Do not buy: Dayton DTA-100a

These photos look like the ones from the original DTA-100- taken from the DIY Audio site. The DTA-100a is a revision- not sure about how the internals look, but the amp sounds fantastic with my KEF Q15 speakers! Haven't done much listening to the headphone amp though. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by KuKuBuKu 

The DTA-100a is a T-amp made by Dayton (duh) and includes speaker outputs and a headphone output. Well, here's the problem:

Poopy volume pot makes it even worse. There is a channel imbalance. I'm probably gonna return this.

Are these pics of the unit you have?

May I ask what your source is?

Thanks

USG

Good question!  That's some of the worst rework I have seen in a long time.

The reviews of this amp seem to be of high praise, though.

Anyone else own this amp that can comment? x_X

Any positive reviews I've read or heard about this so far had it driving high sensitivity speakers, not headphones. Besides, if you're primarily using headphones, a uDAC2 would be a better choice for the money, just a few bucks more; and if you need speakers to round out hte computer set-up, just get active speakers for use with the uDAC.

While that is true, I don't think that dismisses the fact that (perhaps only on speakers) its supposed to sound excellent as per reviews, which has me greatly confused.

I wonder how much this is a problem with your unit (a "lemon"?), and how much this is a universal problem.  As stated above, praise for this amp is pretty high:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-383&vReviewShow=1

(see comments)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMike 

These photos look like the ones from the original DTA-100- taken from the DIY Audio site. 

You are right, i remember these pictures...

As a headphone amp, I really like the µDAC2; when switching between the two I always settle on the µDAC2- the DTA-100a just lacks energy and clarity. But for driving my KEF's it is terrific! By the way, the KEF Q15's are pretty sensitive- 91 dB. To get plenty loud, I have the µDAC2 set at 12:00 and the DTA-100a at 10:00- thus still have plenty of overhead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMike 

As a headphone amp, I really like the µDAC2; when switching between the two I always settle on the µDAC2- the DTA-100a just lacks energy and clarity. But for driving my KEF's it is terrific! By the way, the KEF Q15's are pretty sensitive- 91 dB. To get plenty loud, I have the µDAC2 set at 12:00 and the DTA-100a at 10:00- thus still have plenty of overhead.

It seems as though you're using the analog out of the uDac into the DTA-100a.  Do you think you loose any resolution doing it that way? 

I lol'd so hard. Sorry for your waste of moneyz KuKuBuKu. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by upstateguy 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMike 

As a headphone amp, I really like the µDAC2; when switching between the two I always settle on the µDAC2- the DTA-100a just lacks energy and clarity. But for driving my KEF's it is terrific! By the way, the KEF Q15's are pretty sensitive- 91 dB. To get plenty loud, I have the µDAC2 set at 12:00 and the DTA-100a at 10:00- thus still have plenty of overhead.

It seems as though you're using the analog out of the uDac into the DTA-100a.  Do you think you loose any resolution doing it that way? 

How else would you run this setup? You have to run an analog signal to the amp (it doesn't have a DAC).

I own this amp and the fiio E7 this amp is great and as a headphone amp it sounds better than the E7 it also has 30watts into 8ohms of .01% THD and every soldered joints and components on the inside of mine is impecable. no imbalance or anything maybe yours was an older model but after 6 months mine sounds better today than day one