Monoprice Unity 200-Watt Bridgeable Power Amp - Class‑D Amplifier, 12-Volt Input/Output Triggers, Rack Mountable

So I've actually bought 3 of these over the last few years. #1 I used to power a pair of atmos speakers with a 12V trigger line to turn it on from the AVR. #2 I used in the living room to drive a pair of bookshelves for casual listening using using the signal autodetect. The pass through RCA inputs go to a sub. #3 I used in my home office to drive a air of bookshelves using the signal autodetect. Maybe they aren't "audiophile" quality, but they have good sound even when using them at fairly loud volumes. The power on and off works reliably both with the 12V trigger as well as the signal detect. There is a "volume control" adjustment on the back of the amp meant for adjusting peak volumes more than anything else. I'm not sure if it really adjusts the output or just attenuates the incoming signal, but its mandatory to tweak it when using the signal detect function for power on. In my office, when I'm listening to music at a low volume while I'm working the amp would occasionally cut off due to the small input signal on quieter music. So adjusting the volume on the amp down about 30-40% means I can run the input at a higher volume level to make sure the amp stays on while still keeping the speakers at a reasonable volume level for background music. And even though I'm giving up on max power, the amp still drive my 89 dB sensitivity bookshelves a lot louder than I want to listen in my office so practically I'm not losing anything. Runs at fairly minimal heat and even after some spirited use in the living room where its mounted inside a cabinet with the door shut its not hot enough to worry about. I think its a good power level and feature set at this price.

I have bought two of these to replace a different power amp with A/B/A+B switching that proved to be very lacking in power output, nowhere near what it says in the ad, even when driving just a single pair of speakers. My two Monoprice Unity 100s will be used to drive a pair of speakers in the ceiling of our dining room and a second pair out on our covered patio. For this type of service where you really don't need hundreds of watts or audiophile performance they are ideal. If you think you're getting audiophile performance from a Walmart priced (but I assure you not quality) product, think again. If you want more watts for your Atmos or rear surrounds or whatever, I would think about the more expensive 200 model, however. First of all the likes: 1. Price - at $125 and change these are excellent value for money for use as a modest power amp for, say, Atmos speakers or, as I am using them "muzac" service around the home. 2. Built quality - very sturdy cases, nice and solid, well finished. 3. Size - very low profile and only half the width of a standard hifi box or AV receiver, meaning you can put two side-by-side in your stack without taking up too much headroom. Rack mountable too with brackets supplied. 4. Heat (or lack of it) - being class D amplifiers they don't create a lot of heat, which is good. Things I don't like: 1. Volume knob on the back - might be okay for "set it and forget it" use, but for balancing speakers out it may be an issue for some. There's plenty of room on the front panel for a volume knob, I can only think hiding it on the back meant they could use a cheaper one (see below). 2. Volume knob is very small and needs a screwdriver to turn it. 3. Volume needs to be cranked up all the way anyway so why bother? 4. Speaker connections - you have to strip the wires and insert them into a block, tighten the screws down. The blocks will only take 14 awg wire at most, and you have to be careful not to let stray wire strands short out the connections - they are VERY close to each other. I have to reconnect my wires for a different reason this weekend, and I am going to take the opportunity to "tin" the wire ends with solder to give me solid ends to fit into the connector block. Sound quality? Jury's out on that one. To be fair I'm hardly using a pair of top-of-the-range hifi speakers, just modest built-ins, but I'm not expecting audiophile quality from a $125 amp either. Should be perfectly fine for Atmos or rear surrounds or muzac service though.

I am using this item to power the rear high surround speakers in my Dolby Atmos 7.4.4 setup. Yes I have 4 high speakers, 2 front, 1 center, 2 surround, 2 rear surround, and 4 sub-woofers (1 in each corner of the room). Powered by Onkyo TX-RZ920 9.2 4K UHD Atmos receiver. The 2 extra rear high channels are fed from the pre-out jacks, and that's what drives this Monoprice amp. In case you are wondering, 2 of the sub-woofers are part of my front speaker setup, configured as full-range. The other two sub-woofers are connected to the Onkyo sub1 and sub2 outputs. Many people do not realize the incredible difference that balanced subs can make. Now, back to the Monoprice amp: It is so well designed and configured. I like the fact that you can choose to have it auto power-on, or be triggered from the 12V trigger of the main amp. The unit is compact, sturdy and comes with heavy duty brackets for wall mounting or stacking. There is also the ability to bridge the amp, or to select 4 or 8 ohm output. The volume control is an almost hidden turn screw - great for this application - no chance to accidentally change the volume after you have carefully calibrated the whole system. The amp silently comes on when needed, and turns off some time after the music stops. Perfect. My only minor issue is that the speaker connector could be more robust. On the other hand, it is designed to connect all the wires to a single plug, which is very handy for installation and maintenance.

This little amp was exactly what I needed to power 2 additional Atmos speakers in my system. My receiver supports an 11.2 setup, but only powers 9 channels. This was by far the most cost effective solution I could find for getting my 7.2.4 Atmos set-up. I initially ordered a 3.5mm, 12v trigger cord with this unit and tried it with this amp but ended up returning it. When the trigger cord was connected it created a buzz in the two speakers, I don’t know what the issue stemmed from and tried everything I could think of to get rid of it but couldn’t. Fortunately this amp has an auto detect setting so the trigger cord isn’t needed. The auto setting works well and turns on/off automatically when it detects/does not detect a signal, I do notice a delay before this amp turns on without the trigger cord, but it works without and I couldn’t put up with that constant buzz. The amp (without the trigger cord) works perfectly for my needs and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to others looking for a cost effective solution to power additional speakers.

This has the same form factor and specs as the Russound A2100. (The rear layout, and even the diagrams in the manuals are the same.) The A2100 retails for between $400 and $450. I did a lot of searching and, especially in Europe, there are limited options for a compact power amp with a trigger at this price point. I returned my first unit (which emitted a whistling sound). Second unit working ok so far. 12V trigger works perfectly. I'm using to power a pair of rear surround speakers. Dialing down the volume control on the rear of the unit removes any hiss. (At the cost of power, but I find the power levels ok for normal domestic use.) Sound is very clear on dialogue. Suitable for pretty much any use - eg music in kitchen/office. I'd draw the line at driving "audiophile" main left/right speakers (not their target use anyway). Front of unit is nicely minimal with polished metal. The rear speaker connectors are poor quality. (Though that seems fairly common, even on more expensive "installation" amps.) I used some short speaker cable to attach banana plug binding posts.

I purchased this on sale for 267 Cad plus taxes. Packaging = normal , to be honest I am unsure why people care about packaging. If an item can reach me unharmed and undamaged, I do not care if you ship it to me in a recycled milk bag. As long as it stays intact. Form factor- unnoticeable if placed next to the AVR Use case and how I used it? Polk RTAi9 speakers. Yamaha Receiver HTR 6190/RXV1800 (pre front out) I used them as an additional amp for my Fronts because they are power hungry. Now that my receiver isn't driving them properly but my speaker can accommodate, Bi-amp ergo I can send power to the bass drivers via a different amp and mid & tweeters via different amp. First I tried to drive the mid,tweeter with mono price listening to FLAC 2 channel Master tracks via Tidal whilst giving power to low/bass drivers via AVR -and I would put the volume to 0 mid track and I'd notice a drop in sound because after all, there will be no power to mid so I'd only get the bass (just to check if it was even working) Then I plugged them into Bass and drove mids,tweeter via AVR and dropped volume to 0 and the bass drivers went down but it wasn't that noticeable. I tried jacking up the volume of the AVR whilst keeping amp at mid-way- and I would feel the difference but keeping AVR volume same spot and jacking up amp volume barely made any difference. Keep in mind, amp with this kind of stated power 150 WPC should have enough "oomph" to show a difference otherwise what is the point of it? The power is extremely overstated on this item. Monoprice 131027 450 watt. Maybe this is 50 wpc max? I wish I had an instrument to measure it. Why 2 stars not 1 or 3? that's because the volume knob was on the front and item wasn't hissing or had any distortion or pops. As in, it worked but due to the massive overstatement of power I'm taking off other stars. I might have thought of giving it more stars if had any other capability like Wifi streaming etc but it has 1 job to do, provide power and it failed at that too. The 200 watt version of Monoprice is/was listed more expensive than this. I tried this because it went on sale. To be honest, any amp stating 150 wpc , the weight of the item would be a dead give-away and this item was slightly heavier than 3 Note 20 Ultra phones combined. I wish we had the tech where the "weight" stopped mattering cause technology had advanced but in amps weight still matters. This shouldn't even be in "budget" category cause it doesn't provide budget level power either. Buyer beware.

J'ai commandé cet ampli pour mon système home cinéma 5.1.4 pour alimenter mes enceintes encastrées pour de l'Atmos (B&W CCM362). Cet ampli fait largement l'affaire sans se ruiner et fait la différence. Simple et efficace. Les plus vraiment sympas: * l'utilisation d'un contact Phoenix à l'arrière pour brancher les enceintes * le potentiomètre du volume est à l'arrière. Il faut un tournevis pour le régler. Parfait si on ne veut pas risquer de dérégler le son si on l'utilise sur une pre-out * petits, ne dégage pas (trop) de chaleur, discret (pas de LEDs inutiles) * son excellent pour de l'atmos (je dirais même comme ampli de puissance pour toute autre source aussi sincèrement). * divers outillages livré avec pour soit le poser sur un autre appareil en laissant de la place pour l'aération, soit dans un rack 19'. Je devrais enlever 1 étoile à cause du trigger qui crée chez moi un bourdonnement dans toutes les enceintes. Mais bon, appuyer sur 2 boutons pour les allumer c'est pas la mort loin de là.

The description says 100Watt per channel , but this exact model is 100W total, or 65Watt per channel according to Manufacturer website and the manual. False Advertising!