Thanks all for the feedback everyone much appreciated.
Edit: Ordered Silver and Cable 4.4mm to RCA. Zeos connected his tube amp to the A90 as a preamp so I am going to try as well through RCA and use the XLR to 4.4mm for a second input directly into the Hiby R6 or the Serenade X to see what sound better.
Anyone know the size of the volume knob? Want to order a custom one.
Pic of the stem if possible please should be the standard 6mm?
Cheers J
Is anyone using the A90d as a preamp that also has an amazing headphone amp? Iâm in the market for a really great totally transparent preamp that works great with both RCA and balanced XLR and Iâm leaning heavy towards the A90d. It seems like itâs basically the PRE90 with an amazing headphone amp on the front. And a ground loop switch which might work brilliantly with my turntable set up. Any reason why Iâd want the PRE90 over this for a preamp if Iâm using multiple sources turntable/dac? Am I reading right that this is basically the PRE90 with an amazing headphone amp?
You might be better of getting a dual mono set up so you can control the level of each side independent of each other.
Amazon doesnât work? They always seem to have everything Iâm looking for. Lots of hifi stores sell on Amazon for the same price as they do direct sales on their own .com site.
What do you suggest I get?
I think its the Xduoo MT604. It has an independent volume knob for each side. Other than that find something that has a balance function, though those might not sound the best. In my experience a balance knob doesnt just alter the volume balance, but removes the guts out of the side being turned down, at least if its not a real quality preamp i mean.
So my A90D finally got here, so far im pretty pleased 
Being fed by the Topping E30 ( im planning to upgrade, not sure to what - maybe S.M.S.L SU-9n)
My biggest issue with it so far is the gain setting - having to use the remote to change the gain, kinda of annoying (dont get why they removed the switch from the standart A90) Luckily it has more than enough power run every headphone i own and is crystal clear at both gain settings so you can set a gain setting and forget it.
Wish i could, outside the states, so i mostly order from amazon
My thoughts with about half a dayâs listening:
First few hours have been a little odd⌠Straight out of the box it was kinda harsh, seemed to lose itâs edge after a few hours, maybe it just needed to go through a heat cycle or something?
This is my first time using an NFCA amp so I donât have much to say about how it stacks up vs the OG, but damn itâs a punchy unit. Leading transients have great snap/dynamics, and the background is pitch black so they stand out all the more. I had a Fiio K9 (AKM ver) for a while (it suddenly took a dump and was toast, never figured out why) and I remember similar things there. Kudos to these newer rounds of the NFCA and THX circuits, quite the feats of engineering. AnywayâŚ
It could be rose tinted glasses on my part but I swear that K9 had a more agreeable timbre to it, not sure if thatâs the AKM velvet sound or purely wishful thinking. Tested DACs so far have only been ESS (Tone 2 Pro, Matrix Mini i 3), both on XLR. Compared to the Matrix mini the A90D certainly has the dynamic edge, and the IEM experience is much better. Bass is tighter and the details are more clearly rendered here as well. I was worried it would sound bright, doubly so since I have a few brighter pairs of headphones, but so far it hasnât been a major problem.
The Matrixâs amp section is notoriously only ok, not great, but it did have a nice tonality/timbre to it. I do find myself missing a touch of smoothness/warmth here in Topping world, but thatâs as much to do with my preferences as anything else, I wouldnât call this a âbrightâ, âetchyâ or âoverly clinicalâ amp outright. Iâll give it another week or twoâs burn in and see how weâre doing before I start passing real judgment.
Is it possible to confirm if you can get signal out of both the SE RCA out and XLR simultaneously.I want to hook up a pair of studio monitors XLR and send RCA to Sub?
Thanks in advance. Cheers J.
Nice setup! I planning buy the a90 D ,but i dont have balanced dac yet.If i feed them with not balanced dac i have benefits from the a90 balanced outputs?
Its perfectly fine, right now im feeding mine with RCAs from my E30, using a balanced DAC is mostly for 2 reason. You get a little more power and the signal is slightly clearing, however the A90D is already pretty dang powerful and insanely clean so its a ânice to haveâ not a must
Iâm really tempted to pick this up as my next amp. But I wish more reviews were available already.
@M0N did you have a chance to test this one out? If so, any thoughts on how it stacks up against the RNHP or Soloist 3X?
Which Dac Chip do you recommend?
As the saying goes: Different Strokes for Different Folks.
Some prefer cleaner / objective sound from a DS chip (AKM / ESS). Even within the DS world, they each have their signatures. The AKM has been touted to be âvelvetyâ, the ESS Sabres âbrightâ. However, I would add that chips are only one side of the story. Implementation is more important. For example, Topping ESS DACs tend to be leaner and dryer, vs. Schiitâs ESS DACs are âwarmerâ - probably due to choice of filters.
Then you tack on R2R DACs and its another essay and a half.
Iâve tried many variations of the DS chips as well as the Bimby / Gimby and Ares II, and while I donât claim to have golden ears, they are different but the differences are very minor. Not worth losing sleep over. None of them prevent me from enjoying the music but they add various flavours.
All this to say, they all have their merits but everyoneâs ears and set up is different. The only way to find out what is best is for you to try it out. There so many gear combinations that its hard to just pin point one final recommendation. Part of fun in this hobby is trying out different set ups to see which has the best âsynergyâ.
Good luck with your DAC huntâŚbut most of all, enjoy the music!
I definitely prefer cleaner sound, I want hear everything loud and clear, I want to hear every detail with depth and weight behind it, the most important thing to me how the vocals sound, I need it to sound loud and clear, but also sound natural. I want the vocals to sound if they are singing in front of my face
Thatâs gonna be more headphone dependent than anything else. In order of how much it effects the final sound it goes headphones, then usually amp, then dac. Youâve also gotta be careful about the word âdetailâ because the resolution or capability to resolve and transmit subtle transients in your system chain are going to be broadly similar with really any modern dac. Sometimes when folks say âdetailedâ they mean âoh shit I can hear high freq content more clearly now then I could on my laptopâs 3.5mmâ
I wouldnât get too wrapped up in what chip a dac uses, how it measures, etc. $200-300 buys a lot of digital to analog conversion these days⌠Iâve tested the A90D with a $200 ESS Dac, a $900 ESS, and a $1200 BurrBrown, and it wasnât wildly different in any case. Weâre talking subtle gradations here. And again, your headphones are almost always going to be the most âflavoredâ part of your chain.
Amazon does for the most part serve as a pretty great one-stop-fits-all. However, in this instance and for this particular product where @ZeosPantera dropped his affiliate link to Apos in his review, and being as this is his forum, the Apos link seemed to be the appropriate link to use.
And you can usually return stuff for free, unlike most other places that put up barriers to that.
