Audiophiles in search of an all-in-one DAC/amp that doesn’t skimp on specs will find a strong candidate in the xDuoo TA-30 Tube DAC/Amp. The TA-30 is equipped with an ESS ES9038Q2M DAC and a headphone amplifier that can output an impressive 3000 milliwatts at 32 ohms—enough to drive the most demanding headphones Read More
Yes definitely. It only has RCA out so if you needed speaker outs then you would need to adapt I'd recommend efficient speakers as it has 3 Watts at 32 ohms but it should be fine for any bookshelves otherwise it can be used as a pre-amp to another amp powering your speakers for that tuby warmth
I ordered 2x Mullard tubes and a Soviet 5c3s/5u4g (black plate) Svetlana NOS rectifier from 1967. I do not know this rectifier - I wonder how it will sound. Shipment on its way. :)
This isn't directly about the amp (although it does look tempting) but I do see a Beyerdynamic T1 modified with at least one mini-xlr connector. What's the story behind that?
The tube portion is the preamp stage, the actual headphone amplifier is not tube however it IS class A, it is supposed to cleanly amplify anything that the tube preamp stage does to the audio which is a design choice. I personally do not see the point of using a rectifier tube other than to see the big glowy tube but still far too low of heat output to roast hot dogs and marshmallows, besides, you wouldn't want the grease dripping on the tube even if it could. The rectifier is not in the signal path, it merely coverts AC to DC for the negative and positive rails. The manual actually tells one how this amp/dac works.
Does it sound good? Likely yes, I want one. I am hoping to find something similar to this that uses tube OTL output circuitry to drive headphones.
Doh, sorry I never responded to you guys. At this point, I don't even remember if I tried the TA-20 at the booth or not. I do know the TA-30 sounded VERY good and could probably go toe to toe with much more expensive tube amps.