The SoundMagic A10 portable audio amplifier offers you clean and accurate sound amplification, with optional XB bass boost allowing you to share your music without a reduction in sound quality. The A10 not only increase volume of high impedance headphones, but also reduces the battery drain on your audio player.
The physical design is attractively understated. The 50 x 12 x 70mm frame sits well in the palm of the hand, has rounded corners and edges, making it very comfortable to hold. The matt slightly rubberized finish feels as great as it looks, and we were rather taken by the fancy golden-yellow artwork and the metal band that bisects the front of the A10, with the SoundMAGIC name emblazoned upon it.
The placement of the 3.5mm input and output jacks on the top of the A10 is the best possible, as it means when placed in a pocket cables don’t get in the way. Less to our tastes is the use of an analogue volume dial on the top right corner.
Frequently we found output of the A10 unintentionally changing as it moved about in our pocket – that can be solved by placing it in its supplied faux-leather carrying case, but really we’d rather see buttons. Speaking of which, the A10 lacks one for toggling its power; rather, the device turns itself on and off automatically depending on whether the 3.5mm headphone jack is in use.
Also included with the SoundMAGIC A10 amplifier is a short 3.5mm cable, for connecting the device to your media player, a Y-splitter cable enabling the A10 to output to two players at once and an iPod dock connector. This latter inclusion is particularly well-considered, as iPods provide a line-level output via the dock, letting you bypass the internal amp and just use the A10 – on other players you’ll be amplifying an already amplified output.
To use the A10, simply connect it to your player with the provided cable. What the A10 offers is a more fullbodied sound with a better low end and a bigger soundstage. The bass boost, which is stated as 4dB at 50Hz, adds a nice warmth without making it sound boomy or muddy.
The A10 does not really add more volume to the original sound, but it adds detail and more effortless attack to the sound as well as bettering the soundstaging. The A10 also cures bass rolloff issues that some sources may/do have.
The tone of the A10 is warmer than than our FiiO E7, although whether that’s a bad thing or not will be a matter of preference. Plus, at this level of portability and this price point, it’s nigh impossible to find a totally neutral amplifier. The low-end can be boosted further if you want to with an XB switch on the side of the A10 but we never felt the need to use it, and it doesn’t give much of a boost anyway.
The A10 isn’t as good value as the competition, as it lacks the FiiO’s built-in DAC. However, the SoundMAGIC amplifier is significantly smaller, and more portable, so it proves a different enough proposition not to suffer from its reduced feature set. Just bear in mind you’re paying more for less – both feature and size-wise.
