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

This is actually a review for the AmpOne (not the /A version). This one is the same specs, except it has output meters (and x10 sensitivity), dual switchable speaker outs, and a soft-clip circuit.

I have been very impressed. I picked mine up off of Craigslist. 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. Heavy toroidal transformer and discrete output transistors. It runs cool to the touch, amd has very adequate heatsinking. Bias and dc-offset was spot on, even after probably 10-15 years.

This thing has well exceeded my expectations. 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. And at much lower volumes, this amp never loses composure. 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 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. I ran three across the front of my home theaters in mono mode (one for each of my three front speakers). They did great. However, you do have to manually power each one up and down with the button on the front. 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.

We purchased this amplifier to drive a 5-ohm load based on the manufacturers claim of a low impedance 4-ohm capability. The unit arrived dead out of the box. Amazon promptly credited us and provided a return label. We purchased an identical amplifier locally because of time constraints. When connected to the 5-ohm load it worked but got extremely hot and we shut it down. We double checked the ohm load and it was 5-ohms. We returned the amp and purchased a completely different amp in slightly higher price range from a different manufacturer. The new amp worked fine. The audiosource is OK for a basic, small 8-ohm load and does not have the low impedance characteristics advertised by the manufacturer.

I have owned two of these amps for almost a year now and I am very fond of them. I have four bookshelf speakers that were being power by a stereo receiver. This stereo receiver bragged that it produced 100 Watts per channel for four channel. So, supposedly each of my speakers was getting 100 Watts of power. However, power in the audio industry is not well defined. Believe me as I am a physicist, they are pretty wacky in the audio business. To calculate power, one uses the formula Power=V^2/R, where V is the RMS voltage and R is the resistance of the circuit or load. Sorry this is getting a bit technical, but the moral of the story is the audio industry feels free to choose R at will. This means they can claim any power. The sad thing is it is legal to so do. Anyway, back to the review. I bought two of these amps to power my four speaker. That means I am running 80 Watts into each speaker. This should be quieter than my old receiver, but it is not. It is much louder because these amps actually put out a real 160 Watts as opposed to my old stereo receiver which most likely put out 50 Watts per channel.

Also, the signal to noise seems excellent. These are the first amps I have owned where if I run a clean signal in and turn the volume all the way up, I do not hear a hiss coming out of my speakers. In fact, they recommend that one keeps the amps turned all the way up at all times and simply adjust the input signal volume. This is what I do an it works well. I am very satisfied this this product.

This is a top rated audio component. Price was equal to the lowest I could find online. Delivery was as promised (actually a day early). I chose Amazon for this transaction because of past experience and reputation.

Regards, Dave