Why we like tubes, with xDuoo TA-26s 

You certainly have a gift at articulating the differences in the way things sound! I have never heard the sound of tubes articulated so well with such a perfect analogy…..Well done!

I did not see the figure skating analogy coming but I like it! 20 points to iiWindor for originality 😀

To be honest changing the Tubes changes the sound quite a lot for me with the original TA-26. Best tube combo for me sofar is 6n8c military barrel anode for front tube and Zaerix 6080 for the power tube. Using this with Ares II with latest update and it's great. As a preamp you need to be aware that when connecting to power amps you will need some resistors (I use in-line), otherwise you won't be able to push the volume past 9 o'clock. Don't connect it to an integrated unless you can bypass the internal preamp or you lose the tubiness.

Very nice and full review. Thank you so much!

Great comparison with the continuous flow of ice skating pairs!! Effortless gliding over perfectly smooth ice. Glossy tones. I immediately understand what you mean. So don’t stop talking about ice! 😊

wow great review of this amp, and you nailed figure skating too.

I just ordered a TA66 witch will be my first time experiencing a tube amplifier. Thank you for your description of the sound difference between solid state and tube sound. You are very informative and I appreciate that. I will see in a few days as my TA66 should arrive. I will be able to test the difference between it and my Ifi Zen signature 6XX. This will be fun. Thank you

You really are one of the best audio reviewers on the web. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasms and insights and wishing you the best.

Srboljub, my theory on why the distortion slowly settled in.. Heat increases electrical resistance. The resistance probably slowly got higher as the tubes warmed up while you were listening. Thanks for another great review!

This amp is fantastic. It plays nicely with Beyerdynamic 770 Pro 250 Ohms, Sennheiser x Drop 6XX (300 Ohms), and also in preamp mode gives its tube sound to any other amp. I have it patched through a Geshelli Labs Archel 3 Pro. It makes Focal Elegias, HIFIMAN Edition XS, as well as IEMS such as Moondrop Kato, RAPTGO HookX and Truthears ZERO RED sound great, imparting some of the tube spaciousness. It may not be able to increase the soundstage width of whatever headphones/IEMs you're listening with (obviously), but it takes full advantage of what's available.

wow i'm newbie to tubes amps, i even don't remember ever try one 😢 but intrigue by many said about them, thank you for your explanation about it ohm & characteristics. God Bless 🙏

Your review was both articulate and accurate. I find the TA-26 to be an excellent match with the popular Sennheiser HD-6XX, particularly for acoustical, jazz, and more "organic" styles of music in general. The TA-26 responds favorably to better quality tubes and performs nicely when used as a preamp. I am quite pleased with it.

I just listened to the three songs mentioned by you in this review. I compared how they sound on TA-26 (with an old Soviet 6sn7 tube) and how on a solid state Topping DX5 amp. I used Sivga SV023 headphones, with 300 ohms impedance. The Josh Ritter's and Gillian Welch's songs are beyond comparison. They sound so much more pleasant, deep and natural with the tube amp. And even The Prodigy by Luca Stricagnoli is quite pleasant, softened and more musical. However, with DX5 it is more realistic, harsh, but more natural and three-dimensional, and I prefer that version. In any case, they sound completely different, and it was a very interesting experiment. Thank you.

Hello. New review with a tube amplifier. It's good that manufacturers are trying to make such devices cheaper. More people will be able to appreciate the sound with vacuum tubes. It is still expensive to combine the best characteristics of solid state and tube amplifiers in one device. But I know that there are very worthy options. I ask you again to tell a large number of music lovers about Trafomatic Audio. Their amplifier head 2 is something unique. Good luck to you and more time and effort for interesting reviews of new products.

I have two ZMFs and some 600 Sennys and I'd love to pair them with a tube amp whose pricing won't land me in divorce proceedings. "Smooth" or "continuous" I usually call "coherent" where the opposite end of that spectrum (for me) would be calling something over-separated or saying it lacked coherency. Too much coherency and I think you get what people call the three-blob effect. Too little coherency and the mix can sound chaotic. I tend to favor a track sounding like a sum of its parts vs. wanting to hear individual parts or stems. Both can be enjoyable imo but for longer listening I want a given song or track to come together. I think I want to get a bit more space and a little bit of echo-y reverb as well. Not sure if the TA-26s can get me there, maybe with certain swaps but tube hunting seem more art than science. Appreciate the review ✌

Changed bunch of amps before settling on original TA-26. Using it with Sivga SV023 and it gives me my ideal sound.

Having the TA-26 as first OTL tube amp, paring with Senn HD650, Denon AH-D5200 and ATH-W5000, I can say those sound different but all is very good to my ears to the point that I don't need to look for other amps. However, the only problem is its potentionmeter, it's crackling sound when turning the volumn and this problem seems to happen to other units as well. Aside from this, you have great asthetic and sounding amp for a reasonable budget.

Based on your description of the sound of the ta26s, in this sound character (liquidy smooth and connected). Among all solid state amps I have eve heard the ovidius B1 dongle dac and chord mojo could come closest, but ovidius and mojo is also capable in the transcience cleanliness and speed.

THANKS SRBJ 👍💚💚💚

Ice ice, baby! The skating analogy brings a lot of perspective. Lovely comparison. Need to re-watch "Spinning Out"

Great to know about this and the K702's.. I have been looking at the TA-66 and have K702's..

Excellent

btw.based on your review I have ordered a ladder schuman for my prima luna tube amp system.I think the holographic quality of the two will be highly synergistic .

You could daisy chain with the L-70 in front or behind. Might be interesting. I am playing with a small fx-audio tube-03 preamp myself. Some other tubes and opamps and it sounds great.

I have been using the original TA-26 for years now and I recently tried a Schiit Saga S - (passive) and an integrated SS preamp. Suffice it to say that your figure scaring analogy is the best explanation for a tube sound I have heard and this is exactly what I hear when I remove it from the chain - choppiness and lack of flow. I do hear much more details in the treble area and air, but it feels like disconnected sounds and not as a whole. The transient response is just too quick. At first I was like - wow the tubes have muddied everything, but after a week spent in passive mode I know that there is a lack of realism and the sound is grainy.

Quite possibly, something heated up in the amp, that changed the output impedance? I have 3 different model xDuoo headphone amps - the MT-601, MT-602, and MT-604. They all sound quite good - but there are differences. For example, the MT-601 even though it is the lowest power - it can handle lower impedance headphones than the MT-602. I may have missed it - did you compare the single ended output with the balanced? How is the balanced done with the tubes, I wonder?

So glad you mentioned the AKG 702 I was going to buy this amp???? I might get the MT-602 instead??

there is an openness and relaxed, spacious, tonally colourful, sound... with the correct pairing between high impedance headphones along with OTL amps. They are... as you say.... seductive - not analytical - but really hard to beat from the perspective of listening enjoyment

Thanks for your review. I currently have Xduoo MT-604 (duel mono) hybrid amp for HD800S and HD660S for classical music and jazz. Would this TA-26S give even better sound than the MT-604? Thank you.

Nicely Done. Off topic question :) If one was looking to pair a tube amp with a 2 channel stereo setup with most speakers 4ohms - 8 ohms and a range of sensitivity what should we look for ? Thanks

I am, to this day, not sure if I can hear a difference between the TA-26 and my FiiO K5 pro. I also wonder if I would profit from a different DAC matched with the TA-26, since I usually use my K5 pro as a DAC only when I plug my 6XX into the TA-26. I rolled plenty of tubes and while most of them performed great, they were also very similiar if not more or less excatly the same.

Any chance you'll review the new TA-66 and compare it to the TA-26S, TA-66 is point to point wiring vs PCB in TA26S, not sure though how much change it will bring to the sound.

oh I love tubes, 600 ohm headphones are so good on tubes, they should make more models of 600 ohm headphones

hi, have you tried the headamp gilmore lite mk 2 headphone amp? it's transistor class a and ive used it for years as a preamp as well until i recently got a rogue rp 1 tube preamp...what a difference in dynamics and realism...the headamp sounded flat in comparison and the music was less present in the room.

Great review can you please ask Apos to send you SMSL SU-1?

I’m almost sold :,) Great sincere and detailed review, have you tried it as a preamp? and how it compares to other dedicated preamps like Schiit’s Saga or Freya, is there a big gap?

I agree with an earlier reviewer about having the gift of articulating the sound differences of TUBE vs Solid state . . . Ha Ha - I must be a " Weird Man " also - and hate most sports and like to watch Ballet Dancers . . . and would rather watch ' the Red Shoes " - 1948 / or " Summer Interlude " - 1951 - - - just ordered a TA-26s off of APOS site to get back into Head-Amps

Wow -- having brought us Marcin Patrzalek, you now bring us Luca Stricagnoli. It's amazing how he plays guitar plus other instruments at the same time -- see especially his "Whiskey lullaby in Nashviille" on RU-vid, where he adds a very interesting slide guitar fixture to his normal guitar and marries the two wonderfully. He also plays two guitars at once, or one guitar and a xylophone, and the lord knows what else. I wondered what you meant by what sounded like "mate" (as in a friend). Then when you explained it, I realised it was "matte", pronounced as in "mat" or "cat". Then why not spell it "mat" I hear you ask? Good question. English is such a funny language when it comes to spelling! But your analogy with ice figure dancing was very elegant. Now all I have to do is listen to a tube amp (which so far I have never done) and see whether it's apposite. Almost makes me want to go out and buy one just to see! ;-)

What i don’t understand is why there are so few xlr connections to tube amps. I assume its more common that someone has an rca cable

I have a TA30 and gonna receive a TA22 soon. This TA26 has a RCA in and out. Wondering if I can use this as a tube buffer and how much a difference it can make on the sound if I were to add it.

Like it even more, than Topping A90 Discrete. It just have more soul. Nevertheless A90D is very decent preamp, which I bought for my speaker setup.

TIL what iiWi stands for!

Nice

I run the Xduoo 604 amp…but on this unit ..balanced out ( 4.4) ..but no balanced XLR balanced input??? Xduoo is always doing something different 🤷🏻‍♂️ Great review 🍕☕️

Your description are soooo smoooooooth.

If you switched tubes could you make it sound more 'tubey', or is the circuitry always going to produce a clean sound? Maybe a daft question. I have the HD800S.

hi.. i m gonna buy the ta-22 but i would like to know if you noticed big differences between the 26 and the 22...thanks

If you buying a tube amp you always want tube rolling. The stock tubes are very cheap and sound very close to Solid State. For true tube sound purchasing NOS tubes is a must.

Is the 4.4 mm output truly balanced? I thought I read that both were single ended

I love RCA6SN7GTB and military Tung Sol 6080WA tubes on this amp, but in today market you will end up paying same money for these as you pay for amp itself

Arya Stealth won't work in other words? 32ohms...

Apos doesn't ship to Europe

Most people do not know much about tube amps. The truth is most of these cheap tube amps do not posess the proper design to run tube at there proper level. In fact the tube are running cold because of lack of transformer power to push them. they may get warm to the touch but are far from the level they need. I use and have real class A and AB tube amps and the tubes after warm up will burn at the touch. These are hybrid SS/Tube driver circut type. PLUS real Tube amp is much more costly than these wana be's. They can sound OK but never like the Real deal.

You are not alone, I have always liked ice skating especially the pairs,