![]() There's an on/off button, mute, toggle input, and volume control. The remote is plastic in construction and quite typical of DACs at this price point. Hold down button "C" when first used to select USB DAC. Notice the instructions on the battery compartment. Speaking of the remote, here's a picture of it: In day-to-day use, I'd probably use the remote more in my sound room. Push it in and hold for a couple seconds to put the machine into off/sleep mode. The large black articulated push-to-click knob visually adds contrast to the front and works well for settings and selections. The silver colored, angular metal box which measures approximately 8" wide x 8" deep x 2.25" tall including the handles (~1.5kg/3.3lbs) looks nice and will add a certain "vibe" to your system. I certainly appreciate that Sabaj got away from the basic black box style with this machine. You can decide if you like the look of the unit with its double front rackmount-like-chassis-handle esthetic. I'm not going to go into this in detail - suffice it to say the menu looks nice on the screen and easy to navigate a couple of pictures below showing the "PCM filter" setting for example: There's a large multifunction push-to-click knob that allows you to adjust volume (preamp mode) and change settings on the menu. Of note, there's also a headphone gain setting of LOW or HIGH (+8dB). Other menu settings include the choice of 7 PCM filters, 4 DSD low-pass options (47/50/60/70kHz), the DPLL setting to fine-tuning jitter tolerance (level 5 default), and there's a switch for "SPDIF Mode" for "Normal" or "Processor" - the latter setting routes the S/PDIF interface data through the XMOS processor which allows MQA processing. Notice that there is no dedicated power LED so with the screen off, the DAC could still be on or it could actually be in off/sleep mode and we would not know the difference. Also, I would have liked an intermediate setting where the screen stays on all the time but actually dimming to lowest brightness instead of turning off completely. I like this auto-off feature but I wish it automatically turned on each time something changes like say the samplerate or switching between DSD/PCM. Also, you can set the "Dimmer" time which is how many seconds the display is shown (choice of always turned on, or auto-off up to 60 seconds). Within the menu controls, you can change the brightness (5 levels). I hope other companies have a good look at this logical and informative layout. I like the thoughtful, colorful arrangement of information available at a glance including volume level when in preamp mode with variable control (0 up to 99), digital input selected, whether headphone output is turned on (little headphone icon), whether PCM or DSD, and sample rate (or as in the picture above, Bluetooth LDAC variable bit-rate format). Specs for the headphone stage look quite good - almost0Ω impedance, with output power up to 1W into 32Ω and 2W into 16Ω, and a claimed THD+N down to -120dB (output level and load unspecified).Īs you can see, we have a good sized high resolution 2" color display screen (LCD), large and bright enough to be visible from my usual seating position about 9-feet away in my sound room to easily see the volume level. ![]() The 4.4mm headphone output is not balanced, rather, it's provided as a convenience for the user. If you look at the front panel in the topmost picture, note both 4.4mm and 1/4" headphone outputs to the right. The specs page indicates that power supply filtering is built in (so there should be no need to supplement with audiophile tweaks, not even power cables, right? -). The power cable is a standard IEC plug which means the SMPS is integrated inside, making for a convenient package without external wallwart or power brick. ![]() In the image above, we see the components included in the box - the DAC unit, brief manual/pamphlet, USB-A to USB-C cable, Bluetooth antenna, power cable, and remote control (dual AAA not included). Make sure to take note of the " 2022 Version" because there is also the original A20d "2021 version" which clearly looks very different, does not feature headphone outputs, but is also based on the flagship ES9038PRO chip. On the test bench, we have the Sabaj A20d 2022 Version(currently ~US$420). ![]() Everything from Apple phones, to computer motherboards, to high-tech multinationals like AMD and Intel having manufacturing and assembly lines there. In the world of consumer electronics, this should surprise nobody given that much of our technological products hail from that part of the world. Over the last few years, we have seen an impressive proliferation of high resolution DACs at very reasonable price points coming from audio companies in China. ![]()
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