Sabaj 500w ICE amps - the budget friendly amp?

Wharfedale EVO 4.2 Speakers
raghupb said:
Contrary to popular opinion KEF Q300 is not a very difficult speaker to drive.
And aluminum cones are very light. This speaker may have dips in impedance in certain bands but not so much as to strain amplifiers.
Since you are using HP out from TV, the signal is already a bit amplified. MX is a good cable with quality construction.
Enjoy your new acquisition.
If possible, try this out in a 2-ch setup (source-DAC-Pre-Pwr-Spkr).

Cheers,
Raghu
Click to expand...
Any suggestions for a preamp dac? I know this has huge list of possibilities. Assuming I use from single source... Mostly connected to tv. May be having wifi/bt would be good addon. .... Give me a few names. Do I need a dedicated preamp to chk on the input voltage even when I use dac? Mostly will be using toslink or may be coaxial source. I had been using toslink till now

How about the cheap one FiiO D03K Digital Audio Analog Converter... Costs less than 2k. Or

FiiO BTA30 PRO Bluetooth Transceiver...ess9038 chip with Qualcomm BT...10k bucks odd​


Right now mids n highs r good. Vocals r superb with 125 asx2. But not feeling bass much.... With my earlier 50asx2 n inbuilt dac... At high volumes it did deliver good amount of bass though. Little confused if signal path has impact on bass.
 
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For DAC/pre, you may want to go through this thread

Topping DAC's on HPZ

Hi FM, Just got message from HPZ - Topping DAC's stock available on HPZ. FM looking out desperately for different models go ahead, before the stocks are out. I got my Topping E30 booked :D Cheers, :cool:
www.hifivision.com www.hifivision.com
There is a Topping E30 for sale too by FM @ktks1 (in Bangalore)
Check if it is in your budget.

Cheers,
Raghu
 
k_vijay12 said:
Any suggestions for a preamp dac? I know this has huge list of possibilities. Assuming I use from single source... Mostly connected to tv. May be having wifi/bt would be good addon. .... Give me a few names. Do I need a dedicated preamp to chk on the input voltage even when I use dac? Mostly will be using toslink or may be coaxial source. I had been using toslink till now
Click to expand...

I did try Topping D50s few days back, solid performer. Has, all wired connections and Bluetooth with support till LDAC.
Even used as a Pre amp alone, and it sounded decent. But it costs around 24k.

The one suggested above is by Raghu is good too, but lacks bluetooth.
 
amrutmhatre90 said:
I did try Topping D50s few days back, solid performer. Has, all wired connections and Bluetooth with support till LDAC.
Even used as a Pre amp alone, and it sounded decent. But it costs around 24k.

The one suggested above is by Raghu is good too, but lacks bluetooth.
Click to expand...
Ideally LDAC is the best codec out there. But aptx HD will be sufficient for most of the music out there (24 bit 576kbs 48kHz)
 
k_vijay12 said:
Any suggestions for a preamp dac? I know this has huge list of possibilities. Assuming I use from single source... Mostly connected to tv. May be having wifi/bt would be good addon. .... Give me a few names. Do I need a dedicated preamp to chk on the input voltage even when I use dac? Mostly will be using toslink or may be coaxial source. I had been using toslink till now

How about the cheap one FiiO D03K Digital Audio Analog Converter... Costs less than 2k. Or

FiiO BTA30 PRO Bluetooth Transceiver...ess9038 chip with Qualcomm BT...10k bucks odd​


Right now mids n highs r good. Vocals r superb with 125 asx2. But not feeling bass much.... With my earlier 50asx2 n inbuilt dac... At high volumes it did deliver good amount of bass though. Little confused if signal path has impact on bass.
Click to expand...
Ordered Fiio Taishan D03K. It's quiet an old model. Supports 24 bit/192khz. This is for dedicated connection with TV to my new sabaj a8 amp using optical. Does this dac chip hav limitations for reproducing good audio quality?

Bought this as trail to know how dac work. This is quiet cheap.

Please advice if simple rca to rca cable is sufficient or need to invest big money here. Cheapest on Amazon is 600. I have rca to stereo ... Can buy a female stereo to rca attachment for 200. But multiple connections may lead to signal distortion. Please advice. Thanks
 
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k_vijay12 said:
Ordered Fiio Taishan D03K. It's quiet an old model. Supports 24 bit/192khz. This is for dedicated connection with TV to my new sabaj a8 amp using optical. Does this dac chip hav limitations for reproducing good audio quality?

Bought this as trail to know how dac work. This is quiet cheap.

Please advice if simple rca to rca cable is sufficient or need to invest big money here. Cheapest on Amazon is 600. I have rca to stereo ... Can buy a female stereo to rca attachment for 200. But multiple connections may lead to signal distortion. Please advice. Thanks
Click to expand...
I just received my second fiio d03k dac recently. This time I ordered it from headphone zone as their price was less than amazon. For the price this is a very nifty little device. IMO total value for money. Great for connecting a TV via optical out to a hifi system. This dac has 2 analog out connections. i.e. 2rca to 2rca & 3.5mm to 2rca.
 
Sean de Silva said:
I just received my second fiio d03k dac recently. This time I ordered it from headphone zone as their price was less than amazon. For the price this is a very nifty little device. IMO total value for money. Great for connecting a TV via optical out to a hifi system. This dac has 2 analog out connections. i.e. 2rca to 2rca & 3.5mm to 2rca.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the revert , wd there be any significant Sound quality difference between rca to rca vs stereo to rca?
 
Sean de Silva said:
There should be no discernable difference. Use decent quality 3.5mm/RCA cables.
Click to expand...
Tv already has headphones audio out. Which i m currently using. Would switching to optical with dac and again stereo cable from dac to amp...
Does this chain make any audible difference?
 
k_vijay12 said:
Tv already has headphones audio out. Which i m currently using. Would switching to optical with dac and again stereo cable from dac to amp...
Does this chain make any audible difference?
The tv headphones out is an analog signal. IMO the fiio d03k dac would be superior to a tv dac. The optical out is a digital signal feeding into the d03k to be converted to analog. The d03k is a very musical flat response dac. So I'd recommend using the tv optical out iso headphones out. Whether it makes an audible difference is upto your ears to decide.
Click to expand...
 
k_vijay12 said:
Tv already has headphones audio out. Which i m currently using. Would switching to optical with dac and again stereo cable from dac to amp...
Does this chain make any audible difference?
Click to expand...
It did make a difference in our case (Sony TV + E30). E30 sounds more neutral and thus vocals sound cleaner. Stock sony output has more LF and HF emphasis.

However, for action scenes and music (while watching movies), we liked Sony's rendering more. We already have a different, dedicated source for music. So, having another source with a mass market kind of tuning wouldn't have hurt us, at least for movies. Only reason we went for E30 is because, after 3 years of use, the headphone connector of the TV has started to show signs of wear and tear.

With regards,
Sandeep Sasi
 
Just got the FiiO D03K DAC, connected the TV using Optical and Played 2 songs ..... Its amazing!!! My Neighbour already complained and asked me to reduce volume which was at same level i played without DAC.

First time i felt how beautiful my KEF Q300 can sing, that too at very low volume levels. At 24k investment (Sabaj A8 + Fiio D03K DAC) .... i will bet my money that this will beat a 1L + amps hands down.... I suppose the sound signature can further be improved with a better DAC. I have no complaints at the moment with this 1.8k DAC, it does the job. So I can officially say that my listening experience went to next level. I can feel the bass significantly. More updates , as i evolve and experience the set up
 
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k_vijay12 said:
Just got the FiiO D03K DAC, connected the TV using Optical and Played 2 songs ..... Its amazing!!! My Neighbour already complained and asked me to reduce volume which was at same level i played without DAC.

First time i felt how beautiful my KEF Q300 can sing, that too at very low volume levels. At 24k (Sabaj A8 + Fiio D03K DAC) .... i will bet my money that this will beat a 1L + amps hands down.... I suppose the sound signature can further be improved with a better DAC. I have no complaints at the moment with this 1.8k DAC, it does the job. So I can officially say that my listening experience went to next level. I can feel the bass significantly. More updates , as i evolve and experience the set up
Click to expand...
Subjectively or objectively? ;)
 
Sean de Silva said:
I just received my second fiio d03k dac recently. This time I ordered it from headphone zone as their price was less than amazon. For the price this is a very nifty little device. IMO total value for money. Great for connecting a TV via optical out to a hifi system. This dac has 2 analog out connections. i.e. 2rca to 2rca & 3.5mm to 2rca.
Click to expand...
Can I use both stereo n rca outs from DAC at same time??. If so, I plan to connect an active sub. Please share your views. Thanks
 
k_vijay12 said:
Just got the FiiO D03K DAC, connected the TV using Optical and Played 2 songs ..... Its amazing!!! My Neighbour already complained and asked me to reduce volume which was at same level i played without DAC.

First time i felt how beautiful my KEF Q300 can sing, that too at very low volume levels. At 24k investment (Sabaj A8 + Fiio D03K DAC) .... i will bet my money that this will beat a 1L + amps hands down.... I suppose the sound signature can further be improved with a better DAC. I have no complaints at the moment with this 1.8k DAC, it does the job. So I can officially say that my listening experience went to next level. I can feel the bass significantly. More updates , as i evolve and experience the set up
Click to expand...
I think, i got too excited just with 10 minutes of listening, with DAC the amp certainly goes loud, vocals r very good... but is it musical ? I am struggling to come at an opinion. Its almost more than 3-4 years since i played music regularly. Not able to have a reference point. Not sure if this is the signature of KEF Q300 or DAC. But with very low volume levels - i do get sound output, this hadnt been the case wrt to my previous amp nor with the current amp without DAC.

Any tips - how to play around this? Advice please
 
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