The Khadas Tea is the world's first MagSafe compatible headphone amplifier, and DAC.
And it's the kind of product that fills a niche so elegantly that you wonder why no
one else came up with at first?
Well, we at MiniDisc really excited to be introducing this neat little audio accessory
to Australian shores.
Now Khadas is a company well known in DIY circles for making single board computers
and in recent years, high performance DACs or digital to analog converters.
And they've primarily focused on desktop users up till now, but Khadas has also identified
a need among iPhone users who still prefer wired headphones and want an alternative to
the typical dongle or without the awkwardness of an external DAC unit.
The Tea is a battery powered amplifier and DAC that connects to smartphones via USB-C
input or Bluetooth.
And technically you can connect the T to any device, but the magic of this product is that
it is compatible with Apple's MagSafe modular accessory system.
Meaning that if you have an iPhone 12 or newer, or even another phone with a MagSafe compatible
phone case, the Tea simply snaps on the back and holds fast with magnets.
There's even a microphone on the Tea so that you can continue to take calls while the amplifier
is connected.
If you are connecting via Bluetooth, the Tea supports high resolution codecs like LDAC,
and AptXHD, though if you're using an iPhone, you will be limited to the AAC codec.
If you want bit perfect audio, you can connect via USB with the included cables, meaning
a direct digital connection and support for 384kHz PCM sample rates or native DSD256 support,
meaning that the decoding ability of the Tea easily outstrips the limits of the standard
Apple dongle, or even amp DACs like the Audioquest Dragonfly.
If you use a high resolution streaming service like Apple Music or Qobuz, or you're listening
to high resolution files, then the Tea will losslessly decode these fires with no downsampling
or data loss, as long as you connect via USB.
Now the nice thing about Khadas' background in the DIY community means that they are committed
to high-performance products and they are also committed to the transparent publication
of detailed performance metrics to back up these claims.
So on paper, the Tea looks great with a healthy output of up to 165 milliwatts at 32 ohms
or up to 2.5 volts of output for high impedance headphones, making the Tea more powerful than
the typical dongle and matching or exceeding the single ended power output of other Bluetooth
amp DACs like the iFi Go Blu or the FIIO BTR5, though the latter two products still put out
more power through their balanced connections.
The power output of the Tea means that this unit can power even 250 ohm Beyerdynamic headphones
to a very listenable volume for most genres, with some headroom, but we think the Tea is
probably most at home with headphones up to 150 ohms and average sensitivity.
Especially if you listen to classical music where recordings typically need more gain.
The noise floor of the Tea is relatively low, and output impedance is extremely low at 0.3
ohms.
Meaning that a product like the Campfire Audio Andromeda sounds clean on the Tea with a meaty
bass punch that you rarely hear on this earphone.
Yes, you can get more power from beefier, portable amp DACs like the Chord Mojo 2, or
iFi Gryphon.
And you can get cleaner output with a lower noise floor from a dedicated audio player,
but the Khadas Tea is much more convenient than carrying around either of those options.
And it's even a little easier to carry around than little units, like the FIIO BTR5 or the
iFi Go blu.
The Tea turns your phone into a high quality music player with a mobile data connection,
all in one neat package at a pretty reasonable asking price.
We think that the Tea will be a convenient option for people looking to improve their
audio experience from their phones, whether this is your first amplifier or a simple alternative
to your main setup.
Let us know what you think.
You can drop in and have a listen or order online at Minidisc.com.au.
This is Lachlan for minidiscTV and we'll see you next time.