SABAJ PHA3 Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier 2X6J9 Low Ground Noise Integrated Stereo Amp Audio HIFI Output Protection for Headphone

Took a chance on this headphone amp for a pretty specific reason. I have a lot of vinyl but I also gave up on vinyl last year and as a result my new HiFi setup is made up of a CD transport and Amplifier. I thought it would be cool to keep my budget friendly Audio-Texhnica LP120X turntable on a small table next to the sofa to listen to some of my older 80’s metal records every now and again. I’m done collecting vinyl but happy to have a spin of a few records every now and again so I needed a headphone amp.Using this cool little amp with RCA cables out of my turntable (Using line out / built in preamp) and HD660s headphones. For £45 it works just fine. Volume control is turned to about 45% and that’s pretty freaking loud. So lots of room to move.Although I have a nice and expensive HiFi system my vinyl collection is mainly made up of old metal records that generally sound like crap on any system I’ve ever played them on. This setup is cheap and effective. Surprisingly a decent amount of bass, no background hum.So if your like me and a music lover and not an audiophile obsessed with cables rolled only on the thighs of virgins and mixed with angel tears it will do the job for you, and do the job well.It’s as clear and powerful as the headphone amp in my Leak Stereo 130, and I’ve been super pleased with that dedicated headphone amp.It’s £45. It amplifies the signal to your headphones, is as clear as the signal you send through it. That’s it.Takes 35 seconds to warm up and your ready to go.Comes with a power cable and 2 valves included. All you need is cables to connect your device whatever that may be.Now I feel like a kid again with a pile of Motley Crue, Dokken and Ratt records in a pile as I chill on the sofa and blast them out.

Bought this at £29.99 as a as new used item, arrived 2 days later and it looks brand new to me with all the packaging, accessories and box etc so saving myself a tenner is a good start! Build quality is excellent, weighty little amp a bit smaller than expcted but that doesnt matter. iam running this from my Rega Apollo CD player into my Grado SR 80 e (modified with the bass port mode and dynamat mod amd the doughnut ear pads which btw is worth doing!) after using the headphone output on my NAD C300 amp i thought this might improve things and yes its pretty much like chalk and cheese, very clear and musical sounding punchy bass and detailed. I have used Little dots 1, 2 and 3 before as headphone amps as i like the tube sound and this little amp to my ears doesn't lack any of the little dots virtues at at least half the price of the LD 1. All that is with the stock Chinese tubes, i have since bought some E180F mullards to try in this but they are still burning in but i do notice more punch and bass , smoothness and musicality. I know this is all relevant to what you are used to but in my opinion this little amp is worth every penny . definitely value for money , plus you can enter the world of tube rolling if you so wish. At £30 to £40 its a no brainer really, thats if you can buy one as i notice they are not available atm. Oh and when i first plugged it in i noticed the volume was quite low but after 5 mins of warming up it went up by at least 50% and this i reckon is the tubes reaching equilibrium and correct operating temperaure.Good luck!

I agonised for months on whether to buy a dedicated headphone amp costing upwards of £300, else try one of the inexpensive desktop Chinese valve amps. These seemed so cheap that they couldn't be that great, could they? I have a separate DAC/AMP which cost about 10 times the amount of this amp, but although it really digs up the detail and separates the instruments, I found it to be clinical on much of the music I listened to.I decided that for £35-£100 I would take a chance an see whether one of these amps would solve my problem. I have had this amp for a week and now it has started to shine. I chose this amp out of the many on here and for £40 you can't go wrong.It does take around 10 - 20 hours of listening to really shine but has been this missing link for me. I still have the detail of the DAC, but filtered through the glass tubes of this tiny amp, has made listening much more pleasurable. Vocals and instruments sound more 'real' and not so harshly clinical.Used on it's own the amp holds its own, the separation is there, although the detail (in my opinion) can be improved with a good quality DAC.Switching on a blue light flashes, there is a small audible click and the light changes to a steady blue. This I guess is the time that is taken to warm up the tubes ready for operation.There is a headphone output and a source input at the front, both 3.5mm jack. Input is handy at the front, but also a twin rca left and right jack at the back for standard components if needed.I chose this amp as it was the most aesthetically pleasing of the amps on Amazon and eBay, it was also the best design in my opinion. It is solidly built and the tubes are already in situ when you get the amp. You can upgrade them if you like, but I am happy with the sound I am getting from the tubes supplied. I may experiment with other tubes at a later date, but see no reason, as they do the job in my opinion. The power supply isn't the best and this would be the first upgrade for me before I consider any changes to the tubes. Only on only one occasion so far, there was no power to the amp and I think this is down to the power supply unit. Unplugging and plugging back in solved the problem.Overall I recommend this amp and it is an ideal size for my bedside table for late night listening. Just remember like a fine wine, it gets better over time (the term I believe in hi-fi terms is 'burn in').