Adding on…in the market for a new DAC and have the existing Tone Board. But this time want balanced XLR into my amp. Given it’s almost the end of 2019, what is the status on this @Gouwa ? Not asking for specific date but I think giving some update to those waiting would be good customer service given this was discussed as being available by end of this year. Thanks.
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December 2019 bump. When will the balanced KTBD be available for sale ?
From what I’ve read, Ben, the designer of the TB left the company. That’s probably why there’s no updated version.
If that is true, that is a shame.
Read this review:
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Hi @labjr
Thank you and all the other users who have been waiting for the next gen Tone Board!
Yep, an interesting device.
Actually, I also read this article on AudioScienceReview.com weeks ago, but I just didn’t post any comments and also not tend to that in the next, as I and Khadas team did wish Ben and his new product could sell well.
Since you posted this on Khadas Forum, so I think it’s time for me to response you and other users that with same thoughts with you, and hope this would help you to clear out the questions you had.
It’s true that Ben was one one of the team member of Khadas Tone Board, and he was mainly responsible for the hardware design together with the product manager(explore & define the product) and software developer(XMOS).
As many users might know that, Khadas is a young team and designed and produced the open source SBC for makers and hackers in the early stage. And one of the reason why we decided to build the Tone Board is that our team ran a ODM project that combined the SBC + DAC + HPA together for a desktop Hi-Fi player. It’s the ODM project that let our team get started and get to know the Hi-Fi market.
After we completed the market research and product definition, I decided to kickoff the KTB(Khadas Tone Board) project and let some of our team like @Terry and Ben to responsible for the KTB project development.
Compared with the SBC products we developed, a DAC product like KTB is not that complicate and difficult, that’s the thought we had at first. But it finally turned out, our team, together with the ESS and XMOS team, still involved a lot of hard work and effort to ensure we could delivery the best Tone board with good performance to the users.
We produced the 1st 1000 units KTB then launched Tone Board on early June 2018.
But the story is not yet finished.
The Hi-Fi and SBC are two different marketing but we still launched the KTB with same way with SBC, so the 1st KTB units laid in the warehouse for almost half a year until one of our sales @willow contacted amirm (the founder of ASR) and thanks for this review article posted by him on Oct 2018 letting the KTB to spread to the whole world quickly.
We suceeced! with efforts and luck!
Obsolutely, the Tone Board is not the end of the Tone serials, the Tone2 is on the way. And same with the KTB, our team targeted to delivery the Tone2 with some more surprises & WOW(we even customized the RCA connector for the Tone2) to the music enthusiasts, and the Hi-Fi industry!
Thanks for choosing Khadas, and any feedback or suggestions for the Tone2 are appreciated!
Good day & Have fun!
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Hi Gouwa!
Thanks for the update! Obviously, some people will move on to other ventures. I’m glad there’s even more companies making DACs and Hi-Fi devices. I hope there will still be a TB2 with even better specs and more features.
I’d also like to see a reference quality Balanced Headphone Amp to pair with the TB. Either separate or combined with TB. Thanks!
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Hi, february 2020 bump. Is there any kind of approximate ETA for this, or is it too early? Judging by the advertised specs this still seems like a must-buy.
I know there are delays due to COVID and all, but since there hasn’t been an update for a while, I am genuinely curious how the progress is going, and whether or not the product is planned for a release this year. There’s a lot of hype surrounding this product in the enthusiast market, and I for one am definitely interested.
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hi, while it’s still in the plans, however, you can already find some information on the forum, but it is still kept secret
Yes, It is a secret we can neither Deny or Accept 
we will just have to wait 
I think most people moved on a long time ago. Doubtful this will ever happen.
What’s up ? Nothing by now…
Still waiting without any facts, it’s about faith 
.
Please “Khadas” give us some informations !
Regards
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@ABSNimes we will keep you updated with the latest news, but I believe khadas themselves will do a better job at informing you guys 
there is currently no information on the release date TB2
Ahem, There is currently no information on the TB2 itself 
hmm, and who modeled the case for it?
lol, that’s only the case, not the T2 itself 
all we know from that is that, you can make/get a handsome case for it 
It’s not about hope. It’s about reality. There hasn’t been an update since Ben left the company last year. It doesn’t seem likely that it will happen. If you want a balanced DAC, there are other options if you don’t need the Khadas form factor.