Ampapa is a registered trademark of Shenzhen AMPAPA Technology Co.,Ltd, so a Chinese Company. That does not mean that Ampapa did not hire a U.S. electronics engineer to design the circuits. Still, if they are using it as a selling point, they should hire a U.S. writer for all of their ad copy so that their story seems credible.
I wonder is the design in USA is really the enclosure design and not the actual electronics. We all assume they are talking about the circuit but that enclosure and the esthetic feels like an American take on a HiFi "looking" Amp. When I get mine I am going to crack it open and see what we have inside.
Guy flew into Seattle from China to take in a mariners game. Designed a back of the napkin phono pre amp while at a great wanton restaurant the night before he flew home. Voilà … designed in Washington
Given that you can find all sorts of Chinese amp and headphone amp kits that say - Using X design - Designed in the U.S. could simply be a nod to the old / classic circuit design they used to build it. So again, just because it says, Designed in The U.S. it does not mean they paid for the design. There are tons of classic and easily copy-able circuits they could have used. Also, it does not necessarily mean the audio portion. "Designed" could simply mean the aesthetics and design of the outside of the unit.
The GE tubes are definitely a good thing - they are a big step up from the generic tubes that many of these low price amps come with. They cost about $20-25 for a matched pair, if you were to get them retail. Maybe the amp was designed in the USA - but the ad copy was almost certainly written in another language and translated?
About 10 to 15 years ago GE or some other company (maybe US gov't) unloaded tens of thousands of these GE tubes onto the surplus market. They are good tubes not expensive AND vintage.
I bought a tube preamp very similar. I tore it apart and traced the signal path. It was actually an op-amp preamp. The tubes were just for show. Buying from China is about like the old West, you never know when you will get shot in the back. It's a good op-amp and it does the job, but it was not what they listed. They claimed the tubes acted as a buffer. I would rather give them a hug and move on. My wife is finally letting me put a simple stereo in the bedroom. I got a pair of Dayton speakers with the AMT tweeters. I had a $100 budget. I am going to use an ancient Harmon-Kardon HK3300 to start out with. It should sound better than the old clock radio.
Never mind the "designed in the US" there are ways to pull the wool over your eyes whilst telling the truth. If you believe it, you deserve it. The problem I have is with the tubes. General Electric, really?? If they really used GE NOS tubes, this pre-amp could not cost $139,- Moreover, if you have a batch of GE NOS tubes, you can use them in tube equipment selling for $$$. Why would you use them in such cheap product? So there is a 99.9% probability that these tubes are fakes. Again, if you believe it, you deserve it. But apart from that, they are ripping GE off as well. All in all Ampapa gets the thumbs down from me, purely for their deceptiveness.
There's a lot of surplus US made tubes still out there. This one in particular was designed for industrial applications and wouldn't have ever been used in a consumer product. Often, surplus lots of thousands of tubes like this turn up for pennies on the dollar. It's not like this is a 12AX7 or other popular audio tube. I doubt it serves any function other than maybe a line buffer at most. Maybe it isn't even in the circuit. No serious tube preamp design would ever use a tube like this. To work properly, it would require a high plate voltage, meaning there would have to be a dc to dc upconverter inside this preamp. Given the cheap price, I wonder if it has one, or they just run it on low voltage. I'd have to see a schematic, but IMO, this thing looks like a well built toy to me.
@@johnstone7697 You are right about that. It is an alternative possibility. And I also agree it is most likely working on low voltage, which makes it a complete gimmick and therefore they still get the thumbs down albeit for different reasons.
I just bought this and my power supply was noisy as hell, I moved it away to a different room and it still made the noise , i I bought a way better one from Amazon and it is dead silent
Just because the lowest setting on the tone and volume don't match the 0 mark doesn't mean 12 o'clock isn't halfway. Where is the stop at the OTHER side of the dial? Does it go past the highest setting mark or stop short of it? And if you can feel the clicks while turning the knob then count the number of clicks from 0-Max and go back half the number of clicks (if you're that kind of person). :)
I don't give a damn where something is designed or made if it is a good product. If it is not a good product it also doesn't matter because at that point the main company is the target, wherever they are. So tired of all the concern over whether an audio product is made in the US or not. The US can't make many good things at all anymore since the mid 70s. The roots of the great gear we have now are in Japan. Why do people keep forgetting that or ignore it? Were it not for monster receivers, tape decks and the like coming out of Japan, the gear you see now including the $100k amps and such would not even exist. To this day the best cars are built in Japan, not in the US. A similar Toyota Corolla for example made in the US and one made in Japan, the one from Japan will be better in many ways even though it is the exact same car. It is a difference in work ethic largely. I'm all for providing jobs with a living wage for folks in country, the problem is that most companies are not. The High-End stuff makes the least sense. Most of it is made in China and so some company charges $20K for an amp, but is made in China with slave labor because they are unwilling to pay someone a living wage, which ironically is more than covered in the price, to make it in the US.
The bad sentence structure is a dead giveaway. It ain't made in the USA. But with that out of the way, I've had mine for about 2 weeks. The tubes are well burned in, and I like the damn thing! It blows my FOSI out of the water. Next comes the tube rolling as soon as I find the equivalent tubes.
I bought myself one too. Theres sooo so so sooo many options for tubes I'm lost. I want to maximise soundstage so I was thinking maybe some 6J5G tubes would work? Have you found any nice tubes? I'm using this connected to my SMSL SH-9 and SU-10 stack. I must say, it sounds amazing. I just know some better tubes will make it mindblowing. I prefer how this set up sounds more than my Schiit LYR+
A 5654 is a Pentode designed for high frequency applications, e.g. RF amplification. I'm sure its use in this device is based mostly on availability in the surplus market, not it's actual suitability for the application. Also, given that it is not a dual section tube, it can only provide one stage of amplification. So no doubt, there's a whole slew of solid state circuitry living inside this thing doing the lion's share of the work, and the tubes are, at most, used as a buffer stage..Hopefully they're not just put there for show and don't do anything at all but light up.
Typical operating plate voltage for that tube is 120v. I'm wondering what the tubes are really running at especially with a 12v wall wart. Cool marketing trick though. Great video anyway, CAM!
@@TonePriest 12 volt is probably buck converted to 120v to run these. Since it's probably solid state inside doing the current amplification, the tubes don't need much current.
While I can not speak for this product or the audio industry in general... Myself having run marketing for one of the largest cycling and triathlon component manufacturers, I can honestly say that we designed a lot of products in the US, (namely Seattle) but sometimes the copy for said products was written in Taiwan at the factory. We did our very best to keep up with it and we caught most of it in time. Could certainly be they just need an editor. Intriguing product for the right listener. Any chance you have another Ironman in your future? I do never and I like it that way. :-)
Thanks for bringing up the Walmart vinyl issue... I, too, appreciate the price. Sometimes the end product blows, but customers are paying a premium on new releases for what I believe is nostalgia sake. That said, a little bit of due diligence can really save customers on the front end. I have found several NEW releases are just newer pressings of older pressings... For instance, a few months ago I noticed my local Walmart was selling U2's Under a Blood Red Sky on special wine colored vinyl. No way was I paying $35 or so for an album I can find in bins at used record stores. When I got home I learned the new release was really a release from about 10 years ago. You could purchase it from a dealer on Discogs for far less -- minus the colored vinyl.
I absolutely love this little amp. While the headphone amp is decent. The sound is superb, it really sound a little more expensive than the actual price suggests. So very good bang for the buck there. Nice width and height to the soundstage. And good depth as well. Low end has nice power and drive. Mids are lush and full while treble is smooth and engaging. Use this as a tube pre amp with a solid state such as a Schiit Asgard 3, or Topping A70 pro and it just improves them. The Asgard 3 becomes more punchy, the added soundstage makes it feel more effortless. It's a beautiful combo. Very lush and easy to listen while not losing any detail. With the Topping A70 pro it's even better. Again the Ampapa A1 does it's thing, making music much more engaging and musical while not taking away any of the technicalities of the A70 pro, instead it just improves it by adding more soundstage and grunt to the music. It's a great upgrade to any solid state system 😁👍
Designed in the US does not means built or even that the parent company is US based, it means the person that designed the board or even the outside box was in the US.
I am looking for a preamp to use with a Crown XLI 1500 power amp. I do not use a turntable. Audio source will be my PC. I will be driving two Cerwin Vega RE30 4ohm 250W speakers. The Crown power amp is 450W/channel @8ohms with a selectable input sensitivity @8ohms of .775V, or 2.4V. Would this preamp have sufficient output signal to allow that power amp to perform at full capacity? Also, anyone know the output impedance of this preamp? Thanks for any help.
I bought this several months ago to go with my Fluance RT85 and Sennheiser headphones. I have had no issues with it, but I'm not hard core, just an everyday casual listener.
just got the preamp sounds great with sony reciever 100watt and sub 10" the one you recommended ! I play guitar and drums so I know what tubes can do. They are a lot smaller than 12ax7 tubes lol. Have to try some Mullards:)
Absurd to think it's anything to do with USA manufacturing or design. Still might be OK, but the deceit is off putting. Look for rice paper cardboard in the packing and text on any included documentation.
Typical chinese wording 🙂 The delivery method to EU points towards this as well. Also the shiny sticker on the side.Otherwise cool product if used as a headphone amp.
Cool review of a product that is not likely to be picked up by the audiophile press. On practicality of the volume control and headphone jack, solution is to have a separate stand for your turntable that's near your listening chair. That's what I've done. Makes changing records more convenient, and I can listen with headphones or loudspeakers from the same location. Downside is long interconnect from the phono preamp to the rest of the system, but that could be solved by moving amplification to the turntable rack and using longer speaker cables or a separate preamp with balanced outputs and long XLR runs to power amps. In my case, I've solved this by using the Parks Audio Puffin phono preamp and running a 25 ft TOSLINK interconnect to a DAC in the main rack. Thanks for keeping me entertained during my breakfast and morning coffee each day. Have a wonderful December.
looks like a douk, smells like a douk... i think it's a douk with a case desgined by someone in the us. i have a douk p1 with the same tubes which isn't as pretty as this thing but sounds damn good as a headphone amp.
Really wish someone made a higher quality version of this with a remote. You have all the Chinese tube pre-amps hovering in the $100-200 range and then you jump up to several thousand for the classic Conrad Johnsons etc. With so many class D amps out there now, a good quality preamp with a phono stage and an extra RCA or two for your DAC and tubes to take the edge off the class D amps would make a nice control center for a modern audio system, but they are hard to find. Hard to bring myself to pay for an old school class A/B integrated when I know I can get very good class D with tons more power for much less but a good preamp/control center with a phono built in and tubes to take the edge of the class D is the missing piece.
I was all set to say "bad English doesn't mean that the person writing it is non-English-speaking," with several examples from my time as a college professor. But no, "Lots of researches" is not something that a person from an English-speaking background would ever say.
What difference does it make as to what country something is designed in? How it's made and components used are more significant than where the circuit was conceived. Incidentally, does it still work with the valves removed?
If it was really designed in the USA, it means they are supporting American labor and economy. I think it's a lie, unless maybe they're just talking about the packaging and housing design. With All those LEDs, I kind of doubt it is American designed. Compare it to a Schitt product, which is understated, and you'll see what I mean.
@@Smaug1 The world is so small now that just because the English is bad doesn't mean it wasn't designed in America. It's likely a non English speaking company worked with an American engineering company. It's also probably deliberately murky on how much input that company had in the design because I doubt their time is cheap.
Just a thought on the volume knob. I built a LM3886 chip amp without a volume pot. and purchased the Bellari PA550 to go along with it. The PA550 is much the same as the AMPAPA without tubes. This gives me a phono amp and 2 additional inputs. and It works very well. I believe I am not the only one wanting to add inputs to an amplifier.
Due to the low input impedance of the lm3886, it's really necessary to have a preamp with an opamp on the last stage before output. If it goes straight from volume pot to the lm3886 input, use a 10k potentiometer maximum.
Irrelevant thank you note: just hooked up the new B1+ which I Snagged thanks to you on a deal for 199 plus tax. Got a little Coltrane and Ellington on at a civilized volume. Holy smokes they are sweet. Better than my T1s in this room. They punch way above their weight class. You called it, thanks.
Mm... the description of the product is a little too involved and all of those different countries' addresses remind me of a product I bought a few months ago and stated a clear no questions return policy and listed several "warehouses" all over the planet. I had trouble but finally I got my money back. When I looked up the address of the "North-East warehouse" all it was, was just a gas station. Somehow this reminds me of it. Hopefully I'm wrong.
I really appreciate the down to earth videos. However, you should definitely grow your beard out! You could grow one helluva mustache (make Tom Selleck jealous) and the different colors in your beard would look really cool! Do it!! Sorry this isnt audio related lol.
I would bet you are right Randy. When the syntax is off like that, it makes me think they are lying. You liked it, it looks COOL and it's only 130 bucks! I would love to pull the trigger on this one but I think I'll wait for now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I would think the GE tubes are legit.
You should try the Mullard EF95 valves in that little pre amp and run an Topping E50 through using an Wiim Pro Airplay into an Aiyima YJCO D325X amp with Muses 8920d op amps…I did and haven’t turned it off yet…like hours. The Mullard valves made a huge difference.
I just smiled as you finally plucked up the courage to say the C word. There is a reason it is probably similar to the other products you mention and I expect the circuit board is not quite a c.... (rhymes with drone ). But man...BUT you have to rip that knob off! and reset it 'nall. Sadly I doubt the tubes are GE. They look CE. It is a bonus of course that it sounds good. We all need at least one click. I need three as I am in my 60s. 70Hz to 14,000Khz is my range I recon. Cross town traffic - you should see the speed I used to drive :)
Great video thank you, I like this Ampapa A1, I want to use it between my Cambridge Audio AXC35 cd player and my Cambridge Audio AXD100D receiver, plus between my Pro-Ject Debut turntable and the receiver, the receiver has a built-in phono stage, so can you tell me if I still connect the A1output to the phono stage input on my receiver, or do I connect it to a vacant input other than the phone stage input ? Would appreciate your expertise on this query, thank you.
Designed in the US isn't really a selling point today. Engineers outside the USA are every bit as good at their jobs even though they work in their native language. I would prefer Quality Tested in the USA...just my opinion.
Randy I have a Kenwood KD550 W/Grace F9 Rs9E (blue) what preamp would you use ? Bass/treble control would be nice but not a requirement , under a hundred would also be nice. In descending order your 3 picks. I've seen all your vids, your no BS reviews are the best I have found too date ,keep up the great work. Happy holidays too you and yours. If more info Is needed let me know and I will respond ASAP. Mike
American audio companies have been caught lying about their products lol. Why should we expect Chinese companies to be any better lol. To be fair I have no clue on this company. And I have seen Quite a few quality audio products come out of China.
Wait. You raise something that I’ve wanted to address. Do you have your headphone amp for your turntable close to where you’re sitting? Cuz I’ve always wanted that. But it always seems way too awkward with the cabling. But have you overcome that? I guess part of it is I’m renting and can’t punch holes in the wall.
"Design" is not exactly a precise term. Is this an implementation of a schematic "designed" by someone in the U.S. either working for the company or just published somewhere like a "reference design" ? Maybe the industrial "design" (case style) was done in the U.S. and not any of the electronics. I suspect this product is no more a lie than the typical optimistic power and distortion ratings are lies. The statements just don't mean what you would immediately think they mean.
i think they are, recently i watched a yhoutube channel claiming they made 2000 speakers for far less and when showing the interior thye just ziptie everything togheter wich would made inmense vibrations on the sound, i think companies are not just lying they using youtube to promote false information.
In the douk video there is a huge I mean huge verbal war about tube use...sad. reality is simple the tube is running at about 30 volts plate. Works great giving the tube sound as a buffer. Decent design works fine. N
I had a 25 year old stereo receiver that the phono preamp became a problem. Hence, too lazy to pull it out, take it apart, and figure out the hang, I purchased a $70 solid state preamp (maybe 5 years ago) and bypassed the internal one. Could not really tell the difference sonically, too bad no opportunity for A/B comparison, but relative to other sources, the new preamp didn’t seem to change my impressions, so problem solved. That said, I think it is so 😎 that nowadays we can easily pick and choose the DAC of our choice depending on preference, need, and budget for our digital sources, with the help of the audio reviewers. 👨🏻
The knurled aluminium knobs remind me of the ones Fosi Audio use, except these have set screws in the knobs. Aluminium wouldn't attract to a magnet :). Looks reasonably clear that it was designed in the USA, but they have offices in multiple countries. That said, it would still have been made in China I am sure. A lot of thigns can be designed in different countries, but end up made in China with cheap Chinese components. The designed in Washington doesn't say the marketing is based in Washington. Only says the amp was designed there. That all said, looks pretty decent for a Chinese tube-buffer pre-amp. Probably in the same league as Fosi and similar brands.
I live in Wales and looked up that evatost company. Couldn't find a lot of info but they are registered as a consultancy business and the director is registered in China. Something weird going on there
Just getting into headphones. If you are too, recommend buying extra adapter or two, maybe an extra pair of headphones. It's hard to troubleshoot without. Both my amp and headphones were made in USA.
For products like this it would be useful to routinely just take off the bottom cover or whatever and look inside (one commenter did that and traced the signal path). I also wonder how many of these one would go through before saving enough money to buy a good B list Schitt audio phono preamp.
i listen to a turntable with a phono preamp to a headphone amp in a small room, but i have a nine ft headphone extension cable from a jds labs el amp II+ to my headphones, so there’s freedom to move around.
I love it when you call me Ampapa
Lmao. Nailed it
@@cheapaudioman 😂
I love it when you call me Big Am-Pa.
Ampapa is a registered trademark of Shenzhen AMPAPA Technology Co.,Ltd, so a Chinese Company. That does not mean that Ampapa did not hire a U.S. electronics engineer to design the circuits. Still, if they are using it as a selling point, they should hire a U.S. writer for all of their ad copy so that their story seems credible.
I wonder is the design in USA is really the enclosure design and not the actual electronics. We all assume they are talking about the circuit but that enclosure and the esthetic feels like an American take on a HiFi "looking" Amp. When I get mine I am going to crack it open and see what we have inside.
Designed and built in Washington, Province of Shenzen, China .. 😆 LOL
Guy flew into Seattle from China to take in a mariners game. Designed a back of the napkin phono pre amp while at a great wanton restaurant the night before he flew home. Voilà … designed in Washington
😂
Given that you can find all sorts of Chinese amp and headphone amp kits that say - Using X design - Designed in the U.S. could simply be a nod to the old / classic circuit design they used to build it. So again, just because it says, Designed in The U.S. it does not mean they paid for the design. There are tons of classic and easily copy-able circuits they could have used.
Also, it does not necessarily mean the audio portion. "Designed" could simply mean the aesthetics and design of the outside of the unit.
The GE tubes are definitely a good thing - they are a big step up from the generic tubes that many of these low price amps come with. They cost about $20-25 for a matched pair, if you were to get them retail.
Maybe the amp was designed in the USA - but the ad copy was almost certainly written in another language and translated?
About 10 to 15 years ago GE or some other company (maybe US gov't) unloaded tens of thousands of these GE tubes onto the surplus market. They are good tubes not expensive AND vintage.
Whats better t9pro or ampapa?
I bought a tube preamp very similar. I tore it apart and traced the signal path. It was actually an op-amp preamp. The tubes were just for show. Buying from China is about like the old West, you never know when you will get shot in the back. It's a good op-amp and it does the job, but it was not what they listed. They claimed the tubes acted as a buffer. I would rather give them a hug and move on. My wife is finally letting me put a simple stereo in the bedroom. I got a pair of Dayton speakers with the AMT tweeters. I had a $100 budget. I am going to use an ancient Harmon-Kardon HK3300 to start out with. It should sound better than the old clock radio.
Lucky you, my wife's boyfriend already has a stereo in our bedroom
@@bertroost1675 that's cool does he let you use it!?
@@peterlarkin762 Only if my wife says it's okay.
The tubes on your preamp were a buffer... buffering the vertical space to make sure you didn't set anything too close on top of it!
Never mind the "designed in the US" there are ways to pull the wool over your eyes whilst telling the truth. If you believe it, you deserve it. The problem I have is with the tubes. General Electric, really?? If they really used GE NOS tubes, this pre-amp could not cost $139,- Moreover, if you have a batch of GE NOS tubes, you can use them in tube equipment selling for $$$. Why would you use them in such cheap product? So there is a 99.9% probability that these tubes are fakes. Again, if you believe it, you deserve it. But apart from that, they are ripping GE off as well. All in all Ampapa gets the thumbs down from me, purely for their deceptiveness.
"... their deceptiveness.", agreed. 🔈🔉🔊
There's a lot of surplus US made tubes still out there. This one in particular was designed for industrial applications and wouldn't have ever been used in a consumer product. Often, surplus lots of thousands of tubes like this turn up for pennies on the dollar. It's not like this is a 12AX7 or other popular audio tube. I doubt it serves any function other than maybe a line buffer at most. Maybe it isn't even in the circuit. No serious tube preamp design would ever use a tube like this. To work properly, it would require a high plate voltage, meaning there would have to be a dc to dc upconverter inside this preamp. Given the cheap price, I wonder if it has one, or they just run it on low voltage. I'd have to see a schematic, but IMO, this thing looks like a well built toy to me.
@@johnstone7697 You are right about that. It is an alternative possibility. And I also agree it is most likely working on low voltage, which makes it a complete gimmick and therefore they still get the thumbs down albeit for different reasons.
I just bought this and my power supply was noisy as hell, I moved it away to a different room and it still made the noise , i I bought a way better one from Amazon and it is dead silent
Just bought one last week, so far so good. I have it connected to a Yamaha P2100 to a pair of TOA 380SD's and it sounds clean.
Merry Christmas Randy and family...
Same to you!
Just because the lowest setting on the tone and volume don't match the 0 mark doesn't mean 12 o'clock isn't halfway. Where is the stop at the OTHER side of the dial? Does it go past the highest setting mark or stop short of it? And if you can feel the clicks while turning the knob then count the number of clicks from 0-Max and go back half the number of clicks (if you're that kind of person). :)
I don't give a damn where something is designed or made if it is a good product. If it is not a good product it also doesn't matter because at that point the main company is the target, wherever they are. So tired of all the concern over whether an audio product is made in the US or not. The US can't make many good things at all anymore since the mid 70s. The roots of the great gear we have now are in Japan. Why do people keep forgetting that or ignore it? Were it not for monster receivers, tape decks and the like coming out of Japan, the gear you see now including the $100k amps and such would not even exist. To this day the best cars are built in Japan, not in the US. A similar Toyota Corolla for example made in the US and one made in Japan, the one from Japan will be better in many ways even though it is the exact same car. It is a difference in work ethic largely.
I'm all for providing jobs with a living wage for folks in country, the problem is that most companies are not. The High-End stuff makes the least sense. Most of it is made in China and so some company charges $20K for an amp, but is made in China with slave labor because they are unwilling to pay someone a living wage, which ironically is more than covered in the price, to make it in the US.
I say we believe which design could may be American in. (Comment engineered in America).
The bad sentence structure is a dead giveaway.
It ain't made in the USA.
But with that out of the way, I've had mine for about 2 weeks. The tubes are well burned in, and I like the damn thing!
It blows my FOSI out of the water.
Next comes the tube rolling as soon as I find the equivalent tubes.
Sure, because all folks in U.S. write great English and there are no immigrants.
This thing should not be as good as it is. If you find replacement tubes you like better, report back!
@@blekenbleu So if you were in charge of the marketing for this product, you'd let that grammar deficient description slide? I think not.
I bought myself one too. Theres sooo so so sooo many options for tubes I'm lost. I want to maximise soundstage so I was thinking maybe some 6J5G tubes would work? Have you found any nice tubes? I'm using this connected to my SMSL SH-9 and SU-10 stack. I must say, it sounds amazing. I just know some better tubes will make it mindblowing. I prefer how this set up sounds more than my Schiit LYR+
This review is unprecedented in surpass and looking! Ways to go it! Nice jobs on the detail comment and feedbacks!
So you never actually used this and heard this and saw how it sounds compared to your other pre-amps or built in pre-amps?
A 5654 is a Pentode designed for high frequency applications, e.g. RF amplification. I'm sure its use in this device is based mostly on availability in the surplus market, not it's actual suitability for the application. Also, given that it is not a dual section tube, it can only provide one stage of amplification. So no doubt, there's a whole slew of solid state circuitry living inside this thing doing the lion's share of the work, and the tubes are, at most, used as a buffer stage..Hopefully they're not just put there for show and don't do anything at all but light up.
Typical operating plate voltage for that tube is 120v. I'm wondering what the tubes are really running at especially with a 12v wall wart. Cool marketing trick though. Great video anyway, CAM!
@@TonePriest 12 volt is probably buck converted to 120v to run these. Since it's probably solid state inside doing the current amplification, the tubes don't need much current.
It is likely that since those tubes are not for that purpose, they are not even in the circuit supplying the sound...they are just there for show.
You mean I just didn't buy a 2400 watt 2 channel rack amp on eBay for $105?
While I can not speak for this product or the audio industry in general... Myself having run marketing for one of the largest cycling and triathlon component manufacturers, I can honestly say that we designed a lot of products in the US, (namely Seattle) but sometimes the copy for said products was written in Taiwan at the factory. We did our very best to keep up with it and we caught most of it in time. Could certainly be they just need an editor. Intriguing product for the right listener. Any chance you have another Ironman in your future? I do never and I like it that way. :-)
With the cost of NOS tubes, I can absolutely see counterfeiting them.
Thanks for bringing up the Walmart vinyl issue... I, too, appreciate the price. Sometimes the end product blows, but customers are paying a premium on new releases for what I believe is nostalgia sake. That said, a little bit of due diligence can really save customers on the front end. I have found several NEW releases are just newer pressings of older pressings... For instance, a few months ago I noticed my local Walmart was selling U2's Under a Blood Red Sky on special wine colored vinyl. No way was I paying $35 or so for an album I can find in bins at used record stores. When I got home I learned the new release was really a release from about 10 years ago. You could purchase it from a dealer on Discogs for far less -- minus the colored vinyl.
I absolutely love this little amp. While the headphone amp is decent. The sound is superb, it really sound a little more expensive than the actual price suggests. So very good bang for the buck there. Nice width and height to the soundstage. And good depth as well. Low end has nice power and drive. Mids are lush and full while treble is smooth and engaging. Use this as a tube pre amp with a solid state such as a Schiit Asgard 3, or Topping A70 pro and it just improves them. The Asgard 3 becomes more punchy, the added soundstage makes it feel more effortless. It's a beautiful combo. Very lush and easy to listen while not losing any detail. With the Topping A70 pro it's even better. Again the Ampapa A1 does it's thing, making music much more engaging and musical while not taking away any of the technicalities of the A70 pro, instead it just improves it by adding more soundstage and grunt to the music. It's a great upgrade to any solid state system 😁👍
Designed in the US does not means built or even that the parent company is US based, it means the person that designed the board or even the outside box was in the US.
I am looking for a preamp to use with a Crown XLI 1500 power amp. I do not use a turntable. Audio source will be my PC. I will be driving two Cerwin Vega RE30 4ohm 250W speakers. The Crown power amp is 450W/channel @8ohms with a selectable input sensitivity @8ohms of .775V, or 2.4V. Would this preamp have sufficient output signal to allow that power amp to perform at full capacity? Also, anyone know the output impedance of this preamp? Thanks for any help.
I bought this several months ago to go with my Fluance RT85 and Sennheiser headphones. I have had no issues with it, but I'm not hard core, just an everyday casual listener.
just got the preamp sounds great with sony reciever 100watt and sub 10" the one you recommended ! I play guitar and drums so I know what tubes can do. They are a lot smaller than 12ax7 tubes lol. Have to try some Mullards:)
Absurd to think it's anything to do with USA manufacturing or design. Still might be OK, but the deceit is off putting. Look for rice paper cardboard in the packing and text on any included documentation.
I'm Da Pappy!! NOS tubes ain't cheap but they damn sure sound better.
Typical chinese wording 🙂 The delivery method to EU points towards this as well. Also the shiny sticker on the side.Otherwise cool product if used as a headphone amp.
That's a computer translator used from Chinese to English. Unlikely any American involvement in the product.
Sounds like Ampapa couldn't pay for a proofreader to spell check............................
Cool review of a product that is not likely to be picked up by the audiophile press. On practicality of the volume control and headphone jack, solution is to have a separate stand for your turntable that's near your listening chair. That's what I've done. Makes changing records more convenient, and I can listen with headphones or loudspeakers from the same location. Downside is long interconnect from the phono preamp to the rest of the system, but that could be solved by moving amplification to the turntable rack and using longer speaker cables or a separate preamp with balanced outputs and long XLR runs to power amps. In my case, I've solved this by using the Parks Audio Puffin phono preamp and running a 25 ft TOSLINK interconnect to a DAC in the main rack.
Thanks for keeping me entertained during my breakfast and morning coffee each day. Have a wonderful December.
You can put it at full power and it won't distort. I'm sure being a pre-amp, the volume or gain is cutting off the signal, it doesn't boost it.
looks like a douk, smells like a douk...
i think it's a douk with a case desgined by someone in the us. i have a douk p1 with the same tubes which isn't as pretty as this thing but sounds damn good as a headphone amp.
The Randy video review was appropriate least expensive male audio production informative best thankful content…… ya, thx Randy!
Maybe it was designed in the US by I Chinese exchange student ;).
Really wish someone made a higher quality version of this with a remote. You have all the Chinese tube pre-amps hovering in the $100-200 range and then you jump up to several thousand for the classic Conrad Johnsons etc. With so many class D amps out there now, a good quality preamp with a phono stage and an extra RCA or two for your DAC and tubes to take the edge off the class D amps would make a nice control center for a modern audio system, but they are hard to find.
Hard to bring myself to pay for an old school class A/B integrated when I know I can get very good class D with tons more power for much less but a good preamp/control center with a phono built in and tubes to take the edge of the class D is the missing piece.
They seem to be (or so I hear) related to Nobsound, the parent company of Douk Audio, One Little Bear, and apparently now Ampapa.
I dont care how they if it made or designed in USA. I care about the value of the product.
I was all set to say "bad English doesn't mean that the person writing it is non-English-speaking," with several examples from my time as a college professor. But no, "Lots of researches" is not something that a person from an English-speaking background would ever say.
there's a large stockpile of nos tubes still available.
What difference does it make as to what country something is designed in? How it's made and components used are more significant than where the circuit was conceived.
Incidentally, does it still work with the valves removed?
If it was really designed in the USA, it means they are supporting American labor and economy. I think it's a lie, unless maybe they're just talking about the packaging and housing design. With All those LEDs, I kind of doubt it is American designed. Compare it to a Schitt product, which is understated, and you'll see what I mean.
@@Smaug1 The world is so small now that just because the English is bad doesn't mean it wasn't designed in America. It's likely a non English speaking company worked with an American engineering company. It's also probably deliberately murky on how much input that company had in the design because I doubt their time is cheap.
Lol typical China description of products... 🤨
It's for sale in the Douk Audio store in Aliexpress.
Not just any GE tube, JAN (Joint Army Navy) tubes...some would say, the most robust and best tubes available NOS
Just pull the knobs off and re-align them.
Sounds like College Freshman English students.
Just a thought on the volume knob. I built a LM3886 chip amp without a volume pot. and purchased the Bellari PA550 to go along with it. The PA550 is much the same as the AMPAPA without tubes. This gives me a phono amp and 2 additional inputs. and It works very well. I believe I am not the only one wanting to add inputs to an amplifier.
Due to the low input impedance of the lm3886, it's really necessary to have a preamp with an opamp on the last stage before output. If it goes straight from volume pot to the lm3886 input, use a 10k potentiometer maximum.
Hard to buy anything in this price range with the Schiit Mani out there.
Designed in the US by a China based company. Duh
Irrelevant thank you note: just hooked up the new B1+ which I Snagged thanks to you on a deal for 199 plus tax. Got a little Coltrane and Ellington on at a civilized volume.
Holy smokes they are sweet. Better than my T1s in this room. They punch way above their weight class.
You called it, thanks.
Can this preamp plug from phono directly into a power amp and control the volume from there?
Mm... the description of the product is a little too involved and all of those different countries' addresses remind me of a product I bought a few months ago and stated a clear no questions return policy and listed several "warehouses" all over the planet. I had trouble but finally I got my money back. When I looked up the address of the "North-East warehouse" all it was, was just a gas station. Somehow this reminds me of it. Hopefully I'm wrong.
I stand by Rearview mirror is pearljams best track, FIGHT ME.
The knobs have detents..
Thanks for bringing us another great review.
Touch your tongue to the knobs, if they feel cold, they are metal.
I really appreciate the down to earth videos.
However, you should definitely grow your beard out! You could grow one helluva mustache (make Tom Selleck jealous) and the different colors in your beard would look really cool! Do it!!
Sorry this isnt audio related lol.
High school dropout designer?
I would bet you are right Randy. When the syntax is off like that, it makes me think they are lying. You liked it, it looks COOL and it's only 130 bucks! I would love to pull the trigger on this one but I think I'll wait for now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I would think the GE tubes are legit.
Of course they're lying .
You should try the Mullard EF95 valves in that little pre amp and run an Topping E50 through using an Wiim Pro Airplay into an Aiyima YJCO D325X amp with Muses 8920d op amps…I did and haven’t turned it off yet…like hours. The Mullard valves made a huge difference.
I just smiled as you finally plucked up the courage to say the C word. There is a reason it is probably similar to the other products you mention and I expect the circuit board is not quite a c.... (rhymes with drone ). But man...BUT you have to rip that knob off! and reset it 'nall. Sadly I doubt the tubes are GE. They look CE. It is a bonus of course that it sounds good. We all need at least one click. I need three as I am in my 60s. 70Hz to 14,000Khz is my range I recon. Cross town traffic - you should see the speed I used to drive :)
Great video thank you, I like this Ampapa A1, I want to use it between my Cambridge Audio AXC35 cd player and my Cambridge Audio AXD100D receiver, plus between my Pro-Ject Debut turntable and the receiver, the receiver has a built-in phono stage, so can you tell me if I still connect the A1output to the phono stage input on my receiver, or do I connect it to a vacant input other than the phone stage input ? Would appreciate your expertise on this query, thank you.
I beg to differ. When was the last time you were to Seattle?😇
Designed in the US isn't really a selling point today. Engineers outside the USA are every bit as good at their jobs even though they work in their native language. I would prefer Quality Tested in the USA...just my opinion.
Is this pre amp for MM and MC cartridge
Randy I have a Kenwood KD550 W/Grace F9 Rs9E (blue) what preamp would you use ? Bass/treble control would be nice but not a requirement , under a hundred would also be nice. In descending order your 3 picks. I've seen all your vids, your no BS reviews are the best I have found too date ,keep up the great work. Happy holidays too you and yours.
If more info Is needed let me know and I will respond ASAP.
Mike
American audio companies have been caught lying about their products lol. Why should we expect Chinese companies to be any better lol. To be fair I have no clue on this company. And I have seen Quite a few quality audio products come out of China.
Wait. You raise something that I’ve wanted to address. Do you have your headphone amp for your turntable close to where you’re sitting? Cuz I’ve always wanted that. But it always seems way too awkward with the cabling. But have you overcome that? I guess part of it is I’m renting and can’t punch holes in the wall.
I just purchased these GE tubes the bulbs say made in USA but the individual boxes say made in China.....I'm so confused.
The Amazon listing should say "Design stolen from Washington USA". :D Thanks for this review! I ended up picking one of these up after your review.
"Design" is not exactly a precise term. Is this an implementation of a schematic "designed" by someone in the U.S. either working for the company or just published somewhere like a "reference design" ? Maybe the industrial "design" (case style) was done in the U.S. and not any of the electronics.
I suspect this product is no more a lie than the typical optimistic power and distortion ratings are lies. The statements just don't mean what you would immediately think they mean.
i think they are, recently i watched a yhoutube channel claiming they made 2000 speakers for far less and when showing the interior thye just ziptie everything togheter wich would made inmense vibrations on the sound, i think companies are not just lying they using youtube to promote false information.
In the douk video there is a huge I mean huge verbal war about tube use...sad. reality is simple the tube is running at about 30 volts plate. Works great giving the tube sound as a buffer. Decent design works fine. N
I had a 25 year old stereo receiver that the phono preamp became a problem. Hence, too lazy to pull it out, take it apart, and figure out the hang, I purchased a $70 solid state preamp (maybe 5 years ago) and bypassed the internal one. Could not really tell the difference sonically, too bad no opportunity for A/B comparison, but relative to other sources, the new preamp didn’t seem to change my impressions, so problem solved.
That said, I think it is so 😎 that nowadays we can easily pick and choose the DAC of our choice depending on preference, need, and budget for our digital sources, with the help of the audio reviewers. 👨🏻
The knurled aluminium knobs remind me of the ones Fosi Audio use, except these have set screws in the knobs. Aluminium wouldn't attract to a magnet :). Looks reasonably clear that it was designed in the USA, but they have offices in multiple countries. That said, it would still have been made in China I am sure. A lot of thigns can be designed in different countries, but end up made in China with cheap Chinese components. The designed in Washington doesn't say the marketing is based in Washington. Only says the amp was designed there. That all said, looks pretty decent for a Chinese tube-buffer pre-amp. Probably in the same league as Fosi and similar brands.
- Off topic, Hey hows about those class A 1969 JLH amps on AliExpress? any thoughts?
is the T8 Better?
I live in Wales and looked up that evatost company. Couldn't find a lot of info but they are registered as a consultancy business and the director is registered in China. Something weird going on there
Thanks!
Just getting into headphones. If you are too, recommend buying extra adapter or two, maybe an extra pair of headphones. It's hard to troubleshoot without. Both my amp and headphones were made in USA.
Nothing stopping a Chinese company from having an Engineer stationed in Seattle 🤣🤣🤣
Interesting phono preamp! Great Review Randy! 👍👍👍
Yeah its clearly one of those "desinged in USA, made in China" pieces of hardware.
For products like this it would be useful to routinely just take off the bottom cover or whatever and look inside (one commenter did that and traced the signal path). I also wonder how many of these one would go through before saving enough money to buy a good B list Schitt audio phono preamp.
Great video. However those tubes probably aren't doing much. Where is the high voltage that tubes run? The tone controls are cool.
When do you have time to listen to these products since you post every day. Do you actually listen?
I was just thinking: this is unprecedented in surpass and looking. (Was this designed in Washington or something?)
Sometimes these inexpensive amps are just set up to glow the tubes and they have no effect on the sound...
Pull the tubes out and turn it on and we'll see if the tubes are actually in circuit or for show
Is there any noticeable difference in sound when the LEDs are on or off?
Very interesting!👍❤️🇨🇦
Almost bought this. Went with the aiyima T7
Can’t wait for Christmas to test it out
i listen to a turntable with a phono preamp to a headphone amp in a small room, but i have a nine ft headphone extension cable from a jds labs el amp II+ to my headphones, so there’s freedom to move around.
Another thing advertiser’s try to doop you with is “As Low As”
I almost bought 1 of these the other day
My name Hun Chow, I write manual and product description for you business in easy understand natural midwest style English. Very affordable rates.
Ahh so ! ( extra portion of flied lice please )
Crank the volume to 11!