Crazy affordable Sabaj A30a integrated amp. 

I could listen to Thomas talk philosophically about hifi all day long. It's like he just opens his mouth and out pours a conscious stream of his thoughts, digging down into the many different ways to view a product. I really don't know if that's the best way to say it, but he's so unique in his style and I just love to listen to him. Ty Thomas 👍

I am using this amp for the last 2 years now .. no issues .. it sounds great all the time. it's reliable.

It doesn’t need a DAC because it IS a DAC. This type of amp is also known as a power DAC. It takes the digital signal and modulates it and feeds it to the power output chips directly.

I have the SabaJ A30a paired finally with Elac unified reference 62 speakers. I love the system.

The block diagram means among other things that it converts an analog signal to digital and is then able to process it with bass/treble controle, etc.

I didn't knew that I could listen to these videos for such long time

Yes I agree Let's bring back tone controls Ido miss them

I've been listening to the new Peachtree GaN1 - it's phenomenally transparent and replaces my high end system at less than the cost of the interconnects alone.

I bought one. At first i was a bit disappointed playing it off bluetooth or through analog and then i plugged it in with the usb. Holy crap the amp came alive. I use it with the loudness 2 or 3 eq with a bump on the treble. Thanks thomas. Ur comments in the burson video made me confident that i was at the worst going to get an amp worth $400 and now im enjoying music.

That’s what I love about you Mr. Galion…your ability to put things into perspective in a thoughtful easy to understand manner. ✌️

Yes on tone controls!

I'm merely 5 years old into the hobby and I had played countless budget gears, once I gave up a hegel 95 for a similar chinese digital amp which was my greatest mistake. Thomas is absolutely spot on that such amp is really for fun. IMO they severely lacks air and life in the vocals. But they do shine on TV watching, it's really impactful and dynamic. So you have been warn, stay away if you love vocalist songs

Yay! A movement to bring back tone controls!! How could anyone have ever been *against* them to begin with (provided you can switch them out)? I'll sign that petition.

Happy little known companies are getting air time with guys like you Thomas, it’s one of my favourite things to hear about when good companies making amazing products get some recognition. Doesn’t sabaj have a class d monoblock too?

The most useful thing any prospective audiophile can do is to listen to a variety of high end systems even if they can’t afford them. It provides a useful reference when they evaluate components to acquire. This is one of the reasons why I find Thomas to be a use source of information especially since he elicits the opinions of his high end audio friends. But if one can experience at least some of what high end audio can provide it will make Thomas’s reviews even more relatable.

You've been able to insert excitement back into audio for me and that's a difficult task

The color of the amp should match the speakers spec for many audiophiles BUT a well made amp normally doesn't colored the sound at all. The most important feature for an amp is how it handle power. A lot of amps are too light in power to handle speakers properly.

What about pairing with the Triangle Borea BR03? Soft dome, lots of bass and high sensitivity (90dB)... Would that be a nice match? (I've recently sold my current system, all but the speakers, so I'm looking for something affordable that sounds "nice"... ☺)

Your insight is great, there are so many options and doing it neatly/simply as possible is desireable. Your idea of a valve preamp was on my mind which can be added or removed easily given the desire.

Hi Thomas, something is happening in HiFi. Is it a paradigm shift or a sea change? It is something. I got rid of my Bryston 28B3 monoblock beasts and now have a collection of Class D and some GaN Class D amps that I love. They are not missing a single thing compared to Class AB. Also besides Sabaj, Aiyima is making kick@ass gear not just for the money. Take for instance the Aiyima A07 amp. This thing is cheap and plays great out of the box. But for only $80USD you can replace the stock IC op amps with a Sparkos Labs discrete op amp and get a further non-subtle improvement. So quality is increasing and price to get that quality is decreasing.

I bought an emotiva basx a2 for 450, and it is excellent

14:55 to 15:10 Thomas practicing to be the badass protagonist in the next blockbuster movie. Your reviews are great, Thomas.

I was thinking of getting the IOTAVX SA3 for my BRO3s but I'm not sure anymore. I know SA3 is neutral, balanced, and mature sounding (Zero Fidelity), but I like exciting/dynamic-sounding amps as long as the top end is not harsh and the bass is not boomy, has texture, and doesn't bleed into the mid-range.

I am considering buying for testing my ears 👂. I believe these D class should be re classed as my days of D class mossfet feed amps are chalk and cheese with the newer chip designs that with combination of no distortions on dacs, have a competitive edge. China is literally rewriting the narrative. I have found two way speakers have some what clouded peoples perspective with flatness and too bright upper tweeter glare. A well designed three way crossover does help with the missing flatness generated by D class amps. My predictions Nad m23 is an example of what's to come take that how you like 😂

I just bought one to give it a shot. Hope it works well with my ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2. 🤞 Thanks for the great review as always.

Try a 1F aluminium polymer capacitor across the speaker terminals see how that sounds, that might get rid of the glare you don't like, possibly might need to put a resistor in series with the capacitor something like 14-20 ohms 5 Watts if it knocked it down too much!!

What’s with hearing the saliva! Picky eater amp! Man, this episode is a blast! Loved it!

Hey Thomas, thanks for the great Video. I just ordered the A30a from HiFi Express :)

Nice Job Thomas thanks for the video

I have one of these Thomas It's Super Incredible

Add prosound dsp and yeah

I love the lii audio speakers

Хорошая компетентная подача материала. Однозначный лайк.

Man…these reviews are always forward thinking, considerate of options, and on the money 🙏🏼 My hope is that affordable improvements will still apply to the separates and not solely focus on all - in - one box solutions. I would still want to pair my current preamp with some highly refined and modern - yet affordable - mono blocks down the line.

After your review of the A1 i got one, that work's beautiful with my lS3/5 , now Im thinking of buying the Sabaj to integrate a SW to the system and do some tinkering just for fun ... after i finish the comment ill order my Sabaj.Thank you again ,for making this hobby enjoyable and fun , without emptying (totally ) our pockets .

Looks like the chip this amplfigier is built around combines most of the circuitry in to a single chip, from inputs to the outputs that connect directly to the power devices of the amplifier, thus a massive reduction in parts count.

Thanks for your review and opinion. I would like to own a Sabaj A30a, but they are very scarce.

I bought a Loxjie A30 based on measurements. I find it better than an early 2000s Teac and a recent Marantz AVR. In the spirit of uncluttering both are going on sale. IMO the traditional companies need to wake up.

Kodak also invented the first digital sensor too was used in the first digital cameras and yet there marketing and failure to use the tech them selves .... Well we all know where Kodak is today

Thomas, thank you for this review. I'm considering buying this amp, but I have klipsch speakers that need a relatively smooth and warm amp to sound best Would the sabaj be a good fit ?

Highly interesting vid to myself as for 10'ish or more yrs, i'd often looked on eBay & saw in increasingly more of these 'knock off circuit designs of well regarded older gear' ... classic designs of the past & long past interested me as i started hi-fi listenening with great sounding vintage valve gear that was cheap s/h (until eBay prices went astronomical for genuine vintage Leaks, Radfords, Marantz, Quads etc, etc. & the other vintage classic makes) Most of those ads thsnkfully had good close-ups of their inners i.e. the most interesting part, the circuit & components inside. I've seen Chinese made Dartzeeling power-amps, Marantz pre's, Krell KSA'50 power-amp 'inspired' designs (tho with relatively tiny transformers compared to the original 2 x 1'KVA trannies) & pre-amps with phono stages designed on 'EAR' phono amps etc etc & always wondered how close they matched the original circuit designs they are based on. One thing I noticed was some models using the two halfs of one double triode** for each stereo channel (**e.g. 12AX7, 12AU7, etc, or ECC81 to ECC85's equivalents) where the originals used 2 double triodes, one for each channel, with each of their 2 internal triode sections paralleled which litterally halves that stage's output impedence (which is a fine & noble practice, but with the extra cost) Tho not all knock-offs did this in their pre amp sections. I feel I have a good handle on this gear now, I once considered that shang-Xeng (?) with the silly little valve window, and the Marantz knock off pre's looked good inside but I ended up spending triple on a few forum's well regaurded Ming Da 2A3 pre-amp, 2006 design, the newer ones with same model number are completely different & I wouldnt have bought that (with daft pseudo ballanced input trsnsformers but no ballanced output? Great video, & great subject indeed.

Excellent review, May give one ago in the future.. Thank you for the heads up. Regards Antony. Warrington England..

It would be interesting if you A/B them with Sabaj A10d 2022 dac and their A10 or A20 amp

The only thing that saddens me in connection with my acoustics Pioneer S71 is that the protection works at a volume level above 65. Maybe the firmware will fix it.

I heard the guy from Lyngdorf explain his amp, the same as shown here, on some long tube ad' or a tube vide. He said "This is better refered to as a 'Power-DAC' rather than a 'Power-Amp' " (or similar words to that precise effect) Then he explained why, all I could understand was, the D to A is done immediately before OR immediately after the power output devices, tho he said it's digital all the way to the speaker outputs, but surely, I thought ...but I'm no expert or even a reader-up of things audio-digital to dare say "there's got to be something to turn 44.1 thousand indevidual pieces of info arriving each second, info in terms of 1's & zeros or blips & spaces or light & dark intervals ...before the speakers, but wotever is going on, I've heard the Lyngdorf sound esp' good with it's room correction 'on' Very possibly on this site's test track (1of the best renditions that changed my "not liking it much" opinion. (i seem to remember, if I'm not getting mixed up) unfortunately, you can't ask questions on a tube speech so I didn't grasp how both these amps work without DACs but I did notice this budget amp sounding very good esp at it's price. I see on the block diagram, it has got a ADC on it's rca line-input like the Lyng' & the fact it scared you if even briefly is very telling, considering the big Mac's etc you're accustomed to, that's it's strongest telling point to me, along with the test track rendtion which if heard blind ...i'd never have guessed that cheap prise. "It's getting better all the time" as Lenon or MacCartney wrote /sang

Wow!! Interesting! Thank you!

Do you have any ideia how this compares vs the smsl sa400 (in terms of sound)? And with the vmv a2, also!

The way a System/Amp is able to reproduce the human voice (male vocals with body/female voice without brittle in the highs, no harshness in sibilants) is very important to me and that’s also the weak point of all class D amps I’ve ever heard to date. The Sabaj seems not to make a leap in that regard.

Very informative and differentiated statements!

Hello Thomas, I thoroughly enjoy your informative and unbiased videos. I have a question about speaker matching since you give the impression this amp can be a little finicky in that department. My speakers are the Infinity Reference R253 towers and they sound great with my relatively inexpensive AIYIMA A08 PRO TPA3255 Class D amp. Should I expect similar and hopefully improved results with the A30a? Thank you and I'm looking forward to your reply.

great review my friend , thanks

Spot on opening sentiments.

as a frugal audio enthusiast, this is right up my alley!

I very much agree that inexpensive integrated amps from manufacturers life Sabaj, S.M.S.L., Aiyima, etc. are greatly improved over just a few years ago. I have both a SMSL SA300 and an SMSL AO200 integrated amplifier. Both use the German Infineon MA12070 chip. The SA300 uses one and the significantly upgraded AO200 uses two of the Infineon chips. The only area where I see further improvement is in the soundstage and in the room 3D 'Palpability' which I attribute to the Infineon's chip. I state that in comparison to my personal experience with the Marantz PM6006, Marantz NR1509, REGA BRIO Integrated and the Eastern Electric MiniMax Tube Integrated Amplifier. Add in GalFet transistors like the Orchard Audio amps and any amp with an MSRP of less than $2500 should be looking over their shoulders.

Thoughtful Review ... Good For You

Hi, I have been following your channel for some time and I really like your reviews. I just bought the Sabaj a30a amplifier. Do you think that the Kef LS50 would work well with it?

You need to test the bass management with a sub as it has high/low pass filter system

Hi, Thanks for another interesting video. I’m your LS50 review you mentioned that they needed a “smooth” amp to counter their brightness/harshness. Would this qualify?

Thank you for this review. Really helpful., I am looking for a " fun" but capable affordable speaker amp.

Well said and prediction.

great review, i was wondering how would the Sabaj A30a compare to rogue sphinx

BRAVO TOMAS

Hi Thomas, thanks for the sharing, can ask if your convenient to seggest integrated amp is best to pair with q acostic 3010s for room size of 3m by 4m room? Thanks 😂😂😂

Seems like the budget integrated I’ve been looking for. How does the klipsch rp 600m II work with it? Wanting fun\musical dynamic sound that is great at low volumes

I wonder how it would compare to the Cambridge Audio AXA 35 which is at a similar price point. An ADC is not ideal for analogue sources especially vinyl. It wil digitize your analogue nostalgia. Not good!

Thomas did you compare sabaj a30a vs smsl vmv a2?! people saying that this is the same amp

I doubt that SABAJ is rated 200Watts @ 4 ohms 20Hz-20Khz. It's likely only at 1Khz. Anybody confirm?

Thanks for a great vid.

Could you suggest some affordable speaker wire to use with an amp and speakers like this. I switched to canare 4s11, it opened up my midrange and added bass but the space and top end sparkle are gone. My music doesn't seem to have the same since of excitement, its a suttle but noctiable difference.

From memory.. would u day this beats out the IOTAVX stack?

Nice review and comparison. Do you think mentioned amps will work/sound better with a dedicated preamp between them and a DAC, like the Topping Pre90? Some DACs have better performance at full 5v, for example, Topping D90SE & SABAJ A20d.

How will this pair with ELAC's debut 2.0 F6.2? Those speakers are power hungry I hear.

Very interesting, thank you Thomas! Had the chance to play it with the KLH model 5? If so, how did this pairing sound? Thanks again.

Sabaj a30a or emotiva ta2 does the $999 price tag justify its performance compared to the sabaj a30a?

Fantastic review as always. Thanks. What is speaker cable you are using in this setup?

Hi Thomas, I am from Europe and I follow your reviews since the beginning.I learned a lot about tube amps from you.After your review about Willsenton R8 I ordered it and I am very happy with it.I have a question for you.On my Willsenton I use gold lion kt77 and electro harmonix 6ca7 but on kt88 side I have the stock tubes.I want to change them.What is your recommendation between gold lion, electroakustik black diamond or chinese psvane? My speakers are Focal Aria 936. ...and last question: nos Tesla el34 are good tubes for R8? Thanks a lot Kind regards

GREAT TO SEE YOU AGAIN ,THOMAS 🤗 AND YOUR 😎 COOL STORIES 👍 AND SHARING YOUR HONEST OPINION, AND SHARING that this is the BEST TIME TO BE AN AUDIOPHILE 🤗💚💚💚

Hello, Do you have any proposal witch amplifier will be better in the same price level like sabaj a30a?

I have a little Sabaj PHA3 tube headphone amplifier connected to my little iFi Zen Dac. And with high impedance headphones, like my Beyerdynamic T90, it is absolutely mesmerising.

1st question: at 8:23 it looks like the analog signal is converted digital and the back to analog. Is there a direct/bypass mode? 2nd question: what are the options in the subout menu option? Are you able to high pass your speakers and not have “double bass”? Everyone seems to just provide low pass filter for the sub output and not high pass for the speaker output

Could you kindly give me your opinion between this and smsl a300

Very nice work

You do great videos

How would it pair with Wharfedale Diamond 225?

Thomas, looking at the back inputs from the link to hifi-express website, the USB input looks like USB C. Is that correct?

Would love to have seen how the tone controls work (how akward to use)

Have you heard of Audio-GD? They have same very interesting DAC and mono block amps. (I'm not affiliated with them)

Does anyone know what speaker pairs best with the a30a klipsch rp600m, whatfdale diamond 12.2 ,polk r200, monitor audio bronze 100, q acoustic 3030i?

Hi Exclent review Do you think it will work good with LS50 meta?

This would pair well with a tube preamp ?

First of your videos since I last left a message

Thomas thanks for the review. Do you think the Sabaj A30a will pair well with the Wharfedale Linton Heritage ?

Ironically Kodak worked extensively on digital cameras in the mid 80's.

Did you try it with the Sibelius speakers? keen to hear how they would match...

Interesting, however you didn't mention if this amp is still fun to listen to after sitting through 3 or 4 albums. There are literally dozens of amps that sound great initially, but they can not hold my attention long enough for me to buy one. I think this is the most important point a reviewer can discuss, especially in this time when the consumer does not often have the opportunity to listen to the product and is buying it online. Yes, I know that most things can be returned, but when I read or watch a review I am doing so to minimise the chance that the product will be going back to the seller.

I think for a hundred dollars less, Id rather have a Yamaha 301 integrated or for a hundred dollars more a Yamaha 501. AB amp and built in DAC. Tone controls and sub outs.

What’s your opinion for a Sabaj with LRS?

How does it compare to PS Audio Sprout?

Hey Thomas, do you think it would be a good match for Dynaudio Focus 160? Also for drier sounding and a bit "brighter" Dynaudio C1? If this is not a good match, what would you recommend for Focus 160 under 1K?

Just wonder how this A30a compares with the SA400 from SMSL which you reviewed quite some time ago. I bought the SA400 a couple of weeks ago for US$569 during the 11.11 sale. Shall I regret ?🤔