Xduoo TA-03S Tube DAC/Amp Reviews | Drop

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Xduoo TA-03S Tube DAC/Amp

Audiophile

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Xduoo TA-03S Tube DAC/Amp

Fayne

2601

Dec 20, 2020

Verified Buyer

Loaded with Uljanovsk 6С19П-BP and JJ ECC802s tubes:

Loaded with stock Chinese 6C19 and ElectroHarmonix 12AU7A tubes:

Initial impressions (2020.12.20): Unboxing was about the norm. Everything is very securely packed in foam, and nothing appears to have been harmed in shipping from China to US to me. So, very good start there. As with all of the other xDuoo purchases I've made at Drop, the supplied power cord was not for US, appearing to be for Australia. Whatever, it uses a standard IEC and I purchased a load of medical grade cables from Monoprice during black Friday sales. I'd have knocked a star off, but cables are cheap and amp quality is all that matters. It comes with the standard Chinese manufactured Shuguang (Sino) tubes, no surprise there. I did not use the 12AU7 that arrived with it. I can't stand them, they're too mushy and don't have enough clean definition. As the amp arrived 3 weeks early, I did not have my preferred JJ ECC802s Gold Pin on hand, so I used one of the spare EH 12AU7 that I'd purchased a few years back for a project that never happened. While they tend to be a bit brighter than I like, it doesn't seem to be a terrible pairing on this amp. I've a factory box of Russian 6C19P on the way, but once again, amp arrived much earlier than expected. So, for the time being I'm making do with the stock Chinese 6C19J. My signal path is as follows: Roon -> Pi4 running Ropieee -> Airist R-2R DAC -> Yaqin CD3 buffer with upgraded caps and added bleeder resistors at input, output, and power supply -> xDuoo TA-03S Everything is still breaking in, so hasn't settled to the final sound, but I'm rather happy with what I'm hearing already. It is absolutely free of noise on all of the cans I've tried with it so far (HD58x, HD6xx, TR-70-250, T1.2), and just plain wonderful sounding. While some of this is just the lottery when it comes to tubes, a lot can be attributed to the circuit and build quality. I'm not even going to bother trying any of my cans with impedance lower than 150Ω. Just no point. None of my cans even came close to needing me to turn the volume knob past 10 o'clock before getting hearing damage loud. I ran my standard testing playlist against it with those four sets of cans with great success. Bass and sub-bass exactly where it should be. Very deep and extremely tight, easily reaching down to 10hz, with the knee being somewhere in the 15-20hz range. The mids seem to be a touch recessed, but not excessively. I'm not sure if that is because the tube combination or the circuit design itself, I'm likely to find out when the rest of my tubes arrive. Treble range is deliciously smooth and detailed. I'd say this is a very intimate amp, with touches of the expected tube holography. It is not a giant killer, but it is most definitely not garbage. Even without being broken in, I'd take it over my DarkVoice any day, especially seeing it doesn't require a single modification to make it great. Just like the DarkVoice, the chassis on this amp gets rather warm to the touch, and not from the tubes radiating heat. I'm guessing that most of the heat is coming from resistors on the cathode and power supply voltage regulators. The chassis itself seems to be designed to handle the heat load, with the left and right sides being heat sink style chunks of aluminum. I have not tried the DAC portion of the unit, nor am I likely to anytime soon. There is only so much desk space, and only the best amps in my collection get to live on my desk. If this one continues to sound great as the tubes break in, it quite likely will have a spot in my regularly used amp lineup for a while. Continued Impressions (2020.12.27): Still waiting on upgrade tubes to arrive, so I've been breaking in and spending a lot of time with the stock Chinese 6C19 power tubes and EH 12AU7 preamp, and am still loving the amp. It does absolutely wonderful things with my high Ω cans, and after about 90 hours on the unit I'm still finding the bass to be extremely deep and controlled, possibly more-so than when the amp first arrived. I've been noticing that while the Chinese 6C19 sound perfectly fine, they're incredibly microphonic, picking up mechanical vibration from a racked storage array, switch, and server on the same glass desk. It isn't in your face levels of noise, but clearly noticeable when no audio is playing as a light mechanical sound, sort of like hearing a fan brushing against a piece of paper a few rooms away. The noise goes away when I lift the unit from my desk (or when my array stops grinding and the server fans spin down), and intensifies when I add any other vibration sources to the desk. Hopefully the high vibration tolerance 6S19P-VR which arrive this week tame this. Worst case I have to add some dampers to the tubes and under the amp. Overall, it still absolutely worth the money and will likely continue to be my recommendation and go-to for OTL amplification. Continued Impressions (2020.12.30): Russian tubes are better than Chinese tubes. Out of the box the Russian 6С19П-BP absolutely blow the China 6C19 away. No vibration noise, slightly deeper bass. Much more happy. Now to break them in. Final (probably) thoughts (2021.02.14): I left this on my desk while swapping through all of my other tube amps for the past month and a half. I've been finding that it handles my high Ω cans better than all of my other tube amps, both pure and hybrid. With zero modifications (other than tube rolling) it is able to push my HD58x, HD6xx, TR-70-250, and T1.2 into producing some the the most pleasant punchy warm sounds they've made for me yet, and all without being bloated or muddy. Compared to the DarkVoice, the TA-03s sounds like what you get when you spend the time to fix the design flaws. Same levels of bass depth and punch, with that big boy linear triode sound. Cheaper tubes too, even if they are slightly harder to find. Both sound similar, but I'd absolutely stick with the TA-03s. Compared to the PA1502A (rocking Tungsram 6L6GA & JJ ECC802s) the TA-03s is the king of bass and lower mid-range, while the PA1502A is more detailed upper mid and treble. Intimate and forward versus the airy crisp detail of the PA1502A. The TA-03s works much better for bass and lower mid rich music and content. The PA1502A while absolutely not lacking in bottom end, tends to work better for music or content that requires extra detail in the upper ranges. Plus PA1502A is much more compatible with headphones and IEM. I'd stick my T1.2 on the TA-03s before the PA1502A any day, the rest of them it really depends on the content. Compared to the Monoprice Monolith the TA-03s is just more lush. While the Monolith DOES handle a much wider range of cans, the 6N3/5670 it uses in front of the 6AS7 tends to push it into the more analytical and cold territory. That is absolutely fine, but if I want impact, I'll go with the TA-03s. Compared to the ZDT Jr. the TA-03s has the edge with impact and bottom end. This is likely just the no-transformer vs transformer thing at the output. The ZDT does have a wider range of headphone support, but required digging for the somewhat rarefied 6FC7/ECC89 as most of the 6N24P I've tried sound like poop. Plus the TA-03s was just straight cheaper. Tonality wise the ZDT is more balanced, without the slant towards the bottom end typical in OTL with linear tubes. Personal flavor preference has me grabbing the TA-03s more than the ZDT for my high Ω cans. Compared to the CTH the TA-03s has more pressure and punch. The CTH is of course a hybrid, and sounds like it. I'd use the TA-03s over the CTH for high Ω cans, any day. The CTH shines in the way it treats the mid 32-150Ω range of cans, but it just doesn't have the impact that the TA-03s does on the bottom end. Compared to the TA-20 the TA-03s sounds more like a tube amp. The TA-20 is balanced, clean, and detailed, supporting pretty much every set of headphones I've thrown at it, but that solid state output means it doesn't have the same level of harmonics that the TA-03s does. Plus the TA-03s sounds better on cans that are bass shy like the T1.2. Compared to the Little Dot 1+ the TA-03s just sounds better. Even after rolling the tubes and opamp on the Dot, I don't find it getting much use. It isn't a bad hybrid, but the TA-03s just does higher Ω cans better, and most all of my other hybrids do lower Ω cans better and have less noise. Compared to the P20 the TA-03s sounds much more like a tube amp. The P20 is absolutely the best tube hybrid on the market in the sub $100 range, but it doesn't SOUND very tube like. The 6N3/5670 tubes it uses are cold and analytical, and the solid state output doesn't add any real sound flavor. The TA-03s handles high Ω cans better, with a huge amount of headroom left, whereas the P20 needs to be turned somewhere near the -20 range to get the same level of impact. I'd probably take the P20 over the TA-03s for gaming, and that is about it. So, overall I'm extremely pleased with the TA-03s. It won its spot on my desk. I consider it extremely good value for the price. If xDuoo came out with a balanced version, I'd buy it instantly. I've absolutely fallen in love with the 6C19P power tubes. If you've got high Ω cans, do yourself a favor and buy one. If you've only got low Ω cans, stay as far away as possible.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

Was this helpful?

BeijingBiden

Feb 14, 2021

FayneLol ok.

•

BenEren

Jul 18, 2021

FayneI need good amp to get high ohm cans so im waiting for a good one, now you say stay away if you have only low ohm ones. How do i break out of this, buy everything at once?

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Fayne

2601

Jul 18, 2021

BenErenPretty much, yeah. If you don't already have cans that work well with it you'd likely want to buy them at the same time. On the cheaper side, the HD58x and HD6xx both sound wonderful on the TA-03s. Especially so the HD6xx. You could also buy a hybrid amplifier that'll work with a wider range of headphones instead of an OTL. Something like the TA-20 or MT-602 from xDuoo, or something like the Schiit Vali should work on pretty much every set of headphones nicely. If you aren't looking specifically for OTL but do want a pure tube amp, you may have good luck with something like the APPJ PA1502A, a pure tube amp that has transformers at the output. I've used everything from IEM to 600Ω cans on mine with great success.

NoburtM

Jan 22, 2023

FayneHello Fayne! I appreciate all you wrote up about this DAC/AMP combo unit. I just read through your review again, and what you wrote in the discussions. I know very little about tubes, but I know I want to upgrade from the stock Chinese ones when I can. Is your most recommended tube setup Uljanovsk 6С19П-BP and JJ ECC802s tubes? Is there a setup that I could do where it would just be the Russian/Soviet tubes? From reading your posts it looks like you recommend the 6S19P-VR(If I am reading right, it is the translation of 6С19П-BP?) due to the better vibration damping and higher reliability? Also, if you have any recommendation of what I could read to learn more about the Russian/Soviet tubes, or just learning more about tubes, lengths, etc. I would really appreciate it. It looks like those might be the best bang for the buck I can get.(college really sucks the money right out of me ;p)

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Fayne

2601

Jan 22, 2023

NoburtMYeah, my preference with this amp is definitely Ulyanovsk 6С19П-BP and JJ ECC802s. The JJ ECC802s has better bass extension than most all of the other new production 12AU7 tubes on the market. Svetlana 6С19П also sound pretty nice, but they're even harder to find high reliability with vibration tolerance than the Ulyanovsk. I sourced my 6С19П tubes on eBay (link to search) from vendors in Ukraine and Russia (pre-war), so availability might be problematic (and changes daily). If you want a purely Russian tube based setup, pick up a new production Genalex B749/ECC82, Tung-Sol 12AU7/6189, Electro-Harmonix 12AU7, or Mullard 12AU7/ECC82. All four of those brands are now produced in Saratov, Russia, at the New Sensor vacuum tube plant. They're all extremely similar sounding, with minor differences based on the construction. I tend to lean towards Genalex or Tung-Sol when going for the new production Russian stuff, but that is 100% personal taste. You won't find any NOS 12AU7 of Russian make, the vast majority of tubes manufactured there with similar functionality were 6 volt heaters instead of the 12 volt of the 12AU7, so not compatible. If you order any of those from TubeDepot, it is recommended to check the Balanced Triodes and Low Noise & Microphonics check boxes. Not required, but definitely makes for more consistent experience. As for leaning about tubes, I suggest a whole bunch of searching through forums like Head-Fi and Steve Hoffman. If you want a bit of insight into tube amplifier designs and theory, it is highly recommended to read through the works of John Broskie at tubecad.

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