Sabaj A30a announced

[GiBo61]

I got mine today from Amazon at little less than 400 euros, connected to really old Philips DVD player via coaxial spdif, Raspberry pi5 with Volumio via USB and my reliable Chromecast Audio from 2016 via toslink. My budget is small and I'm pretty frugal so this Sabaj is really a handy Swiss knife. My only valuable piece are Spendor s3/5se loudpeakers, rated at 8 ohm and 84db but I suspect even less. Well, I'm now at 6 hours of music and no sign of listening fatigue, usual issue for me with various iteration of tpa3255 amps coupled with a thrusty smsl su1 dac. If it's placebo effect it's a good placebo and I'd really love to see objective tests of Sabaj a30a, after two years of general subjective praise I think It deserves his grades.

Good to ear that not all recent Sabaj A30a units are defective.

 

[Querulo]

I got mine today from Amazon at little less than 400 euros, connected to really old Philips DVD player via coaxial spdif, Raspberry pi5 with Volumio via USB and my reliable Chromecast Audio from 2016 via toslink. My budget is small and I'm pretty frugal so this Sabaj is really a handy Swiss knife. My only valuable piece are Spendor s3/5se loudpeakers, rated at 8 ohm and 84db but I suspect even less. Well, I'm now at 6 hours of music and no sign of listening fatigue, usual issue for me with various iteration of tpa3255 amps coupled with a thrusty smsl su1 dac. If it's placebo effect it's a good placebo and I'd really love to see objective tests of Sabaj a30a, after two years of general subjective praise I think It deserves his grades.

I'm not able to judge transparency of sound or noise ratio, writing this only to add that I was worried about conversion of analog sources but everything is fine, even if I need to raise volume from 60 to 80 to get the same sound pressure. In general, with all inputs, my first impression is that drums and horns and bass seem more present and discernible in many recordings while acute sounds are never annoying and even some poor recorded songs feel more enjoyable (I only listen in Flat mode, no EQ or tone controls, no sub). The unit gets pretty hot but not untouchable, I guess around 50° C.
I really hope It to last without failures because, for now, I like It a lot, It surely is something different, the only comparison I can do outside class D is the Roksan Caspian used by a friend of mine, to my ears It sounds very similar, but I'm not a musician or sound engineer, just a choir singer with (they say) a fairly natural music ear.

 

[Nahkarankaisija]

It seems like buying from Amazon is the smartest way for better warranty and customer support, I am trying to arrange the return but Hifi-Express customer service is dreadful, no answer for days and I had to threaten using Paypal to get my first return postage refunded. I expect a lot more back and forth to get my full refund, will update here when all is said and done.

In the end I decided to buy the Rotel A12 MK2 in nearly new condition for 600€, little more expensive than the Sabaj but a supposedly great unit from a proven company. I think I will limit my Chinese hifi to only DACs in the future, I have been very happy with my SMSL SU-6 DAC.

 

[GiBo61]

It seems like buying from Amazon is the smartest way for better warranty and customer support, I am trying to arrange the return but Hifi-Express customer service is dreadful, no answer for days and I had to threaten using Paypal to get my first return postage refunded. I expect a lot more back and forth to get my full refund, will update here when all is said and done.

In the end I decided to buy the Rotel A12 MK2 in nearly new condition for 600€, little more expensive than the Sabaj but a supposedly great unit from a proven company. I think I will limit my Chinese hifi to only DACs in the future, I have been very happy with my SMSL SU-6 DAC.

Well, I guess it's a matter of very bad luck, Sabaj and SMSL are branches of the same company.

 

[Rebel86]

Got mine in nov/2023 from Amazon, to replace an old Onkyo receiver.
It´s hooked to a pair of Klipsch RB-51II 92db sensitivity, couldn´t be happier!

Is there any way to get the Sub Out set to full range? Or any full range RCA output from it?
I would love to connect an external amp to it, to power a single Klipsch RC-42II at my balcony..

 

[GiBo61]

Got mine in nov/2023 from Amazon, to replace an old Onkyo receiver.
It´s hooked to a pair of Klipsch RB-51II 92db sensitivity, couldn´t be happier!

Is there any way to get the Sub Out set to full range? Or any full range RCA output from it?
I would love to connect an external amp to it, to power a single Klipsch RC-42II at my balcony..

To the best of my knowledge the answer is no. Besides, even if the answer was yes, you would need an additional amplifier to amplify the signal sent to the single Klipsch RC-42II speaker.

 

[Rebel86]

To the best of my knowledge the answer is no. Besides, even if the answer was yes, you would need an additional amplifier to amplify the signal sent to the single Klipsch RC-42II speaker.

That´s my idea, connect an additional amplifier to power a single speaker, and turn it on only in a few occasions..

 

[Charlot]

Hi every one

I am interested in this Sabaj. Has any one compared it to the SMSL ao300, which is my current amp ?

Thx

 

[GiBo61]

That´s my idea, connect an additional amplifier to power a single speaker, and turn it on only in a few occasions..

You can split the output of your source (I guess either a streamer or a CD player) and feed in parallel the Sabaj and the additional amp. If you have a Wiim Mini/Pro/Pro Plus you can control the volume directly from the source.

 

[ModDIY]

Hi every one

I am interested in this Sabaj. Has any one compared it to the SMSL ao300, which is my current amp ?

Thx

Hi, why do you want to change your amplifier?

 

[Charlot]

Hello,

Well, first, this SMSL is far from being flawless. I can hear some pops when I turn it on and off or when I switch inputs. From time to time, I also have to turn it off and on again so it can work properly with my wiim mini. It displays 2,8224... Something and DOP instead of 44.1khz or 48 and PCM. It drives me crazy !
Secondly, I merely like trying new amplifiers.

 

[Roland68]

Hello,

Well, first, this SMSL is far from being flawless. I can hear some pops when I turn it on and off or when I switch inputs. From time to time, I also have to turn it off and on again so it can work properly with my wiim mini. It displays 2,8224... Something and DOP instead of 44.1khz or 48 and PCM. It drives me crazy !
Secondly, I merely like trying new amplifiers.

As long as the cracking isn't loud, it's not serious and not abnormal. But you can't please all users. To do this, Yamaha mutes the speakers on its top amplifiers for less than a second to avoid crackling when you change something. The owners regularly complain about this.

Have you ever tried just switching the inputs on the AO300 and back again instead of turning off the AO300?

 

[Charlot]

As long as the cracking isn't loud, it's not serious and not abnormal. But you can't please all users. To do this, Yamaha mutes the speakers on its top amplifiers for less than a second to avoid crackling when you change something. The owners regularly complain about this.

Have you ever tried just switching the inputs on the AO300 and back again instead of turning off the AO300?

I learnt something, I did not this about Yamaha amplifiers and I never heard this with my previous ones.
And yes I tried. I does not work unfortunately

 

[Sebcior]

I'm thinking about buying a subwoofer for my Sabaj a30a... It will play in tandem with the Heco Aurora 700, although after playing with eq laudnes at level 5, I don't know anymore. Do I understand correctly that the sub output in Sabaj only works with a filter? I would like to set filtering on the subwoofer and send the entire band to the Heco Aurora 700, will it work like this?

 

[GiBo61]

I'm thinking about buying a subwoofer for my Sabaj a30a... It will play in tandem with the Heco Aurora 700, although after playing with eq laudnes at level 5, I don't know anymore. Do I understand correctly that the sub output in Sabaj only works with a filter? I would like to set filtering on the subwoofer and send the entire band to the Heco Aurora 700, will it work like this?

If you decide to use a subwoofer with the Sabaj A30a you get both an high pass and a low pass filter. Suppose you fix your cutoff at 80Hz, the main speakers receive only the frequences above 80Hz, the subwoofer those below. There is no way to send the full range of frequencies to the main speakers (which is usually not advisable).
In my setup I don't perceive a lack of linearity between the volume of the main speakers and that of the subwoofer, the main limitation I see is in the lowest cut-off frequency limited to 70Hz.

 

[Guerilla]

Well, it dictates the maximum frequency one can encode. If you low pass it half way, you just as well can throw half the samples away. They have no value.

You are more so clueless nowodoo

 

[Guerilla]

Thank you for reporting the test results.

I have found from your testing that the A30a works fine.
There are two ways of thinking about SW output.
One is to mix and output R-ch and L-ch, and the other is to use only either R-ch or L-ch.
Since the deep bass that SW takes charge of is included equally in the left and right channels, there is no problem with only one of them. In particular, the A30a has a low passband frequency, so it is OK to use only one side.

Of course its not OK. Please be less trigger happy with posts. Best to take a breath first

 

[voodooless]

You are more so clueless nowodoo

So why don’t you educate us

 

[Sebcior]

If you decide to use a subwoofer with the Sabaj A30a you get both an high pass and a low pass filter. Suppose you fix your cutoff at 80Hz, the main speakers receive only the frequences above 80Hz, the subwoofer those below. There is no way to send the full range of frequencies to the main speakers (which is usually not advisable).
In my setup I don't perceive a lack of linearity between the volume of the main speakers and that of the subwoofer, the main limitation I see is in the lowest cut-off frequency limited to 70Hz.

Unfortunately, if it works like that, it won't work in my application. I hoped that the sub output would also work without a filter, and that the subwoofer itself would filter. Sabaja's crossover frequency of 70 Hz is too high, hecos can play really low.

 

[syzygy]

So why don’t you educate us

Nyquist's theorem states that a periodic signal must be sampled at more than twice the highest frequency component of the signal.
This is considered the minimum sample rate (2x the highest frequency of interest), but in practice, higher is better.

(I believe Guerilla was referring to: August 25th, voodooless said: "Why would there be the higher sample rate if you would apply a 22 kHz low pass?")