# OT: Dayton Audio APA-150 Compact Home Amp



## coffee_junkee (Jul 13, 2006)

_Backstory: I built my first ever home computer this month and find myself using it quite a bit for work as well as for entertainment. Until now, I was using (Don't you even laugh) that Navone Engineering mini car amp that I reviewed awhile back, powered by an old 12v, 5 amp, laptop power supply. That was connected to a pair of BlueRoom micropods and a matching BlueRoom powered subwoofer. _

I told you not to laugh, gawd-dammit... Stop laughing!

Sooooo, I got my Parts Express flyer in the mail and settled in for a nice long read in the bathroom upon which I discovered the APA-150. Small footprint, 4ohm stable in stereo, bridgeable, onboard low-pass crossover, all for the tidy sum of $109 + shipping. Seemed like a good deal, ship it!

It arrived in a timely fashion, typical with PE as they have excellent shipping operations and was double boxed with expanding foam in the middle. The amp could have survived just about anything the brown suit boys could serve this side of running it over with the van.

The amp itself appears well constructed with a nice black finish on the brushed aluminum face and case body. The volume knob moves with a fluid resistance and the power button feels industrial grade with hard "click" when turned on. It lights up a cool blue color when activated, bonus because my computer has blue LED fans to match!  There is quite a bit of heft here, almost 12 pounds, for something sized similar to a loaf of Wonder bread. The rubber feet were a nice touch that kept it from sliding around on my glass desktop when pushing the hefty power button.

Out back, there are pre-amp level inputs and outputs for passing the signal on to another amp if desired. The manual advertises the pass-through outputs with a "-3db" rating at 20-20k. Not sure why the loss, but it's worth mentioning for daisy chain intenders. The crossover is low-pass or full range with adjustable cutoffs between 50-150hz, 18db slope. Speaker connections are via 5-way binding post and the bridging diagram is clearly marked. There is also a switch for auto on when a signal is sensed.

Overall, very nicely assembled and looks quite a bit more expensive than it is. Now for the meat and potatoes...

I hooked this up to one of the 4 stereo pairs of outputs on my computer's motherboard and sat down for some listening. The speakers used were my trusty BlueRoom Minipods that are quite a bit larger than the MicroPod's I was using prior. I left the powered subwoofer unplugged. 

The auto-on signal sensing feature works as advertised and the amp shut off about 5 minutes after the compute was turned off. It actually turned on when the computer did, not even needing the Window's start up melody to get the party started. Nice!

Folks, this amp sounds very good. There is plenty of power on tap for a pair of average bookshelf speakers and probably enough for some smaller towers. It was able to get my somewhat efficient Minipods moving rather quickly and downright loud very easily. My test was nearfield, with the speakers about 4' from either side of my head but the sound stage was wide and deep. Tracks I'm very familiar with sounded superb and all the instruments landed right where they do on my reference system. Placing my ear up very close to the tweeter revealed a distant idle noise but nothing that could be heard over a foot away. Honestly, the forced fan cooling on the back panel of the amp, while very quiet in it's own right, was more audible than the idle hiss. 

Overall, this is a great amp for someone, like me, who can't handle the tinny sound from even "good" computer speakers. I have tried so many sets short of nearfield studio monitors, it's not even funny. This amp paired with some of those Insignia concentrics from Best Buy would seriously bury every set of computer-intended speakers I have heard to date. Granted, some of those systems are geared toward gamers and multi-channel playback, but for solid stereo performance, you can't beat this amp and some good bookshelf units. And don't be afraid to set your sights higher than the low-to-mid-fi Insignia's, this amp brings the beef to power something much nicer and not embarass your golden-eared chums. 

I would like, fundage permitting, to buy one more and have a two way active DIY setup using the Morel drivers sitting in my closet that have never been used.  The 8", 4ohm woofer and MDT23 tweeter would make for a nice speaker providing they dont need stupid huge enclosures for low extention. Hmm.. Winter project, perhaps? 

Hopefully Parts Express won't void my warranty for the internal (and external) pics I will post when I get home.


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## biggerrigger (Jan 14, 2007)

Thanks for the review. This sounds like just the ticket for a future pc mini tower project that I have in mind. Looking forward to the amp porn 
Aaron


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## pontiacbird (Dec 29, 2006)

got pics of this amp??


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## WLDock (Sep 27, 2005)

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=300-812


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## pontiacbird (Dec 29, 2006)

awesome, thanks


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