Amplifiers - Music and Hi-Fi

Pioneer A-209R Stereo Amplifier - Black

• Changeover between loudspeaker pair A and B Loudness DIRECT-switch Phono equaliser Sound regulator Large damper base.
• 2 x 60 W output power 6 audio inputs
• Dimensions: (W x H x D) 420 x 114 x 307 mm
• Colour: Black
• Operating voltage: 220 - 230 V, 50-60 Hz V

Great Amp, 2009-12-31
I bought this amplifier just before Xmas, and I have to say that I think it is a great bit of kit. I am no HiFi buff but I know what I like the sound of. This amp sounds great with my speakers and seems to be a really well made and solid unit. It was very easy to set up, but I did notice that I had to strip the speaker wires to connect them up as the standard jack plugs did not fit. (not sure if that is normal or not as my last amp was about 20 years old... so things may have moved on since then!!)

Yamaha A-S700 Integrated 90W x 2 Stereo Hi Fi Amplifier - Black

Does exactly what it says........, 2009-10-09
Well up to standard of Yamaha. Superb engineering and simple looks. Performance in line with cost and expectations as a long term Yamaha user of nearly 20 years. "Direct Connect" facility is perfect for my requirements of a "no fuss" sound.

NAD C315BEE AMPLIFIER Graphite

• 40 Watts RMS
• Remote Control
• 6 Line Inputs
• Tone Control
• MP3 Input

Fantastic buy!, 2009-10-09
This is a quality product for the price. It's easy to set up and has excellent sound quality. It looks good too, sleek with the minimum of fuss on the fascia.

The remote control is absolutely tiny but easy to use. The markings could be clearer, but once you get to know the position of the control buttons for bass/treble etc. you can use it without even looking at it.

It has plenty of ports so all your equipment can be easily accommodated, even a digital vinyl converter. You can connect your MP3 player too.

If you're on a budget but don't want to skimp on quality, you could do worse than purchase this product.

Delivery was prompt. Thanks Amazon and thanks NAD.

Mains Socket Tester - Check for Correct Wiring

• Easy way to tell if your sockets are safe
• Reliable and easy to use
• Clear LED indication of wiring status
• Audible indication of wiring condition
• Wiring conditions reported: Correct, L/N reversed, Missing N, Missing E, L/E reversed

Yamaha RXV565BL 7.1 AV Receiver

• 630W power
• 17 DSP programs
• Dolby TrueHD
• YPAO Automatic System Calibration
• 4 x HDMI Input Sockets

Yamaha RXV565, 2010-02-21
Brilliant Amp. Paired with Q Acoustics 1010i's. Delivered to Irl in 2 days, fastest delivery ever.

AV Link Pre-amplifier for turntables 128.512

Very good - eventually, 2009-02-13
This little device does a good simple job, providing it is run on batteries and not on the transformer it comes with, as the transformer creates a very loud humm, which cannot be removed by editing the sound.

Sonic SuperEar Personal Sound Amplifier by Sonic Technology

• Includes Accessories to Mount Directly onto Binoculars
• Solid State Micro Electronic Circuitry Uses Only 1 AAA Battery (Included)
• Upgraded Premium Stereo Headphones Deliver Clear, Crisp Sound
• Excellent for Television, Lectures, Worship Services, Birdwatching, Theaters, Etc.
• Pick Up Sounds from 100 Yards Away - Increases Sound 50 Decibels

great, 2009-12-30
Bought this item to use with my wildlife video/photography and it is really powerful. I spend many hours sat inside a hide waiting to capture wildlife, and this little devise works really well. Have used it several times on my nighttime shoots and to me that's when it comes into it own. Well worth buying one if you're into wildlife or hunting, or even just to listen to the distant birds around your garden. Their are so many more uses for this devise, it comes with all the necessary clips to attach to your coat or bins. It even comes with a battery.
Would recommend to anyone
I give this item 10/10

Pioneer A-109 40w Amplifier - Black

Delivers!, 2005-10-08
For the money, this is a really excellent amplifier from every point of view except one, it does not have a remote control. If you don't need a remote, GO for it!

RENKFORCE E-SA9 MINI-AMPLIFIER

• Input selection switch Connection for Surround loudspeaker Separate controller for bass and treble Balance regulator.
• Very compact design
• Dimensions: (W x H x D) 200 x 65 x 135 mm
• Colour: Dark Brown
• Operating voltage: 230 V

just what you'd hope it would be, 2010-02-22
I felt it was a gamble getting such a cheap unit but it really paid off. I'm very impressed and wanted to review it straight away.

Specifications seem to be scarce so here's what it actually has:
3 x [ 2 x RCA phono ] input
bare wire connectors for 2 speakers
"surround" output: 2 x RCA phono connectors

Now I got this because the last amp I got was awful and made a terrible background noise (who knew JVC was now made in China?), and I'd put up with it for years. Being desperate for something better I thought I'd give this a go in the hope that even the cheapest amp would have less fan noise than that monstrosity .... well this one is actually SILENT. I couldn't be more pleased with it.

It's PASSIVE COOLING. This is as good as it gets!

Think the reviewer talking about a USB slot must have bought the other Renkforce amp (twice the price) as there is nothing like that on here - just straightforward old-fashioned basic amp.

Also not sure about all the "charming adornment to your home" swooning that you can find on the web about this unit - since it's passive cooling you will need to leave the top exposed and it's basically a black grille over the internals. Also probably best to put it under a surface so that it gets less dust. But from the front it's pretty.

I happened to have two extra speakers that each connect with 1 phono plug and so I was able to test the surround output. Lo and behold, it works fine with all its outputs on at once.

Sidenote:
As Amazon suggests, one can use a 3.5mm to 2x RCA lead in order to play from PC / mp3 player (I'm using a creative mp3, sounds pretty good). However, 2xRCA to 2xRCA or stereo 6.35mm to 2xRCA would be better because using 3.5mm is unreliable, always shakes loose and fit gets worse every time yada... is it time someone brought out a dedicated mp3 player with a stereo jack/RCA? rather than a complete "ipod dock" micro system (barf barf) ... moan whinge

In summary:
A quality product, hundreds of times better than some that you can get for 4 times the price. Would recommend to anyone.

Sony STRDH800.CEK Receiver with 1080 HD and 24p True Cinema

• AV Receiver
• Number of amp. channels7
• Watts Per Channel:100w
• Av Processor: Dolby: TrueHD, Digital EX, Pro-Logic/II/IIx
• Digital Inputs:4

Blown away., 2010-03-16
It's a real shame Amazon doesn't have more information on this product because it might put people off buying it, anyways I'm using this with Harman Kardon HKTS-7BQ - 5.1 Cinema Speaker System in Black a Sony PlayStation 3 Slim Console (250GB Model) as my Blu-ray player displaying on a Panasonic TX-P50G10B 50-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Plasma TV with Freesat - Installation Recommended, and all I can say is wow.

It recently got delivered and I hurried off with it and began the unpacking process in front of the TV, and the slot I had earmarked for it, it was all packaged very well and securely. I then came to connecting it up which was a breeze, as I'd used banana plugs I can't really comment on how good the screw fixtures for the speaker wires are, but they looked fairly secure, but for me it was just a case of removing the black caps over the holes and matching polarities and speaker placements, popped in my HDMI cables and plugged the amp in.

At first I was quite daunted, but the well written manual holds your hand every step of the way, I just plugged in the auto-cal mic, put where I'd be sat, and then ran the automatic setup, it output a test tone from each speaker and adjusted their levels accordingly (personally I found this quite accurate and just needed a little adjusting), when all this was done I had a play with some of the other features renamed some inputs and then switched to the PS3 input.

I also really like the fact you can calibrate the settings for 3 different locations and save them, so you can flick through optimizations depending on your seating position, I use this feature a lot but I suppose it depends on each individual how useful you'll find it.

Firstly I just put Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (3-Disc) with Bonus Digital Copy [Blu-ray] [2009] in the PS3 and let it play to see what would happen, the amp lights up Linear PCM, after exiting the film and messing around with some settings I had it bit-streaming DTS-HD to amp for it to do the decoding, (note you can only bit-stream on the new slim PS3's it's LPCM only on the older ones). As soon as the movie got rolling I was quite literally taken aback with how good it sounded(I chose Transformers 2 because it has quite a lot of bass and wanted to test the sub out), in the action scenes I was picking up so much more than what I'd heard before, I could of actually sworn I was there.

I then decided to play Final Fantasy XIII on it, which has a fantastic soundtrack and just sounded even better than before through this system, I was amazed at just how much I'd been missing.

This was the first AV Receiver I'd bought after hearing about a friends system the much more expensive Sony STR-DA2400ESB 7.1 Channel AV Receiver in Black which I was also impressed with, however I settled on the DH800 because of a few reasons, I'm not after up scaling, alright it's a nice feature to have but I couldn't warrant the extra cash for it, this amp has been getting fantastic reviews from pretty much everyone, I found the price excellent value and it comes with 7.1 which is rare to find on other similarly priced receivers.

Personally I can't tell the difference in sound between this model and the more expensive models, but I'm no trained musician/audiophile, and I've found it absolutely fantastic, in fact I am very very satisfied with it, if you're thinking about getting this amp, you won't regret it the myriad of functions and connectors will keep you occupied for ages, until you're ready to upgrade to a bigger more powerful one later if needs be.