SONCOZ SGA-1 Review (Headphone Amplifier)

[Lupin]

Yes yes Soncoz has a good name when it comes to DACs.
That doesn't change anything to the fact that the SGA-1 is an underperforming and overpriced headphones amplifier.

 

[amirm]

I can't see how this can be recommended.

What about this is unclear?

I am going to recommend the Soncoz SGA1 on the strength of its its ability to drive high impedance headphones, nice looks, and perfect channel matching. If these match your criteria, you are good to go.

Getting 0.8 watts at 300 Ohm is not easy, nor common at all. Channel matching is important to many including my son with his Audeze headphones and very low volume listening. It also looks nice with fractional volume level indicator. To not recommend something it would have to do a lot of things wrong and that is not the case here.

 

[amirm]

Not necessarily - it could be switching, just with passive or no PFC.

What does PFC have to do with it? You can have universal switching supply without PFC. And it is not like this doesn't support dual voltages. It does, but does this with a switch which I have only seen in linear power supplies. I just looked at the specs and it is indeed a linear power supply:

 

[Lupin]

What about this is unclear?

I can read, nothing is "unclear"

I am going to recommend the Soncoz SGA1 on the strength of its its ability to drive high impedance headphones

So it's get recommenced because it does 50% well of what a headphone amplifier is suppose to do.

nice looks

Isn't the whole shtick of ASR objective reviews..? How something looks is highly subjective and should not carry any weight in the final reasoning to recommend or not recommend a product.

and perfect channel matching.

As I said in my post the channel matching is one of the few things that it has going for it.

Given the high price and the flaws of this amplifier in the very crowed landscape of headphone amplifiers I just don't see how this can be recommend.

 

[EMMA]

As I said in my post the channel matching is one of the few things that it has going for it.

Given the high price and the flaws of this amplifier in the very crowed landscape of headphone amplifiers I just don't see how this can be recommend.

I really really hope you can listen to it.

 

[CrimeInPartner]

@Ben1987 It doesn't look like the SGA1 does the wireless OTA firmware upgrading that its DAC counterpart does, is that correct? If so, is there any way to do firmware upgrades on it?

 

[Jimbob54]

@Ben1987 It doesn't look like the SGA1 does the wireless OTA firmware upgrading that its DAC counterpart does, is that correct? If so, is there any way to do firmware upgrades on it?

At the risk of asking a stupid question, why would a headphone amp need a firmware upgrade at all?

 

[CrimeInPartner]

At the risk of asking a stupid question, why would a headphone amp need a firmware upgrade at all?

I guess I'm just asking because in the case of the DAC, the latest firmware increased the performance a fair bit over what it was originally shipped with. I wouldn't want to miss out on something similar if Ben continued making improvements on the amp's software like he did on the SGD1.

 

[Atanasi]

At the risk of asking a stupid question, why would a headphone amp need a firmware upgrade at all?

Topping L50 has protection circuits controlled by the firmware. Apparently there is a possibility to adjust parameters if there is breakage similar to L30.

 

[Ben1987]

It doesn't look like the SGA1 does the wireless OTA firmware upgrading that its DAC counterpart does, is that correct?

SGA1 does not have an upgrade function, and software upgrades do not affect performance as SGD1 does

 

[amirm]

I guess I'm just asking because in the case of the DAC, the latest firmware increased the performance a fair bit over what it was originally shipped with.

ESS DAC chips have special parameters to reduce distortion. The firmware programs those and that was the change that improved its score. Here, as Ben notes, there is nothing like that to tweak.

 

[Tks]

At the risk of asking a stupid question, why would a headphone amp need a firmware upgrade at all?

I imagine for power and reliability stuff. Like if they have a microcontroller that’s regulates power, and there happens to be lots of reports of failing amps under a condition, they can send a firmware update to limit the power under certain conditions like using low impedance devices.

Seems this sort of approach is simpler than getting things right the first time.