xDuoo XA-10 Review (DAC and Headphone Amp)

[Spocko]

Wow, this is refreshingly terrible...

For some reason this description resonated with me given the context of this site with the ongoing measurement wins from unknown Chinese brands, it's refreshingly terrible to finally see an unknown Chinese brand measure badly.

 

[Veri]

For some reason this description resonated with me given the context of this site with the ongoing measurement wins from unknown Chinese brands, it's refreshingly terrible to finally see an unknown Chinese brand measure badly.

xDuoo had a few tube amps (at least 3) measured here before though, so not that unknown.

 

[Tortie]

I suspected this company was fudging on their posted specs and it turns out that's the case. Wolf already tested their flagship portable amp and it's measurements were bad too.

 

[HiFidFan]

Hopefully this isn't the narrow end of the wedge of form over function sneaking in...

I had a similar thought. I'm hoping that it's not.

 

[GWolfman]

Hello GW: Sure its not made to drive or even substitute a dedicated system. I am saying that they are enjoyable and that this little product has raised the bar. Raises it because of what can do for $9.99. So any other product should in theory be better than a $10 buck product. What we see is (Dragonfly and others) that it's better. Cheers

Well said!

 

[bier_ist_gut]

Thanks so much for this, @amirm! I reached out to you a few weeks ago about this, so I'm super glad to see you were able to review it. I will definitely not be purchasing now. Cheers!

 

[TheFNGee]

It's Monday, 03/22/2021 @ 11:30 CDT. I communicated with the vendor over this last weekend about my pending order, and regarding this review, more precisely the specs that were not being achieved by the tested device. They told me that their team was reaching out to @amirm regarding the issues he's seeing with his testing. Has this in fact happened? If not, I'm going to refuse the order and send it back.

New to the site, and Thanks,

TheFNGee

 

[amirm]

They told me that their team was reaching out to @amirm regarding the issues he's seeing with his testing. Has this in fact happened?

Not yet. I had asked Shenzhen audio to contact them post review and they said they would.

 

[TheFNGee]

Bummer. As far as its looks, to me this XA-10 is gorgeous. However, I'm looking for a unit that can drive my HD800s better than my present NuForce headphone amp. I also have A&K T8iE MKII IEMs that I'd like to use with this amp as well.

$480 is too high a risk on an overseas transaction.

Thanks,

TheFNGee

 

[DeepSpaceus]

For what it is worth Soundnews gave it a good review (https://soundnews.net/sources/dacs/xduoo-xa-10-dac-amp-review-my-golden-buzz/). Said that despite the technical flaws it sounds very good. And it drove the notoriously difficult to power Hifiman Susvara better than a $3K HPA4. His words, not mine. I agree with Amirm 99% of the time, but we do have to admit that measurements are not everything. Maybe the XDuoo XA 10 is not designed to be super clean and linear, and/or measure better than everything else. Maybe it was just designed to sound good to human ears. I for one would like to hear this amp and make a subjective decision based on my tastes. After all, a taco with precisely the right amount of ingredients and cooked to perfection may not taste good to some. The whole is not always a reflection of the parts.

 

[kiyu]

For what it is worth Soundnews gave it a good review (https://soundnews.net/sources/dacs/xduoo-xa-10-dac-amp-review-my-golden-buzz/). Said that despite the technical flaws it sounds very good. And it drove the notoriously difficult to power Hifiman Susvara better than a $3K HPA4. His words, not mine. I agree with Amirm 99% of the time, but we do have to admit that measurements are not everything. Maybe the XDuoo XA 10 is not designed to be super clean and linear, and/or measure better than everything else. Maybe it was just designed to sound good to human ears. I for one would like to hear this amp and make a subjective decision based on my tastes. After all, a taco with precisely the right amount of ingredients and cooked to perfection may not taste good to some. The whole is not always a reflection of the parts.

I was super excited about this one, because the components on it are quite nice 2 akm 4493, Xmos 216 (fully MQA decoder), ALtera max, nichicon capacitors, but the measurement are bad, not terrible, but really good either, so something is really messing up the product, also no sense that High game and low gain, have the same power.. that's really weird.
@amirm did the guys from Xduooo contact you ?

 

[SrTexugo]

I was super excited about this one, because the components on it are quite nice 2 akm 4493, Xmos 216 (fully MQA decoder), ALtera max, nichicon capacitors, but the measurement are bad, not terrible, but really good either, so something is really messing up the product, also no sense that High game and low gain, have the same power.. that's really weird.
@amirm did the guys from Xduooo contact you ?

This is the weirdest part of the review. In mine here, when I switch between low or high gain, the difference is very noticeable.

 

[DeepSpaceus]

Despite this bad measurement review I went ahead and bought one because of someone mentioning that it has tube-like sound qualities. I received it a few days ago. Last night I did an A/B test against an Audioquest Cobalt, and Earman TR-Amp, an iFi Micro iDSD Black Label, a Topping DX3 Pro, and my desktop system which is an RME ADI 2 fs DAC into a Topping A90 headphone amp and Schiit Valhalla 2 OTL tube amp. I plugged everything into a seven port USB hub and used Hart Audio Cable adapters on all the various headphone outputs so I could easily switch headphones between the units. The Headphones I used for the test where an HD 6xx, HD 5xx, Beyerdynamic 1990, Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Noir, and HiFiman Arya. The only dac/amp that was slightly better sounding to me was the ADI/A90 combo, but only in detail and "cleanliness". The xDuoo sounded better than all the others to my ears. It indeed does have a warm smooth "tubeish" sound, with expanded soundstage that was noticeably better than all the others. It reminded me of the little Schiit Vali 2 hybrid tube amp. Which reminds me that I also tested it with the Moondrop Blessing 2 IEMs and that was the best I ever heard those IEMs. I always felt that the tonality and detail of the Blessing are superb but that it was missing some soundstage. The xDuoo XA-10 solved that problem and the pairing is just great. I did not notice any hiss but did not crank the thing up much. The nice thing is that the planars (Arya, AEON) also sounded good, as opposed to high output impedance tube amps like the Valhalla 2 that don't sound good (not enough current, I guess). I almost believe that xDuoo intentionally made the amp a little dirty to sound like a hybrid tube amp. All I can say is that it has replaced my bedroom Topping DX3 Pro. Yes, the volume is an annoyance as is the power switch in the back, but I can live with those things.

 

[Pan]

Thanks. I am considering to purchase this. Should I?

 

[Helicopter]

Thanks. I am considering to purchase this. Should I?

Depends on your priorities, but probably not.

Here you get relatively poor performance at a relatively high price, but the unit looks kinda cool if that suits tastes.

There are better performing options at this price from Schiit, Topping, and several other manufacturers reviewed on ASR.

 

[DeepSpaceus]

Thanks. I am considering to purchase this. Should I?

Sound is a subjective individual thing. Like I said, I did an A/B with several DAC/AMPS and the XA-10 sounded better than most to my ears. Yes, my topping DX3 Pro measures better and it does sound a little "cleaner", as in more clinical and subjectively less natural. The RME ADI-2 with Topping A90 amp sound the best to my ears in clarity, soundstage, imaging, etc. But together they cost about three times more than the XA-10. The XA-10 is not perfect, but it has a nice sound on the side of warm with great soundstage (I am a soundstage guy), and does not lack in detail. It has enough power to drive just about anything and works well with every Headphone and IEM I have used it with. The stack that I would consider somewhat similar in sound and less expensive is perhaps a Schiit modi 3 with a Schiit Vali 2 hybrid tube amp though you sacrifice power and versatility because the Vali 2 output impedance is not always a good match with all IEMs or headphones (I have those laying around but did not hook them up). So, if it falls within your budget and its features and physical attributes fit your needs, I believe you can't go wrong with the XA-10. It is not an end game unit, but then again, what is?

 

[Pan]

I changed my mind and got myself A30 Pro and D30 Pro stack. I'm a happy man.

 

[dtaylo1066]

Unit seems to come up short in my view and is off my list. Unacceptable measurements, no remote or balanced out. I do like that aux analog in. I think I would go SMSL similar unit instead.

 

[dtaylo1066]

Maybe this unit was defective, especially given the lack of differences in filters.

 

[MOCKBA]

It is hard to conclude what is wrong with measurements without seeing a schematic. For example, if it doesn't have a deep negative feedback, it will show bad numbers, but sound better than a perfectly measured counterpart with a nested feedback .