Khadas Introduces Magnetic Snap-On Ultraslim Hi-Res Headphone Amplifier

Khadas is about to launch an interesting new Ultraslim headphone amplifier with high-resolution audio support for smartphones. The design will be compatible with Apple’s MagSafe (and all the copycat magnetic chargers that are about to arrive in the market), just clipping into to the back of an iPhone 12 or 13. The Khadas TEA features the high-performance ESS ES9281AC Pro DAC, as well as LDAC and aptX HD Bluetooth audio from a Qualcomm QCC5125 chip.

Khadas, a company focused on high performance single board computers for makers and developers, achieved significant success in audio-focused products, particularly with high-resolution capable ESS-based audio DACs. Following earlier success with the Tone range of add-on boards, Khadas embarked on a more ambitious project with the Tone2 Pro, which is the company's first finished product, mandatory to support MQA hardware decoding. Khadas still intends to launch a Tone2 (non-Pro) version as a DIY Kit in the future, without MQA support.