Douk Audio P1 DAC Headphone Amplifier – Tube Glow at an Attractive Price

The Douk Audio P1 feels high-quality and it is. The casing is made entirely of metal, with the front panel almost 5 mm thick aluminum. The exterior is… well, a matter of taste, quite flashy, and for some people, perhaps too bling bling. Gold-colored controls on top of the device, copper-colored “effect rings” on the tubes, and as the cherry on the cake, the glow of the tubes in the darkening evening. The glow of the tubes can be further emphasized with separately connectable blue or orange LED lighting.

The front panel of the device contains a power switch, a source selector (Bluetooth, USB and RCA line), a tone control override switch, a tube backlight (orange/blue/off) selector switch and a 3.5 mm headphone output. On the back, there are an analog stereo RCA pair of inputs and a USB-B/DAC connector for connecting to a computer. There is also an RCA output on the back, for example, for direct connection to active speakers.

The Douk Audio P1 uses two JAN5654 vacuum tubes in the preamp, which are a special version of the GE5654 tubes, manufactured to the strict requirements of the US military. The advantages of these tubes are long life, durability and they are said to produce a clean and warm sound with low distortion. The tubes are also interchangeable with other similar tube types, allowing for fine-tuning of the sound according to the user's preferences.

After the tube stage, the signal is passed through an analog circuit based on operational amplifiers, where Douk Audio uses the well-known and high-quality NE5532 circuit, and the headphone output uses a so-called 47 Labs-style amplifier, which means a simple and minimalist amplifier design.

The amplifier is promised to deliver 160 milliwatts of power into a 32 ohm headphone load. The amplifier is promised to drive headphones up to 300 ohms. The power is sufficient up to 120-200 ohms. Above this, the power should be a little more. The amplifier's signal-to-noise ratio is stated to be 103 dB and the total harmonic distortion (THD) is 0,01%. The amplifier circuits used have reasonable and realistic readings.

On the digital side, the Douk Audio P1 uses Cirrus Logic's CM6642 chip, which enables high-quality audio playback via USB. The chip supports 24-bit / 192 kHz playback directly from Windows, Mac or Linux computers. Cirrus Logic's CM6642 supports many common audio formats, such as WAV, FLAC, MP3, AAC and DSD. For wireless use, the device offers Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity with Qualcomm's QCC3034 chip, which also includes APTX-HD support. This makes it easy to get music to the amplifier without cables, even directly from your phone.

So a lot of features and technology packed into a beautiful shell and the price tag says a measly 134 euros. The old saying “many cakes are beautiful on top” - let's find out if it applies to this case!

The P1 was packaged in a beautiful package, including the amplifier, a 12V power supply, a Bluetooth antenna, and a USB cable. The amplifier is ready to use, but a word of warning when setting it up just to be safe: Install the tubes in place before turning on the power. Otherwise, you will easily break them.