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If you have a special ear for sound quality, this is not the item you would like to purchase. Not a bad item for its price. However, the sound quality leaves much to be desired. Your computer sound amplifier speakers would be much better. If you appreciate the bass-trebble definition and subewoofer fill, do not buy this.in that case, it's a waste of money.
I bought three of these because the price was right, and they work fine, but at the settings I'm using, at one quarter power, it's like putting a Hemi 427 V8 in a Volkswagen Beetle. First, there is nothing wrong with this amp. However, with today's speaker design, it is a bit much for the discreet seven channel home theater system unless you are trying to outfit it for a gymnasium sized room. The 100 watt version @ 50 watts per channel would have done fine. I also purchased the 100 watt version for the center channel speaker and it is more than adequate.
This amp provided the solution through it's bridging switch. You don't have to set the volume control everytime however. I wouldn't be afraid to run a much more expensive speaker that needs 200 watts or less on this amp either. But that's a small price to pay for a great little amp that can run a kef center speaker and do it well for this price. So running a speaker with not enough power is a far greater risk to it than having a more powerful amplifier run a speaker. This amp has 200 watts at 8 ohms bridged this allowed me to put a effective amp for my sixth and rear speaker.
I am running kef iq's speakers and they demand good clean power and if you don't put enough power into them you can clip them. Clipping occurs when you turn up a speaker and the amp cannot provide the power they need. I have looked for a while for a affordable mono amp that was not short on power. And if you have big bucks you can go for a high grade amp but In these troubled economic times many of us may not be able to spend alot on amps anymore; so this may be a good solution for your home theater mono amp needs. You must manually turn on the amp and set a baaic volume control on the right control knob. It depends on how loud you want your speaker. I do not recommend using any but a much more powerful amp on a 4 ohm speaker.
Still Audio Source should be applauded for giving people a inexpensive amp that performs very well as a mono amp with 200 watts power. The stereo mode is 80 watts per channel. However if you have a speaker that needs more than 200 watts then I think you are better served with a higher wattage amp. I am using a Sunfire amp to run the other five speakers and that is a expensive 5 channel amp. A buyer at this price cannot complain that the amp doesn't have internal circuits that detect and turn on and off the amp when a signal comes in like a high grade amp either. Audio Source has a few of these at decent prices. Most speakers are run at 8 ohms but some aren't so I would check your speaker first before buying this amp.
It runs cool to the touch, amd has very adequate heatsinking. This is actually a review for the AmpOne (not the /A version). I have been very impressed. Heavy toroidal transformer and discrete output transistors. It also drove a pair of a/d/s L-1290/2s in stereo and also was pressed into center channel duty in bridged mode. I picked mine up off of Craigslist.
I currently use it to drive a pair of Klipsch KG4s and it will run me out of the room if I want to push it hard. This one is the same specs, except it has output meters (and x10 sensitivity), dual switchable speaker outs, and a soft-clip circuit. Bias and dc-offset was spot on, even after probably 10-15 years.This thing has well exceeded my expectations. I had to replace the meter lights and re-epoxy the meter scales in place in the meters. Otherwise, the build quality was very nice. And at much lower volumes, this amp never loses composure.
I have never had the protection engage and the soft-clip gives me some peace of mind with kids in the house.Highly recommended
These work great in bridged (mono) mode. However, you do have to manually power each one up and down with the button on the front. I ran three across the front of my home theaters in mono mode (one for each of my three front speakers). They did great. Not a huge deal, but it adds to the steps one must take. I took them out of my theater, only b/c my receiver does a good job by itself and I did not have room for any more plugs in a new (old) house we bought.
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