Small amp recommendations

hornetstinger · 18 Sep 2023 at 11:08

mrk said:
It's on Amazon right now for £169 as was looking earlier, does look very nice, metal build, compact, OLED display, but be wary, if it uses the display tech like NAD's D 7050, then within a year it will burn-in and fade. The later models (D 3045) had the same screen but use auto screen dimming and off features to reduce the effect of burn in, but after 3 years of having mine it was clear that some burn-in was there especially on input sources used most often as that text on the display is darker slightly than the other text when changing inputs etc.

that would be my only concern about OLED based matrix displays. That's also why I was pleased to see a VFD style display on the Topping

VFD fade also.

IvanDobskey · 18 Sep 2023 at 11:09

I was trying to get something as cheap as possible, preferably around £100. Otherwise I would have been considering the mx3s and the Loxjie.

Wondering how much better the mx3s is than the mx3.

jaybee · 18 Sep 2023 at 11:20

mrk said:
It's on Amazon right now for £169 as was looking earlier, does look very nice, metal build, compact, OLED display, but be wary, if it uses the display tech like NAD's D 7050, then within a year it will burn-in and fade. The later models (D 3045) had the same screen but use auto screen dimming and off features to reduce the effect of burn in, but after 3 years of having mine it was clear that some burn-in was there especially on input sources used most often as that text on the display is darker slightly than the other text when changing inputs etc.

that would be my only concern about OLED based matrix displays. That's also why I was pleased to see a VFD style display on the Topping

I just looked. A30 is currently still £170. D30 is £260. What does the D30 do that the A30 doesn't?
My A30 looks like it uses a basic LCD display? I have no burn in issues and I can change the colours to various ones. It sips power. Barely uses a couple of watts when playing at half volume. It's been a fantastic purchase for me and I'm very happy with it.

mrk · 18 Sep 2023 at 11:23

hornetstinger said:
VFD fade also.

Not quite the same though as VFDs are just LEDs essentially - Just like those 90s alarm clocks which looked the same decade after decade :cool:

But I know the VFD fade you mean, like from those 90s hifi units that had the ones that did fade over time, I think it had more to do with the colour used and the VFD components vs the orange/red ones that don't have the same issue?

Vs:

IvanDobskey said:
I was trying to get something as cheap as possible, preferably around £100. Otherwise I would have been considering the mx3s and the Loxjie.

Wondering how much better the mx3s is than the mx3.

Zeos reviewed both, basically all of the quirks of the MX3 have been fixed in the MX3s, including the thinner sound which is now warmer/fuller.

hornetstinger · 18 Sep 2023 at 11:35

yeah like in squeezebox classic V3, those have fade/wear- if you display full pixel lit screen it's uneven.

mrk · 18 Sep 2023 at 11:41

jaybee said:
I just looked. A30 is currently still £170. D30 is £260. What does the D30 do that the A30 doesn't?
My A30 looks like it uses a basic LCD display? I have no burn in issues and I can change the colours to various ones. It sips power. Barely uses a couple of watts when playing at half volume. It's been a fantastic purchase for me and I'm very happy with it.

Looking at pics online it looks like the exact same type of dot matrix single colour OLED display as used by the NAD D 3045 and 7050 (and other brands too). But yeah if after a couple of years and you cycle the various display menus and inputs etc and all text looks the same brightness then Loxjie have used the later revisions or have some screen saving features also built in like later NADs do which is good.

The D30 appears to be the revised model with a colour display, APT-X HD, various certifications etc so is the higher specced model and thus higher priced. D 30 is also only just a DAC and headphone amp with no speaker output, much like how Topping MX series are fully integrated, and the D series are the DAC/HP amp units typically.

jaybee · 18 Sep 2023 at 13:23

mrk said:
Looking at pics online it looks like the exact same type of dot matrix single colour OLED display as used by the NAD D 3045 and 7050 (and other brands too). But yeah if after a couple of years and you cycle the various display menus and inputs etc and all text looks the same brightness then Loxjie have used the later revisions or have some screen saving features also built in like later NADs do which is good.

The D30 appears to be the revised model with a colour display, APT-X HD, various certifications etc so is the higher specced model and thus higher priced. D 30 is also only just a DAC and headphone amp with no speaker output, much like how Topping MX series are fully integrated, and the D series are the DAC/HP amp units typically.

Ok. My A30 has a menu option "COLOR" under which you can select the following colours:

White, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan, Orange, Purple

mrk · 18 Sep 2023 at 14:09

I'm guessing that's just the display backlight colour?

Mr_Orange · 29 Sep 2023 at 21:34

I've got the A30 too. I'm generally happy with it. It was the only one that had everything I wanted (optical in, analogue in, sub out, footprint etc.)