Sabaj A30a announced

[daniboun]

It's curious that now that they've discontinued production of the Sabaj A30a amplifier, so many posts are being published in this thread. I was almost thinking of buying a second one from a seller who still has a few in stock (Amazon?), but honestly, I find it difficult to justify the purchase.

Don't believe everything you're told....
In stock :

SABAJ A30A Amplificateur FDA 2x STA516BE AX5689 Bluetooth aptX HD LDAC 2x200W 4 Ohm - Audiophonics

Sabaj dévoile avec le A30a un bel amplificateur intégré Class D, capable de délivrer une grande puissance tout en offrant une restitution aussi riche que précise. Sa connectique le rend de plus extrêmement polyvalent.

www.audiophonics.fr

 

[Roland68]

Don't believe everything you're told....
In stock :

SABAJ A30A Amplificateur FDA 2x STA516BE AX5689 Bluetooth aptX HD LDAC 2x200W 4 Ohm - Audiophonics

Sabaj dévoile avec le A30a un bel amplificateur intégré Class D, capable de délivrer une grande puissance tout en offrant une restitution aussi riche que précise. Sa connectique le rend de plus extrêmement polyvalent.

www.audiophonics.fr

He's probably right, unfortunately; stocks are running out everywhere.
One unit is on sale at audiophonics, one at Amazon.de, and one at HiFi-Express for €439.
Apparently, Sabaj isn't producing any more.

But I have two...

 

[GiBo61]

He's probably right, unfortunately; stocks are running out everywhere.
One unit is on sale at audiophonics, one at Amazon.de, and one at HiFi-Express for €439.
Apparently, Sabaj isn't producing any more.

But I have two...

The one on Amazon.de is a used unit

 

[KL....]

The one on Amazon.de is a used unit

Unfortunate, perhaps @Roland68 can provide the HiFi-Express link, for you :=)

 

[Roland68]

The one on Amazon.de is a used unit

There was a new one on Amazon.de two or three days ago.
The one on HiFi-Express seems to still be available.
Sabaj A30a €439,99 on HiFi-Express

 

[Roland68]

I just noticed that the VMV A2 is also sold out at the SMSL FACTORY OFFICIAL STORE and on HiFi-Express. A few pairs are still available at some retailers.

If it's not being re-released either, it reinforces my suspicion that SMSL is initially focusing on the marketing impact of their GaN amplifiers.

 

[ModDIY]

Hi,

I've been using the Sabaj A30a amplifier on my main system (Wiim Pro and B&W speakers) for the past three years. The sound is excellent, with depth, dynamics, and detail.

After three years, I'm still very happy with it.

 

[EmilW]

I had my Sabaj A30a for about a year, then I heard a tube amp from Cayin and never looked back.

My Sabaj A30a failed to amaze me like the comments here suggest it would, but maybe digital is just not for me.

And the subwoofer gain issue also annoyed me quite a bit.

Today I run:
Elac Vela BS403 on Cayin CS-55A, and it is better in every way possible. I know it is a completely different price bracket, and tube amp can’t be compared, however, to me, the Sabaj sounds flat, harsh, brittle with a narrow sound stage and without body and imaging.

All the best
Emil

 

[daniboun]

I had my Sabaj A30a for about a year, then I heard a tube amp from Cayin and never looked back.

My Sabaj A30a failed to amaze me like the comments here suggest it would, but maybe digital is just not for me.

And the subwoofer gain issue also annoyed me quite a bit.

Today I run:
Elac Vela BS403 on Cayin CS-55A, and it is better in every way possible. I know it is a completely different price bracket, and tube amp can’t be compared, however, to me, the Sabaj sounds flat, harsh, brittle with a narrow sound stage and without body and imaging.

All the best
Emil

Tube amps should be banned by 2025 if only because of their environmental impact... As for your impression, by definition it's subjective. A tube amp almost always introduces coloration and distortion. You've fallen into confirmation bias, and a certain cognitive dissonance leads you to say that the Sabaj A30A sounds flat.

 

[GiBo61]

I had my Sabaj A30a for about a year, then I heard a tube amp from Cayin and never looked back.

My Sabaj A30a failed to amaze me like the comments here suggest it would, but maybe digital is just not for me.

And the subwoofer gain issue also annoyed me quite a bit.

Today I run:
Elac Vela BS403 on Cayin CS-55A, and it is better in every way possible. I know it is a completely different price bracket, and tube amp can’t be compared, however, to me, the Sabaj sounds flat, harsh, brittle with a narrow sound stage and without body and imaging.

All the best
Emil

i have exactly the same setup: Sabaj A30a and Elac Vela BS403. I find that the Sabaj neither adds nor takes away anything from the music and I think that's what a good amplifier should do.

 

[KL....]

I had my Sabaj A30a for about a year, then I heard a tube amp from Cayin and never looked back.

My Sabaj A30a failed to amaze me like the comments here suggest it would, but maybe digital is just not for me.

And the subwoofer gain issue also annoyed me quite a bit.

Today I run:
Elac Vela BS403 on Cayin CS-55A, and it is better in every way possible. I know it is a completely different price bracket, and tube amp can’t be compared, however, to me, the Sabaj sounds flat, harsh, brittle with a narrow sound stage and without body and imaging.

All the best
Emil

Thank you, @EmilW, to ask, were you connecting to the A30a via Analogue Input? That is, was it the same way that you would be connecting to the Cayin CS-55A, via Analogue Input? If yes, this appears to be the weakest connection for the A30a, especially as Amir was not able the measure the VMV A2 due to issues with the Analogue connection. If ok, let us know so that we may have more/better appreciation for your evaluation :=)

The SW issue was (mostly) remedyed/fixed with Firmware updates, wasn't it, just not low enough for some/many setups, especially as it is 2.1 not 2.2?

The SPDIF/Coax connection works very well, as the VMV A2 measure shows, doesn't it?

 

[EmilW]

Sorry if my subjective impressions don’t align with most opinions here (and I’m glad if you love your amps). I bought the Sabaj A30a excited to try true digital amplification at a great price.

I used it the same way I use my Cayin: via the built-in DAC over USB, streaming TIDAL at the recommended sample rate and bitrate.

When shopping for a new subwoofer, I brought the amp to a local hi-fi store to A/B test subs. While there, I also compared the Sabaj A30a to other amps in the listening room, and was surprised by how much I felt I was missing. This was unexpected, as I had no prior interest in other or tube amps.

For that reason, I don’t believe this was confirmation bias. At the time, I genuinely thought the Sabaj A30a was a near state-of-the-art solution.

All the best
Emil

 

[antcollinet]

For that reason, I don’t believe this was confirmation bias.

That is not necessarily how perceptive bias works.

It need have nothing to do with your conscious biases (prejudices) or expectations:

We know that our hearing is subject to cognitive/perceptive bias. What we hear is impacted by what we know, what we believe, how we feel, our life experiences, what we see etc etc. No-one is immune to this if they are human - it is how we are built. In fact we would be unable to function if our senses were not filtered by our unconscious brain. Everyone is subject to this, it happens at the unconscious level, and it is not possible to avoid it - even when we are aware it is happening.

Put it simply - if you are listening sighted (as of course you were in a shop showroom), and hearing differences where none would be expected, it is almost certain those differences are not in the sound reaching your ears, but are being created in the wetware between them.

Another possibility is the inability to accurately level match in that environment - perhaps even the sales man deliberately making sure his amps were slightly louder than yours. (A well known trick) which will make them sound better, even if you don't perceive it as louder.

 

[EmilW]

That is not necessarily how perceptive bias works.

It need have nothing to do with your conscious biases (prejudices) or expectations:

We know that our hearing is subject to cognitive/perceptive bias. What we hear is impacted by what we know, what we believe, how we feel, our life experiences, what we see etc etc. No-one is immune to this if they are human - it is how we are built. In fact we would be unable to function if our senses were not filtered by our unconscious brain. Everyone is subject to this, it happens at the unconscious level, and it is not possible to avoid it - even when we are aware it is happening.

Put it simply - if you are listening sighted (as of course you were in a shop showroom), and hearing differences where none would be expected, it is almost certain those differences are not in the sound reaching your ears, but are being created in the wetware between them.

Another possibility is the inability to accurately level match in that environment - perhaps even the sales man deliberately making sure his amps were slightly louder than yours. (A well known trick) which will make them sound better, even if you don't perceive it as louder.

I don’t disagree about perceptive bias at all, it’s real and unavoidable.

But just to clarify the scenario: there was no salesman, no one else in the room, and no deliberate level manipulation. I was alone for several hours doing the listening and switching myself.

Bias is always a possible explanation, but without measurements it’s a stretch to say the differences were almost certainly only in my head.

Bias is always on the table. I’m just not convinced it’s the only thing on the table here.

 

[antcollinet]

Bias is always on the table. I’m just not convinced it’s the only thing on the table here.

Why? The difference between half way decent amplifiers is normally inaudible. This is double so when listening through speakers, and doubly so again when in an unfamiliar (and probably imperfect) room.

And absolutely so when you are listening with the levels not matched accurately (to within 0.2dB with a volt meter measured at the speakers). The inevitable mismatch in level that you will have had in that listening room will have a much more significant impact to what you hear than any measured difference between amps.


Simply put - the *only* way to be confident that any percieved differneces you hear are genuinely coming from the sound quality of whichever devices you are comparing - is to do a properly controlled blind test. Everything else is pretty much pointless - at least as far as electronics is concerned.

Now if you are listing to a badly designed heavily distorting tube amp - it is possible there might be an audible difference to your Sabaj. But even then you can't know if that is what you are hearing without the blind test to confirm it. Our brains are just to good at pre filtering what we hear before we hear it.

 

[Roland68]

I had my Sabaj A30a for about a year, then I heard a tube amp from Cayin and never looked back.

My Sabaj A30a failed to amaze me like the comments here suggest it would, but maybe digital is just not for me.

And the subwoofer gain issue also annoyed me quite a bit.

Today I run:
Elac Vela BS403 on Cayin CS-55A, and it is better in every way possible. I know it is a completely different price bracket, and tube amp can’t be compared, however, to me, the Sabaj sounds flat, harsh, brittle with a narrow sound stage and without body and imaging.

All the best
Emil

Do you have the Cayin CS-55A with the KT88 or the EL34 tubes?

 

[EmilW]

Do you have the Cayin CS-55A with the KT88 or the EL34 tubes?

I bought it with KT88s, but have since installed PSVANE EL34-Z tubes and changed the preamp stage to Mullard Reissues. The stock KT88 configuration, however, is very neutral.

If anyone has experience comparing the Sabaj to amps like the Cayin, I’d be interested to hear it.

My experience with the Sabaj may be an outlier given the general consensus here.

 

[Roland68]

I bought it with KT88s, but have since installed PSVANE EL34-Z tubes and changed the preamp stage to Mullard Reissues. The stock KT88 configuration, however, is very neutral.

If anyone has experience comparing the Sabaj to amps like the Cayin, I’d be interested to hear it.

My experience with the Sabaj may be an outlier given the general consensus here.

That explains it at least partially, and perhaps completely.

I have over 25 years of experience with Cayin equipment, and it's always been the same.
Cayin equipment is intentionally colored in sound, as the typical customer base expects exactly this kind of sound. This isn't just true for the tube amplifiers.
Calling a Cayin CS-55A with KT88 tubes neutral is quite a stretch. With EL34 tubes and the circuitry behind them, this coloration is even more pronounced.Das bedeutet, dass Ihr Verstärker weit von einer neutralen Einstellung entfernt ist.

The A30a simply converts the digital signal at the output into an analog one, without load dependency or other issues. It doesn't get much more neutral than that.

With any song, you have an initial data set, whether analog or digital, which the equipment and speakers must reproduce exactly as it is.
If a device sounds different from the original recording of the music, then that's only possible if the device alters the original music material. I consider such a device defective, as it fails to fulfill its original purpose of reproducing everything exactly as it was, without any changes. Incidentally, that's the opposite of what "audiophile" means.

But if that's exactly what you want, then that's fine. Then you don't need to worry about reviews or other opinions. Of course, the source, speakers, room, etc., and the music you prefer also influence the result, and perhaps some things are masked by these factors, but it's tedious to figure all that out. I've also seen several people completely abandon the idea of such a device.

But as I said, if you're happy with it, then everything's fine.