SABAJ Audio PHA2 Portable Headphone Amplifier - Silver

Being a computer scientist I spend hours and hours coding and software engineering in front of my computer. While I’m in this tunnel I love to listen to music. Depending on my mood the genre varies from Rock to Techno to Classic. Simultaneously I have to have regards for my peers at the office. On the other hand, I like to maintain a certain volume level. So my headphones are circumaural headphones from Beyerdynamic - the DT770 Pro to be exact.Using this headphone at home connected to my HiFi equipment there is no issue with their 250 Ohm impedance. At work however, connected to my notebook, it is a different story. The loudness is acceptable, but not at the level where I want it to be. There are no reserves at the top. Additionally, the amplifier inside my MacBook Pro seems to struggle and gets very warm. Using the notebook keyboard certainly becomes a pain.Therefor I was searching for an affordable but yet qualitative desktop amplifier that has a small footprint on my desk. Running a German speaking website where I present my work and occasionally review products, Sabaj contacted me and asked, if I wanted to check out their new product lineup. What a coincidence! Surely I wanted to and I knew immediately what I wanted to try out: The Sabaj Audio PHA2 portable headphone amplifier.Because Sabaj has no German Amazon account yet, I got my sample from Amazon UK. And what should I say? I am very pleased with this small but functional little amp.The amp comes packed in a nice but not too flashy box and is well-protected in foam material. Included inside the package you find the amp itself and a 5 V, 1000 mA power adapter. That’s it!The build quality leaves a very good impression. Everything is made out of metal, including the casing, the volume knob and the power button. The accuracy of fit is how it should be. No sharp edges or rattling parts.To power the amp, you can use the included power adapter or any other smartphone charger. It connects through a micro USB port at the back. This is very nice, because it reduces the amount of equipment on my desk. Developing applications for smartphones I have always plenty of chargers plugged into the multi socket, as well as some micro USB cables laying nearby.Furthermore, a pair of Cinch jacks (aka. RCA jacks) is available as input, as well as another pair for output / loop-through.At the front there is a 3.5mm headphone jack for low impedance headphones and a 6.3mm jack for high impedance headphones, like my DT770 Pro. The latter is obviously most interesting to me. Additionally, you will find a small power button and the volume knob, as well as a power-on status-LED.So the outside look and feel is good, but what about the inner values?As I am not a sound engineer I cannot provide you with some fancy data sheets, charts of which frequencies are reproduced well, nor the dynamic range, etc. But from my personal feeling and taste the PHA 2 sounds fantastic and drives my DT770 with sufficient power. Having the volume turned not to the mid position is enough to get a decent volume out of my headphones. Certainly this also depends on how loud the output is set at my notebook. But having my notebook volume set to highest value I am not keen enough to turn the amp to full throttle. It would definitely be too loud. So there are enough reserves left for both, my notebook and the amp. Nice!Having two headphone ports available at the front panel makes it also possible for a second party to listen to the same music, which may be interesting in some situations. But keep in mind, that you have two different impedance ports here.So from the loudness perspective I am very pleased with the PHA 2. The sound quality is also perfect for my ears. There is no obvious noise. The amp drives the DT770 Pro very well, so that they can show their balanced tone. I never had the feeling that some tones are not where they belong or are not present at all. From Rock to Classic, everything sounds great.Some points of criticismNevertheless, the PHA 2 amplifier is not perfect. The main downside is the lack of several and more modern input options. I would have loved to see an optical input port, gladly also combined with a 3.5mm jack. I think for the audience interested in buying the PHA 2, it would be more convenient to plug their equipment (like a notebook or a smartphone) with a double-sided 3.5 mm jack cable (of which at least I have plenty), than with a Cinch or Cinch to 3.5 mm jack Y-adapter cable. Fortunately, I had one in my cable box, because Sabaj does not provide any additional included. Considering the fact, that the PHA 2 has the wording „portable” inside its product title, one would assume that Cinch is not the most „portable” solution.Personally, I think the pair of output Cinch connectors are less important than a larger selection of input ports. At the end this is a small desktop amplifier for your headphones that is placed near you. So either you use it solely without anything else daisy-chained to it, or you drive it as an addition at the end of your equipment. The space for the output Cinch would be better used for additional input ports.The other thing is, that because the amp can be powered by an USB smartphone charger via a micro USB cable, why not drop the power adapter jack completely and provide an USB charger?This points don’t make the amp a bad choice. It sounds great, it looks great, it fits great on top of my desk. But having my points of criticism addressed would make the amp a perfect device, in my humble opinion. Maybe something for Sabaj to consider for the PHA 3? Who knows!Anyway, I think this is a good product at a fair price and I would be glad to see it available here in Germany. So it gets my recommendation for all persons looking for such a headphone amplifier and a very good four star rating.

Allowed me to change the volume easily for my headphones, unfortunately not enough power to provide clarity on my 250 ohm DT 990's. Returned and had to buy something more expensive :(

I had to return the PHA3 as it didn't have the power to drive my headphones beyond the existing DAC However, The PHA2! Wow, what a difference! It certainly packs a punch, and for the price, I think one gets alot for the money!No distortion when driven, rotating the dial a full 360 degrees, it just kept on going! (I could only try this for a very brief time else I would have damaged my hearing for sure)My major concern was for editing voice, I needed to amplify the recording without having to increase the gain on the DAC or edit the file in Post production. Goal Achieved!What this means is that I can record with a nice low gain, achieve absolute minimal noise possible and then play it back during editing at a amplified sound without worrying about the sound quality.There is no 'his or humms' at all when pushed to it's extream (when playing music) obviously with a quieter sound souce like voice, you will hear a slight increase but this is with the amp turned to at least 90% at normal levels (50%) absolutely perfect for my needs so no complaints whatsoever.If you are looking for a budget friendly amp which packs power you will not find better in this class. In fact I have struggled to find a dedicated headphone amp that delivers the same or more power to the headphones. I am using a pair of Shure SRH840's which has an impedance of 44 Ohms, at that range the power delivered by the amp is in excess of 500mW my headphones can work with upto 1000mW of input power. Even at the higher price range, there's very few that can compete with the power that PHA2's can deliver, regardless of the headphone choice you may be sporting, even at the super high impedance of 250 + Ohms.I have only tested the 6.3mm High Impedance Headphone JackI am using a 'cheap' pair of interconnects between the DAC and the PHA2, so may be, in time upgrade the quality, but not an urgency.Make sure you have a long enough USB Cable (Micro USB) as the supplied power cable is a mains cable but not UK plug.All in all, this device is worthy of the 5 stars and highly recommended.

In my search for a decent amp to power my sundaras, I was looking to pay at least 3 times as much for most of the recommendations out there (topping,JDS, schiit usa, etc). I thought I'd take a chance (after reading another review above, cheers). Literally contented as soon as I fired this up. (used the high impedance jack on front)Someday I may or may not upgrade, but for a seriously acceptable amp for barely 50 quids, it's a no brainer. Look past the name brand. Build and knob control feels solid. This unit also takes power from a usb input if you wish.Stop the search and get comfortable listening to clear and powered audio....

It is heavy. Sturdier build quality than I thought based on the pictures. I connected my 250Ohms Beyerdynamic headphones to my 16" MacBook Pro and the difference is huge compared to the bare MacBook output. Interestingly I also tested with a 2018 13" MacBook Pro and the sound quality is noticeably better on the 16" one. More bass.The device switches on in 2 seconds, the light is not disturbing. The case remains cold despite using it all day.Mine was half price as the package was "previously opened" according to Amazon, I didn't notice any scratches, looked like brand new. It was a good purchase I am very happy with it.