TEAC FBA_HA-P50-B Portable Headphone Amplifier HA-P50

If you're looking for a high quality portable DAC+amp to listen to high resolution audio away from home, this little device is the ticket! Recently I've mostly been using my Galaxy S4 (which has 96Gb of memory with the addition of a 64Gb micro-SD card) and the Neutron app which supports up to 24/96 audio files for listening on the road. This unit works great with them and produces substantially better sound with my Bowers & Wilkins P7 and P5 headphones than the phone's internal DAC & amp. As a bonus it also works as an external DAC with my 160Gb iPod Classic even though it's not on the list of officially supported devices, and really enhances the experience of watching movies and music videos on an iPad Air. The amp also works very well with analog audio sources (I haven't tried using the optical input yet). The unit is ruggedly built and runs at least 8 hours on a full charge. My only quibble is that there's no auto-shutoff, so remember to turn it off when you're done using to avoid exhausting the battery.IMO this unit is superior in every respect (sound, size, versatility, run time, reliability, ease of use) to the more expensive Fostex HP-P1 I bought for use with my iPod a few years ago. Note that if you're only playing compressed mp3s the sound will still be noticeably better than what you'll hear straight from most players, but the improvement may not be worth the expense - you may be better off with a less expensive headphone amp like the FiiO E11.

I have now used this for over a year. What a wonderful product! It improves the sound immensely from my iPod. I use it every day. The construction is solid and the rechargable battery lasts 8-12 hours.

While my AKG K-712 studio reference headphones are rated for 64 ohms and play clearly and well on their own, to really make them shine with depth and volume on a smart phone or portable player, more power and a decent DAC are required. The K-712 is power hungry as are most high quality, open-back cans. The portable TEAC HA-P50 fits the portability niche nicely and with a few minor drawbacks is an excellent choice in headphone amp and good value for money. The DAC is relatively flat, crystal clear and reference-like (like the K-712s) and that works for me as I'm an avid listener of acoustic, jazz, classical, blues, bluegrass and old time folk. This TEAC amp will drive cans up to 600 ohms which is essential for high-end headphones. I am a sound purist and totally reject MP3, AAC and the dumbing-down of quality sound across the music industry. In my portable and home set-up, I use Jay-Z's Tidal, the most overlooked and excellent (if pricey at $20/month) hi-fi music streaming service. Tidal streams nearly 100% FLAC files so the sound just kills Pandora, Apple and Spotify and their MP3 and AAC streams on every level but that's another review altogether.As always, the build on TEAC products is strong and industrial looking. The volume knob is well dampened and protected by flanges in an all-metal case. As has been pointed out in other reviews, you MUST perform a firmware upgrade on a PC before using. The unit will not interface w/ Android without the firmware upgrade. Fortunately I can run Win 7 on my Mac via Parallels. Mac OS X-only users take note, the firmware cannot be upgraded on a Mac, find a PC somehow and it's quick and easy. Once the firmware upgrade is done, the TEAC HA-P50 linked seamlessly.My only small qualms for which I would deduct 1/2 star is the 3-position input selector switch is tiny and feels a bit flimsy and is easily mis-pushed. Also, "portability" is a relative term. Fine for brief case or handbag but cumbersome to carry without them. When connected, the headphone and USB jacks are on opposite sides of the unit. This is a design flaw that results in plugs protruding from top and bottom of unit during normal playback making it nearly impossible to carry in a pocket. The top/bottom ports and the thickness of this unit rubber-banded to a phone or iPod makes it a bit of a brick without a separate carry-bag. That said, the unit is portable but not really without a carry bag.I bought the unit discounted directly from a Japan distributor so all documentation was in Japanese but owners manuals are available from TEAC's website. They shipped in 48 hours and the parcel arrived JFK about 4 days later via trackable Japan Post. Unfortunately it took US customs 2 weeks to clear the parcel and deliver to me via USPS but nonetheless saved some $ and was happy with the service and quality of this unit.FYI, this TEAC HA-P50 is identical to Onkyo's DAC-HA200 which sells on Amazon for $299. The only difference is the nameplate. Picking this TEAC unit up for $189 from Japan was a no-brainer, why be overcharged for a name! For us long time audiophiles, TEAC was usually the more reliable brand anyway. Greatest reel-to-reel tape decks ever... Happy listening.

You maybe already listening a high quality sound without this product.Hard to say the sound quality of this product. Hardware itself, it's really nice. Well built. As for DAC, I can't say there is great improvement. I can't say about $200 is worth for it. I tested it out with iPhone 6+ and Mac Pro and some specific songs that I used to use whenever I get new audio hw and also with many other songs, different format options(128, 192, 320kbps, also FLAC), various players(iTunes, TuneShell, Spotify, Teac Player...), various headphones(mainly Sennheiser Urbanite XL (18ohm) and also Sony MDR-V6 (63ohm)). I repeated some specific parts in some songs many times to figure out if this product is really improve the sound quality. Well, there is really really slight improvement with just few songs but no one could pick which one is better and it's not audiophile reference as the description says. I feel just sound signature different.I think if you have many Hi-Res sources like FLAC files, then you may have a benefit but it seems it's just a little. It gives me an idea that iPhone 6+ and Mac Pro have really great DAC itself.The latest iPhone with great latest headphone will give you better improvement.(Optionally TuneShell will give more exciting audio experience) If you already have them, then you don't need this kind of DAC/amp at all, unless you really want a fancy analogue volume knob and just loud amp, and also have many FLAC files. Latest low impedance headphones are optimized with mobile phones and without any amp, so there could be negative effect with an amp.Btw, the Teac player is nightmare. Ugly and bad UI. You should see the ugly UI if you want to get the top audio quality(24bit/96kHz) this hardware can provide.

I thought that this DAC does ought to make a significant improvement in the sound quality. When I plugged this DAC to PC and tablet, I didn't feel ANY difference in sound quality. My headphones is Sennheiser HD 598. If I listen to music on my old Sony mp3 Walkmen I feel much difference between the quality stage. Sony sound quality is excellent. I return this DAC back to Amazon.Personally, I wouldn't recommend this DAC. If you're looking for excellent sound quality,look on Sony.

Bring life to the music,its amazing portable dac amp.i have several high end headphones and it bring life to them.

Beim TEAC handelt sich um einen sauber verarbeiteten Amp/Dac der nochmals einiges an sound "raus" holen kann. Impulstreue und Stereoabbildung verbessern sich erheblich gegenüber der Verwendung eines internen Smartphone Amps. Die Höhen und der obere Bassbereich wirken leicht angehoben - was aber durchaus gefällig ist. Die Wiedergabe ist klar - es ist kein Rauschen im Musik-Standby wahrzunehmen. Ordentlich Power zum Betrieb von hochohmigen Phones hat er auch.Der TEAC ist ein wenig anfällig für Mobilfunk-Inteferenzen. WLAN stört ihn nicht. Daher betreibe ich ihn im Flugmodus bei aktiviertem WLAN an meinem Smartphone - so gibt's keine Probleme mit Störgeräuschen. Die Akkulaufzeit könnte höher sein, aber für eine längere Flugreise reichts allemal.Das wirkliche Problem: Ich hatte zunächst immer wieder mal plopps und leichte knackser, besonders in gesperrten Zustand (Display aus) in Kombination mit meinem iPhone6s. Nach einwenig Recherche fand ich heraus, dass in iPhone7/7s und manchen 6s/SE ein Chipset verbaut wird, der Audiodropouts via Lightning Anschluss verursacht. Es liegt also am iPhone und nicht am TEAC, wenn es zu solchen Problemen kommt! Das Problem kommt nur beim Abspielen von Audiomaterial mit 44.1 KHz Abtastrate vor und wurde bei Apple unter der Ticketnummer 26607934 eingereicht - einfach mal nach "iphone audio dropouts pdf" googlen.Ich habe mir dann ein iPhone5s mit defekten Mobilfunkmodul in der Bucht für 65,- als Musikplayer gekauft, ja - das ist ärgerlich wieder zusätzlich investieren zu müssen, aber nun funktioniert alles wie es soll. Deswegen trotz der genannten Kleinigkeiten im 2. Absatz 5 Sterne.

Utilizzo questo amplificatore per cuffie (che e' anche un DAC) principalmente con un paio di Bose QuietComfort 35 II, cuffia wireless ma che puo' anche essere usata cablata (la uso wireless solamente quando sono fuori casa, per ovvie ragioni di praticita'). Logicamente, per utilizzare l'HAP50 servono cavi... in wireless non e' possibile collegarlo....Utilizzo come fonte sonora sia l'impianto HIFI di casa, sia il MacBook ma anche iPhone o iPad. Con Mac, iPhone o iPad uso quasi esclusivamente Qobuz, che e' un service provider simile a Spotify, ma che dispone di musica "lossless" ad alta qualita' (fino a 16bit, quindi livello "CD" su smartphone/tablet e fino a 24bit 96 o 192khz su Mac).Beh... che dire.. questo amplificatore offre una conversione del segnale e quindi una resa eccellente. Almeno... questo e' quello che "sento"... che percepisco con il mio livello uditivo. Non dispongo di prove o dati strumentali.. ma solo di quanto sento con o senza HAP50. E una volta che si prova a sentire musica "con", si fa davvero fatica poi a sentirla "senza". Anche a volume alto, l'ascolto e'sempre pulito... oserei dire perfetto (ripeto.. al mio udito, che penso sia assolutamente nella media...).Ascolto musica di ogni genere, dall'hard-rock/heavy-metal fino alla classica. E la resa e' sempre ottima in ogni genere e a tutte le frequenze, con toni bassi che all'occorrenza picchiano senza mai esagerare e/o disturbare e toni alti sempre puliti, cristallini...Certo l'apparecchio e' piuttosto costoso, ma credo che per chi voglia sentire musica ad un certo livello qualitativo, valga la pena di spendere qesti soldi.Una cosa pero' vorrei dire... se l'intenzione e'quella di ascoltare semplici mp3 con uno smartphone... qualunque esso sia... mi sento di consigliare di risparmiare i soldi.. o comunque di essere consapevoli che l'HAP50 non fa miracoli: un suono molto compresso, quindi "tagliato" come tipicamente sono tagliati gli mp3, non verra' significativamente migliorato.. anzi.. in qualche caso vedra' amplificati anche i difetti dell'audio che ascolterete... In poche parole, il TEAC non decodifica "bit" che non ci sono.....

I was looking for a DAC to use with my phone - as I have a Meridian Audio Explorer DAC for my laptop (which is fantastic, by the way). I settled for the TEAC, after strongly considering others such as the V-Moda Vamp Versa (out of my budget in the end) and Fiio models.Let's get one thing out of the way - the TEAC sounds excellent. A lot is said about its "bassy" sound, but that's right down my alley as I love bass (I'm a DJ and a cello player, always interested in the low end). It's hard to go back to just the iphone - things sound flatter, less vibrant, more closed in.The reasons I give it only 4 stars instead of 5:- The TEAC app you need to use to get the most out of the device is very finicky. It's slightly slicker than the regular iPhone music player, but there are a lot of very irritating glitches/design choices/bugs. For example, every time you pause the player and then come back to it, the player doesn't recognize the DAC and you have to turn it on and off or unplug it and plug it back in so that the App gets "pinged" by the DAC. Very annoying because I have to pause a lot at work and I would like to simply be able to unpause afterwards, thank you very much. Also, the App stops the music once in a while, which is annoying especially if your phone and player are in a bag (and then the previous problem crops up again). It doesn't stop the music often, though, so this is tolerable. The pausing problem, though, is pretty annoying. Of note - you can use the regular music player on the iPhone with the TEAC and you get none of the problems I mention, you just won't get the extra boost of sound quality from using high quality audio files (which I use, but you may not).- I was a bit disappointed with how heavy and clumsy the DAC is - this is a problem with any equivalent DAC, though (I'd have the same complaint about the other DACs I was looking at). When compared to the Meridian, which is tiny and light and sounds great, these things are tanks. It's the battery that makes these devices so big, I understand that, but the result is a tangle of cables and two heavy-ish devices (if you also count my iPhone) that I can't simply plop in my pocket for when I walk to work (the primary reason I was buying the TEAC). Going from listening to just my iPhone to listening to my iPhone with the TEAC has increased the clunkiness of my "portable" setup considerably. I'm looking forward to a few years from now when these devices will be the size of the Meridian. I have to point out, though, that I put up with this clunkiness more often than not because I'm addicted to the sound of the TEAC. And I'll point out that the TEAC is no heavier, nor clunkier than any other equivalent DAC out there.- The volume knob, while nice and smooth and high quality, sticks out enough (and is easy enough to turn) that it can be bumped quite easily (especially if you drop the TEAC into your bag).- The firmware updates can only be done through a PC, which is inconvenient for me since I've got a Mac at home.But overall, great sound, nice little device. A few quirks, but I'm happy with it.

Only used this a few hours, but there's no doubt that its a superb item. It is robust metal housing, fairly heavy for its size. Completely cool in use. Charging is over standard usb charger, and it also seems to charge while connected. Status is shown by two leds, the red one meaning charging and the blue one in use. It turns off to save power when not in use.The user manual is unreadably small print, so get the pdf and cut and paste and enlarge using GIMP. It also has a really tiny three position switch to set where the input is from - there are two usb inputs and one analog. The usb input selected has to be the one you are connecting to the computer with, or the computer will not see it.You then set up the player to stream to it, and it just works. So far I have tried mp4 and flac. Both are perfect and its a great improvement over the built in sound card.In case anyone wants to know how to set this up in Linux, it works fine. First connect, turn on, and make sure the little switch is in the right position. Verify that it is found with lsusb. If you don't immediately see the device in lsusb, it is probably because the switch is in the wrong position.Find out what card it is by using "aplay -l". Then use either quodlibet or vlc. With quodlibet, turn off replay gain, and enter "alsasink device=hw:1,0" - assuming that it was shown as card 1 in aplay. Otherwise whatever card number it showed.VLC is even easier, you just select it under the audio tab and set sound level output to 100%. gmusicbrowser did not seem to work on a first attempt despite being set up properly, but given that the other two work fine I haven't put any effort into it.It comes with a very short usb lead with a mini connector, which you use to connect to the computer. This would be used reversed to connect to a phone or tablet, with the mini connector going into the phone and the standard one into the other usb socket on the device. Then you set that tiny little switch accordingly. It also comes with a usb to power plug, which you use when charging it from a usb mains adaptor. The battery is replaceable, which is nice, but this requires taking it to pieces. The user guide shows exactly how to do it - it looks fiddly but manageable.I have not yet tried on android, but the principle should work the same, you just have to find a player that streams to the device and it will automagically decode whatever is sent.The sound quality is completely unobtrusive - it is like a high quality standard full size amplifier, there is no coloration or background noise whatever. If its on the original, you hear it just as is.There are two things that you need Windows for. One is to decode at higher than CD sampling rates, which you do using the TEAC music player. This is also available for Mac. The other is to upgrade firmware, which has to be done from Windows.It is relatively expensive, especially if bought new (mine was used). Is it worth it? Hard to say without having tried the cheaper ones. I can only say this is a real quality item, and it should meet the need for some considerable time.