xDuoo TA-30 Review

Design & Build Quality

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Casing

Out of the box, the xDuoo TA-30 looks a lot like its predecessors. 

The case is made of thick mate-black, anodized aluminum, with a long main body and two plates tightly screwed front and back. The TA-10 and TA-20 enjoyed a seamless “unibody” case, that looks keener to the eye in my opinion, but unless you get the three amp head-to-head like me, this will never be of an issue.

As usual, the matte finish looks and feels astounding. This is an amp you want to touch and feel, especially now that xDuoo replaced the previous clicky volume-knob, for a big and nice analog one. That, and the screen which is now four-time bigger, adding a sweet visual touch to the amp.

Next to my Cayin HA-1AMKII amp, the xDuoo TA-30 doesn’t feel too big anymore, but it keeps that cool vibe of “true” tube amp, thanks to the big Rectification tube and the equally sized capacitor block behind. It’s a sleek design, and I like it, a lot.

The footprint is bigger than before, but not by much, as xDuoo did a great job at minimizing its DAC/AMP size. The whole device is 29cm long, 11cm wide and 17cm tall, small enough to fit any desktop if you ask me. The TA-30 weights just under 3.0kg, again this has to be compared to the 9.5kg Cayin’s own Tube-Amp.

Overall, there is a lot to love, so let’s move on and check the layout.

Layout

New layout, new inputs, new amps.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: yes the xDuoo TA-30 ditched the XLR output, so no more balanced output for you! But in exchange, you get a much bigger screen, buttons to control the amp and one, big twisty analog volume knob.

The front panel comes with :

• 1x 6.35mm Jack headphone output, to plug your headphone or in-ear
• 4x buttons, to select your input, change your digital filters, activate Bluetooth pairing and, last but not least, pick the right language (Chinese or English)
• 1x 1.3” OLED screen, to display playback information
• 1x Analog Volume Knob

And if we take a look at the back panel, we have :

• 1x RCA In, to connect your DAC or any analog source to your TA-30
• 1x RCA Out, to bridge the signal through your usual speaker amp
• 1x USB-A to link your computer, your smartphone or any digital source like a DAP
• 1x Coaxial to connect a digital source, like a DAP
• 1x Optical, same as Coaxial
• 1x Bluetooth Antenna

A pretty complete layout if you were to ask, at least enough to fit most users. The only drawback would be the lack of a balanced output like a 2.5mm or 4.4mm. But, as a true Tube-headphone-amp, this would not be relevant.

Let’s move on and check the bundle.

The review continues on Page Three, after the click HERE or by using the jump below.