Questyle CMA Twelve DAC/Headphone Amp Review

The CMA Twelve is a well-built device, and I’m sure it finds a home in many recording studios around the world where accuracy is so important. At home, it’s going to make a variety of headphone owners incredibly happy with its diversity of inputs and outputs, and exceptionally clean sound.

We see all kinds of DACs these days, from little boxes for your phone to high-quality components like the CMA Twelve. It can be a DAC for other equipment as well, anything from a CD player or streamer or a DVD or Blu-ray player. Of course, the CMA Twelve is only 2-channel, so not as useful in a home theater setup.

Out of the box, the Questyle CMA Twelve just exudes quality. It has a heft to it that given its small size, is a bit surprising. Questyle is a well-known pro brand, and they have extended their range down to demanding audio consumers with a well-received portable music player, the QP2R. I find the CMA Twelve a device that can be used in a studio installation, or a high-quality home setup, being comfortable in both places. And certainly, the studio experience Questyle has in its DNA has trickled down to the consumer end of its line.

As stated, this is one solid component. Available in black or a golden finish, the CMA Twelve is going to look good anywhere. To avoid resonances, the CMA Twelve chassis is formed from 10mm-thick aircraft-grade Aluminum 6063, with high precision machining techniques of ±0.02mm.

It supports just about every digital signal you’d like to input, and it has a variety of connectors, including SPDIF, Optical, AES, and EBU inputs, which are professional connectors.

On the output side, the front panel has three different options for connecting headphones, including a 4.4mm jack, a standard 6.35mm headphone jack, and a balanced headphone jack. On the back panel are digital outputs that match the connector for the digital inputs, and there are RCA analog outs to a pre-amp or powered speakers. Also provided are balanced XLR sockets as outputs.

The CMA 12 does not support the decoding of MQA streams.

Getting the CMA Twelve up and running is simple. Plug the AC cord in, then connect a source. I used a Bluesound streamer’s optical output directly into the CMA Twelve, and that gave me connections to my ripped CD library, the Tidal streaming service, and internet radio. The CMA Twelve includes a remote, but no batteries were included which seemed a small oversight on a unit that is both well-designed and not inexpensive. The remote is a good one though, allowing you to switch inputs and control the volume of the unit. The CMA Twelve does not come with any digital connecting cables. I used my own optical cable to mate the Bluesound with the CMA Twelve. If you are hooking the CMA Twelve to a computer, you’ll use the USB input. Windows computers will need a driver. Macs can handle this out of the box.

The optical inputs support PCM signals up to 24/192. The USB input will support 32/384kHz, and Direct Stream Digital (DSD64, 128, and 256), and it works with DOP format. That’s a very complete feature set for those wanting to listen to native DSD files.

To some degree, the CMA Twelve is dependent on your source material, and the quality of your headphone. The headphone amplifier is rated at 247mW into 300-ohm unbalanced headphones, or 825 mW into balanced headphones. I listened to a variety of unbalanced headphones and found the CMA Twelve had no trouble driving any headphones I threw at it, regardless of impedance. Headphones included models from Sennheiser, HIFIMan, and Dan Clark Audio’s Aeon 2 headphones.

The sound was always excellent, with an inaudible noise floor from the electronics. I’ve never heard a better headphone amp, and I’ve heard many over the years. I would describe the sound as neutral, yet never harsh.

Some will complain about the lack of MQA, but the fact is the MQA format is mainly supported by Tidal. In my tests, I don’t find any special qualities of MQA that make it a must-have.

Trying to determine the quality of any component can be tricky, especially when other components are involved in the chain.

In general, my digital source was a Bluesound Node 2I, that can playback files from a Bluesound Vault, or through a Roon system of which my various Bluesound boxes are endpoints. As stated, most of my headphone listening was through Aeon 2 headphones.

So, in talking about the sound of the CMA 12 we must consider the source (the Bluesound 2I) and the headphones themselves. To try and determine how the CMA Twelve sounded I switched sources to some files played back via USB and an optical disc player, and I switched headphone brands several times as well.

As DACs go, $1500.00 for this quality is not high. It’s got multiple inputs, a beautiful fit and finish, and useful remote control. I could see this as part of a high-end system that included a high-quality streaming source, and a couple of powered speakers. When I remember that the Questyle CMA Twelve has the best sound I’ve heard from a headphone amp, it’s really quite a bargain.

The Questyle CMA Twelve was a bit of a surprise. I’ve tested and listened to a lot of headphone amplifiers at several price ranges. I’ve listened to my Hi-Fi and home theater components that have headphone jacks. Nothing I’ve heard has surpassed the clean sound coming off the CMA Twelve. No matter the source, no matter the headphones used, the CMA Twelve always sounded exemplary. I tried other source material through other headphone amps and even listened through the headphone output on my Emotiva home theater processor and a high-quality Denon receiver. The CMA Twelve won all those contests with quality headphone sound. Sometimes, depending on the source material, it was subtle. Mostly it was a significant win for the CMA Twelve. If you are a serious headphone user or are looking for a quality DAC, I think you’ll be pleased with the CMA Twelve.

The only drawback is the lack of any analog inputs. Some of my sources are analog, and you simply can’t listen to headphones fed from an analog source. Of course, most DACs don’t have analog inputs, they are all about processing digital signals. But the CMA Twelve is also a pro headphone amp, and I miss having an analog input. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it would be nice to have analog inputs.