My Favorite Amps from Cheap to Expensive

looking for an amp but don't know how much money to spend it's okay because there's awesome amps at every price level so sit down grab a cup of coffee and let's talk about my favorite amps at every price level up to a certain point because then I haven't really listened to many amps [Music] if you are new here please consider subscribing we have over 700 videos amps Stacks turntables headphones just about everything for everyone it really helps my channel because when you subscribe I have a tendency to get more products in from the manufacturers or at least when I ask they generally will send them out it also helps with sponsors to fund this channel so thank you for watching and please subscribe first up on the list we're going sub 100 not only sub 100 sub 80 not only Sub 80. sub 70. 60 dollars it's the faziadio tb10d in pure transparency I have been sponsored by Fozzie before however they sent me this and I hated it so I told them it wasn't very good well actually I didn't tell them I told you they reworked it and made a new one that guess what sounds great this is the reworked version comes with the Texas Instruments 3255 chipset which is going to make more appearances on these more affordable amps because that is my favorite amp chipset I think it sounds the most natural this amp says it's 600 watts just ignore that with the stock power supply you're probably getting 40 watts into eight ohms and you're probably getting around maybe 60 watts into 4 Ohms the good news is you can upgrade the power supply if you want to get more juice there have been a ton of these sold however if you're gonna buy one get one through Amazon or where you have a return policy put it through its Paces make sure it's not going to poop out on you the zamp has no sources so you'll need something to feed it like a streamer like a CD player like a turntable with an integrated phono preamp or something like that anyway sixty dollars cannot be beat if there is something that's less than 60 dollars that you think sounds better than this and it's not used please put it in the comments stepping up just a little bit from the tb10d is the Fozzie audio BT 20 I couldn't remember them bt20a Pro uses the same Texas Instruments chipset however it also comes with Bluetooth it comes with a little bit better Parts in the form of caps and it also comes with removable and swappable op amps an op amp is basically a little thing that boosts the signal a little bit and some people think that if you change them out to a higher end or a different op amp you're going to get cleaner sound that has been my experience and that has been the experience of making my patrons so the BT 20a is a great option it's hundred dollars let's see what it's selling for right now well out of stock on Amazon which doesn't surprise me it's got over 459 four and a half star reviews so this is a great amp however since you can't get it right now I'll link it in the description and usually this thing does go on sale a little bit so normally it's around 90 dollars instead of a hundred dollars so the IMA 807 Pro comes with the same chips set and it has up to five swappable op amps has base and tone controls and Bluetooth so this is ticking a lot of boxes that the tb10d isn't ticking as far as swappable app amps and Bluetooth 99.99 but it does have a 10 off coupon ninety dollars thirty dollars more than the tb10d you can swap out this power supply too and tone controls so for 90 bucks this is a great place to start stepping up to 140 however there's a five percent off coupon so you get another seven dollars so about 132 dollars you can get the Duke audio st01 Pro which is an integrated amplifier so this I call an integrated amplifier anything that has a source built in so technically speaking the BT 20a the a07 pro are integrated amplifiers because they have Bluetooth however I really think an integrated amplifier is one that has something like a DAC and a DAC is a digital to analog converter you can take signals from your TV from your CD player from a streamer from a computer and get better sound so the st01 pro has a traditional DAC which can take a full-size USB full-size Optical full-size coaxial can also output a subwoofer and it comes in at 132 dollars on sale it's a great sounding doesn't have the 3255 amp chipset but it does have another Texas Instruments chip which sounds great just can't handle as much power as the a07 pro as the fazi audio tb10d is the fuzzy audio bt20a this is a great little amp couple iterate this comes with a remote control and Bluetooth too a couple iterations of this from duke audio and Aima I like this one from duke audio there's there's one I like better though and that is the Aima T9 Pro there's a T9 regular which is good T9 Pro is better it's coming in at a hundred and seventy dollars and this is starting to push it for an amp like this now these both have the uh Duke audio and this one both have tubes so you can get into tube rolling that tube is just on the preamp section though so it's not on the power amp section these are all all the amps I've talked about are class D amplifiers small efficient they're not going to get super hot this one comes with a remote too a little bit more expensive though I think it sounds great just to get started or a system in a new room I think this is a great choice let's step it up a little bit though we're getting into a different topology now so this is a traditional Class A B amplifier Class A B amplifiers are probably the amplifiers that you know the best more traditional component size however this product is actually a little bit smaller it's the emotiva basics A2 m or many stereo flux amplifier it puts out 50 watts into 8 ohms and 90 watts into 4 Ohms and is Class A B it has a switching power supply and a little fan on the inside to spin it up because Class A B amplifiers aren't as efficient as class D but most people would probably say they sound a little bit more natural unless you get the perfect class D amplifier this one's a pretty simple amp it has a headphone on the front which can be jumper so you can get 50 Watts or 25 watts depending upon the impedance of the headphones you can get a ton of power out of the front of this but be careful because once you put that Jumper in place you can easily blow up your headphones I would call this a headphone amp as a secondary this is really a speaker amp and it's really straightforward similar to the Fozzy audio tb10d except this is Class A B so you're going to need a source however I've used these vertically as as long as I have a little bit of space on the sign for ventilation and they don't take up hardly any space at all comes in at 279 dollars this used to be a 350 amp emotiva is bringing down their prices a little bit on certain products absolutely outstanding value at under 300 dollars coming in at 350 dollars is a very capable integrated amplifier this has an integrated DAC also has an integrated phono stage can drive up to two pairs of speakers and it can drive those simultaneously depending upon the impedance of the speaker traditional style this is the Yamaha as 301 I think it puts out 60 watts into 8 ohms 70 watts into four ohms Yamaha is one of the few mainstream brains that continues to put out two-channel integrated amplifiers at different price points I think Onkyo maybe has another one but I don't have any hands-on experience with that one this one the 301 is right down there and it is kind of my de facto recommendation for an integrated amplifier around 350 bucks it's really good really really good and it's going to take care of most things that you need so you can put a streamer into there a CD player you can hook up a turntable has a great remote control loudness variable loudness control which most which nobody has except for Yamaha so variable loudness control is really cool and it kind of has a vintage Vibe I think you can get it in black and silver stepping it up a little bit more to 500 you have the Denon PMA 600ne this product has been sold for a long time and that's always a good sign it means that people are buying it and it's a good product I had this in I think it's great I compared it to the ta1 from emotiva I ended up keeping the ta1 but if you don't need pre-amp ounce this is a great integrated amplifier makes 45 watts into 8 ohms 70 watts into 4 Ohms has a decent DAC very natural sounding amplifier so it's not thin it's actually a warm tone photo input and a DAC two Optical one coaxial for the DAC and it has a subwoofer out which is a pre ounce but it's a summed channel so you're not going to be able to hook an external power amplifier well I guess you could but it's only been playing mono great remote control too so 500 I think this is a great product they also have different products within this family that kind of go up as far as power so if you need more power you can look at the PMA I think 800 NE maybe 700 and anyway really really good really really good I kind of miss it too because it has a really distinctive look pretty cool you got an extra hundred dollars to spend I would tell you to buy the ta1 from emotiva it's another integrated amplifier but this one has quite a few more options puts out 60 watts into 8 ohms and 100 watts into four ohms has a DAC integrated DAC but it also has a USB so this is the first one outside of the really cheap ones and this is Class A B again that you can bring in a USB input from your computer or other device also has a phono stage and it has a moving Magnet or moving coil phono preamp so you can switch it there on the back this also has preamp ounce not only does it have preamp outs but it has a base management preampout which puts a high pass filter on your speakers high pass filter is basically cutting the base out of your main speakers at a certain level they're still going to make some bass if you like it to listen to it loud and you have a subwoofer then putting a high pass filter on your front speakers is a great way to be able to get more juice out of them without having them fall apart as quickly also has a FM tuner when I visited the emotiva factory and distribution center their headquarters more than one person told me that the ta1 is their favorite product because it's just so jammed packed with features and comes in at a reasonable price six hundred dollars for all of this with that amount of power and a remote control it's pretty spectacular the ta1 from emotiva I think is very compelling when you're looking at a new amp and you have 600 to spend going up another hundred dollars to 6.99 is a really cool and a really different integrated amplifier this is the SVS sound Base Pro which is the first amplifier that has an HDMI e-arc which means you can put this by your TV and run two Channel music using your TV as a source so think home theater in two channels since it's SVS obviously it has a subwoofer out it also has an integrated streamer in play5 now I have been critical of play-fi in the past but with the latest updates play-fi is at least usable this also has a preamp output so this can be used if you want to add more power it makes 150 watts into 4 Ohms and this is a class D amplifier however if you want to add a Class A B power amplifier later you certainly can and you can use the SVS soundbase Pro as the preamp and the streamer and the DAC because you also get an optical in so no coaxial and no USB but the e-arc is kind of the differentiating factor also comes with a remote this is a great unit and improved upon the already great sounding SVS sound base 700 this is probably the most affordable way to get into an amplifier that has HDMI ARC from a traditional company coming in at 800 is going to be what I would consider probably an audio file amplifier I'm not saying any of these others aren't audiophile amplifier I think some people would consider this to be kind of our first audiophile amplifier it's the Rotel a11 tribute which I think is a brilliant and very clean sounding amplifier it has a couple of different what I call Bass boosts and kind of loudness control so if you're not getting enough bass you can turn one of those on this does have a phono stage but it doesn't have a DAC so if you want a DAC if you're going to be doing digital music you're going to have to get an external deck or use the DAC in the device that you want to listen to 50 watts into 8 ohms it will run 4 Ohms but that power is not given that specification is not giving usually if it makes 50 watts into eight it generally will make 75 or higher into four brilliantly finished amplifier great remote control very pretty amplifier and clean Crystal Clean I really like this amplifier it may not be enough power for some people though stepping all the way up to 2500 euros and I don't think we have a great exchange rate right now so we're going to be paying more than 2500 this is nuts and I know don't shoot the messenger we talked about a whole bunch of affordable stuff so don't tell me I'm not the cheap audio man I do have this one in the house though and it is a thing of beauty it is built flawlessly I mean this thing is beautiful it also has something that none of these other amps have and that's room correction so what you do is there's an app that goes on your phone you'll pull that up it'll run some test tones and then it'll put some magic onto your speakers kind of cleans up the base this is a very capable deck in it which you get two opticals one coaxial and one USB also has a Bluetooth only has one analog input has two sub-outputs no phono stage so this is more of a digital focused but you can always just add a phono preamp to it because you have all those digital inputs really spectacular really expensive this is class D but it is the warmest sounding class D and sounds warmer which kind of means bass is going to like vocals and mid-range are going to sound a lot more full it's a very warm amplifier and the warm is classy amplifier I've heard beautiful remote control too so this prices itself Out Of Reach of most people and I get it but I I needed to talk about it because it's built so well and it has room correction there are a lot of amplifiers I'm sure I've missed if you think I've missed something pop it down in the comments to help other people depending upon what their budget is really appreciate you watching so if you want to support the channel you can sign up for patreon patreon.com cheapaudi main every Sunday night with patreon students Patron only Discord Patron only Facebook group you can also use the links in the description most of those will be affiliate links not all of them though which means if you click and you buy I do get a commission but it doesn't cost you any more so it's a great way to support the channel you can also sign up for title Amazon music or Rune links in the description click sign up they have a trump period even if you quit though I get a couple of bucks you can buy me a cup of coffee down at the bottom of the video there's a thanks button give me a couple of bucks but don't feel compelled to give me anything you can also buy it's not one of my coffee much you can also buy some merch from me so don't binge watch anything on Netflix or Hulu binge listen Maybe through one of your new awesome amps you can afford because we talked about one in every price point or some fill yourself happiness with Adam Randy I'm the cheap Audio Man

Channel: cheapaudioman

Views: 278,983

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Id: THE47bxiJRI

Length: 17min 11sec (1031 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 12 2023