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Xduoo TA-03S Tube DAC/Amp

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Xduoo TA-03S Tube DAC/Amp

Name: Xduoo TA-03S Tube DAC/Amp
Brand: xDuoo
SKU: xduoo-ta-03s-tube-dac-amp
Price: 139 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 3.517241 (29 reviews)

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Massdrop x Sennheiser HD 6XX Headphones

Product Description

The xDuoo TA03S Tube Headphone Amplifier is a little tube-supported powerhouse, perfect for pushing your high-end headphones to sing with warmth and detail. The XMOS U8 processor drives the unit with plenty of headroom for processing, which is good because there are two separate CS4398 DAC chips supporting up to 32-bit, 192-kilohertz decoding Read More

Customer Reviews

3.5

(29 reviews)

(13)

(4)

(1)

(7)

63% would recommend to a friend

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Fayne

2582

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

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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

2582

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.

apchouston

Mar 15, 2021

Verified Buyer

Nice solid Amp wished it had additional inputs

No frills amp that does the job well. Pairs well with the HD6XX and HE4XX. I'm quite happy with it.

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obLivi0us

Nov 15, 2022

apchoustonHow well does it drive the hd6xx? The only review on youtube of it the guy warns from using it with hard to drive headphones... although he never tested the 6xx

HeadphoneJunkie

Dec 23, 2022

obLivi0usIt has absolutely no problem driving hd6xx. I use the two together.

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JonasO

197

Jul 3, 2020

Verified Buyer

Sounds great, but shonky software

To get this to work with my computer, I had to install XMOS ASIO driver, which replaces the software that comes with the product. At no point did the supplied software ever work. however, when I managed to get it to work, I was pretty pleased. The sound is both warm and detailed, but not overly detailed which can be fatiguing. I find it best for music, but it easily handles games and movies. Also helps heat the room, those tubes get hot! would recommend.

Recommends this product? Yes

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silvaup4

Jan 26, 2023

Verified Buyer

Great bang for the buck headphone amp!

This little guy is POWERFUL and HEAVY (comparable to its size) And it needs some fine tune :) OH YES! Let's do it! I did it! within 24 hours I got this amp, and it transformed to a different amp that I loved even better!!! I accomplished 80% what I wanted it to be after studying its design and circuit. Where's the missing 20%? Well, see the story below: Well, as a veteran, senior tube builder, designer and DIYer, I listened to it for 10mins when I first got it, and I completely disassembled it to study the circuit and see where it can be improved based off my listening experiences. As many reviews state, this amp has a light humming AC sound. This is one thing I CANNOT tolerate - even it's AC powered heaters, there must be way to improve the noise to a "almost" unnoticeable level. Here comes my mod:

The high voltage is regulated by a IC TIP-50, which is GREAT. As singled ended tube like this 6C19pi is VERY sensitive to dirty power. BUT, the main cap from factory is only 220uF/250V NCC cap, which is NOT enough. WHY? well, as I tested, each 6C19pi is drawing about 50mA and with 12Au7, total high voltage (B+), from plate to cathode, is regulated at 174VDC and drawing approx. 110mA total. That's a LOT for a headphone amp and that's good! that's why this amp is so powerful to drive most demanding headphone like HD800 and LCD2. given a rough estimation, a minimum capacity needs to be at least 3 times, from my experiences, the current which means AT LEAST the cap needs to be at 330uF or more. As you can see, I replaced 220uF NCC cap with an oversized 680uF Panasonic cap (note the temp rating is important, I keep 105C rated cap since it will stay in the casing and it will go really hot when operated).
Coupling cap (12AU7 to 6C19pi) - hmmm, I don't know what this 0.47uF cap that XDUOO ODM from. looks like a promising PP cap but I have a better choice to deliver more dynamic, cleaner sound stage coupling cap. I replaced XDUOO labeled 0.47uF cap with Sweden made audiophile grade RIFA 426, 1uF cap. The coupling cap path is very critical to the sound as it passes the sound from 12AU7's plate, an amplified AC wave signal (music, in plain word) to 6C19pi's grid (input, in plain word). The cap also block DC voltage into 6C19pi. So again the quality of this cap is super critical.
Coupling cap (6C19pi to headphone) - I wanted to upgrade 6C19pi's cathode coupling caps (this is another critical cap that passes final output music from 6C19pi to your headphone - YES, directly, point to point). Given the cost and compact design, I am not blaming XDUOO only uses 100uF electric NCC cap. BUT, this is the bottleneck where 20% of sound this amp cannot be improved. Every tube designer know electric cap has no comparison to PP, oil, foil, waxed, MKP etc film caps in terms of dynamic, sonic representation, speed, punch, clarity etc. you name it! However, an OTL amp (like this one, output without audio transformer) needs a large capacitance something like 100uF or more. a PP can at 100uF/100V rated can easily go as big as 1/4 of this amp's size! So, sorry, there's nothing I can do to upgrade the final stage coupling cap due to the compact size of this amp. (don't want to hang two gigantic PP/MKP caps outside of the housing? haha - NO!)

In short, I replaced 3 caps: main filter power cap from 220uF to 680uF, and coupling caps from 0.47uF to 1uF RIFA audiophile grade. Power on without housing assembled - put up with a Variac - high voltage (checked), heaters (checked), cathode (checked), output AC/DC (checked). GREAT. all voltage points are correct - The worst part is to put everything back - man, this amp is tiny and heavy! really hard to find space for the oversized 680uF cap! it took me 10 mins to put them in a cozy position that I can close the lid and screw housing back on. Alright! time to listen! BANG! BINGO! the AC humming is GONE! like 90%+ gone! I didn't measure the AC ripple before I close the lid, which I should have, but it's so quiet now that I can barely hear AC humming no more (well, maybe still there a tiny bit but that's like 90% improvement that I cannot hear it and I can easily ignore it during sound tracks at quiet night in my home office) Sound stage is wider, vocal is cleaner and more articulated - thanks for the powerful 680uF cap and of course the RIFA audiophile caps that completely upgrade the clarity and dynamic response. THEN it's time to try out different tubes - YES, my favorite part - tube rollings! I tried replacing original 12AU7 with below tubes:

Telefunken 12AU7, 60' old tube
Valve CV4003 (= CV4024 = 12AT7 mil grade) made by Mullard, UK, 70' old tube
GE 6201 (12AT7) old tube
RCA 5965 old tube
RCA 12AU7 black pate old tube
Tung-Sol 5814A (12AU7 mil grade) old tube
Sylvania 5814A old tube
Mullard E180CC (similar to 5965 / 12AV7) old tube
Telefunken 5965 old tube

That's right - I don't have new tubes and definitely not in favor / mood to try new production tubes - they are just so inferior in anyway comparing to old tubes while they are still available in NOS and affordable! DO NOT try 12AX7 / 5751, you'll either burn down the tube or the sound would be weird. This amp is designed around 5mA draw for the front stage (12AU7) each channel, 12AX7 can handle only 1mA roughly. 12AU7 / 5814 has low gain around 20-ish, 5965/E180CC/12AT7/12AV7 gives around 30~40-ish gain depending on the design. But this amp SHOULD TAKE these tubes I mentioned above without issues. Try these tubes and let me know what's your favorite! (I bolded the tubes above in this amp I like the most!) oh, and don't forget to upgrade 6C19pi tubes with old Russian / Soviet made like Svetlana, OTK, SOVTEK etc. I am waiting for mine to arrive. Happy listening to this tiny giant tube headphone AMP! If you need modification service, feel free to contact me :)

(Edited)

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daveysprocketbrew

Feb 17, 2023

silvaup4Do you have any more photos of what you did? I like the idea of more capacitance and am interested in possibly modifying as you suggested. Mine has no hum whatsoever, so maybe it's best to leave it alone.

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Anon8

Apr 15, 2021

Verified Buyer

Awesome dac/tube amp. Sounds very nice to me although it's my first one. Bought an electro-harmonix 12au7 for a sound improvement the stock in comparison are pretty bad. Have a few other tubes coming in to try out; very good entry-way to tubes. I pair with the hd 6xx seems to be very good. Doesn't work on low impedence headphones -- just staticky.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Xudos

Oct 25, 2021

Verified Buyer

Fantastic starter tube amp!

Bought this on a whim when I first saw it. I knew about the 12AU7 tubes and asumed this would probably be a clean tube amp. I was right! It adds a nice tube tonality and characteristics without killing the detail and technical performance of my headphones. I do not use the DAC much so no comment reguarding that part. For refrence I use matched Ulyanov 6c19p from 1969 and a new production Mullard 12AU7

Recommends this product? Yes

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WOLFGANG420

Nov 5, 2022

XudosHow do you not use the DAC? IT WORKS AS SOON AS ITS ON.

•

markainsworth

Nov 12, 2022

WOLFGANG420just connect the outputs from your dac to the rca inputs on the back. If you do not connect anything to the digital inputs (usb/coax/optical) the dac circuitry is bypassed.

Anthony_Shea

Jan 1, 2020

Verified Buyer

Great Amp

It has preformed wonderfully, pushes everything I have at a good listening volume at quarter of the way . and I have some 250 Ohm headphones. It does get pretty warm, but if you live in a cooler climate that might be welcomed.

Recommends this product? Yes

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iucoen

137

Mar 19, 2021

Not sure what you mean. Just get any hybrid amp. What that means is there is a tube in the amp stage followed by a solid state amp to supply enough current to low impedance headphones. The TA-10/20/30 family are all hybrid amps.

Anthony_Shea

Mar 19, 2021

iucoen(T20RPmk3) Driver: Regular Phase (or Orthodynamic) Impedance: 50 ohm ... The impedance is low, which means I am guessing they might be a little quiet if you use them with your phone. but you could. the higher the impedance, the more 'force' it takes to drive them. I am far from an authority on the matter, but higher impedance headphones tend to reproduce more accurately I adore my Fostex TR-X00 , but they dont benefit from this AMP and Possibly actually sound better on my lil xDuo TA-01. iirc TA-03s is a class A amp, which is also massive over kill for anything low impedance.

phragmatic

Apr 17, 2021

Verified Buyer

great first tube amp!

I never thought much of tube amps other than PUSA had a song called "Toob Amplifier," so when I saw this, I was taken aback, and decided to get it on a whim. It was the very item I had no idea I was missing from my music setup. 5/5. Would buy again.

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MusicKeoki

Feb 5, 2023

Verified Buyer

Weak. Do not recommend.

Well, what can I say besides this this came in with a dead channel on the RCA side and I waited months for it to arrive as well. The USB-C side played temporarily but would intermittently cut out too. Even with the intermittent USB-C working the volume was extremely low and inadequate. After trying several different sources and cables nothing's seemed to work so for me it was a no go. I ended up returning it for a full refund.

Recommends this product? No

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h0g0f0g0

Jan 29, 2023

Verified Buyer

never again

Drop wants me to write a review so here it is. I burned myself before on the items sold here, but being plain dumb I ordered this amp thinking that over time things have improved. Boy, I was wrong. Not only it took a month more to ship the bloody thing but it came from China through the US. And thus it was 110V. Who would order a 110V device to be used in EU? I guess Drop just doesn't care about other continents right? While the amp seems to be well manufactured, it is just a nice black brick that I can put on my desk. Because I cannot really return it. Someone from "community support" wrote me that I have to pay the shipping, which in turn is higher than the amp price. On top, I paid $40 for customs and VAT, so in total wasted $200. I guess now I finally learned that this is not worth the savings and I do not plan to order anything else from Drop again. Think twice if it is worth it for you, as it may turn into a very ugly surprise.

Recommends this product? No

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HYDRAZ1N3

Feb 2, 2023

Sure you can use a step-down transformer but that's not the point, the product is not specified as 110V anywhere on Drop, and Google results overwhelmingly describe it as auto-sensing. Now I have to spend another $70-ish on a decent step-down transformer, which would not be necessary had they just documented the product properly.

h0g0f0g0

Feb 18, 2023

Nope that doesn't work well. I ended up buying step down converter but when I turn the amp on I can hear low freq humming. It kind of works, but I am not going to use it as humming is too annoying (especially for the price I paid).

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