Dayton Audio APA150 150-Watts Power Amplifier (Black)

Over the past several years I've been on a class D purchasing binge, constantly trying the latest and greatest Chi-Fi class D releases from the likes of Fosi, Douk/Nobsound, and Aiyima. They feature some excellent-sounding amps, especially those where one can change out the op-amps (which can make a huge difference in sound quality). Through the years I would give this Dayton Audio APA150 amp a cursory glance when I came upon it on various sites - either here or on Amazon - only to proceed on to the next item. But just the other day, while coming across this APA150, I thought "why not give it a try," ordering one off of Amazon US. It arrived the very same day (which was a pleasant surprise), and I immediately connected it. Now, let me get this out of the way up front, and that is this amp is much larger (and heavier) than all the budget Chi-Fi class D amps that you can find on the likes of Amazon. Weight-wise, this Dayton Audio APA150 weighs approximately 6-7 times more than the likes of the Fosi ZA3 class D amplifier, and is much larger - mainly in depth and height. So if you can deal with those dimensions and weight, then we're off to the races (sound). Normally, I keep my gear "on" all the time because I've long since discovered that as gear warms up/breaks-in, the sound changes for the better (read warmer here). With the APA150, I started listening right away and was genuinely surprised at how good it sounded right out of the box. The first thing I noticed is its warmer, more airy, class AB sound, which was welcomed. As an aside, with some of the latest Chi-Fi class D releases - especially those with op-amps you can change out - they have been approaching class AB status with regard to tonal differences, warmth, and sound-staging. But to find a Class AB amp at this low price of $199 (as of this writing), I initially thought that it couldn't be that good - but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it's a superb-sounding instrument! I keep the APA150 on all the time and not set to standby (which you control on the rear). I also didn't use the stock AC cable - rather, I connected a much upgraded Audioquest AC power cable that I believe made a difference. Now add to this a set of 8 Gauge speaker cables terminated wth banana plugs by World's Best Cables (WBC), and run them to a set of KEF Q1 Meta's and a KEF subwoofer under the desk (I am listening on a desktop, near-field system), and I'm experiencing a bit of audio nirvana, if you will. I'll say it again, that I didn't expect this amp to sound so good. In some reviews (just some), the reviewers stated that the APA150 didn't have much bass response, but I beg to differ. I find the bass to be very tight, extended and dynamic, with a slightly warmish tonality. Mids - especially the brass instruments - have the requisite bite without being harsh or grating. Highs - especially with instruments such as cymbals - are not muted or grating. They have a realistic sizzle that rises above the body of the music (with many amps, cymbals can be lost in the music, and muffled or altered somewhat). Stringed instruments have that silky sheen (on good recordings, of course). In the end, this APA150 can't make chicken salad out of chicken-sh_t, meaning poor recordings cannot be made to sound better. The only other viewpoint that I can add is that the APA150 can (not always) sound a little bright on the high end of things, especially with stringed instruments such as violins. So here I am - an audiophile since 1966, and am super impressed with this inexpensive $200 class AB amp. Even though it's been on the market for 10 +/- years, with no changes having been made to its design, this APA150 can still turn heads and make people go "ahhhhh..." Sound staging and depth, by the way, come off as being superb (superior, that is). The uncanny thing - well, on my system, that is - is the sense of air and instrumental separation I'm hearing. I listen mostly to classical and jazz (both small and big bands), and the musical performances seem to be lifted out of the speakers in a broad sound stage across the front of my speakers - it's uncanny really. In some reviews, it was remarked that the ultra-bright blue light below the volume knob is too distracting. I most certainly agree with that! This blue light is so bright that if listening at night time hours, and you turn off the lighting in the room, that amplifier light will light up the whole room. If you have the APA150 set up where it's in front of you (like most people do), that blue light can (and will) seriously detract from your listening experiences. I don't have that problem because I placed the APA150 up higher on a shelf, so I'm not forced to look at it - so it's not in my line of site. Additionally, I have not experienced the amp heating up at all - it stays cool - but then I'm listening on a desktop, near-field setup. But yes, that blue light can be a bit overwhelming, and if you're listening in the dark, can almost blind you. Overall, color me highly impressed. I do wish Dayton Wright would have made it smaller - not to mention taming that blue light - but those are minor points in the overall scheme of things. If you connect this Dayton Audio APA150 amp with quality components and quality interconnects, you will be rewarded with superior sound capabilities. Highly recommended!!!!!

I have only had this week or so, and it did take a little break in time to come out of it's shell, but this seems to be a well made, sturdy amp that has good sound. This is powering a pair of ~88db, 8 ohm, outdoor speakers and it does the job just fine for moderate volume levels. For the price I would recommend this, it has decent power, it sounds good, but it has a few missing things that would otherwise make it nearly perfect. It does not have Bass and Treble controls which would be useful. It has a very flat sound which is good as it does not unnaturally color the music, but for outdoor speakers or really any other 2 channel application it would be nice to turn the volume down some and push up the bass a little. An additional equalizer will likely be purchased. The Volume control knob should be the type that clicks into place, it would make it easier for small volume adjustments. The LED is super bright. Not a big deal as a little tape can tone it down. To the positives, I like that it is bridgeable, I may get another, as for the price the amplification quality it provides may be nearly unbeatable. The size is good, I could fit two, maybe three, of these next to each other in the same space one regular sized amp would take up. The self on/off works fine even with only a small signal sent. The sound, I like flat and natural by default which this has, yet still would like it more if I could tweak the bass/treble right from the amp itself. Overall I am happy with this product for the price.

After much research I've found really only two quality Amps for Bookshelf speakers based on price, features, RMS Output and reviews. The Emotiva Mini-x a-100 and the item I'm reviewing now (Dayton Audio APA150). I went with Dayton simply because it's small depth fits on the bottom shelf of my small desk, looks a little nicer and about 40 dollars less than the Emotiva. For reference I'll tell you that I bought this Amp to go along with NHT Mini-Monitor speakers and NHT Super 8 Subwoofer. This is used for a small office because I wanted really good sounding music on my PC. The speakers are rated at 75 Watts/Channel and are 8 Ohms. I was worried about the Dayton Amp not being loud enough to take full advantage of the speakers potential being you can supposedly only acheive 50 Watts/Channel with 8 Ohms. Well I can't tell you how many watts I was able to muster from the Dayton Amp but all I know is it gets REALLY Loud in my office with no noticeable distortion untill about 85-90% volume on my PC sound card. However at that volume it felt like my speakers might have been the ones distorting but it's hard to know for sure. I can say with complete confidence that there is way more than enough volume for near-feild listening and possibly even enough volume to fill a large room, even with 8 Ohm speakers. I generally sit about 2 feet from the speakers and honestly going to much above 60% volume is entering ear damage territory if you listen for extended periods of time. For general listening I set it around 30% volume. So needless to say I am very impressed. The sound is crystal clear as well and the device itself has no problems whatsoever with heat as long as you are in a well ventilated area. Right when the vents start to feel a little hot, you can feel the fan kick in for short little 5 second bursts which instantly cool it off. The fan is also virtually noiseless, especially sitting next to my noisy PC fans. I also find the construction of the Amp to be Fantastic. I was shocked that nearly the whole unit is made of solid metal including the front panel and volume knob. It comes with all the connections I need to hook up speakers, sound card, and Subwoofer to the Amp. It would have been nice to see some headphone jacks and another RCA jack for inputing other devices. Overall there isn't much to criticize with this Amp. If the internal parts are as quality as the exterior, this should last quite some time!

I am very happy with this amp, only giving 4 stars because i had to dig around and find some of the info before i decided to purchase. Things like frequency response, noise level, and THD at rated wattage. These should be listed for all amplifiers listings but i had to find it on the manufactures site. It is a 5 star amp, but they lose a star for lacking product description. I use this amp bridged to power my center channel. I am very satisfied with the flat response that it gives and use my receiver for all tone needs. Gives out all the power I need to match my towers and make the dialog loud and clear. It is a solid product that i expect to use for years to come. Very heavy for the size, and for an amp that is a good thing! I do not use the volume knob since the receiver controls volume output, but it does glide smoothly. It sits in my entertainment center with a glass front and the LED is incredibly bright. I had to cover it with a piece of tape to tone it down. Still shines through the tape, but now it's about as bright as the other electronics on the shelves. I initially used the "auto" power function but i had to stop using it. It takes a second to turn on, which is very annoying since it is only one channel of my system so i could hear when it turned on, and it creates a strange discharging sound when it powers down. I could only describe it as the sound of a dog whistle going from inaudible (20kHz) down to about 10kHz for a second. Not that big of a deal, but it would auto turn off after only a minute of use. It would often auto-off when browsing through menus and the sound would startle me. Plus it makes a weird blip when it turns on. I did find these sounds are only a function of the auto power feature, and do not happen when the unit is plugged in or the power switch is turned on or off. So now i have the amp hooked up to an "energy saving surge protector" that turns on all the amps when the receiver draws more than the standby power. I wish this amp had a 12v trigger but i cannot reduce star value for that, images are clear it does not have a 12v trigger. Now everything works like a charm. Plus other reviews have mentioned that the standby power is essentially the same as the on power usage, so now that its being disconnected after each use I know its "standby" power usage is 0. So if you are not creative like me, you may want to opt for "always on" and use the front power button or deal with the weird start-up/power-down noise.

The durability is so wonderful for us. We had various other amplifiers just go out after a storm, or fry the mixer. But, this one is no problem at all. It is also a lot clearer. And it is compatible with DBX ZonePro "M" (m is for mixer) automation (microphone anti-feedback, volume leveling, eq, limiter). The cooling fan in the amplifier doesn't come on when using 8 ohm speakers normally. It also works well with our AudioEngine B1 bluetooth. There's no more bass distortion--just easy to hear and high resolution. This amplifier didn't need nearly as much EQ as the old one. Almost no EQ was needed. It just works and does everything right.

The Dayton APA150 was an upgrade for my trusty little SMSL SA-50. The Dayton unit had a little bit more power for my B&W 685 S2's, which made for a clearer middle and high end at moderate volumes. PC source (ASUS motherboard), SPIDIF out to SMSL Sanskrit DAC, RCA cable to amp(s). The pass-through line outs were convenient for a sub, it played clean when pushed, and was excellent power for the price. "Was." My unit stopped working in August 2021, after only 5 months of daily use. No gradual loss of volume, no catastrophic failure, no signs anything was amiss. I came home one day to see that the power indicator was still on, but there was no signal output to the speakers. Dayton has a 5-Year Warranty for defective items, but does not cover the cost of shipping. Make sure you keep the original box. It was easy to get an RMA number from Parts-Express, but I had to spend $40 to send the dead 12-pound amp back. A replacement unit was supposed to go, but back-orders pushed the shipping date back multiple times. Almost two months later, the replacement unit arrived... The new Dayton sounded as good as the old one, and slightly better than my 6.5-year-old SMSL side-by-side. I got a little bit more low end extension, and a small increase in volume. The Dayton APA150 really does sound good for the price, but I am not confident that the replacement unit will last. My experience might be out of the norm, however I cannot recommend this unit.

The "speaker-system-in-a-box" (Creative, Logitech, etc) solution sucks (in my opinion). They all sound tin-ey and plastic-ey (even the high-dollar ones). So I bought two Polk bookshelf speakers along with this amp. What a difference a good, quality amp makes (and wood enclosed speakers)! This amp fits well on my desktop yet gets extremely loud when the volume is turned up. In fact, I cannot turn the volume up much past the midway point because it is too loud. And it isn't merely loud, it is loud & CLEAR. It may be a bit over-kill for a desktop pc, but the main reason I wanted such sonic clarity is because I like to rip & transcode my music & dvd collection. I guess I could have simply bought some good headphones, but who wants to wear headphones? I think I'm obsessive-compulsive, but hey, it drives me crazy when something doesn't sound-look-taste-feel-smell right. I can say that is amp leaves nothing to be desired. I listened to "Terrapin Station" with a $150 "package" speaker system and then hooked up my new Polks and the Dayton. No comparison. The Dayton matched with the Polks gave such great clarity & realism & warmth I could hardly believe it. Cymbals shimmered, Jerry's voice & guitar flowed like "silvery wine in a space-ship, gravity all non-sense", horns rang strong and true... Now I can be more satisfied that my audio work is being performed correctly and that they sound as perfect as can be gotten. The one drawback is that you'll need two of these amps along with a separate subwoofer for your LFE. One tip (which should be obvious): make sure your speaker wires don't contact one another when you screw them down into the posts. A little strand of wire was reaching out and just slightly touching another wire from a different channel. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why my amp wouldn't stay on! One quick call to the seller provided friendly help to solve my little issue. I would definitely buy another Dayton amp.

I needed a no-frills amplifier for my gym room. I didn't need any pre-amplifier features but wanted to have a volume control knob, and did not need an immense amount of power due to the small size of the room. The Dayton unit fit the description perfectly and I am very happy with my purchase. I have the amp hooked up to a pair of Sony SS-B3000 speakers. I have two signal sources, a Sony LCD TV that in turn gets its signal from a Roku box and a DVD player via HDMI, and a Squeezebox Touch player. The amp has only one input so I use a cheap external RCA signal switcher to toggle between them. The unit has line out connections in case you want to chain it with another amplifier, e.g., to drive a subwoofer. The unit is extremely solidly built and simple to set up and operate. It is compact, exactly the width of the Roku and Squeezebox Touch units which I keep on top of the amp. Voice quality is very good to my non-expert ears, and the unit delivers so much power I rarely have the dial turned to more than 20%. The design is simple, with just the volume dial and an on/off button on the front panel. You can toggle on the signal detection feature using a switch on the back panel. With that feature activated, the unit sniffs the incoming signal level and goes to sleep if the audio source has been idle for a while. I am extremely pleased with this functionality. It wakes up really quickly, and does not take a high signal level to wake up (My comparison point is my Onkyo 2x100W power amplifier which I have downstairs and I can't use its signal detection feature because the input volume needs to be turned up relatively high for the amp to detect it, and the amp goes to sleep when there are quiet passages in the music, like for Chopin). The LED embedded in the power button changes color from red to blue to indicate whether the unit is sleeping or active.

I bought this amplifier to power my old jbl 88 plus speakers from the 70 s. Nothing has ever sounded so good on these speakers as they are not easy to drive paired up with a wimm ultra and a topping d 10 , head room city a tank of an amplifier in a small profile. Going to by a second for mono bridge, 5 stars i think this is as good as amplifier s costing 8 times more .

Compre este amplificador por su potencia y las buenas referencias que tengo de un hermano menor, el Dayton Audio DTA-120 Class T Mini Amplifier 60 WPC. Pero su funcionamiento no fue correcto ya que al ocupar el line output este no esta controlado por el volumen del amplificador, por lo cual no se le puede conectar un subwoofer.

Makes my in wall sub sound great!

Hifi

VERY solid value for the power and definition. even without a preamp and graphic eq the sound is very transparent. seems to be built with very good components. sound worth twice the price.