Mini Stereo Amp (That Doesn't Suck)
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- čas přidán 18. 07. 2019
- There are plenty of small, stereo audio amplifiers out there -- but is this $20 eBay find a hidden gem?
If you're interested in one of these, searching for "bluetooth 5.0 wireless power amplifier" seems to give the best results.
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Music by Dan Mason (danmason.bandcamp.com).
Additional music by Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (www.box-cat.com). - Věda a technologie
This review is 100% garbage. You evaluated it AFTER you opened it up and you didn't even test it BEFORE you opened it up. You clearly broke connectors doing it, and then now users watching this will NEVER know if they have QC issues or your just an idiot. Vote this channel for worlds worst channel ever
Vote this channel for worlds worst channel ever ?? ... -___- Dude relax, snickers?
@@heliopijpe I love how This Does Not Compute even pinned this haha
asrgaqgq sdfgsdgsdfgsdg Yeah, it’s pretty rich
DJ FireStorm Your comment is a lot like the item under review. Thanks!
Goose Frabba
Based on your review I bought one of these and set it up in my shop so can listen to music, etc. from my tablet.
I hooked it to 2- 30w speakers 20' apart across the room and couldn't be happier! Clean rich sound and no distortion that I could perceive and more volume than I will ever use.
As a bonus, I discovered that it turns itself off after a period of nonuse!
Thanks for this review!
It has made the time I spend in my shop more enjoyable.
Regards
You should really test to see if it works before you open it up. As viewers we have no way to know if it was you or the build quality.
Was gonna say the same thing!
Yeah he very well could’ve wiggled loose one of those connectors while he unplugged them.
It's not like he abused it taking it apart... and it essentially was only 12 easy to access screws anyway... highly doubt it was anything he did. Even if it were something he did, it would have only happened if the build quality were low.
Right he tore it apart then blamed the nois on the build quality. Maybe it was his takeing it apart.
@@wardraven8755 If you can't take something simple apart, then it is build quality... how are you not seeing this?
18:20
>Takes apart amp
>Reassembles amp
>Breaks amp
"IT MUST BE THE BUILD QUALITY"
That's what I was thinking. I mean, yeah sure, not much than can go wrong just reconnecting the headers, but regardless, if doing a review, test the product as it came, THEN take it apart.
You guys really aren't gonna like AvE..
If you can't take something simple apart and put it back together... then it obviously has build quality issues. Your provided evidence defeated your own argument. I am pretty sure that is where the origin of the word moron came from.
@@jong2359 I only see one moron here
Yeah well normally you expect these JST connectors to be quite reliable, you can take them out and put them back in a bunch of times. Either there's a solder joint problem or a bad crimp on the cable, or bad fake connectors. Given that, it's not really necessary to disassemble it to get it to fail, normal China Mail can do it all for you!
But it's also not a major issue for a technically inclined, it's just the wiring and there isn't a ton of it, and i mean when you order something so cut throat priced, it's going to come with compromises. They really aren't getting a lot of profit out of this thing!
“Greetings im a amplifier connector” and this is another amplifier thing” 😂
Took me a while but I got there 😆
Been seeing this quite often in aliexpress. Glad you reviewed it in depth for me to decide
For the LGR connector it was completely flush with the PCB, you yanked it out a few mm of the board after disassebling it.
thank you so much for your close look at the bits, the IC's and the like!
I have used one of those little Nobsound amps on my desk for almost 2 years and it works great on Bluetooth or as a DAC for PC sound. It's about 20w per channel and powers my bookshelf speakers just fine.
You are right about the single chip doing everything, it's a quite powerful microcontroller (32 bit and up to 160MHz operation), with built in radio receiver/transmitter for bluetooth. Manufactured by ZhuHai JieLi Technology Co.,ltd. Often they can do bluetooth, read sd cards and playback of mp3, depending on the programming and the particular IC version. A lot of them also have the dreaded 'The bluetooh device is successfully connected' voice that plays at full volume and in a dodgy Chinese accent. They are found in the mini mp3 players and generic bluetooth speakers.
Can we flash those chips?
@@KianaKaslana638 yes and cycle back with own personalised messages😉
Thanks for the extra information. I already have a speaker which says "The bluetooth device is sucessfully connected" LOL. It still mkes me jump.
Would love to see a amp with all the features on a cheap little amp. Might even be a good component system on the cheap
thanks for making this video, i thought these were really sketchy ones but it is apparent that theyre actually pretty good
I wanted a little amp for the workshop.
Had already looked at the model shown before.
Your video animated me to buy now.
The functions and the quality that was justifiable for the price were the deciding factors. Thanks a lot!
It will replace a heavily modified and run-down WEGA ADC-2 (1978!).
Hi, Colin. Thanks to your review I bought the amplifier already and I'm going to use it in my ongoing DIY Bluetooth Speaker project (for my shed). Thanks
Plsssss keep doing this Amps reviews, they are great, its cool having a channel to learn audio and all that stuff!!
M is the muting pin. The front board is the preamp, and the back board is the power amp. The signal on the M pin shuts down the power amp to prevent pops and clicks at power on/off and when changing sources or modes.
(well, it's supposed to anyway...)
so the main amplifier is at full volume all the time and you only adjust the volume of the preamplifier (board/chip) and that signal is sent through LGR connector to the amplifier.
@@orange11squares Yes, that is pretty much how all amps work. When you set your vol. control to max, you are essentially removing all resistance between the input signal and the amp. Full input signal to amp = max volume.
I think it says "Miniamp 1." Old typewriters required using the lower case "L" for 1.
Just bought one of these to use on my workbench, been after something like this for a while so thanks!!!
Thanks for the video!
I don't know much about electronics and depend on guys like you to steer me in the right direction. I just bought one and hope it will solve the problem using my tablet in my shop.
Regards
This might be a good option for a small, portable, boombox kinda thingy I'm planning. Appreciated.
grab a nobsound branded mini amp :D
Do you have any scratch builds that equal high end units for amplifiers, speakers, or microphones?
Welcome... to another LGR thing! (I heard it in Clint’s voice when I saw that plug)
wow, first time seeing you channel, love the intro, nice work!
This guy had me rolling about this amp review lol. I'm almost certain everyone would have a blast with this guy if he were to review, disassemble, and reassemble a Little Dot MK VI+ 6080X4 6H9C and/or Nobsound 6P1 6.8W2 tube amps. He gets a thumbs up from me.👍
Dude! Really liking your great wave of kanagawa wallpaper!
I picked up mine on Amazon for about $32 and it came with accessories. It works like a dream without the sound problem you experienced. But it shows up as MINIAMPL on my computer.
I’m one of those people with a pi setup and can confirm the dirty audio comment! I’ll be picking up one of these guys for my pi setup and use the power out from the computer monitor I’m running because it has detachable powered speakers. This little guy will be the answer to my audio situation. The crackling you heard was because the connection to that front board wasn’t fully seated, and since it lives inside the case(it’s a simple fix). I just slightly/minutely bend those pins in one direction to tense them up & problem solved! I also have added a small bit of solder to said pins to make them bulkier and thus give a much proper connection in other applications with such connectors. Though I doubt that is necessary in your case. Maybe drilling some tiny holes to the back or under the case(near that heat sink will prolong the life of the amp in the long run. Cheers ;)
Loved the EEVblog reference! Great video
I have a no-name 2x120W chinese amp from Aliexpress on my balcony. I feed it 24V from an old Compaq Rackswitch PSU that can give 7A @ 24V. The amp pushes out nice sound, even with full size speakers. Has line in, and Bluetooth with a physical switch. Picked it up during one of the New Year sales for $50 shipped. I've had it now for about 3 years, using it a lot during summer, and not so much during winter. Guests cannot believe that the amp is so small, but outputs the quality and volume it does. :) Some of these amps are nice, others, not so much. Thanks for the video. Greetings from Norway.
20:28 - Kitty sighting! Interesting review, and good catch on the caps. I think DJ Firestorm made a valid observation concerning testing "out of the box" before disassembly, but man... As Archer might have said, "Phrasing!"
That's a neat little amplifier. For $20 it sure beats building one. It'd be interesting to risk mucking it up and injecting a tone as well as looking at the output on a scope but I was convinced it was worth the buy by your choice of speakers.
I would set the unit up in my van for playing audio books. Most normal car units without running through a separate amplifier are a bit underpowered for clear audio when road noise is a big issue and they are a pain to pull out of the factory fascia and mount they are installed in so as to swap or modify. The only thing I would do is create air flow through the case because I can't imagine it not becoming an oven in the enclosure even at around 20 watts.
Thanks for the video and being the test dummy. I have not been as lucky in my eBay lottery adventures.
I bought this amp and i´m happy with it. Stable and quick pairing on bluetooth and good sound. Even better when connected via USB on my PC. Much better than using wired 3.5 plug connection from onboard sound chip. I didn´t bought it with those too weak transformers. I chose only the amp for about 16€ and use one of the 24V transformers of other mini amps i have. But even if you choose to buy an extra 24V 5A transformer for 8.99€ you get the best results for together 25€! I love this small amp!!!
At 3:54, when you first took it apart, you can clearly see the LGR connector is fully seated on the PCB. At 18:13 it's plain to see the connector is jacked up off the PCB by a good 3mm. This is not a build quality issue, had you not taken it apart it would be working perfectly.
I deal with these connectors regularly and they are perfectly suitable for this purpose. They are not flawed when it comes to initial assembly, build quality, or careful servicing.
They are, however, not foolproof when it comes to servicing. Some attention to detail is required.
Was just going to say this but you did already
Good Spot!!!! +1
In other words he made a fool of himself, LMFAO!!!
"MiniDamp"
a small moisture
Mini Dick Amplifier?
Shame on you lol
Was I the only one that read it as mini-d-amp? As in, mini d-class/digital amplifier.
Mini Class D Amp?
Did not work underwater, but it did bubble.
These are also available from a couple of sellers on AliExpress; the amplifier seems to be a TI TPA3116D2.
Can you tell us if the amp POPS in the speakers when you apply power to it? Also is the amp stays On when you power cycle it?
It is no doubt a class-D output. The efficiency may be as high as 95%.
Still at 100W that makes for about 5W of heat to get rid of . The heat sink won't do that.
A good rule of thump is 1 square inch of fins in the open air can get rid of about a Watt.
Thump? Yeah, probably...
For the cost, size, and power rating it has to be class D. Although great strides in SQ have been made with class D amps I think I would still rather have 40w of good class A power. Hell, if they made one of these with class A circuitry I could also use it to keep my coffee warm at my desk. Win/win where I sit.
@@Thezuule1
It would be about a foot on a side to get enough surface area
@@kensmith5694 Yeah but you're not factoring in the heat dissipation from my coffee. ;)
Most decent level audio seems to be around 2W if you measure it on a scope, for general usage I suspect it won't get too hot - it will also have thermal protection built in the chip.
Great disassembly review!
I did it!! I purchased one for my outdoor theatre , $25 tax and shipping inc. thanks
Class D, a swithcing mode amp. It does not need a lot of cooling due to its high efficiency
In noise and interference.
Just got a DTA-2.1BT2 from parts express. It’s surprisingly good for a mini 2.1 amplifier.
ALWAYS test before disassembly. That is, if you want an ACCURATE review of a consumer's experience with product, as shipped. Once you dig into something, you taint the review.
BTW: That is 50 Watts Peak Power with ampl amounts of distortion.
Sam Houston Assuming a very generous 90% efficiency, that fingernail-size heatsink is expected to dissipate 10W? Um, no... Great idea, horrible execution. If disassembly/reassembly as shown breaks it, no thanks.
@@artysanmobile Class D amplifiers have very low power dissipation. The output driver is either hard on or hard off. No analog modulation occurs, it is just feeding a very high frequency square wave to the speaker with pulse width modulation.
Allan Gibson I know exactly how class D functions. But nothing is 100% efficient. That heat sink is there for a reason, in this case to dissipate the roughly 10% of waste energy created by the class D switching transistors in their overlap period. It is seriously undersized even if you assume 95% efficiency, which is stretching the limit of even class D amplification. It is an obvious weak point of this unit’s design.
@@artysanmobile For a class D 10% is very high. That said no-one runs an amplifier at full rating. A 50W amplifier really runs at 5W 99% of the time otherwise the music playing sounds like crap. It is a question of dynamic range. Music has at least a 10 to 1 dynamic range for acceptable reproduction and 100 to 1 for any real fidelity.
Allan Gibson None of that has any bearing on my complaint re design. Proper engineering takes into account, within financial constraints, the absolute worst case scenario, and then generally a margin is added to that. I know this isn’t exactly life or death here, but the design is pointlessly doomed to eventual failure by that one silly decision. If you rate your amplifier for 100W of output to a given load, you design it to do that indefinitely, not ‘maybe if someone’s listening to music properly’. Specifications mean something to many manufacturers. To some, they are just sales tactics.
Question, do you still remember the ebay link which you buy this unit?
Thanks Colin. I need one also for my garage. Great review as ever.
Thanks for posting. I saw this little amp on ebay - looking around for something that I might be able to port around and give some boost to the audio output from my little 'road dog' laptop - and was thinking ?????? Now, I know! Very helpful :)
I remember buying a brand new Mercury Lynx( Escort) 5 door hatchback in 1982 and it DID NOT come with a radio. They wanted extra for one and I said NO. My point is , I went to K- Mart and invested in what was back then, A top of the line stereo with built in amplifier. It had some sliders and rows of lights. Back then, it was a very high end system and sounded better than any Ford radio. I added my own boost and base that was mounted in the back corner of the car. I could knock the back seat all the way down by pulling the seat bottom. It was never advertized, but that feature made that car priceless in my book. I hauled so much stuff in that car as well as camped in the back of it. That amp reminds me so much of the one I had in my car. Great memories of the 80's. Huey Lewis and the News and the Police were my favorite two groups then.
Getting old is a bummer 😒
If you could connect an ipod or iphone to the usb with the correct cables would it play through it?
Dave J. would be proud, mate! Also, yech! Look at all the vapour skidmarks from that horrendous lead-free solder...
Why did you not test run it first before taking it apart?
Interesting video, thank you. You always remind me of David Byrne from Taking Heads! :-)
Timely! Bought it. Yes, for the garage! Will test w/o disassembly. So... FYI, the datasheet for the TPA3116 Power Amplifier Chip has a linear power out with voltage. 16v goes 15/30w into 4/8 ohm, 24v goes to 35/70w into 4/8 ohm. Should be plenty loud.
Got it, everything tests out, all 3 inputs ok. Drives even big floor speakers. I used a lab power supply and basically, the voltage doesn't matter. Draws more amperage at lower voltage but same volume (class D! should have known that). 0.2 amp will get you quite a bit of sound.
Thanks Colin!
Someone spent a few cents extra on 105° centigrade rated capacitors. This bodes well for the whole design, built up to a standard rather than down to a price :)
Cool video very informative. Taking it apart to see what goin on inside now thats what im talking about, i like that like i said, very nice. 👍
Could that scratchy sound indicate antenna orientation problem? Thanks for the video BTW.
Hi, nice video.
Question for you what type of screw tool kit is that you have?
i built one on a breadboard with a TCA0372 1A dual opamp which i recycle from an old table top cd player.
i think the fun part is when i realized i got the calculation right when i hook up to an oscilloscope and no magic smoke.
1:00 I had to modify a 2.1 amp using the cut track method, as the subwoofer channel had an independent volume control that wasn't controlled by the main volume. No idea why you'd design something like that...
I suspect the speaker terminals and wires will dissipate way more heat than the heatsink.
Next time test it before taking apart and breaking it !!
I had a car audio Bose 1401 system derived from 901 drivers. They look EXACTLY like the same full range drivers. The 1401 was 100 watts total into 4 speakers. It was actually good stuff...for the 1980's.
Thanks a lot, I was just thinking how I could power up my passive soundbar that I got without the subwoofer and amplifier... here's the answer :)
Thanks for the video... Do you have a link to purchase this?
The internal audio/LGR connector housing looks like it's mostly pulled off at 7:24. That might be the source of the audio crackling / connectivity issue - if the pins aren't fully engaged in the connector, you'd get exactly the problems you had.
That style of connector can be a real pain to unplug - I'm wondering if it came loose in the disassembly?
ya see how he unplugs these? 4:00 wot a scrub, just twists em off ay
The pins are fine, only the shroud has moved, so don't panic. Everything is fine.
The pins are still attached to the board, yeah. But if you plug the connector into the housing, and it's still not properly seated on the pins, it'll make poor contact. Which is kind of the opposite of fine.
@@randyglenn5965 So, the shroud gets pushed back into place, NBD.
It is totally unnecessary to assume the reviewer is completely incompetent: I appreciate that the reviewer put some effort into this review, and don't think comments of the kind you are making are going to encourage more videos of this kind, from anybody.
If you can point to where in my comment I assumed he was "completely incompetent", feel free. More likely, you'll only find the part where I pointed out something that it looks like he missed.
People miss things sometimes. It happens.
That's a gem and a half if I've ever seen one
🤔Interested in one of this, will you confirm one thing: after power failure does it resume the last state or do you have to reconfigure for example you use in Bluetooth mode, then the energy goes them back again does it stay on bt mode or do you have to manually turbo on it again?
I'm looking for an amp in this or a similar form factor. I plan on using it in an outdoor (but shielded) system. Any recommendations for an outdoor amp?
Love the wave mural .
i looking for little amp, thats one looks good for me, but question is can i use it with molex 12v?
Mini “D” Amp
As in class d amp.
Yep, I thought that was pretty obvious too
Jawohl!
Another great video Colin! Really enjoyed it. I wondered as I watched what the benefits are with this amp setup you've made vs just your average Bluetooth speaker.. is it a question of variety of connectability, audio quality or volume? Or some of those combined or none of them. Whatever the case is, I always enjoy seeing your uploads
A combination of those. My garage is small and I’m limited for storage space, so being able to mount the speakers to the wall/ceiling and have just a little amp mounted to the bottom of a shelf or something can save me a decent amount of space.
@@ThisDoesNotCompute thanks for the reply! Makes sense. In any case I really enjoyed your video
Any video that features an IBM laptop gets an automatic thumbs up.
Hooked one up to harbeth p3esr. Used same power supply i got with
Tivoli model 1 radio. 12v sounds quite nice within its volume limitations as these are not efficient speakers. Allen shaw is quite right about amplifiers and harbeths. As the audiophiliac said. Harbeths makes everything sound goood.
did you check your wire if because the wire can have a crack
Learned a lot, thank you
Hi, hearing through internet is HIFI; depending of your microphones & quality of sampling. Regards
Looks like a bigger "nobsound ns-10g" with a VU :)
The nobsound is good with 24v but only on max volume via BT and controlling the volume on your phone :)
Just bought one. Total junk. Only 1 LED lit up and the bluetooth didn't work.
You’re better off with a cheap Pyle or Lepai 😂
Such an amazing mini Amp!!!
two of ti tpa chips drive my aiwa exos 9 bluetooth speaker - 200w rms one chip drives the dual voice coil subwoofer 100w 6.5'' and second drives the mid x 2 - 3'' and high x 2 - 1'' aiwa did no put heatsinks on them but i've been blasting on full volume and no distortion or else is present bass is always full, just its plastic box had pillars cracked (glued them back with epoxy glue) from too much bass that speaker produce with battery (which is removable and they sell external battery) not AC connected
Haha that Dave Jones reference for the win
This one sounds amazing. Ran my vintage Bang&olufsen beovox penta temporary
No distortion, also handles bass good
Tank You for the videos, send all my love to Snickers.
I got the Breeze-audio 2.1, which is close to the other metal shell model you show in this clip, but has a sub connect, a few preset EQ modes, Aux and I think FM?. I really like it and it drives a couple old ADS speakers which are not efficient at all. I am using a 12v adapter which I will upgrade when I dig out a stronger one out of the box of 100's of adapters.
The one problem is although I specifically looked for the latest BT connection, which this has v5, it claims longer distances, but that looks like direct line. I got 15-20 feet out of it. But perhaps there is a BT antenna you can recommend that we can swap for thatstubby one?
i once bye that kind of adhesive and i noticed bye trial and error if you put it in de freezer over night you can breek the adhesive very easily
hope this gives you an edge on the adhesive problem good luck for the future ;-)
Hmmm. This is one of those devices that I don’t need, but now I’m thinking Where COULD I use it?
No so well put together now was it?
Excellent video. Im glad other people who doesnt just buy into the mono smart speakers.
Sincerely enjoy your content. You've pointed out another item I don't need, but now want! Haha. Great stuff, keep up the awesome work.
Have nay idea if this exact one is sold on aliexpress?
I've got one of those for about a month now, brilliant in nearly every way, except one thing that makes me mad each time : the voice volume (and the litte audio jingle at startup) is insanely high and i can not find how to modify it. Yours doesn't seem to have this voice over and jingles, it's kinda weird.
Maybe he killed it on disassembly 😂
Can't find the video where you modified the Bose speakers. Do you have a link?
Here, have one. czcams.com/video/_ZgAJKAsHDE/video.html
Good day.. how do i do!!? My 41x4watts mini amp is off in max vol? And the bass is weak.. i do separate the bass anf the tweet but.. the tweeter sounds good but the bass iss anoying..
I got the LvPin 2.1 hooked up to two
NIB SET OEM 6x8 Genuine Ford Speaker XC2F-18814-BA with GRILLS 25 WATT 4OHM and one 8" subwoofer all installed into a plastic cooler and I just plug it into my cig lighter it blasts me out of car!
What size connector does this take for the power supply? Is the center connection + or -?
Do you think the problem was because it was taken apart?
Ya, I would have tested it BEFORE I ripped it apart.
YES - the video actually shows the condition of the front audio connector was compromised by the brutal way this idiot tried to disassemble the thing.
-Yesss a video showing a person not working with 240V that means he cant work dangerously with bare wires while the things powered on.
-CZcamsr proceeds to rip the thing apart before testing it and then blames the device.
fuck.
Personally, I'm not sure if I'd buy something like that given that I have a USB DAC on my mixer console. For what it is though I could see people actually wanting this. You should have a look around Ali Express's website and Amazon too. Often the sellers of such devices have a store on those sites too. In fact, sometimes that's where people get them to sell on eBay. Great video... Liked & Subbed
appj actually makes some pretty decent amplifiers tube ones actually
So how did you fix it?
You should give a try to S.M.S.L. AD 18 amp. I think that will be the last mini amp you will purchase for some time. I think its great. My humble 2 cents. Thanks for the video...
Hey. Lots people have problem with bose soundlink mini battery. Can you show us how we could use mini bypassing the battery and just use electricity from Wall socket?
Great video. I agree with some of the other comments. See if it works out of the box first. Cheers.