High Quality Audio Amplifier

[Louella Kammann]

Icreated a bluetooth speaker project with a few other features. I have already bought a mini speaker but in order to improve and change.

Its speaker is of very poor quality and does not play loudly. So I'm going to switch to a better speaker (very old but better anyway).

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Thank you for your reply.

Really ? I took an example from the JBL flip 5.

Do you think that 10 or 15 w or less is already very strong?

So much the better that I don't need that much.

In this case what would you recommend to me?

Yes, really! Obviously it depends entirely on the listening circumstances, but if you just want to listen to music in your living room or office, then you should be thinking in terms of single digit watts.

I would also add that I don't think there's any way that speaker you've shown us would handle 20W. Also, it isn't remotely going to be hi-fi sound reproduction, so you don't need to worry about loads of "headroom" in order to keep the harmonic distortion vanishingly low, or anything like that.

It will be almost entirely to be used indoors. I plan to use it for background music but also for focused music (for a party for example).

So I found the one that would match more. Does it look good?

LM386 10 W

But when I turn on my surround-sound receiver and 15-inch subwoofers to watch a movie or video concert "the sky's the limit". But, I don't have it cranked-up all the way and I don't want to annoy the neighbors so I'm not using the hundreds of watts available.)

What you have isn't adequate for a "party" unless maybe if it's background music for a "nice classy" dinner party. But several people talking at the same time can get rather loud so you have to turn-up the music to hear it. And you'll probably want stereo.

For good bass you need to "move lot's of air". That means a big speaker/woofer, a big amplifier, and a big cabinet. Flat screen TVs (and laptops) usually have lousy bass because they have small speakers in a fairly-small cabinet.

Speaker design is complicated so this is over-simplified but the soundwaves from the back of the speaker are out-of-phase with the waves from the front so they tend to cancel-out, especially at low frequencies. The cabinet helps with that and a bigger cabinet means the speaker can move more freely without trying to compress the air inside as much. "Ported" speakers are "tuned" to phase-delay the bass waves from the back to reinforce the main waves at the tuning-frequency.

It's the RMS voltage that's important. For example, with a "regular" single-ended amplifier (like the LM386) you can't more than 12V peak-to-peak. (In the real world you'll loose a little voltage because there is voltage drop across the amplifier circuitry.) That's 6V peak. The "formula" for RMS is 0.707 x peak so that's about 4V RMS. (You can use a factor of 0.354 X the power supply voltage, and a spreadsheet is handy.)

For mono I don't think there is a problem since it is the mini-speaker that does this part of the job for me, and it works well (except for the quality and the volume of the blow). If I want to add an amplifier it is to increase the power of the sound.

The LM386 is a very poor choice if quality or volume is any concern whatsoever. It's more like 0.25W and then it becomes a fuzz pedal. Even at low volume it sounds terrible. There are a million better options.

I have heard/tested or owned maybe 50-75 integrated amplifiers in my 30 years of HiFi. These amplifiers have ranged in price and quality but a few went up to insane wallet busting levels. I have reviewed a few of these amps on these pages over the years. One of my old faves in the realm of tube integrated amplifiers has always been the Line Magnetic 219ia.

That over 100lb beast had some magic but also was a VERY expensive amp to retube or even run. It put out massive heat and sometimes even produced a buzz or hum. It was and is massive in size but nonetheless a superb magical amp at $7500 retail. Made in China, yes, but it delivered the goods and then some. Line Magnetic is known as one of the premium tube amp maker in China. They do a fabulous job.

When I saw this Willsenton R8 being hyped I knew I had to give it a go and at $1295 shipped (plus tax of course) from Amazon prime (Now $1495), I knew it was a risk free endeavor. Now, I did not believe for a second that it could be as good as some brands such as Prima Luna, Audio Research, and even the Line Magnetic as the price point was so much lower than those amps.

For example, Prima Luna has the EVO 400 Integrated at $5k and it too is an all tube integrated with beautiful quality inside and out and stunning modern day features. How could a cheap Chinese made amp (that seem to be everywhere on Amazon these days) even get close in build or sound for so much less? I doubted it could but yet I ordered one to find out.

Shocker! I was surprised to see my R8 arrived two days after I ordered (free shipping) and the packing was supreme. In fact, this amp is packed better than some mega buck amps I have owned, even one that cost me 20X this price. When I opened the boxes and took out the amp I was blown away by the construction, the design and the quality parts used.

To me, this looked nicer in quality and build than my old Cary amps and as good or better than the $7500 Line Magnetic. Hmmm. I opened it up, as others have before me, and saw the beautiful job that was done on the hand wiring. Yep, this is a hand made, hand wired amp with point to point wiring. Something you do not see much these days in the realm of high end.

I expected transformer hum, buzzing, hissing, etc. In fact, my Naim Atom brings a hiss from my 99db Klipsch Heresy IV speakers when idle. When I plugged it all in, using my Nordost Blue Heaven interconnects, power cable and speaker cables it all looked so nice.

I sat down, cued up some tracks I know back to back from evaluating gear and what happened next literally changed my belief system on what is possible (more on this down below) at this price point (when we do not have greedy big name companies at the helm making thousand of dollars of profit per piece). It seems as lovers of audio, 2 channel music reproduction, we have been trained to think more expensive must be better. We see exotic amps that go into the tens of thousands of dollars and beyond and some of us lust just to hear them, to see what they could possible sound like.

We think this mega amp will bring us audio nirvana but when all is said and done, we realize we spent a fortune on something that really is not bringing any more enjoyment than the last piece we had in our system. We then continue our search and it never ends. We buy, we sell, we try crazy things to change the sound when all along all we really are doing is driving ourselves insane from marketing hype.

Nope, they are not like typical audiophile speakers that get up there in cost but those always (and I mean always) get boring for me over time. I have found that no speaker sounds like a Klipsch Heresy IV.

It brings 45 watts per channel in Ultralinear mode and 25 watts per channel in triode mode, which is switchable on the fly from the remote or the front panel of the amp. Again, something we usually only see in amps that cost 3-4X as much. It always starts up in Triode mode and for me, that is my preferred mode without question. Triode mode sounds sweeter, softer, a little more expansive, with the vocals presented nicely and a bit back in the stage so they are not forward or in your face. In UL mode, the vocals come forward and the amp goes from sounding like a sweet tube amp to a more modern sound with crisper snappier highs and a snappier bass.

This amp was bringing me the tube sound I remembered so well from years past. It brought back memories of the Line Magnetic 219ia yet it sounded different, and also had more gusto and oomph while retaining a lot of the magic. The transformers on the R8 are huge for an amp of this class, and adds to the weight of this 65lb beast of an amp. They get warm while in use but never so hot you can not touch them. This amp is quality through and through and I would hope someone would not let the fact that it was made in China sway them from it because this amplifier is just as good, if not better than some USA designs that cost much more.

The sound of this amp when mated with speakers that are a good match will truly blow your mind and if you have only listened to solid state amps you will be TRULY BLOWN AWAY here. To me, there is no contest in the sound between the R8 and any solid state amp I have owned, even one of my all time favorites the nearly $10,000 Luxman 590 AXII.

I will also say that this amp is now my preferred amp for the Klipsch Heresy IV speakers. I have never heard then sound this good, no matter what I ran them with and this is with just this amp and a Node 2i streaming and doing DAC duties. The Node 2i and this amp come in for $1500 less than a Naim atom, and this setup sounds better.

I was able to hear a $5000 Prima Luna EVO 400 integrated amp as a friend loaned me his for a few days a little while ago. I loved that integrated but have to say that the R8 gives nothing up in build or performance to the $4000 EVO. They share more similarities than differences and while the Prima Luna will use a few more parts that are indeed a few notches up and offer convenience features that are not in the R8, the sound quality is really VERY similar.

Each have that tube spaciousness, air and holographic thing going for it. The PL may be a little more richer in sound (though not sure on that) but worth an extra $3600? No way! Maybe if they were $500 apart in price but at $2600 more for the PL, I am thrilled to say I have an amp here that meets it in build and sound for much less.

The Prima Luna is the better amp though for long term if you care about auto bias, ultimate build, a smoother more modern design and the best parts you can get but did you know that the PL amps are also made in China? Yes indeed the PL amps are China made amps as well. With that said, the difference is minor when it comes to the music. I would be happy with either but happier with the R8 as it saved me $3600. I am not saying this to bash PL, but saying it as this amp truly gives up very little to those designs in build, or sound quality.

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