Home > Consumer Reviews > AudioSource Amp One/A 160-Watt Stereo Power Amplifier with Internal Bridging

I have owned and used two AudioSource Amp One/A amps, each of which I bought here as NOS (new old stock.)

Initially I had one that I used as a stereo amp to power the mid and treble drivers of my large, pseudo-biamped home stereo speakers. Then I got the second that I used as a stereo amp to power small, sensitive mixing speakers in my home studio. The Amp One/A sounded excellent in both applications: transparent but warm, nuanced, focused, dynamic, relaxed, spatial.

When I later acquired a little vintage tube stereo, I swapped it in to drive the small mixing speakers, and moved the second Amp One/A to serve in my home studio: I set the two Amp One/As to be monoblocks, each powering the bass drivers in one of my home studio speakers, while my stereo receiver took over powering the mid and treble drivers. I thought I would miss the Amp One/A in its former role in the home stereo, but my modest receiver did a good job, and I was well compensated by the massive increase in bass frequency headroom afforded by the Amp One/A monoblocks. And since with this reconfiguration I luckily achieved a better ratio between the power for the bass section and upper section of the speakers, the net perceptual effect was profound.

All told, then, I heard the AudioSource Amp One/A perform excellently in a range of roles. Neither of my examples ever failed me in any application. They were easy to configure and connect, and their reductive, understated industrial design was pleasant to see and use.

It had been a year since I checked the price of this model, and I knew it would not be long before they sold out. I would buy more of them, even slightly used. If you find any well-priced new ones, grab them.

as far as the quality of the sound, its as others say. its decent for the price. however, the amp cuts out when the music volume is too low which can be extremely annoying. its particularly bad for classical music and annoyed me so much just now that it inspired me to write this review. i've read on forums that others have experienced this same issue. i'd spend the extra and get a better stereo amp somewhere else.

Not a bad item for its price. However, the sound quality leaves much to be desired. If you have a special ear for sound quality, this is not the item you would like to purchase. 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!!!!!

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. 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. 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.

I have looked for a while for a affordable mono amp that was not short on power. This amp provided the solution through it's bridging switch. The stereo mode is 80 watts per channel. 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. So running a speaker with not enough power is a far greater risk to it than having a more powerful amplifier run a speaker. I am using a Sunfire amp to run the other five speakers and that is a expensive 5 channel amp. Still Audio Source should be applauded for giving people a inexpensive amp that performs very well as a mono amp with 200 watts power. 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. You must manually turn on the amp and set a baaic volume control on the right control knob. You don't have to set the volume control everytime however. It depends on how loud you want your speaker. 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. I wouldn't be afraid to run a much more expensive speaker that needs 200 watts or less on this amp either. However if you have a speaker that needs more than 200 watts then I think you are better served with a higher wattage amp. Audio Source has a few of these at decent prices. 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. I do not recommend using any but a much more powerful amp on a 4 ohm speaker. Most speakers are run at 8 ohms but some aren't so I would check your speaker first before buying this amp.