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Will this work with a pair of Bose 901 with their active eq? If not, do you know any budget amps that will work? I'm not having luck looking for modern receivers with tape loops. Please help!
I've had the A300 for a few weeks after the AO200 .....you're spot on as usual Randy...the Infineon modules in the A300 are better in every respect...the elephant in the room is the price....I have a Rega BrioR and a Yamaha AS 501...you know the rest. Like you said I don't know how long this amp will live but I can't ignore or talk myself into denying it kicks the Rega and the Yamaha to the curb for value....there I said it
these class d's are getting better and better. this one has 2 analog inputs which is good. I think if I was spending $400 I'd be looking hard at emotiva and Yamaha products too.
@@DPSingh-px4xu How does one step-up from a pair of integrated amplifiers to a pair of MonoBlock amplifiers with active crossovers? Oddly, the Yamaha & Rega both have tape loops but neither even has a PreOut. Forget any Home Theater ByPass (which is a MainIn btw). They're incomparable. If there's an elephant in the room, I can't see it. How can worthless junk be priced too high or low? Reggae, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
I just bought this amp in early June and paired it with the Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2 bookshelf speakers. I have zero experience with home audio, and this is a desktop setup that provides audio for my PC in a small home office, as well as serving as my home stereo. The A300 seemed like the best fit for the speakers and received high praise from other RU-vid reviewers. I went with the Elacs because they were designed to be shoved against the wall with little to no toe-in, which was the only option for my setup, (the "speakers you can put against the wall" video was invaluable!). When the Elacs were marked down to $200 it was time to pull the trigger. The A300 looks cheap and the display is ugly, but I can't say anything bad about how it sounds, and I haven't had a single audio issue, or noticed any latency between the video and audio. I thought about pairing it with a D300, but I'm holding off for now. The only thing I hate is that the panel controls are all but impossible to use in low light conditions, especially the volume knob. The volume knob is crap. In fact I'm pretty sure they mixed actual feces of an indeterminant origin in with the plastic that they made it out of.
The mains filter appears to start the roll off around 90-100hz and 24db/octave. Cool that they include a high pass filter at all. Most don't in these cheap amps
Have this one for over 6 months. It works really fine, actually sold my Rega Brio R as I felt no use anymore for it. Hi-pass filter is cut at 50Hz, as stated by the specs in manual.
I bought 2 of these amps a few months ago. They are amazing. I use them with 2 pairs of my DIY speakers. The large 2 way speakers i use the amps as a stereo pair and Passive Bi Amp the speakers. One amp doing left channel Bass and Tweeter and the other doing the right channel Bass and Tweeter. I use a Schiit Audio Saga with a Tungsol 6SN7 GTB valve. In the second speaker set up i use full range drivers in the main speaker and a pair of Ripol Subs which have a pair of 12" bass drivers in each Ripol cabinet. These Subs have a Sub Amp with integral phase , level x over adjustment. I use 80 hz as the sub x over. I then use the A 300 as BTL Mono Blocks . I connect the right channel from the Saga to the Left input of the right amp. I then connect the Left Channel from the Saga to the left input of the Left amp. I do not daisy chain the amps using as you did. In both systems the amps sound absolutely fantastic they are very fast, dynamic with superb bass control and power. The mid range is wonderful and the high frequencies are clear and open and no harshness. The soundstage and imaging is enormous and clearly defined. i do not use the eq settings as they not only change the sound balance but add a sense of falseness to the sound. I tried the on board SUB with the subs and that sounded POOR as it was too high from my set up . These amps are true giant killers and i just love them. The manual !!!! is basically very poor and i also spent ages trying to get my head around it. But when i worked it out it was simple to implement the BTL set up.
I'm really enjoying the sound of my Fosi Audio V3 so far! Thanks a lot! It bugs me when audiophile elites look down on these little class D gems. We really need a detailed test to figure out their power limits and when they might have sound issues. It's super important, and still a bit unclear, to know how well they truly deliver power and handle big demands from thirsty and hungry 4 Ohm speakers.
When you do the comparison, please use 48v power supply for Fosi Audio v3. Considering this SMSL A300 price, I would say using 48v power supply for Fosi Audio v3 makes a lot of sense.
@@pradeepchinna5545 I bought two Fosi AZ3 but don’t understand the hype. The SMSL A300 is ten times better. I use it with a wiim pro plus and QLN Cubic 313. Didn’t like the Fosi at all.
I have it for almost a year. I saw some people having issue with them making noise/hiss, however I did not experience any of that. Mine is dead silent. Popular screen glitch exists but it only happens when scrolling through options and it's not like im doing it everyday. I have it paired with KEF Q150+SMSL Sanskrit mk3 dac and it's a very enjoyable combo (just bought REL T5x, I skipped the highpass filter as I have it connected via the high level). I use this setup for nearfield as a pc speakers with an option to just roll back 2m from the desk where it sounds even better when I really want to get into music. Incredibly versatile setup and it works exactly how i wanted. SDB is a lovely feature for me, like seriously I love it. It works awesome when I listen nearfield, on lower volumes. It boosts the frequencies that just make it more fun to listen (i believe it creates a V shape eq which is a nice addition on lower volumes when having it perfectly flat sometimes feels too flat). Also, I'm pretty sure the SDB eq level lowers with volume but feel free to correct me if i'm wrong on this one. It would be nice to have some different knob. Even though it's in my reach I still change the volume with a remote. The knob they used feels kinda wobly, unprecise and cheap. Don't like it at all. I'm not super experienced and I didn't go through tons of equipement that I can compare it with, but I can say that I have no regrets and just enjoy the music.
9:48 E1 means the Tx and Bx treble/bass settings are active. They are ignored in all other Ex settings. I’ve had this amp for about 6 month now. Love it. I run a Schitt Loki Mini+ between my DAC and the A300, so mine lives on E0 anyway.
Hey Randy. Love the content and the review. I'm a visual guy. I'm wondering if you could show how to bridge the two amps with actual wires connected. A good visual is worth a thousand words. Thanks so much again for the content. Love the porcelin sucking device. Cheers.
@@cheapaudiomanI think Randy did a pretty good job explaining how to set things up, but I’m also very visual, a few pics would help. The one thing I wished he’d have mentioned is whether the slave unit needs to have its EQ setting match the master unit, or if the master unit’s EQ setting informs the slave unit. That’s important info.
The SMSL AO-300 (confusing because of the similarity of name) is an AL 200 with a subwoofer output, and honestly I don't know if there are any other differences that aren't cosmetic. Would love to see a review.
I bought this amp for a friend and tried it first. High pass filter is 50 Hz! Low pass on sub out is 100 Hz! Internal DAC sucks. My favorite sub 200 usd amp.
Ah, this explains different numbers flying through this thread. So, HP Filter for main speaker 50Hz. I hope it's 24db per octave or even little steeper. Thank you 👍
I have had this amp for quite a while. It does generate some audible high frequency noise in standby. This has been well documented in other forums. As far as I can tell, it is not audible when music is being played - even at low listening levels. It is a very good sounding amp and I have been very happy with it as a secondary bedroom system. I use it with a Schiit Mani 1 and a Modi 3+ and it sounds really great. I love that it has two inputs. I tried it with the SMSL SU-1 DAC and it sounded very thin and bright in direct mode. I have paired the SU-1 with the Fosi Audio V3 in another bedroom and this combination sounds even better to me than the A300 with the Schitt however, the A300 offers a lot of functionality over the SU-1 with the A3 (remote control with multiple analoque inputs, bass management, etc...). Either setup is an easy recomendation depending on what your needs are. Also, like Randy said, there is no need to buy two of these. One has more than enough power to deafen you and anger your neighbors.
I bought one! For the price it is an absolute bargein! If you think that the T9 can be compared to it, then no. This is definitely a more powerful and fuller sounding amplifier.
Sounds like plenty of power in 2 channel mode. My NAD C316 is only rayed at 40 watts, but it drove my towers perfectly fine for years until I upgraded last year. Now it drives my second system.
Hi Randy absolutely love your channel been watching and learning for years now. Really enjoy your reviews and your personality 👍. Had this amp for a few weeks listening to it in 2ch, great sounding. However to much confusion for bi-amp poor instructions from such a reputable co. not to mention the terrible off axis function of the remote, very disappointing. Loved it in terms of sound but unfortunately returned it. Thank you for this great review as always 👍
I have the A300 hooked up to the D300 DAC, it's wonderful. Thinking of getting another A300 to do the mono thing. An image of the interconnects would be really helpful, please.
Did we use power-hungry speakers that would sound better when this system was in bridge mode? Then use those same power-hungry speakers with the system not in bridged mode. To get a good sound comparison that way. Please forgive me if you mentioned all of this, and I somehow missed it, lol. Love your channel, I appreciate everything you put out! 🎧🔊👍
Greetings Randy, I'm glad to see this review, cause I have been listening to my SMSL A300 for 1 1/2 years. With your input, I have the sckiit Modi, Wiim Pro with the OSD Audio Pre. Coming out of thr Emotiva B1+ and there Airmotiv SE8..Loving it All..Thx
I don’t know how good is the 3255 ship on the Fosi V3 but the A300 is my absolute best Cass D amp. It compete with my vintage SANSUI & KENWOOD vintage amp. I use it since 1 year.
I think the step forward here might be the internal power supply. The power supply bricks for many of these amps are bigger than this whole unit. How do they do that? Apparently it supplies decent current. No gigantic transformers like other classes of amps.. Nice. Efficiency is a commendable trait which should be valued.
A "Children" story: Couldn't find my car keys. Turned out my 2yo daughter had taken them and reached through the port on the front of my floorstanding speakers and put the keys there. Because obviously, that is where they should go.
Hi Randy! Thanks a lot from France! I really enjoy listening your comments and I was definitelly inspered by you while acquiring my last 2 paurs of speakers (Polk Reserve and also Klipsh RB81 mkII) and boths sound fantastic in their systems. Keep doing this awesome chanel! Hugs from France!
I've purchased a handful of products based on your recommendations, the Wiim mini is amazing, the Fosi V3 is also amazing. Using an old Emotiva XDA-1, it definitely sounds better than the $$$ would suggest.
I feel like it would be far simpler to just set to monoblock mode, and split the rca source cable (left to one block, right to the other block) and then set each block to the same volume. Then you dont have to use the silly crossconnect rca, and dont have to cover one of thr IR sensors - remote would simply keep both blocks at the same volume. Bit weird how they decided to implement the crossconnect...
Really enjoyed this review, the Squarespace spot was hilarious 😂 Would love to see you review the Encel Brains, it’s an Australian built integrated class A/B amp which I’ve recently picked up. I love it, but I bought it when it was brand new to market and would love to hear your thoughts on it!
killer little amp. have Energy veritas minis and a Velodyne mini v sub. as simple as it gets and loud as one would ever want pretty sure I read the crossover is at 100
I have the SMSL A300, it is pretty good. It sounds good, looks okay, the blue display is horrible. I do not like the 50 Hz forced highpass filter, and the menu has a weird glitch where it will sometimes display nonsense characters scrolling through the menu. It sounds different than, but not better/worse, than my Aiyima A08 Pro, but the remote is good. I just ordered the AO300 MKII amplifier and DO200 MKII DAC, they arrive tomorrow and I am excited to hear them. I was also debating the Onkyo, Denon, Marantz, and Cambridge integrated amps, but like the balanced amp design for my upcoming setup.
50hz forced HP Filter? When adding a sub suppose? ....for me personally ok, if only fixed filter possible (to keep simple and cost efficient) than 60hz 24db per octave would be my favourite, though. .. anyways, thank you for sharing the info👍
I would look at Cambridge audio. I am not messing cheap amps or even avrs for music if I added everything up I been bought that was OK I could have gotten something great
@@BostonMike68I ended up getting A NAD C 372 Integrated amp, which is hooked into the pre-outs of my Denon X3500. I got the Q Acoustics 3050 towers bi-wired by the NAD, the 3090i center and 3020i for surrounds both powered by the X3500. Subwoofer is still the RSL Speedwoofer 10s. My DAC is the Aune X8 18th anniversary for the Sparkos OPAMP. I cannot stop listening to my music, this is by far the best system I have owned yet! I am sure I would love the Cambridge sound, but this NAD is so good sounding and 150 watts a channel!
@ricsim78 Nad is a really good choice . I heard speedwoofers subs are unbelievable. I never heard the q acoustics but I heard good things about them and same that dac . It's sounds like you have done really good work and I'm glad you're enjoying your system
Have been using this amp to power 4 klipsch rb 51 mkii in parallel (4 ohms) and sub( not really needed) for more than a year and still running strong. Barely gets warm. I listen to it daily for 3 to 4 hours. Mostly 60-75 db with 85 -90 db now and then.
This BTL mode is a croc! It’s bad enough one has to introduce yet another interconnect, but a long one is needed for those who have their monoblocks near the speaker to make for shorter speaker cables. Wish they would make a straight up power amp.
So , if I sum up videos from few days ago and I own A300 for 5 months now, which is fed by Google chromecast audio puck(still going strong), and drives Elacs Debut Reference , would it be a great improvement to add an SU-1 in that chain (via Toslink from the Puck)?
Nice review thank you Randy. When using 2 A300 together in bridge mode, Do I get 2 sub outs then, for 2.2 stereo setup? Cheers ...i am a bit concerned about the implementation of bridge mode, though. That slave unit controls are not disabled gives a hint, that it wasn't well thought through...or probably decided for most cost efficient option. ...still good, they implent this feature. I think the advertised wattage numbers are marketing jokes for those little desktop amps (which they are primarily). So scaling up power by giving option for using them as monoblocks is just great!
I have these amps in a 2.2 setup. However, I don’t use the BTL-R rca connection and simply set the A300’s up like mono blocks with each set to the same volume level. My 2 subwoofers are then set up as stereo subs in this configuration.
@@user-jf2cf4ct3f I see. But how does the amp knows in your case, that it has to operate in bridge mode, using the full amppower for only one channel? Is there another bridge mode setting in menu? Cheers
Good question. There is an option to put each into monoblock/BTL mode. It is “ br1”. I have my speakers connected left neg and right pos on each amp. As Randy pointed out, there is no bridge label on the back, so I was surprised this morning that when I changed to “br0” in this configuration that music still played. Only difference I quickly noticed was that it impacted the volume. I also looked at the ASR forums that have photos of the different connections (see”New SMSL A300 Class-d Power Amp” page 3 July 2022.) I believe another advantage by using these as mono blocks might be that there is now no crosstalk. The A300s offer a lot of great options for integrated amps.
Is this Aunt better than the RSL you reviewed a few weeks ago? They seem to have similar functionality, except you actually know the crossover frequency on the high pass filter of the RSL. RSL.
Not bad. I'm waiting for Fosi monoblocks. I've heard just one 48V/5A Fosi V3 can power smaller Magnepans so I can't wait for monos and a 48V/10A power supply.
I used an old Yamaha ax750 - a massive A/B piece of 12kg and (allegedly) 185 Watts to power my highly inefficient Elac Ub-5's. Now - the A300 is better in every regard: clearer hights, less glare, cleaner bass, everything is tighter and more airy at the same time. Simply nicer music. And the SMSL case has -maybe- ⅛ of the Yamaha's volume and doesn't use my money to heat the room. 😎
Too complicated for me. Also don't like baked in eq settings stuck in a menu. Prefer the simplicity of a 4 band bellari eq 570 that I can adjust on the fly. Good review though. I'm sure a lot of people will like this product.
Hi Randy, as always good and informative video. I think you missed to show in video footage how to do the monoblock, images says more than words. Anyway, I'm wondering how 2 A300 in mono compares to 1 SA400 (smsl too). I have paired my A300 with wharfedale linton 85th and for my ears sounds really good. My only complaing is the base blank high sound (specially on right channel) when on without music. It's really a nitpick, because to hear it you must be at less than 1 m distance and only when there is no sound at all.
@@funcionyforma hi dude. Yeah, I finally purchased SA400 and it's better than a300 (of course it must, cost almost 2x). To my ears, SA400 has a bit better soundstage and definetively it's clean sounding, no hissing at all. But a300 was super good when not compared, my only complain was the hiss base noise. When sound and music was playing, it sounded great and hissing wasn't audible
I owned this A300 amplifier, but I found the soundstage to be muddy and congested. The soundstage was also very narrow and intimate, which I didn't prefer. I think it may not be a good match for my speakers, as I prefer a wider soundstage with more clarity and separation. The amplifier also didn't seem to have enough power to drive my speakers to their full potential. Overall, I was disappointed with the sound quality of this amplifier and would not recommend it to others.
I bought the Sony height speakers several years ago for $99. The price has doubled! I use them high up on my front wall over my front towers, but I have a hard time hearing the Atmos sound from the movies I watch. They seem to get drowned out by my towers. Wonder if these Emotiva's would be better? I've always heard that the upward firing, bouncing off the ceiling method doesn't work that well either. Maybe it would be better to mount my Atmos speakers on the side walls?
What I am itching to know is how all the products you review sound compared to your vintage receiver I see in the background. I have vintage sansui gear but am hesitant to spend money on something thst may not sound as good as what I have
I have been using this one for about 6 months without any issues. I needed and amp with a sub out with high pass filter that i could connect to my smsl su9n. Sounds amazing and beats the heck out of my old rega brio (£600 here in UK). What's not to like??
Question! I'm running a Wiim pro through an Onkyo TX-NR515. In your opinion, do I need a separate DAC? (I know I don't NEED one but what is the overall difference)
Im still a bit confused... I was hoping that it would take both Left & Right inputs and combine them into a single (mono) output. Is this possible? Thts exactly what I need to do, take L&R and combine to mono in a decently powerful amp. If this cant do it, do you know something that will?
I resent these cheap Chinese amps only give ratings for 4 ohms which is not a typical speaker you would pair with this. And then they lie anyway. In my experience 8 ohms is the most common resistance for speakers typically paired with a cheap amp.
I must’ve got a defective unit. I had this amp in my system for all of 10 minutes before I noticed the noise floor was atrocious. Epic hiss that could be heard from my couch that stayed constant regardless of volume or removing inputs.
There may be a “production” issue that surfacing as a defect on some units. It may be prudent to get the actual manufacturer involved. Could be an overlooked poor connection somewhere or a higher rate of “soft” failure on a particular component.
@@cheapaudioman Yeah I was disappointed at the time. I was trying to replace an old Sony stereo unit from 15 years ago. I ended up just biting the bullet buying a Cambridge Audio AXR100, which is a fantastic unit once you replace the super cheap noisy cooling fan with a nice one for a diy PC case.
