SIMAUDIO MOON NEO 230HAD

摘要

As an overall package, Simaudio's compact 230HAD arguably represents a better balance between headphone amp and DAC performance than its fully-fledged 430HA model [HFN Mar '15]. On the one hand I might have expected more than 1.3W/25ohm [see Graph 1, below] from Simaudio's 1W/50ohm rating unless the 230HAD's transconductance amp has an inbuilt current limitation (suggested from the maximum unloaded voltage output of ～10V). On the other hand, the very low ＜ 1 ohm output impedance, +12dB gain and hugely extended 5Hz-100kHz response (±0.5dB) means the 230HAD will drive almost any headphone/earphone without modifying the inherent 'colour' of the cans themselves. The 101 dB A-wtd S/N ratio is impressively wide too, just as distortion is very low -and while showing the increase in THD at low bass frequencies we've seen with other Simaudio amp/DACs, the worse case is still a vanishing 0.008% (20Hz-20kHz, 40mW/25ohm)! THD otherwise falls as low as 0.0002% through the midrange.