In this article, we review the $259 USD Loxjie D30 DAC & AMP.
Disclaimer: Hifi-Express sent us the Loxjie D30 DAC & Amplifier for this review, free of charge. I only covered the customs fees & taxes. All thoughts and experiences with the product are naturally my own.
Loxjie
Although I heard the name of Loxjie company from time to time, I didn’t feel the need to research the company because I thought they didn’t have a product that interested me, but I had the impression that their devices were, in fact, similar to SMSL’s devices in terms of design language and build quality. When the HiFi-Express company contacted me about the D30, I did some research and tried to learn about Loxjie. I learned that SMSL, Sabaj & Loxjie are all parts of the same parent company. If you’ve been following my reviews, you know my positive thoughts about SMSL. Can we keep those positive thoughts for Loxjie as well? Let’s take a detailed look at it together and find out.
Loxjie D30 Desktop DAC & Headphone Amplifier with Bluetooth & MQA
The Loxjie D30’s dedicated web page can be found here. It costs $259 USD from Hifi-Express. If you pick it up during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday week, you can have it for $233 USD instead of the MSRP.
Loxjie D30 is a budget-oriented, all-in-one device that can decode PCM up to 32bit-768kHz and DSD up to DSD512, natively, via USB. The highlights of the audio stage include ESS Technology’s ES9068AS premium-tier DAC, Texas Instruments’ OPA1612, and two low-phase crystal oscillators. I am including a list of specs and features below.
- ESS Technology ES9068AS DAC
- XMOS 2nd Gen USB Controller
- Bluetooth 5.0 & AptX HD
- Support MQA
- 16bit-32bit, PCM 44.1kHz-768kHz & DSD512
- Integrated HP Amp (110mW@32Ω) – DAC 2.0 Vrms)
- Optical Toslink, Coax & USB Inputs
- RCA & 6.3mm Single-Ended Outputs
Packaging & Accessories
The Loxjie D30 comes in a medium-sized, black and white cardboard box. The box has D30’s artwork on the top side and it looks better than ordinary boxes of SMSL and Topping. Loxjie did not list the specs anywhere on the box. Upon opening it, you’re welcomed by the foam compartment that protects the device from damage during transportation. As for the accessories, Loxjie included a power cable, a USB-A to USB-B data cable, a Bluetooth antenna, and a very nice remote controller along with a couple of manuals.
Design & Build Quality
Measuring 15.1 x 17.0 x 3.8 centimeters, the D30 is compact. It features a similar build to SMSL’s M400, only smaller. The D30 has an all-aluminum chassis and it feels quite durable in hand. Thanks to its compact body and the fact that it is an AIO solution, it doesn’t take a lot of space on your desk. The has a smooth to touch grey finish and it resists scratches up to a degree. The unit comes with a good resolution IPS screen and a multifunctional volume wheel that also acts as a navigation button.
The layout of the D30 is clean, it is easy to use the device using the volume wheel/button and it is even easier to navigate using the included remote. All the I/O options except the 6.3mm HP out, are located in the back. Inputs are as follows; coax, optical Toslink, and USB. Apart from those, we see the RCA output on the far left side of the rear panel.
All the sockets and connectors feel solid and durable. Additionally, rubber feet can be seen under the device helping the 550gr chassis stay put.
Technology & Features
Loxjie provided us with some basic information about the audio board of the device. The device is equipped with ESS Technology’s premium-tier DAC, ES9068AS. As for the HP amplifier stage, Loxjie used Texas Instrument’s OPA1612, which we often see in many different devices. These two main components are assisted by XMOS’ second-generation USB controller, 2 low-phase crystal oscillators, and Loxjie’s special low-noise power stage. The D30 supports PCM up to 32bit-784kHz and DSD up to DSD512 thanks to the second-gen XMOS USB controller. The ES9068AS DAC supports MQA natively and the unit runs driverless in MAC and Linux systems. For Windows, you’ll need this official driver to fully utilize the device. Do note that SMSL’s latest USB driver also works with the D30 and can be used without any issues.
The D30 also supports Bluetooth but the hi-res codec support is limited to AptX HD. I would want to see LDAC here but that would probably bump up the price by a good margin. The Bluetooth performance is great, however, if you’re looking for getting the maximum wireless performance, you should look for DACs with LDAC. SMSL’s SU-9 could be a great alternative to D30. Back to the technology inside, we see impressive numbers on paper from a DAC-AMP device that is priced around the $250 mark. However, the amp’s output is kind of low and we will talk about that in the upcoming sections.
Controls & UI
The Loxjie D30 can be controlled with the integrated volume wheel or the included remote controller. Both of those options are easy to use. It is very simple to use and access the menus and navigate through them. The remote control provides some additional features such as muting the device with one tap and toggling on the pairing state, etc. It is slightly faster to use included remote control so I recommend you throw in some batteries in it and use it to navigate through the menus. The UI is super nice and simple and it looks identical to SMSL’s S & M series. There are a lot of options on the menu and I’ll list them here, for you. For starters, you have the option to choose input & output, you can select a PCM filter out of three available filters (fast linear, slow minimum & minimum phase), you can toggle on the PRE-mode or DAC mode (vol-fixed), you can clear Bluetooth pairing list, you can toggle on the dimmer and adjust its timer, you can change the brightness of the device’s screen. Apart from that, during the playback, the screen provides vital info such as the decode details, sample rate, MQA status, active output, and input, plus the volume level.
The review continues on Page Two, after the click HERE or by using the jump below.
Page 2: DAC Performance, DAC-AMP Performance & Power, Comparison, Last Words
