renaudrenaud
Major Contributor
I guess people who buy dCS products are not concerned by Sabaj. There is no social representation with this brand.Nice review! The comparison with Rossini dCS is really fun!
I just bought this dac.
I guess people who buy dCS products are not concerned by Sabaj. There is no social representation with this brand.Nice review! The comparison with Rossini dCS is really fun!
I just bought this dac.
I agree. What use are they?Not sure I like the front handles. They are not pretty and clutter the small face, not very useful, and I’m sure add to the cost some.
So, multiple filters but *none* gives full attenuation at 22 kHz.This is a review and detailed measurements of the 2023 edition of Sabaj A20d balanced DAC and headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $420.
View attachment 307923
As with last generation, the A20 comes in gorgeous packaging that completely sets it aside from its competitors. The display is ultra clear and very responsive and I like the large volume level indicator. Back panel shows what you expect:
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The labels were a bit hard to read but that is a one-time aggravation.
The 2023 revision switches from ESS DAC to AKM AK4499EX.
Sabaj A20d 2023 DAC Measurements
When I first started to test the unit, I was getting high harmonic distortion, sinking expected SINAD by some 15 dB. It took a bit of looking but then found four "sound color" settings with all but the first one causing such distortion. I turned that off to get proper results:
View attachment 307925
This is excellent performance, easily landing the A20d in our top 20 best DACs ever measured:
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Unbalanced RCA performance is almost as good:
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Output was actually higher than the above and performance improves a bit if you let it go to the max:
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You need exceptional noise performance to land in our top 20 list and A20d naturally delivers:
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Linearity is perfect:
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Multitone distortion is vanishingly low:
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In order to make our tests more comparable to what is published elsewhere, I added a test of 50 Hz tone driving into a very low impedance of 600 ohm as used by Stereophile:
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As a way of comparison, here is how the dCS Rossini Apex ($32,800) performed in the same test:
The A20d beats the worst case harmonic of Rossini by 7 dB yet costs nearly 80 times less!
IMD performance is excellent:
View attachment 307934
Jitter test shows a bit of internally generates spurious tones but otherwise is excellent:
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We have the usual set of filters:
View attachment 307936View attachment 307937
Here is our wideband noise+distortion vs frequency:
View attachment 307938
Sabaj A20d 2023 Headphone Amplifier Measurements
We have both 1/4 inch and 4.4 mm jacks but both convey the same signal so let's go with the latter:
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These are extremely clean with good bit of power to drive just about any headphone. Despite lack of ultra low (negative) gain, noise performance is excellent at just 50 mv:
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Conclusions
The 2023 revision of A20d brings excellence in every category from look and feel to performance across the board. It leaves nothing to complain about.
I am happy to recommend the Sabaj A20d DAC and headphone amplifier.
Manufacturer Specifications
Name Sabaj A20d 2023 Input USB. Optical, Coaxial. Bluetooth Output 6.35mm/4.4mm headphone, RCA. XLR Output level RCA 2.3Vrms. XLR 4.6Vrms HPA power 2W*2(160) 1W*2(322) HPA gain LOW OdB. HIGH +8dB THD+N HPA 0.0001% (-120dB) . DAC 0.00006% (-123dB) Dynamic range RCA 126dB. XLR 131dB SNR RCA 126dB. XLR 131dB Output impedance HPA NEAR 0Q, DAC 1000 Bluetooth BT 5.0 (support apt-X HD, LDAC, apt-X, AAC, SBC) USB transmission Asynchronization USB compatibility Windows 7, 8, 8.1. 10, 11, Mac OS X 10.6 later, Linux Bit width USB 1bit~ 32bit, Optical/Coaxial 16bit~ 24bit Sampling rate USB 44.1~ 768kHz DSD64-512, Optical/Coaxial 44.1~ 192kHz DoP64 Power Consumption <20W Size 200×60×210 (W×H×D) Weight 1500
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome. Click here if you have some audio gear you want me to test.
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You don’t get it Amir, the Sabaj has its 3rd harmonic higher than its 2nd, so even though it’s past -100dB its obviously garbage.As a way of comparison, here is how the dCS Rossini Apex ($32,800) performed in the same test:
The A20d beats the worst case harmonic of Rossini by 7 dB yet costs nearly 80 times less
I agree. What use are they?
This is what I don't get - someone doesn't care that it sounds the same and would pay $32K more - for the same sound? To me, that's just cray-cray!When you say "it does not compare to dCS" I don't know what you mean. In what way is in not comparable? Can you clarify this statement? Thanks
The target upper frequency range of audio DAC has always been flat to 20 kHz. With 44.1 kHz sampling rate, Nyquist frequency is 22.05 kHz, therefore the aliasing artifacts above 22.05 kHz are "reflected back" with the mirroring point at this frequency. The aliased component reflected to 20 kHz is thus 22.05 + (22.05 - 20) = 24.1 kHz. This is the reason stop band is specified at 24.1 kHz, because only signals above this frequency are aliased into the pass band.So, multiple filters but *none* gives full attenuation at 22 kHz.
I second that!Thanks Sabaj for sending another product to Amir for review. Now could you please send the A30a to him, so that all the owners and fans of it on this forum can finally find out whether it is as good as we think it is?
I was refering to industrial design in a way that dCS looks more monumental, beautiful, luxurious...When you say "it does not compare to dCS" I don't know what you mean. In what way is in not comparable? Can you clarify this statement? Thanks
I refer you to Amir's review here <https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...hord-mojo-2-review-portable-dac-hp-amp.34160/>,The target upper frequency range of audio DAC has always been flat to 20 kHz. With 44.1 kHz sampling rate, Nyquist frequency is 22.05 kHz, therefore the aliasing artifacts above 22.05 kHz are "reflected back" with the mirroring point at this frequency. The aliased component reflected to 20 kHz is thus 22.05 + (22.05 - 20) = 24.1 kHz. This is the reason stop band is specified at 24.1 kHz, because only signals above this frequency are aliased into the pass band.
For example, here is the page from the AK4499 datasheet. (I am only using AKM as an example here. Last I checked, every other audio DAC IC manufacturer does the same.) At fs = 44.1 kHz, passband (PB) is 0.4535 × fs = 19.99935 kHz, and stop band (SB) = 0.546 × fs = 24.0786 kHz.
How much worse would the dSC have to be before you would consider it overpriced?I was refering to industrial design in a way that dCS looks more monumental, beautiful, luxurious...
In a way that if I made in a week what dCS costs, every week, I would rather buy dCS then Sabaj, nevermind that Sabaj measures slightly better. After 100 SINAD, who cares....
I am not trying to be disrespectful, I do aplaud Sabaj for great engeneering, but as I said, it seems worthless to bother to get 1 dB better SINAD then the device before...
Thought I was clear, sorry.
Agreed. Being a graphic designer by trade, when performance and price are comparable typography becomes a differentiator for me. The design work on this case is pretty awful to be honest.Trivial, I know, but what’s with all the random fonts on the unit. Looks like a school concert flyer.
It's not an 1/8 (3.5mm) jack but a 4.4mm jack which is almost always TRRRS balanced headphone in consumer audio, sometimes referred to as pentaconn after the brand name. Not to be confused with bantam (also 4.4mm) in pro audio which is usually TRS mono, fortunately the male end looks quite different in terms of shape and obviously fewer poles.I see that you said that this was "Sabaj A20d balanced DAC and headphone amplifier" but I don't see how one would connect balanced headphones to the amp- are the 1/4" and 1/8" jacks 4-conductor balanced connectors?
I don't know it's exact price, but I know it's overpriced already.How much worse would the dSC have to be before you would consider it overpriced?
Even if it were the case, has anyone ever successfully detected such differences in a proper double blind test when the distortion products are >110dB down?THat's not the case. The noise floor in my FFT is lower and hence shows the extra harmonics. Stereophile tests simply hide those.
I was refering to industrial design in a way that dCS looks more monumental, beautiful, luxurious...
In a way that if I made in a week what dCS costs, every week, I would rather buy dCS then Sabaj, nevermind that Sabaj measures slightly better. After 100 SINAD, who cares....
I am not trying to be disrespectful, I do aplaud Sabaj for great engeneering, but as I said, it seems worthless to bother to get 1 dB better SINAD then the device before...
Thought I was clear, sorry.