[PeteSTRADAMUS]

I would recommend only letting known individuals on this list who have been through these tours for different companies before being allowed to participate. Just for the safety of someones hard earned cash and not letting some scum steal the merchandise. Just a thought, because that wasn't cool at all. Something has to change in order for the past to not rear its ugly head.

 

[cubed4life]

Exciting!!!

 

[Todd]

Hi All,

I received the new unit for the loaner program and will give it a day or two here to play with and then it will be on its way to Shenanbay by weeks end. Here we go - enjoy!

Todd

 

[Slim1970]

Yes, I've been wanting to try a CMA for the longest. I'm in search for a musical amp with power. I hope this fits the bill

 

[Schwibbles]

It's great that Questyle helped out with getting another one in. Can't wait to hear it!

 

[bSquared64]

Hey Guys.

I look forward to this starting back up again and to your reviews. If you have any questions, please let me know.

B²

 

[shenanbay]

I've been listening to the unit and so far all I could say is FLAT

 

[Slim1970]

I've been listening to the unit and so far all I could say is FLAT

What do you mean by FLAT?

 

[cubed4life]

Looks like I'll be getting the loaner soon!! Flat? I'll give my take on that.

 

[shenanbay]

First of all I would like to thank Todd from TTVJ and Questyle for letting me in on this tour and sorry for taking so long to post this review/impressions.

Preamble

This was the second time I used a Questyle product. I had used the Q2PR before this. The CMA12 Master is a very premium feeling amp+dac. It’s an All in One solution for people looking to either reduce cable clutter or maybe to have a simpler solution. The unit is built like a tank. Everywhere you touch it, there’s metal. It has a nice coating on the top. It does tend to attract dust. The knobs and the buttons feel solid. The unit is much heavier than you would expect something of this size to weigh. I used the Topping D50 when I wanted to test out the Amp performance. to my ears I couldn't hear any difference between the dacs. So I continued all the testing with dac that is built in the CMA12 Master.

Specifications
DAC+Headphone Amplifier Section



- Outputs:
4.4 mm balanced headphone jack
4PIN balanced headphone jack
6.35mm headphone jack


- Max Output Power(Po):
247mW @ 300Ω; 900mW @ 32Ω(6.35mm headphone jack)
825mW @ 300Ω; 2W @ 32Ω (balanced headphone jack)


- THD + N:
0.00070% @Po=100mW, 300Ω
0.00167% @ Po=50mW, 32Ω


- Frequency Response:
DC-20kHz(+0, -0.4dB)@0dBFS, 24Bit, 192kHz
DC-80kHz(+0, -3dB)@0dBFS, 24Bit, 192kHz
- SNR: 112dB, non-weighting



Test Tracks

Murder One – Metallica

HD6xx – I would have liked a bit more crunch on this song. The soundstage and imaging were really good. Hearing every instrument in the song separately and coherently was a nice treat for my ears. I would have liked a bit more bass, but this wasn’t the CMA12s fault. This was HD6xxs lack of bass.

Jhaudio 10x3 – I was surprised to find out that this amp was able to drive sensitive iems without a problem. It did take out some of the crunch from the song, soundstage and imaging were average. Nothing magical. The bass, mids and treble were flat. No coloration to my ears.


Spanish Harlem - Rebecca Pidgeon

Jhaudio 10x3 – I had to turn the volume up for this cause it’s a soft recording. So it did add a bit of noise, but I doubt you’ll be using iems to listen through this amp. It sounded very full and very real. The female voice and the violins sounded very good, but I would have liked for it sound a bit warmer. That’s just the tone that I would have liked. The shakers that were played in the background sounded very nice. Imaging and soundstage were also good. I was able to pick out the instruments easily. I had to listen to the song again to make sure that I was hearing it properly.

hd6xx – I almost fell asleep on the couch listening to this on the HD6xx. It was so soothing and sweet to the ears. The female voice and the violins were so beautiful. The shakers did not sound as clear as it did on the 10x3. It sounded distant and it also lost detail. The bassline sounded tight and clean.

Comparison

Massdrop Liquid Carbon vs Pinncale 2 – the Liquid carbon sounds much more warmer than the CMA12. It had a bit more bass also. Where the CMA12 had the upper hand over the Liquid Carbon was in detail retrieval. It was much clearer on the CMA12.
Conclusion

at $1999 shipped from TTVJ, this amp+dac is not the cheapest unit in the market. It is more towards the expensive side of things. Saying that it is not a bad investment to make if you really love headphones are trying to step up in your gear. If you like an amp+dac that will add zero coloration to your music, I definitely recommend this to you. To my ears this sounds very flat. Don’t be confused, this has excellent dynamics. While listening to piano music, I was able to hear the loudest strikes on the notes to the softest touches with ease. There was great range, but for me it was too flat for my taste. It sounded kind of boring to me. This had no trouble powering my headphones. It was even silent enough to be usable with my JHAUDIO iems. That says a lot.




PS : I would have liked to see batteries included with the remote. Paying $1999 for the device and not having batteries in the box was annoying. Just nitpicking.

Also I did use the CMA12 with another tour headphone that another headfier had received. The Hifiman Ananda. That was a really nice combo. The Ananda has the right characteristics to bring out all the good in this amp. The Ananda has a good tight bass, clean mids and beautiful highs to my ears. The CMA12 being flat complements the Anandas very well. It’s a killer combo for around $2999. If you do have a chance give these two a listen.

 

[cubed4life]

Received the Questyle today!! Review will go up in about a week.

 

[cubed4life]

CMA 12 Master is on it's way to the next participant

 

[Slim1970]

I got the CMA 12 Master in hand. I'll be unboxing it today and giving it a listen. I have plenty of headphones I want I tryout on this amp.

 

[Slim1970]

The CMA Twelve Master is headed to the next person in line. I’ll be posting impressions soon, stay tuned

 

[Slim1970]

This is my first experience with a Questyle product of any kind. My expectations were kept to a minimum but my excitement was high. I couldn’t wait to hear what this amp was going to sound like paired with some of my favorite headphones.

Build quality is first rate. The aluminum chassis looks and feels solid. The slim form factor worked out well for where I had it sitting on my desktop. The mix of amber and red indicator lights are a nice touch and are not bright or distracting. Buttons and switches are nicely laid out. Questyle choose to go with an LED approach, instead of adding a display, for indicating the sample rate and source which keeps everything analog and clean.

From the spec sheet CMA Twelve Master is designed with four groups of Current Mode amplifiers. It’s a design choice to have the amplification (gain) take place in the current domain rather in voltage domain. But from reading on the design of this amp both are used. The input and output stages remain voltage. The input signal is amplified in current to improve bandwidth and have a better slew rate, which in theory lets the amplifier respond faster to abrupt changes in input level.

At some point amplifiers run out of gain at some bandwidth and can’t amplify to certain high frequencies. It’s here that the feedback stops working and it’s at that point the bandwidth needs to be limited to below that point. The limited bandwidth results in an amplifier having a lower slew rate meaning it cannot handle the sharp transients. This is where the benefits of converting the input voltage to current come into play. There is more current to work with than voltage-controlled designed amplifiers. As a result, the bandwidth is much higher and the resulting amplifier has better slew rates. This could explain why the CMA Twelve Master sounds fast and has less decay between notes.

I hope I explained Current Mode technology enough with sounding to technical. It’s a huge topic and a design choice which Questyle has implemented very well in this amp. The Pure Class A BIAS Control that’s also a feature of this amp ensures that the CMA Twelve Master operates only in a pure Class A when driving different loads for the best possible listening experience.

There’s also a 5GHz wireless audio system on board so that you can connect to wireless speakers. This amp is packing a lot of features and is a great all in one device. Here are the power specs:

247mW @ 300Ω; 900mW @ 32Ω(6.35mm headphone jack)
825mW @ 300Ω; 2W @ 32Ω (balanced headphone jack)

The power specs are pretty decent. There are definitely amps out there that provide more power. For example, the Soundaware P1 provides 6 watts of power at the same impedance but to me lacks the refinement of the CMA Twelve Master. So power is only part of the story. There’s a 4.4 mm balanced headphone jack, a 4PIN balanced headphone jack and a 6.35mm headphone jack. I’m glad to see the inclusion of the 4.4mm pentaconn jack. I hope to see this feature added to more desktop amps in the future.

For inputs there’s a USB Type B that supports 44.1kHz-384kHz/16Bit-32Bit PCM and DSD Native DSD64, DSD128, DSD256, as well as DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 of DoP format. For the digital inputs and outputs the CMA Twelve Master includes a SPDIF input and output, an optical input, and a AES/EBU input that supports 44.1kHz-192kHz/16Bit-24Bit PCM.

For the Pre-amp and DAC out sections there is a set of balanced XLR outputs along with a set of unbalanced RCA outputs. This amp is well equipped to handle all sources and the latest headphone connections. For those with 2.5mm balanced connection will need and 4.4mm adapter to enjoy this amp.

Now that all the technical jargon is out of the way lets get to what I think this amp sounds like. I started my listening off with my ZMF Auteurs. These have an impendence 300 Ohms a sensitivity of 97dB so they are not the hardest to drive but do require a decent amount of power to get the best out of them. These are beautifully handcrafted headphones. They are gorgeous to look at and are fairly light weight considering the build materials. Do they sound good with the CMA Twelve Master? You bet they did. Listening to reggae music with this combo the bass was deep and textured. The mids were creamy and slightly upfront and the treble to my ears was detailed and had very good clarity. I had no issue raising the volume and enjoying a very balanced sound. The Auteurs are on the warmer side of neutral and one of the most musical headphones I own. The CMA Twelve Master is an excellent pairing for them. The clean, dynamic, and composed sound of this amp gives the bass some heft and weight, nice! The musical display I’m hearing from this pairing is 1st class. Each note is weighted and vocals sound so natural. This is a great headphone and the CMA Twelve Master lets you experience a lot of what they have to offer.

Moving on the Audio-Technica AP2000Ti headphones will let me see how versatile this amp can be. The AP2000Ti’s are much easier to drive at 44 Ohms and a sensitivity of 100dB. If there is noise, I should be able to detect it. Not surprising at all, the CMA Twelve Master remained quiet and the background was black. I couldn’t detect any background noise which is a tribute to build quality of this amp. The AP2000Ti’s are at the complete opposite end of the music spectrum from the Auteurs. Audio-Technica is known for producing bright, bass lite headphones. The AP2000Ti’s are on the brighter side of neutral but it is not bass lite. It’s not a bass heavy headphone by any means. The bass is well defined and has excellent punch. It blends very well with the awesome mids and the treble presentation is one of the best I’ve heard from any headphone.

The AP2000Ti’s are clear, clean and dynamic. For it to be a closed headphone these are quite spacious and open sounding. The warmish tone of the CMA Twelve Master is a superb match for the AP2000Ti’s. I can listen to this combo all day. There is so much detail and clarity from each note. These headphones have great imaging and soundstage depth and the CMA Twelve Master brings them to life.

Next up is the headphone that’s been getting most of my head time lately and it’s the Sennheiser HD820’s. If you’ve heard the HD800/S models then you are familiar with the sound. Except, to my ears these are better. I find the HD820’s more natural sounding with a warmer tone and much better bass. The soundstage is big, wide and spacious and the CMA Twelve Master enhances every feature of them. The bass is deep, layered with superb definition and power. The midrange is smooth, balanced and inviting. The treble is toned downed from the HD800/S but doesn’t lose any detail. The HD820’s has a much more engaging sound. The treble clarity and extension are still there and the CMA Twelve Master renders music through these headphones with aplomb.

The rhythmic pace of these headphones and the CMA Twelve Master is impressive. Every instrument can be heard and pictured in your head. Music sounds very cohesive, balanced, and full bodied. Vocals are very well articulated and expressive. The music itself that this pairing is delivering is expressive and organized, warm, dynamic with excellent tone. What a listen!!

Lastly, I tried my Susvara’s. I knew based on the specs that it was going to be a long shot if the CMA Twelve was going to be able to drive them efficiently and well it wasn’t the best pairing. I won’t go into much detail but the CMA Twelve Master lacks the drive to get the very best out of the Susvara’s. The CMA Twelve could not do justice to the Susvara’s like it did with the HD820’s, Auteur’s, and the AP2000Ti’s. With that said this is an outstanding DAC/Amp solution for everything except for one of the most demanding headphones on the plant. I have no problem recommending the CMA Twelve Master to headphone enthusiasts with a wide variety of headphones. I really enjoyed my time with this amp and I will definitely miss it. Thanks, Todd for the opportunity to demo such an amazing all in one solution. The CMA Twelve Master is worthy of ownership.