They nailed it again - Khadas Tea DAC review

[@dreddguy6454]

Hey iiWi. Your description of 'the sound' of every product is spot on and totally relatable.

[@stephencosta6814]

🙌🤛❤️Hello one of your biggest fans here Steve Costello I just love your videos I feel like maybe making popcorn every time one of your videos are on sit down relax and enjoy and I already told you you articulate the sound of music expertly and break it down for everyone to understand thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into this a vital part of our community you are

[@kerryvanderkamp5051]

Great review. I got my Tea a couple days ago and also think it’s brilliant from a design and on-the-go usability perspective. Loved your “minus an hour, they’re not saints”. LOL

[@akshaynetke186]

Hi iiWi! I saw your Moondrop KATO review and bought these. I love it. Was thinking about getting the HIDIZS DH80s but now I’ll go with this. Will go well with my iphone 😬 Thank you!!

[@travisnarc]

GREAT REVIEW! And I love your sense of humor🙂

[@tempo9782]

Nailed it again! Your reviews are so detailed, fantastic!

[@amb3cog]

So you think this would work good with the iPhone 13 Pro Max? Or will it sound better (Assuming I’m using Bluetooth connection on both) with my refrigerator? It’s a GE profile, the old school style one with side by side doors. If it matters, it’s black, and yes the ice thing is hooked up and working. Love the channel my friend. 😉✌️

[@tedthomas9809]

I have the tea and love it. Not too concerned it does not magnetically stick to my android phone, looks like there are options to fix that, I love the way it sounds. Thanks for your excellent review. I now look forward to more Khadas tea updates-improvements, they are on it for form and performance plus cost.

[@ferencmeiczinger3205]

Conclusion: You need a portable fridge..

[@iiWiReviews]

Exactly! 🤣

[@teachonlywhatiseasy]

you could get a snap adapter for any phone to make those work but what you don't have is LDAC or a system wide EQ on ios

[@DC-mm9zo]

I have one, it works amazingly well. Tip... if you have an iPhone, get a magnetic case protector and it stay put solidly.... no need to buy a DAP.

[@granpatriarcadelsantuario2178]

Una pregunta. Tengo un iPhone 13 Pro y unos XM5 de SONY. ¿Merece la pena este DAC para ellos ?

[@Khadas]

Thank you iiWi. Good content!

[@NeilBlanchard]

I'll bet that a thin metal plate can be found, that can be stuck on the back of any phone - or phone case - that will let this DAC stick magnetically. Like possibly a replacement plate that comes with the Hidizs DH80S?

[@richardchild6093]

I bought the Tea. Can't wait to receive it!

[@telocity]

3M sell 10 sticky backed magnet tape for around $10. Use one for back of android phone to attach the TEA.

[@datdudeinred]

Fyi you can get those magsafe like magnetic rings to attach on anything(eg your phone case) to turn into an iPhone magsafe. & i think pitaka makes a case for android phones with magsafe built in.

[@iiWiReviews]

Yeah, I actually have few thin metal stickers for a phone but I feel Apple's solution is the most elegant one. I'm one of those guys using my phone without any mask, not even a screen protection. I like to admire their thin design. 😊

[@LeBeautiful]

Portable and affordable, the two things I love ✨

[@san-chil]

The idea I think is, to stick a piece of metal piece behind your phone and the use the dac's magnet to latch on to your phone. I believe these magnetic devices do ship in with an extra sticker metal along ... though they are never explicit about its purpose or usage.

[@jungtarcph]

I can't wait to get mine! :)

[@arondyte318]

Been waiting for this to release for a long time. Can’t wait to replace my FiiO KA3 dongle DAC and pair this with my 13 Pro Max once I get my hands on one. P.S. The iPhone magnetic term you were looking for is “MagSafe”. And yes, it’s really a convenience that’s hard to live without once you get used to it 😅

[@TC-bz8sm]

Great review, thanks ! I was gonna get Cayin RU-6 but this one seems to be very competent , how should I decide?

[@iiWiReviews]

You're welcome! Decision making is my least favorite thing to do but I guess you already know where I stand if you watched trough that whole vs RU6 part.

[@guybrushtwood]

Great review as always. I never feel like you shill products (unlike many other audio reviewers) and always give an honest opinion. Just a quick tip, you can buy MagSafe cases for android. They are quite easy to find also. That is if you are still in possession of the Tea. Peace ✌️

[@iiWiReviews]

Thanks! I know about the cases, that's great. I'm just one of those phone nudists that hate putting phones in any case, mask, etc. I use it as it gets out of the box...after removing a factory applied protective screen foil. 😅

[@mg4u4ever]

Thanks for the amazing review. There seems to be a sleek way to add mag safe to your android (some andriod) and that's using pitaka case that adds magsafe ring built into the case . Not an ad and i haven't tried it yet. But i juat ordered one today for egg when i get my khadas tea and I thought i qould share

[@JohnnyX50]

How does the magnetism within the device impact the magnetic compass technology within the phone? I had a magnetic lock cover for my old phone and it destroyed all functionality of the compass making google maps useless or any app using the compass. It became permanently stuck in a direction and would not recover.

[@MykeBinaryMan]

I have a Mophie magnetic adapter on my phone case and this is perfect for the tea to snap too.

[@mrmartinbusek]

Yeah, rocking iPhone 13 Pro Max and let me tell you, it snaps on just beautifully. Got my Khadas Tea for over a week or so. The only problem I have with Tea is that the colour of the LED is either Blue, flashing bluetooth and when I connect headphones, it changes the colour to Yellow, flashing slowly, but the colour should change with different files. I tried DSD, MQA through Roon and the colour of LED is always the same... yellow. Not sure why is that because Quick start show different colours for each...

[@Khadas]

Can you describe your connection method, headphone model, music APP used, Have you turned on listening to music while charging mode? We'll do our best to troubleshoot your problem.

[@mrmartinbusek]

@@Khadas Well, it's iPhone 13 (latest iOS), so the connection is made with the short lightning cable you supplied in the box. App used - Roon. I think there is no charging mode in iOS, is there?

[@mrmartinbusek]

@@Khadas And it's same after connecting Tea to iMac, using Roon. Same problem. Light always yellow. No matter if it's MQA or DSD

[@Khadas]

@@mrmartinbusek OK, we will feed back the information you provided to the technical department, and we may ask for some details again in the future. Hope you have a nice day!

[@Khadas]

@@mrmartinbusek Hi Martin, for your question, first of all, due to the limitation of iOS, DSD native is not supported on iPhone, only PCM and DOP are supported. DSD audio will be disguised as DOP for transmission, so it is correct that Tea is displayed as yellow light when playing DSD audio, but it's actually DSD sound quality, don't worry. Secondly, on the computer side, Tea currently does not support DSD Regarding the yellow light displayed when playing MQA, you need help to confirm whether roon supports MQA on iPhone and iMac, and then check whether the settings on Roon are correct, for example:1. Use Exclusive Mode 2. Enable Integer Mode 3. Use Power-of-2 Buffer Sizes 4. If you are making use of Private Relay, please be sure to disable it when using Roon. Finally, have a nice day!

[@wojciechnowinski8775]

Don't have that much of an experience with different dacs and headphone amplifiers but I've been using for a couple of years now Audioquest Dragonfly Black with my Audio Technica MSR7's and was quite happy with it. Have you had occasion to try this dac (Dragonfly Black) and if so how can you compare it to Khadas Tea in terms of sound quality and tonality? I only think about buying this Khadas Tea because, as an iPhone user I could really benefit from practical point of view and say goodby to "dongle" life:)

[@iiWiReviews]

You can actually find my Dragonfly Black and Cobalt reviews here on the channel. But to put it clearly, Tea is better sounding then both of these, especially Black. Tea has better detail retrieval, more articulate bass response, and darker background. To my ears it's just better.

[@wojciechnowinski8775]

@@iiWiReviews Thank you for quick response. I'm going to order them right now.

[@wojciechnowinski8775]

@@iiWiReviews And one more thing. I cannot find this information on Khadas website and all reviews I watched/read don't state this clearly. My question is: if I connect my iPhone with dac via USB/Lightning cable will I be able then to use for example my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones that support LDAC and Aptx HD to stream music via bluetooth using this codecs from Tea itself?

[@quantumcreator8888]

Topping NX7 stacked 🧲 ☝️ amp n DAC combo

[@ramli1111]

Hi there, any dac amp that you would recommend that would work with the beyerdynamic gaming headphone that has a mic inline?

[@iiWiReviews]

Not that I know of. If it has 4 pin jack... You can buy an adapter that will turn it into separate headphones and mic jack... Then you can hook headphones to a DAC and mic directly to a PC. I did that before and works just fine.

[@ramli1111]

@@iiWiReviews i see, got it thank you!

[@JustLearning]

Thank for your review. But I still have no idea how you would use them. I think your video was geared more for someone who already know all about DACs. But I am new to them and have questions. Can the DAC be used to transmit audio from the iPhone or Android phone to a pair of bluetooth earphones or headphones? I would like louder bluetooth sound in my Airpods Max and OneOdio bluetooth headphones. I also have wired headphones and would like clearer and louder sound to them too. I wish someone would do a video and show how to use the DACS.

[@iiWiReviews]

When using BT earphones, everything is actually passed to them in a digital form and then earphones use internal DAC and AMP in each bud to generate the sound. Because of very limited space and power consumption, BT earbuds cannot have as much power. Just imagine, everything that is otherwise located in a bigger external DAC like this one have to be cramped inside BT buds themselves. Both power and actual sound fidelity suffer in return. The only way to improve sound of BT earphones is to buy different ones that are better/louder and probably bigger. I hope this was clear enough because I was trying to put a lot of info quickly.

[@JustLearning]

@@iiWiReviews Thanks for your thoughtful reply. My interim solution is that I use a headphone amplifier and can attach wired headphones to them to make the sound louder. I have also connected a Bluetooth transmitter to the output headphone jack of the headphone amplifier and have been able to increase the volume of the audio reaching my bluetooth headphones and earphones. It works. Thanks again.

[@Reeeepicheep]

It would be cool if Khadas added a micro sd port to the Tea Pro to make it an offline music player using Khadas’ app. That would be a killer product to kill off most DAP players.

[@gregoriokakilala5734]

w/c one woukd you recommend, the cayi ru6 or the khadas tea? thank u

[@iiWiReviews]

Please watch the part of the video "vs Cayin RU6". There's a time tag in the description.

[@D1N02]

Just stick a piece of (ferromagnetic) metal to your android phone :p just search for self-adhesive metal strip

[@aeipee13]

They sell the rings on Amazon

[@gradimirnovakovic5379]

Hola, question, i see KEF LS50 Meta, which amp and DAC you are using to achieve rich and warm sound and also most important to have audiophile soundstage and imaging? Best, Gradimir.

[@iiWiReviews]

Hi! It's the first edition LS50 without Meta. I drive them with Acoustic Invader preamp and amp combo (full and powerful sound). DAC was Denafrips Ares II for a long time but now I moved to SMSL M500 MKII. And finally, REL T5x is adding some bass heft too. In this case they actually sound very rich and soundstage is quite big.

[@gradimirnovakovic5379]

@@iiWiReviews cool, what you will suggest from integrated amps to achieve the same, taking in consideration to have similar DAC choices? Grad

[@iiWiReviews]

@@gradimirnovakovic5379 I haven't heard yet an integrated that could match it completely. My Hegel H90 just wasn't a match in any way. NAD M32 was equally detailed but drier and flatter sounding. Hegel H190 was closer with smoother sound, bigger soundstage, and more bass authority... But again not at the same level of fullness and richness as Ai. And since both are more expensive then Ai combo... I ended up selling my H90 and buying Acoustic Invader gear instead of returning it after the review. If and when I stumble upon equally good integrated, I will definitely talk about it here.

[@gradimirnovakovic5379]

@@iiWiReviews thnx m8!

[@espresso1139]

Hallo. Can you please review something from brzhifi. This brand seems interesting. Have a good day. Greetings from Germany

[@monarakudumbiya957]

Can it drive planar iems?

[@paznewis107]

Dude, glue a shim of steel to your 'droid phone case... Seriously though, I enjoy your reviews. All the best from Scotland 🙏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@iiWiReviews]

Of course, but then my fridge wouldn't get any screen time. 😉 Thanks and all the best to you too!

[@Wynkrs]

They do make MagSafe cases these days for android phones I hope you know

[@iiWiReviews]

I do but personally don't like using any cases with my phones.

[@mrmartinbusek]

BTW, a question here, I'm looking for some new IEMs for Tea. I like good Bass. Thinking about Tin Hifi P1 or P2. What you think?

[@iiWiReviews]

I've recently tested P1 plus. Very detailed, not really bassy, very difficult drive that needs lots of power. I personally prefer Moondrop Kato at that price point. Very weighty bassline and higher sensitivity.

[@mrmartinbusek]

@@iiWiReviews Just had a look at Kato and the seem very good too. I think I have two at the top of the list now. Kato and 7hz Timeless.

[@iiWiReviews]

Tough choice there cause both of those are really great in their own way.

[@kerryvanderkamp5051]

Also, I would contend it is a giant killer for iPhone owners. It doesn’t compare to my Mojo 2 for sound quality but it is SO unbelievably convenient to have this thin device stuck to the back of my iPhone, I will generally use it as my preferred portable DAC/amp for casual listening.

[@michaelwright1602]

You don't need an iPhone, just get a smaller fridge... ;-)

[@ENGLISHISBEST]

Buy a magnetic phone case for your car. I just pull mine on & off the magnetic holder on my car vents. Easy.

[@virgogreg]

Try sticking it your phone with Blue-tack

[@gigihanmandarin]

Who needs magnets? Just use Blu Tack.

[@richardblaauwgeers4349]

How does something like this compare to the SMSL m500 mk2

[@iiWiReviews]

MKII is better, with bigger, more dynamic, and fuller sound.

[@JogieGlenMait16]

Just get a magnetic patch for your android phone then...

[@villageroma]

As I understand you are going to purchase a proper phone then.. Congratulation. Finnaly you are going to enjoy bit perfect music..

[@iiWiReviews]

As soon as they they get rid of that wide notch. 😊

[@bobb.9917]

Are you at the Apple store shopping the iPhones? 😄

[@johnosam4681]

ugly thing is it doesnt have color option, of all color, they choose blue. hahaha

[@Gary_M]

iPhone still sucks balls though.

[@iiWiReviews]

Don't you ever say that... They invented a video call... many years after everyone else...and with other iPhones only. 😅

[@Gary_M]

@@iiWiReviews Yeah, they "invented" a lot of things lol. 🙄

[@michaelwoloschinow3892]

it also weighs 400 lbs

[@MrStingraybernard]

I love your reviews but don’t think most people wanna watch for 21 minutes

[@iiWiReviews]

As I can't talk and think very fast (using English at least) and with several comparisons it's kind of hard for me to shrink it much more. But I'm training myself to stay more focused and not repeat some things as much. Until that sinks in, you can always skip the intro (me babbling basically) and focus on the sound part + only comparisons that interest you. That's why I always add time tags.

[@michaelwoloschinow3892]

@@iiWiReviews your English is spectacular

[@carlosblack325]

@@iiWiReviews This speed and the way you express yourself is something I really like, and the way you review too. I've got the Tone 2 Pro, and Its marvellous, so, this one may be something I'd buy.

[@joncruz]

Android user? Get a MagSafe case that’s all