[Leonarfd]

shenzhenaudio.com

Where did you order from? I’m hoping Hifigo have them in stock

With the voucher I had and the sale price it got really good. Could have had it for 250usd more in Norway, but I rather wait. And shenzhenaudio.com comes without tax to Norway

 

[Arora]

shenzhenaudio.com

With the voucher I had and the sale price it got really good. Could have had it for 250usd more in Norway, but I rather wait. And shenzhenaudio.com comes without tax to Norway

sounds like a great deal. what DAC are you using?

 

[Leonarfd]

Depends, going to try the new Topping E70 first. If I'm satisfied I'm going to sell my cma400i

 

[Cajmer81]

Just pulled the trigger on an a90d on next day delivery from amazon as I’m super curious to hear how it runs my Diana TCs. So far I’ve only managed to get them to sing out of my agd speaker amps, but I’m hoping the topping might be solution for my workshop rig. Has anyone else here tried it with the TCs?

Is this good solutions? Diana tc + A90d?

 

[Slim1970]

Is this good solutions? Diana tc + A90d?

I'm thinking the sound may be a little analytical and lacking some fullness, body with that amp.

 

[josht909]

I mostly agree with the conclusions. I have both amplifiers and it's hard for me to name a clear winner in this battle. The SA1 has a little more bass and is a little more relaxed. The A90D is a slightly faster amp and textures the sound better.

im trying to decide between these two amps. how do the two compare in the mid and sub bass region for slam/impact/dyanamicd? which would you say is better for the bass?

 

[josht909]

I compared the A90D with the SA-1 yesterday, level matched, from the Yggdrasil. I did find the SA-1 to be a touch more nuanced driving the Stealth, and the A90D a bit less. I hadn't been expecting that. It was quite subtle though. I reckon if someone finds these amps a bit bright (or lean or harsh, or whatever word one prefers) a Jotunheim 2 would be better. It also seems to deliver a better sense of depth (ie: front to back imaging) which is noticeable with headphones such as the Utopias.

I wonder if this bright/lean/harsh impression, which I didn't experience myself, is because I'm using a power conditioner. I'm also wondering if most people don't pair them with a Topping DAC as well. I'll have a go tomorrow with the D90 (original) with both hooked up directly into the mains to see if I can't figure it out.

Edit: I had a quick listen just now via the D90 and now and it's the DAC for sure. Five Man Army (Massive Attack) has unpleasant sibilance via this combination. The USB input on the D90 is not so great, so direct from a computer sounds hard and edgy to me.

Edit 2: Normally, when an amp (or DAC) is made down to a price, the designer will tune the circuit to make it sound a bit warm to cover any hardness or edginess in the sound that comes as a consequence. This is not something that affects the frequency response of the amp, but is done in other ways that don't show much, if at all in conventional measurements. However, if you only design things to look impressive at 1kHz on an analyser with optimised settings, that hardness/edginess will come through (maybe from IMD, noise floor modulation, noise generated by the USB receiver in DACs and other things that only show up when actual music is playing with headphones connected, and not test tones being fed to an analyser) and the music will sound unpleasant. Gotye's Puzzle With A Piece Missing through the Topping stack is like being stabbed in the ears.

im trying to decide between these two amps. how do the two compare in the mid and sub bass region for slam/impact/dyanamicd? which would you say is better for the bass? did you do the mod on the sa-1?

 

[josht909]

Sure. I prefer the A90D. It is not night and day better but to my ear the A90d is the evolution of what the Singxer could be. Fully discreet so no op amps the same as Singxer but with more power which results in clear crisp and pure sound with no additional color. Speaking of clear my Focal Clear’s OG never sounded better as they do with the A90d. Clarity is strong, bass is pure as intended and finally sound stage sounds more expansive. Sa-1 is great but to my novice ear the A90d just sounds next level. For the price it can stand shoulder to shoulder with amps that cost 5x or even 10x as much. Plus the volume knob is addictive. If the Singxer had been introduced at the same time as the A90D but as we know the Singxer has been around almost a year I would have gone A90d but I am glad I have / had the Singxer. Chi-fi is moving so fast and improving typically from one model year to the next that what was the best last year becomes 2nd fiddle more quickly. Not sure where we go from here as the A90D to me is about as good as it gets and that includes top tier Amps as well.

im trying to decide between these two amps. how do the two compare in the mid and sub bass region for slam/impact/dyanamicd? which would you say is better for the bass? did you do the mod to the sa-1?

 

[jlemaster1957]

im trying to decide between these two amps. how do the two compare in the mid and sub bass region for slam/impact/dyanamicd? which would you say is better for the bass? did you do the mod to the sa-1?

TLR - not exactly what you asked for : A90D vs Burson 3XP
Listened to both fed by SE
Listening to Mercan Dede’s version of Ludovico Einaudis “Twice” on Aryas using balanced out Focal Clear cables. This track has an enormous bass drop at 1:14 that serves for me as a test of bass (lower tier amps tend to clip or distort it). 3XP renders this perfectly with no distortion, A90D adds just a bit too much reverb - and there is some distortion. The other added benefit of 3XP is imaging and staging (better depth). YMMV.

Normally I’d not throw this amp into the mix as it’s usually about $500 more expensive than the A90D but there has been a 20% off sale going on Burson products online recently, making the comparison more apt.

 

[josht909]

TLR - not exactly what you asked for : A90D vs Burson 3XP
Listened to both fed by SE
Listening to Mercan Dede’s version of Ludovico Einaudis “Twice” on Aryas using balanced out Focal Clear cables. This track has an enormous bass drop at 1:14 that serves for me as a test of bass (lower tier amps tend to clip or distort it). 3XP renders this perfectly with no distortion, A90D adds just a bit too much reverb - and there is some distortion. The other added benefit of 3XP is imaging and staging (better depth). YMMV.

Normally I’d not throw this amp into the mix as it’s usually about $500 more expensive than the A90D but there has been a 20% off sale going on Burson products online recently, making the comparison more apt.

thanks! even with 20% discount the 3xp is still far above my upper limit to spend on amp, right now i can buy either a a90d or sa-1 for 500$ which bring it into my budget.

would you be willing to describe the difference in bass between these two in the bass region? which would be better in the mid and sub bass region for impact/transients/dynamics while still being reference sounding. i use aeon noire headphones and they seem to need a very powerful amp to deliver these characteristics in the bass region

 

[jlemaster1957]

thanks! even with 20% discount the 3xp is still far above my upper limit to spend on amp, right now i can buy either a a90d or sa-1 for 500$ which bring it into my budget.

would you be willing to describe the difference in bass between these two in the bass region? which would be better in the mid and sub bass region for impact/transients/dynamics while still being reference sounding. i use aeon noire headphones and they seem to need a very powerful amp to deliver these characteristics in the bass region

Sorry don’t have/haven’t heard Sa-1.

 

[Joong]

A90d is really the best of what I have had.
It simply simplify the headphone stocks.
It allowed me keeping only dynamic phones, this means the expensive planars cannot be justified now with a90d.
It pairs well with topping d90se for everything down to earphones with low impedance.

Now I only listen to beyerdynamic dt1770, 1990 only, which covers enough for my musical collections from small to big band music.
Previously those music required Audeze and hifiman's expensive planars.

Of course there is subtle differences among different phones, but among stressful business life arround me, a90d allows me simple life.

 

[dlelikov]

I have a stack of SMSL SU-10 + A90D, and I can compare it with AIO HiFiMan EF-400. I listen to Kennerton Thexx, Denon 9200, Verum 1 mk2, and many IEMs. The sound on the A90D stack is less natural on live instruments and voices compared to the EF-400, and the scene on the A90D is also a little narrower and less deep. The A90D has a sharper bass, but has less weight. The resolution is slightly better on the A90D. But the SU-10 has a very interesting Sound Color setting. If you select the Tube 1-3 setting, then the sound of the A90D becomes more natural to my ear. In fact, an even harmonic is added by the DAC. When using Sound Color type Rich 1-3, 2 and 3 harmonics are added, and the sound becomes thicker, less detailed. According to the measurements of the EF-400, it can be seen that it has very large 2 and 3 harmonics, which is most likely why it and other Class A amplifiers sound more natural to our ear. I also conducted a blind A/B test of DAC SMSL SU-10 and DAC part of EF-400 simultaneously connected via RCA and XLR to A90D with parallel playback of the same composition from two sources. Instant switching was carried out by the button on the remote control switching the input to the A90D. And I couldn't hear any differences between one DAC and another!

 

[newaudio46]

I don’t suppose anyone has the chord anni to compare this to? Big price difference

 

[Arora]

what xlr cables do i need to connect the a90d and d90le?