Khadas Tea Pro Magnetic Headphone Amplifier review: a slim, stylish and punchy audio upgrade for phones and more | Tech Radar

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What's the tea? This Khadas is a slim, stylish and punchy headphone DAC for delivering audio upgrades for phones and more

One of the easiest and most attractive audio upgrades for your i Phone is also compatible with a wide range of devices

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The Tea Pro Magnetic Headphone Amplifier is slim, light, good looking and particularly well suited to i Phones with Mag Safe, although it's compatible with a wide range of devices. It delivers an excellent audio upgrade when connected via USB-C and it also enables you to stream from devices over Bluetooth, with support for both apt X Adaptive and LDAC.

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Size: 102.7 × 64.0 × 7.85 mm (excluding button height)

The Khadas Tea Pro headphone amplifier is a slim and lightweight external DAC/amp that works across most devices — i OS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux — and is particularly good for smartphones with Mag Safe or magnetic cases.

The Tea Pro connects via USB-C and delivers both 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm stereo outputs, with support for up to 768k Hz PCM and DSD512 audio. It also has Bluetooth 5.4 input with apt X HD, apt X Adaptive and LDAC as well as the obligatory SBC and AAC. The integrated battery promises up to 8 hours of CD quality listening over USB-C and 11 hours using AAC on Bluetooth.

Although there's Bluetooth on board at up to 96k Hz PCM, for best results you want to use this device as a wired DAC/amp. The Bluetooth performance isn't bad by any means, but the Tea Pro delivers higher resolution audio via USB-C.

The Khadas Tea Pro was launched in August 2025 with a recommended price tag of

The Tea Pro has both 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm headphone outputs. (Image credit: Future)

Although it's compatible with almost anything with a USB port, the Tea Pro is clearly intended for Mag Safe i Phones (i Phone 12 onwards) or phones in magnetic cases. That enables it to clip securely to the back of your phone, and it's a strong connection both directly and through a compatible phone case.

There are two headphone jacks here: a 4.4mm balanced output delivering up to 180m W at 16.5 Ω, and a 3.5mm jack putting out up to 100m W at 16.5 Ω. There's also a built-in microphone for voice calling. If you have headphones with their own mic connected to the 3.5mm jack, the headphone mic will take precedence over the Tea Pro's mic.

The ESS ES9039Q2M DAC supports sample rates of up to 768k Hz PCM and DSD512, with a signal to noise ratio of up to 122d B. A Qualcomm QCC5181 takes care of the wireless features, with support for SBC / AAC / apt X / apt X Adaptive / apt X HD / LDAC over Bluetooth 5.4.

There are seven EQ presets for different musical genres, and you can also set your own EQ via the 10-band custom EQ. That delivers adjustable gain from -12d B to +12d B.

The internal battery is 2,100m Ah and promises up to 11 hours of listening depending on the audio format you're using: 11 hours with AAC over Bluetooth and 8 hours of CD audio over USB-C. The Tea Pro can also recharge from your phone when its battery is low if you enable Device Charging in its settings menu.

Don't let that huge glass area fool you: the Tea Pro's display is tiny. (Image credit: Future)

The Tea Pro delivers a neutral sound, and with high gain on it delivered an impressively propulsive performance on my open-back Beyer Dynamics; I'd have liked to drive them a little louder but there's more than enough power for sensible listening levels. Bass is generally clear and well defined and highs are airy without being harsh, and things only started to get uncomfortable when both i Phone and Tea Pro were at their highest volume levels on very bright or bassy tracks.

As fun as the Tea Pro is over Bluetooth, it's better still with a USB-C connection. It's louder, more defined and more spacious, with the likes of Robyn's Dopamine delivering more punch than over wireless. There's a nice wide soundstage, with tracks like U2's remastered Zoo Station sounding suitably widescreen and Talk Talk's New Grass delivering impressive airiness.

The Tea Pro is very good for a portable DAC/amp, although I did notice a difference on tracks such as Little Simz and Obongjayar's Point and Kill that showed up the relative lack of headroom compared to a desktop device: on my desktop DAC/amp the serpentine bass is noticeably clearer and more distinct, the whole track feeling much more airy, whereas on the Tea Pro the low end was less defined and the track a little boxy. I found that the on-board EQ presets made that more apparent, dulling the sound. I much preferred leaving the EQ off altogether on my better headphones, although I did need to cut the highs for IEM listening to reduce the harshness they're prone to.

The Tea Pro looks and feels expensive thanks to a mix of aluminum and black glass. (Image credit: Future)

The Tea Pro is a good-looking thing. It looks decidedly Apple-esque, with a very slim 7.85mm machined aluminium casing, curved edges and two large black glass sections: the status display area, which looks big but contains a fairly small 0.95-inch AMOLED screen, and a smaller lozenge displaying the Tea logo. That lower lozenge is functional as well as decorative, as it ensures your phone won't wobble when you put it on a desktop or other flat surface.

Buttons are kept to a minimum. On the left there's a power button and a menu/confirm button, and on the right there are volume up and down controls. The slim size of the Tea Pro makes them a little fiddly to access when the device is attached to your phone, but not impossibly so. That's not an issue if you're connecting with the supplied 10cm USB-C cable.

Inevitably adding a magnetic item to your phone adds weight, but the Tea Pro isn't too bad: at 96g it's lighter than Apple's own similarly sized Mag Safe power bank.

Pairing over Bluetooth is effortless and the menu system is simple: it gives you access to filters, EQ, high and low gain options, device settings, headphone options and so on. The text is exceptionally small, however, so it's handy that you can also access settings via the companion i OS/Android app.

Some rivals are more powerful and a lot less expensive

It's clear that some of the price tag here is for that aluminum body and extensive use of glass: rival headphone DAC/amps cost a lot less but look and feel a lot less special. If you're happy to pay a premium for solid build and stylish looks then this is a good choice with excellent i Phone attachment and good compatibility with other devices too.

Superb hi-res support and choice of cabled or wireless phone/device connections.

Superb hi-res support and choice of cabled or wireless phone/device connections.

Premium look and feel and solid magnetic attachment, but the screen text is microscopic.

Premium look and feel and solid magnetic attachment, but the screen text is microscopic.

Good on Bluetooth, better still on USB-C. Punchy, neutral and detailed sound.

Good on Bluetooth, better still on USB-C. Punchy, neutral and detailed sound.

Good looks and solid build up the price; rivals can be a lot cheaper.

Good looks and solid build up the price; rivals can be a lot cheaper.

You're totally wired The Tea Pro is a great, convenient and stylish way to run wired headphones or IEMs from your phone when you're out and about.

You've got an i Phone 12 or later It's widely compatible but the Tea Pro was clearly designed with Mag Safe i Phones in mind.

You appreciate good looks Phone-focused DACs don't usually look or feel this premium.

You have high impedance headphones The Tea Pro is fairly powerful but portability and battery considerations limit the available output power.

You're on a tight budget Rival mobile DACs are much cheaper and sound pretty great.

You want a desktop DAC The Tea Pro sounds pretty great but desktop DACs don't have to compromise to save power.

The cassette-themed Fii O KA15 is cute, fun, sounds good and comes in at half the price of the Tea Pro, delivering both 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs with a desktop mode that puts out much higher power than the Tea Pro can deliver. The i Fi Go Link 2 is cheaper still and particularly good if all you want to do is add wired headphones to a USB-C device such as a phone or tablet.

Lossy streaming, lossless FLAC and Logic Pro projects

I spent a week listening to the Tea Pro via my usual headphones: Beyer Dynamic DT990 Pro open-back and DT770 closed-back headphones at home and work, and Sound Magic E11C IEMs outdoors and on public transport. I listened to lossy and lossless streaming and uncompressed FLACs on my i Phone 16 Pro.

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than twenty books. Her latest, a love letter to music titled Small Town Joy, is on sale now. She is the singer in spectacularly obscure Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.

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• One of the easiest and most attractive audio upgrades for your i Phone is also compatible with a wide range of devices