Tipo Power Vakumu

Rowan Forsythe

5 yıldız üzerinden 5,0Honestly Excellent! Powerful.

Doğrulanmış Alışveriş

I have a few tube based audio devices in my collection of audio gear. These include a vintage Fender tube guitar amp, a Music Hall Dac , Schiit Lyr 2 and now this. Recently I decided to get a small external DAC and amp setup to use with headphones since I am currently at uni where blasting music on any setup is really not an option. I looked at several different small "tube" headphone amps, and thought this to be the most elegant solution of all of them. I don't think I made a poor decision.

Build:
The build quality is really pretty great. The box was a nice size, with a classy looking black and white aesthetic. The unit was well padded in some firm yet giving foam (so was the power brick, for as much as that was necessary). The power brick is nothing to write home about, but has a long enough cable to reach the back of the unit from most wall sockets. On the amp itself, the aluminum housing is anodized in a deep black and the on/off switch has nice weight too. It is a very clean look, exactly as it looks in the photos. There is a line level input (RCA) on the back, and a line input (mm) and output (mm on the front). The volume dial breaks from the overall look slightly (shiny in comparison), but it still has a nice deep black finish and a good level of resistance when turned. Connectors are gold plated from the looks of it. Thank GOD they use only red LEDs to light the tubes-I can't for the life of me understand why other budget amps use blue. The red is subtle and contributes to the tubes warm glow that makes you feel all nice and fuzzy inside.

Sound:
Sound testing included a wide variety of genres. The amp was fed line input through the RCA jacks at the back, driven by a Topping D10 32 bit kHz USB DAC. Files were all losses Tidal Master quality (24 bit 96 kHz at minimum)-this is worth noting, as the Master preset is higher than ANY offering on Spotify/Apple Music etc. and does have a different sound signature. Highs tend to be sharper and more defined, while lows are subjectively "fatter".

The two tubes are Russian 6J9-J's which according to the internet is actually translated from Russian a number of ways, resulting in the listed tube options all really being the same thing. If you want a little "better" sound, I saw it recommended to procure tubes made before for their different design. This unit comes with two 6J9-Js though, and for the sake of testing I stuck with them. Tube burn in is a thing though, and after 10+ hours of use the unit sounded way better than when I first got it.

The tubes are integrated in the "preamp stage"-basically meaning they do some signal amplification, but likely run at a constant output level, simply "coloring" the soundstage. This is similar to what my Music Hall Dac does-integrating a tube before the line output. So no, like the rest of the "tube" amps in this price bracket, the tubes are not the only thing doing the amplification-the final volume control is done by solid state components.

This amp has a LOT of power. With my relatively low impedance IEMs (40 ohm) I am barely able to tolerate turning it up past 1/4 on the volume dial. The added power is evident in the lows though, where the rumbling acoustic bass of Kendrick Lamar's "Momma" really took on life. The same was true for the electric bass in Snarky Puppy's "Semente" which jumped but failed to lose precision.

Vocals and mids sound downright sweet on this amp. Cosby, Stills & Nash's "Helplessly Hoping" really made me smile as the three voices built in to a harmony. It just sounds RIGHT-human, real. These older recordings excel on this setup. There isn't a hint of added midrange signal noise or harmonics. I will talk a little more about noises though in a couple sections.

The high range from the PHA3 is quite pleasant. Powerful, but pleasant. I don't know if the tube's impact on the sound signature is simply allowing me to turn this amp up higher in volume, but I find my KZ ZS6's to be piercingly shrill on some tracks when played back from my laptop, but less so on the PHA3. Lots of detail still remains though-did someone just drop something in Beethoven? I am serious-you won't be losing any detail with this amp.

Noises-noises are annoying when you don't want them there. Good news here actually, the PHA3 has virtually NO ground noise or amplification squeal. It makes my MacBook Pro and desktop PC sound like someone is hissing in my ear in comparison. Whatever they did to remove this base level of ground noise worked extremely well. This isn't to say there is a little bad news-I mean come on, this thing can't be perfect for $60 right?! Well-if you bump the enclosure, or more specifically a tube, you get a ringing. There is no filter to cut out noise from the tubes themselves making contact with something. Interesting and perhaps a problem, but who pets their tube amp while using it anyway?!

The takeaway is this-its a great product! Smaller and more compact than the one from Nobsound (I think thats the brand name), but subjectively better looking too. LOTS of power, virtually no signal noise (save what comes in to the unit-have a clean source as always). If you need an external headphone amp to get more power or drive some IEM's or cans off an external DAC, this could totally be your unit!