Schiit Valhalla 3 vs xDuoo TA-30

Short answer

  • More power: the xDuoo TA-30, with 3.00 W into 32 Ω; the Schiit Valhalla 3 has 750 mW. The xDuoo TA-30 drives 1 headphone to 100 dB that the Schiit Valhalla 3 cannot (Symphonium Titan).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — the maker of the xDuoo TA-30 publishes no noise figure.
  • Price: the xDuoo TA-30 costs $210 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $499 against $709.

The xDuoo TA-30 reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Schiit Valhalla 3 on 566.

Side by side

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationSchiit Valhalla 3xDuoo TA-30
Power into 32Ω750 mW3.0 W
Power into 150Ω286 mW640 mW
Power into 300Ω250 mW320 mW
Power into 600Ω125 mW160 mW
Output impedance25 Ωnot published
Output noise6.32 µVnot published
Price$499$709
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567		566567

Not published means the maker leaves it out, so that axis cannot be compared.

How solid these numbers are

Where each power figure comes from

LoadSchiit Valhalla 3xDuoo TA-30
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩPublishedDerived
600 ΩDerivedDerived

Both makers publish a power rating. Schiit Valhalla 3 publishes at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω; xDuoo TA-30 at 32 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 300 Ω only the Schiit Valhalla 3 figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.

What the labels mean.

What separates them

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the xDuoo TA-30 but not on the Schiit Valhalla 3 — Symphonium Titan.

566 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

On real headphones

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020: xDuoo TA-30 has +23 dB of headroom there against +17 dB. 6 dB is about 4 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for xDuoo TA-30 because that maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsSchiit Valhalla 3 headroomxDuoo TA-30 headroomSchiit Valhalla 3 hissxDuoo TA-30 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+37 dB damping+43 dB30 dBnot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+17 dB damping+23 dB10 dBnot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+27 dB damping+32 dB9 dBnot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+26 dB+28 dB4 dBnot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+19 dB damping+25 dB3 dBnot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+20 dB+21 dB-3 dBnot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+16 dB+17 dB-7 dBnot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+10 dB damping+15 dB-9 dBnot published
What the price difference buys

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The xDuoo TA-30 costs $210 more than the Schiit Valhalla 3. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 1 more model driven to 100 dB.

Nothing runs the other way: there is no axis here on which the cheaper of the two does better.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.

Next

Both pages in full

Each in full: Schiit Valhalla 3 and xDuoo TA-30.

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