month.

 

[El_Konrado]

Absolutely, 10 years ago for this kind of performance you would have to spend 10 or maybe 20 times more, with such quality like this Sabaj its pointless to upgrade DAC any further unless the rest of the system is on hi-end level. I did expect this to be superb yet still it managed to exceed my expectations

 

[renaudrenaud]

Absolutely, 10 years ago for this kind of performance you would have to spend 10 or maybe 20 times more, with such quality like this Sabaj its pointless to upgrade DAC any further unless the rest of the system is on hi-end level. I did expect this to be superb yet still it managed to exceed my expectations

I think 10 years ago there was no DAC with this kind of measurements. I am not sure the components able to produce such results were on the market.

 

[El_Konrado]

I think 10 years ago there was no DAC with this kind of measurements. I am not sure the components able to produce such results were on the market.

Measurements probably not but we did have some fantastic sounding D/A converters even more than 10 years ago. I bet if we did measure today it could be a disaster numbers-wise but what we sometimes forget these numbers are waaay more than our hearing limitations. This Sabaj shocked not only by numbers but maybe more with a simple joy of how this equipment sounds, how much pleasure listening to its output sound gives to my ears and brains Back in the days you could get the sam sort of pleasure by listening to music from hi-end cd players or hi-end converters but those offering this quality were waaay above my budget. These days you spend 300 bucks and you get such a quality item. Fantastic times to live for true audiophiles who love amazing sound and do not judge based on price tag

 

[Jimster480]

This DAC is currently on sale at hifi-express for 305.99USD which is shocking for this sort of quality.
I received mine a week ago and its hard to believe you can get this kind of quality for 300USD ...
Also for newest drivers its best to go for those from SMSL site, you can get newest XMOS package there and it works perfectly fine with SABAJ.
I replaced my 700USD DAC from 10 years ago with this and it really is unbelievable what sort of a progress these DACs from China made over the years. My last chinese DAC was Topping D30 and it did sound horrible to my ears but from that point the progress they made is amazing.
This Sabaj is a keeper for sure.

This is how I felt about my DX7 almost 7 years ago now.

 

[renaudrenaud]

Measurements probably not but we did have some fantastic sounding D/A converters even more than 10 years ago. I bet if we did measure today it could be a disaster numbers-wise but what we sometimes forget these numbers are waaay more than our hearing limitations. This Sabaj shocked not only by numbers but maybe more with a simple joy of how this equipment sounds, how much pleasure listening to its output sound gives to my ears and brains Back in the days you could get the sam sort of pleasure by listening to music from hi-end cd players or hi-end converters but those offering this quality were waaay above my budget. These days you spend 300 bucks and you get such a quality item. Fantastic times to live for true audiophiles who love amazing sound and do not judge based on price tag

I accumulated a lot of different gear among 40 years and then discovered ASR.

Before ASR I was anxious. This anxiety was generated by the reviews, do I have the correct equipment, should I buy this item or this one, is this one enough?

In the other side it was always a pleasure for me to listen to music even with a cassette.

Then I discovered ASR, bought a SMSL SU8 V2 and sold everything in few years.

Now in the living room I use a SMSL M300Se paid 100€, a Fosi amp for 58€ and a pair of speakers we built with my spouse for around 300€. Thanks ASR, no more anxiety about my gear.

 

[Jimster480]

I accumulated a lot of different gear among 40 years and then discovered ASR.

Before ASR I was anxious. This anxiety was generated by the reviews, do I have the correct equipment, should I buy this item or this one, is this one enough?

In the other side it was always a pleasure for me to listen to music even with a cassette.

Then I discovered ASR, bought a SMSL SU8 V2 and sold everything in few years.

Now in the living room I use a SMSL M300Se paid 100€, a Fosi amp for 58€ and a pair of speakers we built with my spouse for around 300€. Thanks ASR, no more anxiety about my gear.

For me I started off in the audio world and I was only getting started with like two years before I grew into controversy and then found ASR.
Now I've had most of my gear for five years and I really have no desire to replace it and I just listen to my music and enjoy it every day.

 

[renaudrenaud]

For me I started off in the audio world and I was only getting started with like two years before I grew into controversy and then found ASR.
Now I've had most of my gear for five years and I really have no desire to replace it and I just listen to my music and enjoy it every day.

Well, I have to admit that I love to buy gear... At least, with ASR it is less expansive than before...

And with 5 children, I buy some audio equipment, use it for a few months, and then give it to them.

 

[Jimster480]

Well, I have to admit that I love to buy gear... At least, with ASR it is less expansive than before...

And with 5 children, I buy some audio equipment, use it for a few months, and then give it to them.

I've got 2 kids but they aren't into audio yet. My son is taking interest but he's only about to turn 8.

 

[renaudrenaud]

I've got 2 kids but they aren't into audio yet. My son is taking interest but he's only about to turn 8.

My children have no interest in audio as audiophiles. They're between 23 and 17 and they just want some equipment to listen to the music.

Funnily 2 of them wanted to listen to vinyls

 

[Jimster480]

My children have no interest in audio as audiophiles. They're between 23 and 17 and they just want some equipment to listen to the music.

Funnily 2 of them wanted to listen to vinyls

Vinyl? What prompted that?

 

[renaudrenaud]

Vinyl? What prompted that?

They are young and there is a lot of hype around the vinyl today. So I bought old Technics with linear automatic tracking, fix them (SL5, SL7 and one SL10) and also build one with 3D printer: https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/is-3d-printing-up-to-a-turntable/

This year Christmas gifts were vinyl records.

 

[Chilli]

USB input doesn’t work on Win7..
There is only one driver for XMOS, without support for older windows..

Did you manage to get it working? I lent mine to a friend the other day and he uses usb. He used the sabaj drivers and said the sound was excellent and had a listen to an mqa file as well. I'm not on comp so never use this input.
See above post for apparently a newer driver on the smsl site.
Surprised they didn't help you out.

 

[El_Konrado]

Did you manage to get it working? I lent mine to a friend the other day and he uses usb. He used the sabaj drivers and said the sound was excellent and had a listen to an mqa file as well. I'm not on comp so never use this input.
See above post for apparently a newer driver on the smsl site.
Surprised they didn't help you out.

That was quite a while ago so I guess he got it sorted in the end or simply upgraded the system, who on earth uses Win7 in 2024
If someone does though there are many vbersions of drivers on SMSL site https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/downlist/id/11.html and when you go to the very bottom of the list there is one for Win7 too. Whether this one will also work with Sabaj hard to tell but my guess is probably yes, just like the others do. Still I would rather upgrade the system rather then bother with looking for win7 drivers