Sabaj A30a announced

[SlamTaz]

@GiBo61 thanks for confirming that this is an issue. @ModDIY , thanks for looking into this

@peterwen , is sabaj doing anything (or going to do anything) about the issues that are being raised here? i mean i love the sound quality and power that the a30a provides but to me the issues are mounting and starting to tilt my view and experience towards the negative side of the scale, so to speak.

issues:

1. goes to power-on state instead of stand by state when coming from a power outage whether the state prior to the power outage is powered on or on stand by.
2. the apparent unmatched volume increment between the speaker lines and sw out line, where there increment is greater at the speaker lines than the sub out line as the volume increases. sure this will not bother a lot of folks who dont use a sub woofer but for us that do, i find it cumbersome to adjust the sub volume after i increase the master volume on the a30a
3. a lot of folks here feel that the sub cutoff of 70hz should be lowered. based on feedback from this thread, it appears that this can be fixed by a firmware update, so why not allow the scale go down further until it reaches zero or sub off

i wish you can reply and provide an answer as to what sabaj plans to do about these, as it seems that all these can be fixed by a firmware update. im asking because i really would like to keep the sabaj a30a but if nothing is done, that's fine too, i still have until jan 31 to return my purchase to amazon.

if i may ask for suggestions should the latter option happen, what do you feel is a good replacement that's really close to or better than the sound signature/quality and power of the a30a that's within the ballpark price of up to or less than $1k with a similar compact footprint, as it will sit on my wfh desktop set up?

 

[LennyTheLion]

@GiBo61 thanks for confirming that this is an issue. @ModDIY , thanks for looking into this

@peterwen , is sabaj doing anything (or going to do anything) about the issues that are being raised here? i mean i love the sound quality and power that the a30a provides but to me the issues are mounting and starting to tilt my view and experience towards the negative side of the scale, so to speak.

issues:

1. goes to power-on state instead of stand by state when coming from a power outage whether the state prior to the power outage is powered on or on stand by.
2. the apparent unmatched volume increment between the speaker lines and sw out line, where there increment is greater at the speaker lines than the sub out line as the volume increases. sure this will not bother a lot of folks who dont use a sub woofer but for us that do, i find it cumbersome to adjust the sub volume after i increase the master volume on the a30a
3. a lot of folks here feel that the sub cutoff of 70hz should be lowered. based on feedback from this thread, it appears that this can be fixed by a firmware update, so why not allow the scale go down further until it reaches zero or sub off

i wish you can reply and provide an answer as to what sabaj plans to do about these, as it seems that all these can be fixed by a firmware update. im asking because i really would like to keep the sabaj a30a but if nothing is done, that's fine too, i still have until jan 31 to return my purchase to amazon.

if i may ask for suggestions should the latter option happen, what do you feel is a good replacement that's really close to or better than the sound signature/quality and power of the a30a that's within the ballpark price of up to or less than $1k with a similar compact footprint, as it will sit on my wfh desktop set up?

@GiBo61 thanks for confirming that this is an issue. @ModDIY , thanks for looking into this

@peterwen , is sabaj doing anything (or going to do anything) about the issues that are being raised here? i mean i love the sound quality and power that the a30a provides but to me the issues are mounting and starting to tilt my view and experience towards the negative side of the scale, so to speak.

issues:

1. goes to power-on state instead of stand by state when coming from a power outage whether the state prior to the power outage is powered on or on stand by.
2. the apparent unmatched volume increment between the speaker lines and sw out line, where there increment is greater at the speaker lines than the sub out line as the volume increases. sure this will not bother a lot of folks who dont use a sub woofer but for us that do, i find it cumbersome to adjust the sub volume after i increase the master volume on the a30a
3. a lot of folks here feel that the sub cutoff of 70hz should be lowered. based on feedback from this thread, it appears that this can be fixed by a firmware update, so why not allow the scale go down further until it reaches zero or sub off

i wish you can reply and provide an answer as to what sabaj plans to do about these, as it seems that all these can be fixed by a firmware update. im asking because i really would like to keep the sabaj a30a but if nothing is done, that's fine too, i still have until jan 31 to return my purchase to amazon.

if i may ask for suggestions should the latter option happen, what do you feel is a good replacement that's really close to or better than the sound signature/quality and power of the a30a that's within the ballpark price of up to or less than $1k with a similar compact footprint, as it will sit on my wfh desktop set up?

@peterwen
Believe that I am also experiencing the same issue of lower subwoofer output with increase in volume.
I also have until Jan 31 to return to Amazon so would appreciate feedback from Sabaj on this please.

 

[ModDIY]

Houhou @peterwen

 

[GiBo61]

@GiBo61 thanks for confirming that this is an issue. @ModDIY , thanks for looking into this

@peterwen , is sabaj doing anything (or going to do anything) about the issues that are being raised here? i mean i love the sound quality and power that the a30a provides but to me the issues are mounting and starting to tilt my view and experience towards the negative side of the scale, so to speak.

issues:

1. goes to power-on state instead of stand by state when coming from a power outage whether the state prior to the power outage is powered on or on stand by.
2. the apparent unmatched volume increment between the speaker lines and sw out line, where there increment is greater at the speaker lines than the sub out line as the volume increases. sure this will not bother a lot of folks who dont use a sub woofer but for us that do, i find it cumbersome to adjust the sub volume after i increase the master volume on the a30a
3. a lot of folks here feel that the sub cutoff of 70hz should be lowered. based on feedback from this thread, it appears that this can be fixed by a firmware update, so why not allow the scale go down further until it reaches zero or sub off

i wish you can reply and provide an answer as to what sabaj plans to do about these, as it seems that all these can be fixed by a firmware update. im asking because i really would like to keep the sabaj a30a but if nothing is done, that's fine too, i still have until jan 31 to return my purchase to amazon.

if i may ask for suggestions should the latter option happen, what do you feel is a good replacement that's really close to or better than the sound signature/quality and power of the a30a that's within the ballpark price of up to or less than $1k with a similar compact footprint, as it will sit on my wfh desktop set up?

Well, I'm not sure it's an issue for me. My Sabaj A30a is now connected to a pair of Elac Vela BS 403 and sometimes I turn on a MartinLogan Dynamo 700 Subwoofer. I use a cutoff of 80 Hz and -19 db level. In my 30 square feet room I usually listen with a "30" volume level on the display of the Sabaj. In rare occasions I play music at louder volume (almost never above 50). Maybe (i repeat, MAYBE) at the higher volume of the sound pressure coming from the sw is proportionally lower than at the lower setup, however there many factors that might interfere with a correct interpretation of the phenomena. One of them is the fact that the sensitivity of the human ear changes as a function of frequency and sound pressure level as described here, the other is that I guess the acoustic of a room also changes at different sound pressure levels. However, in my setup I sometimes adjust the subwoofer level based on the music I'm playing and on rare occasions based on the listening level.

 

[Lex87]

I listened to my receiver with floor pads and probably the receiver is full ...., The middle and bottom can't pump normally at all. Do you think this amplifier will be enough for kef q750 after all? He will be able to pump them or be at the same level with these columns

 

[GiBo61]

I listened to my receiver with floor pads and probably the receiver is full ...., The middle and bottom can't pump normally at all. Do you think this amplifier will be enough for kef q750 after all? He will be able to pump them or be at the same level with these columns

 

[Zek]

I listened to my receiver with floor pads and probably the receiver is full ...., The middle and bottom can't pump normally at all. Do you think this amplifier will be enough for kef q750 after all? He will be able to pump them or be at the same level with these columns

???

 

[Lex87]

???

will the a30 unlock the potential of the kef q750?

 

[Lex87]

is there a strong difference in quality compared to the NAD D 3045?

 

[GiBo61]

will the a30 unlock the potential of the kef q750?

The Kef q750 with 88 dB sensitivity and a nominal impedance of 8 ohms (with a lower peak at 3.8 ohms) do not seem speakers hard to drive. Unless you like throwing rave parties in a 100 square meter hall I'm confident that the Sabaj A30a could do a good job with them (as any other competent amplifier with similar specs and power). However I'm not sure if the final result will be very different from what you get now with your 100+100W Pioneer AVR (probably you will get a tighter bass and a more dynamic sound when playing at loud volume). In my (limited) experience, a speaker I'm not happy with doesn't sound much different using different amps, on the other hand speakers I'm in love with sound good no matter the amplifier I'm using (as long is a "decent" one). I'm not one who believes that a certain brand o speakers play better with particular brands of amplifiers. Probably you will get a more noticeable improvement by changing the position of your speakers, improving the acoustics of the room and by selecting high quality music sources (CDs, FLAC files, HiRes streaming services). Just my 2 cents.

 

[Lex87]

Kef q750 с чувствительностью 88 дБ и номинальным сопротивлением 8 Ом (с более низким пиком на уровне 3,8 Ом) не кажутся жесткими в управлении динамиками. Если вам не нравится устраивать рейв-вечеринки в зале площадью 100 квадратных метров, я уверен, что Sabaj A30a мог бы хорошо с ними справиться (как и любой другой компетентный усилитель с аналогичными характеристиками и мощностью). Однако я не уверен, что конечный результат будет сильно отличаться от того, который вы получаете с вашим Pioneer AVR мощностью 100 + 100 Вт (вероятно, вы получите более плотные басы и более динамичный звук при воспроизведении на большой громкости). По моему (ограниченному) опыту, динамик, которым я недоволен, не сильно отличается при использовании разных усилителей, с другой стороны, динамики, в которые я влюблен, играют хорошо, независимо от того, какой усилитель я использую (до тех пор, пока он "приличный").). Я не из тех, кто считает, что колонки определенной марки играют лучше с усилителями определенных марок. Вероятно, вы добьетесь более заметного улучшения, изменив положение ваших колонок, улучшив акустику помещения и выбрав высококачественные источники музыки (компакт-диски, файлы FLAC, потоковые сервисы HiRes). Только мои 2 цента.

Я слушал ket q750 со своим ресивером pioneer vsx-416 и скажу, что в низкочастотной области абсолютно нет плотности и необходимого звука. Фактическая функциональность приемника, скорее всего, намного меньше, чем пишет производитель.

 

[gmetro]

@GiBo61 thanks for confirming that this is an issue. @ModDIY , thanks for looking into this

@peterwen , is sabaj doing anything (or going to do anything) about the issues that are being raised here? i mean i love the sound quality and power that the a30a provides but to me the issues are mounting and starting to tilt my view and experience towards the negative side of the scale, so to speak.

issues:

1. goes to power-on state instead of stand by state when coming from a power outage whether the state prior to the power outage is powered on or on stand by.
2. the apparent unmatched volume increment between the speaker lines and sw out line, where there increment is greater at the speaker lines than the sub out line as the volume increases. sure this will not bother a lot of folks who dont use a sub woofer but for us that do, i find it cumbersome to adjust the sub volume after i increase the master volume on the a30a
3. a lot of folks here feel that the sub cutoff of 70hz should be lowered. based on feedback from this thread, it appears that this can be fixed by a firmware update, so why not allow the scale go down further until it reaches zero or sub off

i wish you can reply and provide an answer as to what sabaj plans to do about these, as it seems that all these can be fixed by a firmware update. im asking because i really would like to keep the sabaj a30a but if nothing is done, that's fine too, i still have until jan 31 to return my purchase to amazon.

if i may ask for suggestions should the latter option happen, what do you feel is a good replacement that's really close to or better than the sound signature/quality and power of the a30a that's within the ballpark price of up to or less than $1k with a similar compact footprint, as it will sit on my wfh desktop set up?

@peterwen same but I think it's important that the speaker and sub cutoff are handled independently. Bare minimum is fully adjustable by 10hz each click. Ideally would include slope selection as well.

I mean I'd even be OK with running full range everywhere and using the subs built in crossover. Like, let us turn the crossover off. Maybe running the dial to the right will end in "full range" like how running left is"sub off"

And yeah I was wondering whats up with the sub output. I'm constantly adjusting it to match the speakers. At 20 I'm at -6db and at 50 I'm at +3db on sub

 

[robbbie]

I

@peterwen same but I think it's important that the speaker and sub cutoff are handled independently. Bare minimum is fully adjustable by 10hz each click. Ideally would include slope selection as well.

I mean I'd even be OK with running full range everywhere and using the subs built in crossover. Like, let us turn the crossover off. Maybe running the dial to the right will end in "full range" like how running left is"sub off"

And yeah I was wondering whats up with the sub output. I'm constantly adjusting it to match the speakers. At 20 I'm at -6db and at 50 I'm at +3db on sub

I was describing this issue some time ago in this thread. My (hopefully) temporary solution is to use two different presets in svs app that controls sub. One preset for everyday use for levels 20-30 and one preset for critical, louder listening at 50 volume setting. To get flat bass response at both volume levels I had to set gain in the second subwoofer preset 8dB louder than in the first one.
I keep cutoff at 70Hz and "sub vol" at 0dB.

Not to say that I don't enjoy this amp, but the issue with sub-out volume curve, even though manageable, is real annoyance. This has to be addressed, and the other propositions like better control over cutoff/highpass would be a welcomed addition.

 

[cyponn]

I understand your sub problem, but I tested at different volumes and even very loud and didn't notice anything. I will try to do the same test.

I am facing the issue actually at very low volume rather than high volume.

 

[SlamTaz]

To be honest I was not surprised. if anything Chinese makers (not just audio) have been flooding the market with model after model with quite big overlap between those.
And come with that, officially support for old(er) models is virtually dropped

@peterwen ,

the a30a's been out for roughly 6 months and im starting to think that @delta76 here is referring to sabaj, as one of the companies who drops official support for old(er) models, after flooding the market with newer ones.

can you confirm that sabaj has dropped support for the a30a, so we can stop asking for fixes &/or updates and move on?

 

[ModDIY]

@peterwen ,

the a30a's been out for roughly 6 months and im starting to think that @delta76 here is referring to sabaj, as one of the companies who drops official support for old(er) models, after flooding the market with newer ones.

can you confirm that sabaj has dropped support for the a30a, so we can stop asking for fixes &/or updates and move on?

Maybe they are not just dropping products, they changed the product from A20a 2019 to a new A20a 2022. And it was not an upgraded version but rather a different product. So why give the same name rather than admit that they made a design error by putting the SMPS on top of the amplifier pcb which causes high volume hiss on the RCA input.

 

[GiBo61]

@peterwen ,

the a30a's been out for roughly 6 months and im starting to think that @delta76 here is referring to sabaj, as one of the companies who drops official support for old(er) models, after flooding the market with newer ones.

can you confirm that sabaj has dropped support for the a30a, so we can stop asking for fixes &/or updates and move on?

I guess I'm missing something here. What do you mean when suggesting that maybe "Sabaj has dropped support for the a30a"? Is there any evidence of that?
I know many of us wish that Sabaj could develop a new firmware update to improve some characteristics of the amplifier and fix some glitches. If Sabaj really goes in that direction by releasing an updated firmware I think they will gain credibility and a following of many potential new customers (I hope Sabaj reads this thread and is aware of this). In my limited experience it doesn't seem that common for manufacturers to release new firmware for their amplifiers. Since I bought my Denon DRA 800H in 2019 the only firmware update has been the one that the device immediately applied after the initial setup and this is a receiver that is far from perfect.

 

[GiBo61]

Maybe they are not just dropping products, they changed the product from A20a 2019 to a new A20a 2022. And it was not an upgraded version but rather a different product. So why give the same name rather than admit that they made a design error by putting the SMPS on top of the amplifier pcb which causes high volume hiss on the RCA input.

ModDIY, when you say "they made a design error by putting the SMPS on top of the amplifier pcb which causes high volume hiss on the RCA input" are you referring to the Sabaj A20a 2019? I just briefly connected at the beginning a source (Wiim Mini) to the analog input of my Sabaj A30a and I did not notice any high volume hiss on the RCA input.

 

[ModDIY]

ModDIY, when you say "they made a design error by putting the SMPS on top of the amplifier pcb which causes high volume hiss on the RCA input" are you referring to the Sabaj A20a 2019? I just briefly connected at the beginning a source (Wiim Mini) to the analog input of my Sabaj A30a and I did not notice any high volume hiss on the RCA input.

Yes it is about the A20a 2019 and not the A30a.

 

[SlamTaz]

I guess I'm missing something here. What do you mean when suggesting that maybe "Sabaj has dropped support for the a30a"? Is there any evidence of that?
I know many of us wish that Sabaj could develop a new firmware update to improve some characteristics of the amplifier and fix some glitches. If Sabaj really goes in that direction by releasing an updated firmware I think they will gain credibility and a following of many potential new customers (I hope Sabaj reads this thread and is aware of this). In my limited experience it doesn't seem that common for manufacturers to release new firmware for their amplifiers. Since I bought my Denon DRA 800H in 2019 the only firmware update has been the one that the device immediately applied after the initial setup and this is a receiver that is far from perfect.

i was alluding to delta76's post and thinking that sabaj is one of them. i consider it as empirical evidence that should work both ways. i agree that they will gain credibility if they release an update. for me however, the opposite is also true, where if they don't release an update, their credibility will be blemished.