KhronusAs a happy owner of MP-301 (with Soviet-made NOS tubes) and Topping D30 (from Drop), I can but agree! MP-301 sounds great (too noisy for sensitive IEMs though) and sensibly has two inputs and switches between phones and , yes, loudspeakers.
Unfortunately I'm not sure, plus I don't own any Android products to test. In theory as long as the phone supports UAC2, it should work. But YMMV.
I normally just feed mine from one of my external DAC or mixers, so don't really have many thoughts on the built in.
Hard pass. I do not need another single ended tube amp, especially not one with a built in DAC and in this price bracket. Donno bout y’all, but I tend to try and keep RF *away* from my valves, not smush it even closer.
That said, it is an attractive looking device.
FayneThe tube stage is only the preamp stage and those are twin triodes which can do push and pull functions from the same tube. The output stage is solid state class A according to the manual.
DavesworldSo is the $336 xduoo ta-20, w no dac, no b tooth, really a xlr balanced in and out, and a tube used in the headphone circuit. Or is the ta-20 model not real use the tubes effectively in the headphone path. Or is mp301 still better than a ta-20. Im a noob looking to get my first tubes.
I'm interested in the TA-30 but have a question about the LDAC Bluetooth CODEC. Does it run at the full 999 kHz making it Hi-Res, or was a slower version used such as 333 or 666 kHz?
[rklostermeyer@comcast.net]
edit: I was assuming I could listen via my Sony 1000XM4 Bluetooth headphones that utilize the LDAC CODEC. I assume from the comments that the Bluetooth is for input, not output. Can somebody set me straight?
We will agree to disagree. Sony's LDAC at 999 kHz meets the specs for Hi-Res audio. To my ear it sounds remarkably improved over AAC and with high quality sources like Deezer and Amazon Unlimited it is equivalent to the wired Hi-Res sound with my Sony WH-1000XM4's which unfortunately require LDAC for quality Bluetooth.
DoggyDaddyIt's not 999 kHz, the maximum transmission rate for LDAC is 990 kbps.
I agree though that the sound quality is better than AAC. But so too is aptX.
The bit-rate for an uncompressed 44.1/16 bit (CD Quality) lossless audio file is 1,411 kbps. 990 < 1,411.
If you want absolute confirmation, the SoundGuys did measurements that confirm it: https://www.soundguys.com/ldac-ultimate-bluetooth-guide-20026/
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.