Marcelo critiques the Khadas Tea Professional, a 2nd-generation wireless-capable transportable ES9039Q2M DAC/amp that magnetically attaches to your cell phone. It’s at the moment priced at $199.
Disclaimer: This pattern was despatched to me in trade for my trustworthy opinion. Headfonics is an impartial web site with no affiliate hyperlinks. I thank Khadas for his or her assist.
You possibly can examine earlier Khadas merchandise beforehand reviewed on Headfonics right here.
This text follows our newest scoring tips, which you’ll be able to learn right here.
Khadas Tea Professional Evaluate
Abstract
Within the weeks that I’ve used the Khadas Tea Professional, I felt that it fulfilled its promise of a transportable, high-quality Bluetooth DAC amplifier. And I can affirm it’s claimed skill to drive excessive impedance headphones, because it did a reliable job when paired to my Sennheiser HD 6xx headphones.
Professionals
Clear sound.
Can correctly drive my 300 Ohm headphones.
The inclusion of filters and EQ.
Cons
Lengthy charging instances by as we speak’s customary.
Although I’m not a stranger to magnetized battery-powered DAC amplifiers, having reviewed the SMSL DS20, which additionally has a magnetized again for simple stacking with a magnetized telephone casing or telephone, that is the primary time I’ve seen a magnetized again DAC amplifier this small and lightweight.
The $199 Khadas Tea Professional is a follow-up model of the unique Khadas Tea providing loads of upgrades, most notably the DAC chip improve from ES9281ACPRO to ES9039Q2M, the only 3.5mm output jack to three.5 and 4.4mm output jack, and the addition of an AMOLED shade show.
After I first unboxed the Tea Professional, I used to be in awe of its premium appear and feel, and commenced utilizing it positioned in the back of my telephone with a magnetized casing. The small measurement, skinny dimensions, and lightweight weight made this very sensible.
Tea Professional’s small measurement raised issues about three elements: battery life, sound high quality compromises, and its skill to deal with headphones in comparison with different, bigger battery-powered DAC amplifiers, together with the Muse HiFi M5 Extremely and the xDuoo XD05 Basic2. Let’s discover out.
Options
The Tea Professional contains a small, skinny, and lightweight kind issue with a MagSafe-compatible again panel that permits you to connect it to telephones or telephone casings with a magnetized again.
Luckily, my telephone’s instances have a magnetic again, permitting me to connect the Tea Professional to my telephone for day by day use.
The Tea Professional makes use of an ESS ES9039Q2M DAC chip, 2 x TI OPA1612 opamps for I/V conversion, and one other 2 x TI OPA1612 for low cross filtering, and is amplified by 2 x Ricore RT6863 amplifier chips. Two NJU72315 quantity management chips sit between the low-pass filtering and amplifier chips.
It options the Newest Qualcomm QCC5181 Bluetooth 5.4 chip, a built-in microphone for answering calls, and a feature-rich equalizer by way of the Khadas App. It additionally has a 0.95″ AMOLED shade show and a balanced output that ought to delight any audio fanatic.
The Tea Professional presents each UAC 1.0 and UAC 2.0 USB enter modes to make sure compatibility with most recipricol gadgets. Its energy output is 165 mW into 33 Ω with the 4.4mm balanced output jack, and 120 mW into 33 Ω with the three.5mm unbalanced output jack, that are modest in comparison with most competitors.
Nevertheless, Tea Professional can output 5Vrms and 41.67mW into 600 Ω, which is nice information for high-impedance headphone customers. We’ll discover out later the way it handles the 300Ω Sennheiser HD 6XX.
Design
I like Tea Professionals’ flat, space-age, and industrial design, which mixes a CNC-machined aluminum chassis, Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3, and a Premium wear-resistant leather-based again panel.
There are two parts of glass on the entrance, the larger glass homes the 0.95″ AMOLED show, which shows the data and the menus for management.
On the again is the leather-based floor, which covers the magnetized again to stop scratching of the surfaces. The highest is clean, and the underside options the USB-C port, 3.5mm, and 4.4mm output jacks.
On the left are the ability and menu buttons, and on the suitable are the 2 quantity management buttons. The Tea Professional solely weighs 96 grams and is sort of small, measuring 102.7 × 64.0 × 7.85 mm.
Show
A 0.95″ shade AMOLED show on the entrance of Tea Professional may not appear substantial on paper, however in precise use, it is rather legible to my far-sighted eyes, even with out studying glasses.
Because of Tea Professional’s show, which signifies each essential piece of details about its working state of affairs, together with the USB mode, achieve mode, equalizer, battery stage, sign format, and sampling frequencies.
These settings are simply managed by Tea Professional’s management buttons, in contrast to different gadgets that depend on memorized management procedures and LED indicator lights.
I/O
All inputs and outputs are conveniently situated on the backside. The USB-C port doubles as an information port for programming with the Khadas Audio App and a digital audio port.
There are two USB enter modes: UAC 1.0 and UAC 2.0. UAC 1.0 is used for older gadgets and gaming consoles the place the data bandwidth is restricted to PCM 96 kHz/24 bit in trade for decrease latency.
UAC 2.0 has a a lot larger information bandwidth and may go as much as PCM 768 kHz/32 bit, DSD512 (Native), which is optimized for sound high quality. This mode is the one it is best to use if you’re not taking part in video video games on gaming consoles.
A 3.5mm output jack is included, which has been the usual output connection for a lot of a long time; nevertheless, it solely offers single-ended output and fewer energy output in comparison with the balanced 4.4mm output.
The 4.4mm output presents extra energy and improved technical specs over the three.5mm output.
Controls
The Tea Professional is delightfully simple and intuitive to make use of, so I by no means want to make use of the handbook to function it. The highest left button serves as the ability change with lengthy press, pause/play with quick presses, and the again button when navigating the menu.
Backside left button serves as a menu button, whereas the 2 buttons on the suitable are the quantity up/down controls and in addition operate because the up/down menu buttons. The finely adjusted quantity management within the Tea Professional can be utilized independently of the telephone.
Software program
The Khadas Audio App is a blessing to make use of with its bug-free and intuitive design format. On its important web page, there’s a battery indicator and an adjustable quantity indicator bar. The selectable achieve mode could be set to excessive or low.
There’s a 10-band adjustable graphic equalizer, in addition to eight EQ presets, that are all customizable and could be saved on one customized financial institution. I want there have been extra EQ banks, however I don’t use EQ, so this isn’t a priority for me.
There are eight digital filter settings in addition to 4 language settings, and on the settings web page, one can rename the Tea Professional on the way it seems throughout Bluetooth connection. There may be additionally a Firmware replace web page, and lastly, the gadget data web page.
Further data: Khadas Audio App solely works with the Tea Professional in Bluetooth connection and never with the USB connection.
Battery & Charging
The Tea Professional features a 2100mAh battery, which I verified throughout the burn-in interval, can energy the gadget as much as 11 hours with Bluetooth connection and greater than 8 hours in wired connection. That is applicable for a small gadget with a small battery capability.
It took me greater than 2 hours to completely cost the Tea Professional, even when utilizing my quick PD chargers, which is gradual for a small battery.
This gradual charging can extend the battery’s lifespan, because it by no means will get sizzling and stays chilly to the contact whereas charging in a room with A/C.
Tea Professional additionally permits charging from the telephone or the supply by way of USB-C connection whereas in use. This mode could be turned on or off utilizing the controls and show or through the use of the Khadas Audio App.
Packaging & Equipment
The Tea Professional got here in a small, unassuming white field with photos of the gadget throughout and a sticker with the specs on the backside.
The package deal consists of the Tea Professional DAC amplifier, a handbook, and a white 10cm USB-C to USB-C cable. I want the USB cable have been grey in shade to match the gadget.
Sound Impressions
The Khadas Tea Professional is without doubt one of the only a few supply gadgets that I can hear the sound variations of the filter setting.
The default filter is the Linear Quick, which I discover U-shaped in sound signature; fortunately, the Linear Sluggish filter setting sounds impartial, so I switched to that setting and used it for this evaluation.
No EQ was used, nor have been some other sound enhancements utilized. I used UAPP and PowerAmp music participant on my Telephone, and the achieve is ready to excessive on the Tea Professional.
I spent greater than 30 hours not solely burning within the Tea Professional but in addition testing the battery life and charging instances. I discover that for burning within the sound, 8 hours ought to be sufficient.
I primarily use my OnePlus 13 telephone because the supply and use my IEMs and headphones, together with the DUNU Falcon Extremely Ti, Kiwi Ears Astral, the QoA Martini, and the MOONDROP Horizon and Sennheiser HD 6xx headphones.
Abstract
As I acknowledged above, I used the Linear Sluggish filter, as I discovered the default Linear Quick A filter setting has a U-shaped sound signature.
Tea Professional has a impartial, energetic, and clear sound high quality, characterised by a flat perceived frequency response, prolonged sub-bass, and an ethereal higher treble that sparkles with power but stays impartial in response.
There is no such thing as a synthetic warming of the sound or haziness within the treble, which makes it sound classic, tube-like, or analog. Tea Professional has none of that. As an alternative, it blesses my ears with a clear, see-through sound with virtually no sound of its personal.
Coloration
Nevertheless, if I’ve to nitpick the sound described above with the Linear Sluggish filter setting, the perceived frequency response is flat.
Nonetheless, there’s a very minute additional power across the 8 kHz to 10 kHz vary, including an additional sparkle and power to the sound, but sufficiently subtle to not shade the sound usually.
With the default Linear Quick A filter setting, I hear an unmistakable U-shaped sound signature that subtly colours the sound by including additional power round 80 Hz within the bass and eight kHz within the treble.
I have to add that these colorations are very delicate, and they’re solely audible when used with revealing IEMs such because the QoA Martini, Kiwi Ears Astral, and different IEMs not on this evaluation, however virtually unimaginable to listen to on much less revealing units such because the MOONDROP Horizon, Sennheiser HD 6xx, and the DUNU Falcon Extremely.
Staging
Because of Tea Professional’s clear sound, the staging efficiency is excellent. There may be an unmistakable spaciousness in sound coming from the Tea Professional even when paired with average-performing IEMs.
When paired with IEMs which have good staging capabilities, I hear good depth, width, and top, due to Tea Professional’s clear background decay rendition and prolonged, open-sounding treble, which helps in creating an phantasm that the listener is in a spacious atmosphere.
Photographs are effectively separated, have good edge definition, and holography. Once more, that is helped by the clear sound of the Tea Professional and the IEM or headphones getting used.
Dynamics
Don’t mistake its average energy output score for being just like a non-battery-powered dongle DACs with a comparable or larger energy output; they don’t seem to be the identical.
Having the battery inside presents a transparent benefit by way of cleanliness and sound dynamics. Tea Professional is cleaner, extra energetic, and extra powerful-sounding than non-battery-powered dongle DACs, even with a better energy score.
Mixed with Tea Professional’s prolonged bass and treble response, the sound may be very dynamic, full of life, and may go louder than I anticipated its 165mW into 33Ω energy output score to be.
Click on on web page 2 beneath for my really helpful pairings and chosen comparisons.
