AudioengineN22 100W Mini Desktop Home Stereo Power Amplifier Amp with Bluetooth AptX

Spartan elegance and high value in a small package!MY JOURNEY: I have a sound system for my back deck (hot tub / barbeque area) that is kept in a weather proof outdoor enclosure under the eave...like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E9DPDQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage* That sound system had a DIFFERENT BRAND of amp (which shall remain nameless), an awful amplifier designed for marine use. That "other" amp sucked, no high frequencies, flabby bass, etc. I was determined to get rid of it.* For my needs, I have primarily analog inputs (high quality separate FM tuner and a blu-ray / CD player. I was set on finding a 50 Watt per channel RMS into 8ohms high quality mini amp and a mini 4 channel mixer (occasionally relatives come over with their iPOD for parties). After going through 2 defective mini-mixers and trying a mini-PA amp, I started re thinking my needs. I only really needed 3 inputs. Much as I didn't want to give up tone controls and wanted more power, I took a chance on this amp.THE GOOD:> It's well built, looks cool.> Gold plated NICE, STURDY speaker posts that I believe accept banana plug aside from regular wire. The two inputs are "always on" (i.e. ready for input).> STEREO PRE-AMP OUTPUT that tracks the gain knob (for future expansion).> 22 Watt AB class amp (8 ohms) that sounds great> Headphone output which mutes the speakers (for if I want to read on our back deck at night using headphones without disturbing neighbors.THE "sorta" BAD> No tone controls> Only 22 watts per channel (8 ohms)> I have to run the volume at 80 - 90% to rock out, but it's fine for moderate/background levels at 1 o'clock position - WITH INEFFICIENT SPEAKERS!> Not recommended for people wanting CONTINUOUS UBER HIGH Sound Pressure Levels with visceral deep bass, i.e. certain metalheads and rap / electronica lovers. If you want it loud enough to feel in your gut all the time you'll probably want to look elsewhere. I'm guessing you would either be frustrated with this amp or you might roast it trying to drive large (12" or over) heavy magnet speakers that could drop into low impedance ranges. Now, with smart planning (and additional expense), you COULD use this as the front end for a beefier system using the speakers from this as your "fill" - just make sure that the downstream "Mack truck" system has it's own, separately manageable, gain controls and EQ so you can balance what takes the beating in your system.WELL GUESS WHAT?> This 22 watt per ch. amp produces ample volume for my purposes with inefficient 6.5" two-way (outdoor, made to look a "rock" cabinet) speakers (Sensitivity 86db).[Test music examples: Crowded House - "Farewell TTW" Live, Pink Floyd "Dark Side", ABWH - 1st album]> The amp has a "mellow", rounded audiophile sound with good soundstage - the highs are certainly there, every so slightly recessed but IT DOES NOT CUT MY EARS TO PIECES.> No hiss that I can find.I feel it will improve with "burn in" (most solid state electronics improve or settle into a final sound after 40 - 100 hours of use. I have repeatedly found this to be true over the years).OTHER GOOD NEWS:> My other worry was about quality control. AudioEngine must have seen the older forum complaints from various about the volume knob feeling unsmooth, scratchy/cheap because the unit I received DOES NOT have that problem. The travel of my volume knob rotation is very smooth and it's * NOT * "cockeyed" in any way.> For large get-togethers, I augment my system by sending the Line Out to a large boombox I have which doubles my bass radiating area - the sum total of the two systems is provides very satisfying coverage on an 18 X 22 foot deck.> The smoothness of this system is less likely to offend my neighbors. (Some of perceived annoyance is distortion - aside from unawareness and bad manners, which I do not practice. It amazes me how many people brag online about being able to offend their neighbors with their stereo. For the 3 or 4 parties a year I have, they are made aware of in advance and I encourage them to contact me - good relations).> TIP: YOU COULD INCREASE "OOMPH" (VOLUME OUTPUT) BY CHOOSING SPEAKERS with 92 db or higher sensitivity.> With my Sony dynamic headphones, it blasts my ears off. No problems there.WHY I CHOSE THIS:SIMPLICITY:> It seems odd, but you'd be surprised at how the simplicity of the "one knob" (and no input switch choice decision to make) is appreciated on a visceral level. It's like my old Corolla: I JUST TURN THE DAMN THING ON AND IT WORKS! No Decisions. High Quality sound. In this complicated world, I love it.I have 3 other stereos that all involve choosing settings (Dolby or DTS, surround ambience, crossover cutoff, input choices.) None of that here. Whew. What an oddly freeing experience! Especially for my back deck chill-out system.BUYING A NAME WITH A REAL SUPPORT NETWORK:I seriously considered buying one of the TriPath 80 watt per ch. amplifiers for $200.00. I think they are probably great in most cases. What swayed my decision: After problems with 3 different previous attempted hardware solutions, (new Rolls or used eBay purchase Furman mixer, used mini-PA amp), support became a crucial issue for me rather than an afterthought.I CAN ACTUALLY --> FIND <-- THIS VENDOR AND GET SUPPORT IF THERE'S A PROBLEM. I don't have to ship this to China or try and hunt down a support network. And yes this is probably made in China like everything else these days. Once you experience aggravation, the idea of a support network and customer service moves up to become 30% of one’s purchase decision.Now, down the road, I may buy 2 more speakers and take a chance and try purchasing a Lepai type amp to drive a 2nd set of speakers off the Line Out. For now, this is the "anchor" of my future system and I am quite happy with what I have.--> THE MORAL HERE:> Once I let go of my obsession with wanting a tone controls and high wattage, I found this exactly fills the bill for this purpose: high quality casual listening system.> The amp itself sounds so good YOU DON'T NEED TONE CONTROLS if your source is high quality. iPod users can use their internal software EQ to tweak things as a workaround.--> SUMMARY: VERY PLEASED! Sage advice: Just accept the simplicity my son! Accept that you can simply turn something on without fiddling and it will fulfill your needs! ahahaha.I will report back on how it sounds after full burn-in later.**************************************************************************************************************ADDENDUM - HIGH QUALITY (Name Brand) ALTERNATIVES TO CONSIDER:Emotiva Mini-X - nearly same price, 1 less inputNAD D 3020 Rave reviews, over 2X as much money, 1 less inputPS Audio "Sprout" Rave reviews, 4X as much money 4 inputs_____________________________________________________________________________GENERIC SAFETY NOTE RE ** ANY ** OUTDOOR SYSTEM: When in the hot tub, I manage my input devices (i.e. make radio station or CD track number choices) with their own, respective wireless remote controls. It should be obvious: Don't manage this or ANY powered audio system DIRECTLY from a hot tub or while you are wet. That would be unsafe. Just sayin'. Also, give your components adequate ventilation. I bring my audio components in for the winter come late October as my component case is unheated and I don't want capacitors and circuit board solder connections to freeze, but that's just me.UPDATE 10/18/2015: My external power supply for my N22 unit died after only 2 months. I contacted Audioengine support and explained symptoms and all the various ways I had tested it. They sent me out a new power supply at no cost. Sent it regular shipping speed (took like 6 days). I plugged it in and the blue power light went came on in the main unit. I will have to fully test it later, haven't had time to hook it all back up. I love this unit enough that I am going to chaulk it up to one bad part. Audioengine sells the power supply on their site for (if memory serves like $19.00 + shipping). I am pleased that they made things right at no cost to me (except doing without it for a week). I'm also pleased that they make the replacement power available on their website at a reasonable cost.

I really like this product from Audioengine. It has more capabilities than you would expect in a little package. I got this when I was building out my home office during Covid lockdown times. I had a mini amp that just didn’t get the quality that this guy does. Also had some speaker issues from improper storage and got the P4’s along with it. I’ve been impressed for my little home office, sound is good (could use a little more bass but I could fix that with a sub) looks really nice and clean, and allows my to plug in my turntable as well as connect an old tablet for streaming.Believe there’s a newer model that doesn’t seem that much more (as of 01/24). If it’s better than this then that means it’s probably pretty good.For those that want really granular control of sound profile this probably isn’t for you as there’s limited ability to tweak levels. Sounds great out of the box though - so if you want something easy and good, this is a great choice!

Of the many small amps available, I had narrowed my selection down to 3, based on both the reputed sound quality and the presence of an auto-on function. I wanted an amp to drive some small bookshelf external speakers for my flatscreen TV without having to turn it on and off each time, simply for the device to sense an incoming signal and turn itself on, then go into a power-down mode when I turned the TV off. I also wanted it to use a variable input signal from the TV so that I did not have to use a separate amp volume control. (I do have a full 7.1 setup driven from a separate tuner/receiver/amp which I use for movies, music and sports, but I don't like to go through the fuss of powering all that up just to watch the news and everyday TV broadcasts; yet the TV built-in speakers are just not fully satisfying). In short, I wanted to set-it-and-forget-it. The Audioengine N22 met that criteria, although it was the priciest of the bunch.The amp is in a MDF (Medium-Density Fiber) case, which is finished nicely and feels like heavily molded plastic. There's another review that notes the knob on the amp is thin plastic, which it is, it's not heavily molded or machined; it also does not have any markings of any kind (even a simple black dot) to let you know what the current setting is . . . while I don't miss numerical settings around the knob, a dot would be nice, I'll be using a marker and putting one on. It's a small thing, but Audioengine could significantly increase the quality impression of the device just by using a machined aluminum knob with a single indicating dot on it.The connectors on the back all appear to be high quality. And although instructions are given to connect the speakers using bare wire or fork terminal ends, I use banana plugs, the connectors accept those as well. In addition, I use the available 1/8" mini-stereo plug input rather than the RCA pin-plugs with a patch cord from my TV, same as one would for an iPod.The amp does not seem to get very warm, it is 12v input so I wouldn't expect it to, meaning it's pretty power-efficient. The power supply is a brick-style, there is ample cord length on both the 120v input and the 12v output to place the brick almost anywhere, which is nice, some amps skimp on the cord length making the power supply placement tricky. The 12v end of the power supply does, however, use a DIN-style connector rather than the more common cylinder-pin style such as used for laptops. That means that if the power supply fails, you cannot just go down to Radio Shack and buy a generic replacement, you have to go to Audioengine for a replacement else patch one up yourself from the failed unit. I would not normally have thought this a potential issue, but I have had a few power supplies (digital modem, routers, switches) fail on me recently and had to replace them, I'm sure the Chinese QA is not as good as here in the US.The amp is delivered with very nice little felt bags for the amp, power supply and connector cables. If you transport it a lot it's a nice addition, but if you set up the amp and leave it, the bags seem kind of pointless.As to sound quality, I did not use any sort of instrumentation to verify the specs, but the quality seems very good through both the tonal and volume range. I did not crank it up to try and break any glasses. There is no 'pop' when the auto-on function senses an input signal and turns the amp on; this is very nice as another amp I tried did have an annoying 'pop' on startup. There's plenty of ventilation ports in the case, the amp needs to be stood on end as it shows in order for the ventilation to work, there is no fan. The single blue LED indicator is small and unobtrusive.If you're into a good quality amp wrapped in a stylish minimalist design, this is the one for you.Update:I've had this amp installed for several months now, and it is precisely what I'd hoped it would be. It turns on automatically when it senses the TV/monitor audio signal, and then hibernates at low power when the TV is turned off. The CATV set-top box in the same cabinet gives off more heat at idle than the amp does, I'm pleased at the idle low power consumption. There is also no noticeable 'pop' when the amp starts up, which is very pleasing, and the separate subwoofer output works very well with my Yamaha powered subwoofer. Its tonal range and volume capability is very good driving a pair of Bose 161 bookshelf speakers. I've not had to adjust anything on the amp since its first install. Highly recommended.Update July 2023I’ve used this amp in the same place and the same configuration for more than ten years now. The performance is still perfect and there has been no problems or degradation of the sound output. I am still very pleased with it and would buy it again.