APPJ PA0901A 6N4+6P14 Mini tube Amplifier Black

First off, let me review this in stock state before tube rolling. It is small and cute. Five hours on tubes and it sounds great. I really like it. Got it for a super price, Prime early access deal, got up early to make sure I got it. It has a surprisingly good soundstage. It will only get better. Next to my Audio Space Galaxy34 it looks like a toy. But don't let size fool you. It has a nice sweet mellow tone, not harsh. I can't say for certainty the bass is great or not as I am running it into Infinity Overture 1's which have powered woofers. I knew bass wouldn't matter so that weighed into my purchase. I have read some complain of hums but I hear none. Just a nice clear clean sound. I would buy another one of these in a heartbeat but to be honest if they ever put the 1501 on sale I would like to add that to my stable. My speakers are 91 db efficient and amp drives them nicely. Rolled tubes, first amperex hammonds from 60's, pretty good. Bassy. Next set was new genelex el84's, new tubes, outstanding mids, smooth highs but light on bass BUT I have the powered subs in the overture 1's and wow. Absolutely stunning. Man what a sound. Better than my Audio Space Galaxy, no but for what it is I am more than satisfied. What a gem. This little guy is the bomb. Oh yeah, I replaced the pre-amp tube with a telefunken west germany tube, an12ax7. Also an old tube Just ordered a long black plate 12ax7, an rca 7025 from late 60's nos. We will see how that changes sound.

I picked this up after reading several positive reviews on the Miniwatt-branded version and am not disappointed. Pro: This is a very attractive amp that fits easily in the record cabinet. It's simple to use and sounds great. Low frequency response is excellent without sounding muddy and the high end is clear and detailed without any of the harshness that I have experienced with many solid-state amps. While the wattage is limited, there is plenty of power to drive a pair of efficient bookshelf speakers (my listening is done on a pair of Pioneer A. Jones signature series BS-21's) with enough volume to fill a room. Rolling the tubes in the unit with higher end versions is simple and affordable. I listened to the unit both with the stock Chinese tubes and again after rolling the tubes with Sovtek ECC83 / EL84's with vast improvements in response and detail. Also, the speaker output options are well thought-out... My Pioneer's operate at 6 Ohms and I was quite pleased to see that this little amp has 4-, 6-, and 8-Ohm output options on banana plug connectors. There was no literature to describe if the unit has a soft power-up or down, but there is zero speaker thump when switching the unit on or off. Con: The unit has only a single stereo input connector via RCA plugs, though they are gold-plated and solid. The power switch is on the rear, which I like, however there is nothing on the front of the unit to indicate that it is receiving power. Of course, you would see the glow of the tubes after a few minutes of warm-up, and the switch on the rear does light up. Plan on replacing the stock tubes, as mine produced a noticable hum at full volume (which was greatly reduced after rolling the tubes with Sovtek's). The unit also runs rather hot, so while it's a small footprint, it will need plenty of ventilation space above and beside it on the shelf. All in all, I think this is a great amp for the price. It's beautiful, simple, and sounds lovely. With a new set of tubes, I absolutely love listening to this thing.

Worked just fine. But only lasted a year (of infrequent use, well-vented are, etc.) before dying.

Well, for a tiny amp this thing is a champ! I have it in my 5th wheel trailer as the center of my 2.1 AV system. I'm using it to drive a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7 speakers and a 6" Acoustic Audio powered subwoofer, and it sounds absolutely great! I feed my Sony BluRay into the TV via HDMI, then (for now) pull the TV audio out of the TV's headphone jack. Essentially, I'm using the TV as a preamp. I listen to cd's and FLAC files on a USB drive from the BluRay (as well as watch DVD's and BluRay movies, of course), and watch over-the-air TV, all fed to the APPJ amp from the headphone out jack on the TV. Volume and tone are controlled by the TV, with the APPJ amp's gain cranked to the max. I'm new to the tube scene, and since the 5th wheel listening is most definitely near-field, I thought a cheap, tiny amp would be a great way to get started with tubes. I live in the 5th wheel about 6 months out of the year, so I want a good quality sound system. So far I'm very happy with the results. I haven't gotten into tube rolling (yet), so I can't comment on how different tubes would sound in this baby. I'm quite happy with the stock tubes at this point. It does settle into its own sound after several hours of play. It's actually kind of interesting to listen to it as it's burning in. The sound does get richer as it goes. I have ordered a set of lo- and hi-pass filters to send a line-level low frequency (below150 Hz) signal to the sub (currently running the speaker wires through the high-level inputs on the sub), and everything over 100 Hz to the APPJ amp. I'll update this review when I get the filters installed. I'm also installing a small DAC to take the signal from the TV out of the coax out (not optical - the TV doesn't have optical out) instead of the headphone out. Should be a cleaner signal with a better DAC chip than the stock TV DAC. Of course, this will require me to control the volume at the amp instead of using the TV's volume control. I may install a remote volume controller in the future, depending on how lazy I feel. After all, the amp is only 6 feet away from my listening position! I mean, I should be able to lean forward every now and then to adjust the volume, no? So how does it sound? Well, pretty good! The powered sub takes care of any low frequency weaknesses of the tiny Minimus 7 speakers. These are not particularly sensitive speakers (86 db, I think), but it's a rather small listening space I'm in. The amp did soften the rather shrill high frequencies of the speakers. I have the TV eq set to flat and it sounds good. I'm not a basshead, but I listen to a lot of classic rock, so a good bottom end is crucial. The tiny sub is set to 12:00 on both the crossover frequency and gain controls and disappears into the sound stage - perfect! I'm looking for a bit tighter bottom end and a bit clearer midrange with the filters installed. This amp and speaker combo has a slight bump in the midrange, which is great for vocals. Good source material (hi-res FLAC) gives an excellent listening experience, and even 128k mp3's sound good. There is no harshness in the sound, a nice mellow silkiness is my best description. It sounds really smooth to me. For the price this little gem is perfect for my needs. I have a tiny amount of space for components, and a small listening space. This little beauty meets my needs perfectly. I'm thinking of getting two more if these, one for each of my ELAC towers at home. They are set up for bi-wiring, so I'd run the low end through the left channel and the high end through the right. I have an old Harman Kardon amp with pre-outs that would be my pre-amp. I'd just split the signal with a y-adapter at the amps. It would sound great and look totally cool with each amp sitting on a cinder block beside each speaker!

Given the size and price of this amp, I wasn't sure what to expect so I did as much research as I could. Reviews are reasonably favourable and it seems like this amp is the successor to the originally popular Miniwatt amp which had an output of 2.5W per channel. One of the things that surprised me was the choice of a SMPS which I've never seen in an amplifier and truly I didn't know how this would affect the sound. I know that an SMPS is very efficient but how clean it is for an audio application is something I can't tell. The amplifier was well packaged in a double boxed case and arrived with the Chinese 6N4+6P14 tubes. A power supply cord is not provided, so I used an extra cord that I had from an older television. If you don't have an extra cord, you can buy a Monoprice cord for around $10-$15, I wouldn't recommend anything more expensive. For my initial listening I paired this amp with my B&W CDM-1 SE speakers which are rated at a medium sensitivity of 88db. I was using this as an amplifier with the volume pot set at maximum and driving it with my restored Marantz 2285B as a preamp. Straight out of the box with the stock tubes the amplifier sounded a little edgy and the treble wasn't very smooth. Volume was understandably on the lower side as well and pushing it too hard created noticeable distortion. I let the amp run for about an hour and this did help the sound quite a bit. Over the next couple of days, the amplifier did improve and the sound smoothed out quite a bit, these tubes definitely needed some running in. After about a week of listening, I swapped out all the tubes with the JJ Electric tubes......my word....what a difference! Right off the bat the sound showed huge improvement. The bass was tighter, the treble was more crystalline and smooth and the output seemed to have increased as well. I then switched out my B&Ws for my new Martin Logan Motion 20s which are rated at a 90db sensitivity. This pairing truly shined! To give you some perspective, I've even compared this to my McIntosh MC7150 amp, at lower volumes the APPJ does a truly marvellous job of matching the MC7150. Where the Mac comes out on top is clearly the output power for higher volumes and it also exhibits tighter control on the bass. But if you play your music at lower volumes and if you have an option of using high sensitivity speakers, it might make you wonder if this amp is all that you'll need! I've been listening to this combination for about a month now with the APPJ still being used as an amp with my Marantz as preamp and all I can say is, this is the best $250 (JJ tubes included) I've spent on a stereo equipment. I highly recommend the JJ tubes with this amp, it improves the sound and the output considerably.

So far so good. I was going to use this purely as an amp, fed by my main A/V rig used as a pre, but I couldn't get rid of a hum that was present in that config. So I connected my source directly to this little guy (with recommended upgrade tubes) and the hum went away. Should be pointed out that I have this connected to very efficient speakers - Klipsch Forte II's (with upgraded crossovers) that are rated at 99db, and when I turn this the whole way up, I don't blast myself out of the room (though a pretty large room). I think this is really key to understanding this amp - efficient speakers required. Even so, the listening level is definitely adequate, just not house party levels. However, I'm digging the sound. This is my first tube, and I'm probably just a sucker for the ads, but the music does seem a little less harsh - Klipsch speakers are known for their rough edges. I need to live with it for a while, but so far, I'm intrigued.

we tried this product three times. It has a buzz; we tried differnt speakers just to be sure. so we gave up.

For the money this is awesome kit.I was back and forth BTW this and another tube amp around same price.I chose this amp because it fit perfectly into my existing system, size,3 tube convenience and built like an brick.With stock tubes sounds great ,with better new tubes and nos and you've entered into top tube sound.Also I have a Audioengine n22 as a pre amp in front of the Appj,it really is just a power amp,the n22 takes this amp up 2 notches.I also have a Yaqin cd1 1 tube buffer in front of the n22 and Appj that takes the sound up 2 more notches.The 90 db speakers that already have give me all the bass and volume that I need.I have found that the easiest way by far to get the best out of any piece of gear rather than modding and tearing apart every piece of gear, is to learn all of the best ways to TWEAK your components. Lately I have added a 40$ Silver Star fuse to my Appj and the amp now sounds Better than a 2000$ amp I heard.I also added better Morrow ic and speaker cables.Finally I got much better digital cable also.I put sorbitane feet under the amp,the hard metal needs that. With any gear and this amp to know the FULL potential you cannot call everything SnakeOil and be afraid to try new things with your equipment, like the 40$ fuse I bought, it worked so well it blows my mind how incredible my amp now sounds.In order to know if a certain tweak has any merit you have to understand electronics and science a bit.I now have a large amount of Nos pre and power tubes and let me tell you in this amp combined with the rest of my modest but we'll thought out equipment I'm hearing the same or BETTER sound than the best mega $$$$ systems out there.And I have heard more than a few in my time.

ビンテージ菅のEL84、12AXを数種保有しているため、差し替え前提で購入しました。 箱から出した時、真空管が全て斜めに刺さっており、案の定真空管の足も斜めに曲がってました。星のマークや、漢字が印刷されており、いかにも中国製って感じです。速攻でゴミ箱行き、手持ちの真空管に差し替えました。 出てきた音は、大らかで、優しい音です。横に広がりがあり、音の余韻もよく再生しています。刺激のある音は皆無です。真空管アンプにありがちなノイズ、ポップ音もなく、クリヤーな音です。高域、低域も十分出ています。 聞けば聞くほど、なめらかで、優しい音です。人によっては面白みがないかもしれません。休みの日は、一日中クラッシック音楽を流しておりますので、この音は聴き疲れなく、さらりと聞けます。 作りはしっかりして高級感があり、中国製にありがちな雑な所や適当な所はありません。 ただし、ボリュームのゲインが低いせいか、ビクターウッドコーンスピーカでは結構フルボリュームに近いところまで回さないと適量の音量になりませんでした。高能率のスピーカとの組み合わせが良いと思います。 過去、中国製アンプは数ヶ月から数年で音が出なくなった経験があり、（国産キットは１０年以上使っています）このアンプの耐久性が気になる所です。とても自分の好みの音なので、永く使えることを祈っています。

特に高音質と言うわけでは無いが、真空管アンプらしい音が聞こえてきます。 この価格ではコスパは良いのかな。 エイジングで音が優しくなっています。 もう少し時間を掛ければもっと良くなるのかな〜。