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AIYIMA A300 Review (Stereo Amplifier)

Rate this amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 33 17.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 120 61.9%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 38 19.6%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 3 1.5%

  • Total voters
    194

Walter

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@amirm has said before that for much of the lower priced gear, they don't request he return it. I'm not sure if that applies here, but I am quite confident he is not going to influenced by a sub-$200 freebie. Nor do I care what he does with it after the review, other than a teardown when warranted.
 

jmillar

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I just bought an a08 and tried it with a set of Klipsch towers and later with the Elac Debut 2.0. I can say with the towers the sound was impressive, though not as satisfying as my Schiit monoblocks. With the Elac standmounts the sound was not really that good. That second setup does not have a preamp and I wonder if adding it into the mix might improve performance. I also wish that Amir would have the opportunity to test it.
1.Preamp won't improve performance
2. Klipsches are more efficient. 3. Elacs are current hungry.
As a poster above pointed out this amp may be a bit current limited.

They are pushing it a bit, but I don't think they have taken it to its max potential. I'll go look at the PA5 test and compare.
 

jmillar

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Tough crowd here. With 90 watts of plenty clean enough for audio power, good headroom, balanced inputs, built is PS, and tone controls (which most people will find way more useful than an extra 10 or 20 dB of SINAD) for under $180 I don't see how this review could be considered poor. To me it looks like it deserves a "fine" panther.
Noise barely below the audibility threshold. But we are spoiled (and rightly so) by the fab SINAD ratings available at reasonable prices today. But Aiyima will come up with something better in a few short months. They are enthusiastic and brave enough to send new gear with a few rough edges to some of the fussiest guys in Audioland. Topping did that a few years ago and it worked for them.
 
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acetogen

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1.Preamp won't improve performance
2. Klipsches are more efficient. 3. Elacs are current hungry.
As a poster above pointed out this amp may be a bit current limited.

They are pushing it a bit, but I don't think they have taken it to its max potential. I'll go look at the PA5 test and compare.
Actually when I plugged it to a preamp. in single ended mode. it did improve the performance over a direct connection to a DAC, even though the A08 has a volume control so it is an integrated amp. As for the speakers, of course I know that Klipsch are more efficient than Elacs, everybody knows that! The power rating for the A08 is 36V with ~9.5V, which according to the TPA3255 specifications it does produce ~100 W per channel into 8 ohms. I am not buying the topping, it has less power than what I think I need.
 
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Saponetto

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Well, have to put my 5 cents.
When I bought a pair of A08s, all started from the needs of my wife to sonorize her fitness room and i got advantage to get another one for my office needs.
It ended that i liked so much the way this black brick sounds and fits on almost all speakers I have.
Casually, I also have a pair of Elacs Debut 6.2 and the match with the A08 is something my ears are pleased of.
The A08 moves a lot of current, and Elacs do appreciate it.

Hence, I am quite curious about the A300, perhaps I'll give a try soon...
 

Witterings

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We actually want to make a good product, so we send it to Amirm for testing. We want to find problems through Amirm's professional tests, and know what you think through more professional comments and replies, so as to optimize our products. As you said, the results of the test were very poor and actually had a lot of negative impact on sales. But we believe that a professional and high-quality product will have good sales, so temporary problems will not stop us. We've always wanted to make a better amplifier.
So currently we are optimizing the A300 based on the test results.

Do you have any timescale on when an "optimized" version may be released ... I'd be seriously interested in one at that stage?
 

375HP2482

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I'm a bit confused here. Are these SNR or SINAD? Maybe to the Audio Precision they are one and the same.


1650089309186.png
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I have an A07 with 86 dB speakers, and I can't hear noise at idle with my ear pressed against the grille cloth. Looking at the relative test spectra (measured noise floors, above) of the A300 and A07 it looks like the A300's noise floor (grass) is about 5 dB higher than the A07 (above right), so any hiss from the A300 should be close to inaudible.

The lower noise floor on the spectrum of the A07 along with lower distortion implies more negative feedback than the A300, possibly by rebalancing the relative gain structures of the opamp front end and the PWM stage. Another avenue to more feedback might involve more complex feedback loop compensation.

The multitone spectra tell the real story: 15 bits worth of dynamic range. That, along with better-than-tube distortion, is good enough for me.
 
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Morpheus

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Sorry mate, not specifically you... it seems to be a trend in almost every review thread and it does become rather irksome as the claims are then often used to attempt to negate part of the results. Maybe I have chosen the wrong time and place to raise this, I was also reading some other review threads, it's been a long day. :)


JSmith

Hi, I understand your reaction, as almost every review Amir does, gets asks for additional data, or methods questioning...
However, in this particular instance, given how usefull tone controls can be for most people and situations ( basically everyone that is not into advanced DSP and EQ) I think a few measurements here and there on the components that use them, and of their impact on noise, distortion and crosstalk could be enlightening...and prompt more people to take advantage of them, or not..I find they are one of the features that are actually worth having ( and maybe a configurable sub out too..)
 
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robertospeed

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Hi all, I received this Aiyima A300 today, I immediately noticed that in XLR as volume it feels much louder than RCA, let's say it sounds good, but I also have an Aiyima A07 with its 32v 5.0A power supply, but it sounds a lot stronger than this Aiyima A300, how come? Shouldn't A300 sound louder than A07 ? :oops:


A07 in power and volume exceeds A300 , But if I plug A300 in XLR as power and volume it sounds like A07 , I thought this A300 was much more powerful than A07 , and A07 is playing with a 32v 5.0A power supply , bought it on amazon including power supply.

Level volume Max
 

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Toku

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ciao
Ho letto il post su ASR e ora lo sto ricercando.
Come hai confrontato i livelli?
Hai giudicato dal fatto che la posizione del volume è diversa quando lo stesso segnale viene immesso in A300 e A07?
 

Saponetto

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Roberto,
What are we seeing, exactly?
I see the graphs referring on several amplifiers, and it's good to know but in absence of any scale and/or any reference about the tools you used to acquire related levels, it is quite difficult to understand the information you are forwarding.
 

robertospeed

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Roberto,
What are we seeing, exactly?
I see the graphs referring on several amplifiers, and it's good to know but in absence of any scale and/or any reference about the tools you used to acquire related levels, it is quite difficult to understand the information you are forwarding.
I have not measured them with adequate and professional tools because I do not have these tools.
I wanted to understand better though, on which one sounded louder of the 3 amplifiers.
So I recorded the audio of the 3 amplifiers with my smartphone, from the PC player I lowered the volume, and raised the volume of all 3 amplifiers to the maximum, then I took the audio files from my smartphone and measured the effect of 'wave with Audacity.
I did it to understand better, Aiyima A300 in RCA sounds too low, in XLR the volume is fine, only I perceive a bit of distortion, in XLR it reaches an input level of 2.2 vrms and in RCA it reaches an input level of 1 vrms and therefore the volume is too low and you have to turn the volume knob up to the maximum.
Aiyima A07 goes great in RCA and sounds good.
SMSL AO200 sounds good in RCA and also in XLR and as input level they sound the same, and that's all, unfortunately I don't have the proper tools to measure, but by ear these things are already understood and heard.
With this test that I did maybe I understood a little better, sorry if I put a photo with graphics without having made them with adequate tools.
 

Saponetto

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Roberto, thanks for the added information.
Within this thread I added a link to an exaustive test of this amplifier done by the pals of Zvukaudio.com, and they also evidenced what you told us about the XLR levels. Briefly, the XLRs worked at the level of 2.2 VRMS you usually drive RCA inputs.
Same fate for the RCAs that, as easily foreseeable, seemed to manage at full drive at just above 1V RMS.

It is therefore highly probable that they just added XLRs inputs on the RCA drive lines, and by doing this they were forced to lower RCA inputs level at the half of usual 2.2 VRMS.
This seems to be a logical cause for the incoherence you highlight about the input levels.
 

robertospeed

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Aiyima A300, I must admit that it sounds pretty good, with bright and detailed highs and really powerful bass, it all sounds quite detailed and with a loudness effect like the class A / B amplifiers of the 80s, tried with CD player and Magnat Monitor speakers supreme 1002 and drives them divinely, but don't mess too much with the tone controls that are heard quite well, I also tried it with Dali Spektor 1 desktop speakers and ELAC DEBUT S10.2 Subwoofer, the sound of the 2.1 is really fantastic. But the maximum sound was given with an external DAC connected to the PC and as a player player I used foobar2000, connection between DAC and Amplifier with XLR balanced cables and this time with Q Acoustic 3050i speakers, a really clean and full-bodied sound with highs refined and crystalline, in short, I liked it very much. I recommend it for desktop use because it does not have a remote control to raise and lower the volume, tone controls, etc. .. the on and off button is only behind and not in front.
 

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hitechakias

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Received mine today. I returned the Aiyima A07 due to harsh sound... unlistenable to me even at low volumes. I agree that A300 sounds like a class a-b amplifier, I was quite surprised (of course in a good way) since they use the same chip, maybe the implementation is different, really enjoyable! Negatives: there is hiss coming from it...you can hear it quite alot without music playing though... even this way I prefer it in comparison with A07. Vinyl sound like Vinyl with it... not like CD as with A07.
 
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Jim Shaw

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the AIYIMA A300 stereo amplifier with balanced and Bluetooth inputs. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $177.
View attachment 186955
I like that you can easily defeat the tone controls now and select one of three inputs, allowing the amp to replace a pre-amplifier as well.

Especially nice is inclusion of power supply which is a rarity in budget/small amps:

View attachment 186956

The speaker terminals are small but typical for the price class.

I could see an aluminum heatsink in the box for the power device/IC. In use though, it never warmed up above room temp. Neither the top, or the bottom registered a temperature rise which is nice.

AIYIMA A300 Measurements
Let's start with unbalanced RCA input first, setting the gain to 29 dB as with other amps I test with adjustable gain:

View attachment 186957

Switching to balanced we essentially get the same performance:

View attachment 186958

That distortion spike at nearly -72 dB limits SINAD to below average:

View attachment 186959

In fairness and comparison to a few amplifiers with much lower gain, I also tested the amp at 12 dB gain:

View attachment 186960

A bit better but still not enough to cross the average line. For the rest of the tests, I stuck with XLR input and 29 dB gain.

Here is our SNR:

View attachment 186961

These are disappointing numbers relative to what AIYIMA has shown it can do.

Multitone test result is not too bad:

View attachment 186962

Crosstalk is good:
View attachment 186963

Frequency response unfortunately shows load dependency:
View attachment 186964

Key here is to see if we can get more power out of this small package and we do:

View attachment 186965

Interestingly, we get almost as much with 8 ohm load!
View attachment 186966

Back to 4 ohm load, with short bursts we get a lot more power:

View attachment 186967

Finally, there is little frequency/power dependency which is very good for a class D amplifier:

View attachment 186968

Warm Up Time Measurement
Amplifier stabilizes quickly:

View attachment 186969

Conclusions
It would have been great if the A300 had followed the footsteps of previous AIYIMA amps but with more power. Alas, it delivers on more power at the expense of noise and distortion. Assuming you don't hear the noise, it may be the right trade off in a budget amplifier. On packaging, I really like the integrated box with XLR inputs. Amplifier power supplies can be huge and that is avoided here.

I am personally snobbish and want my power with low noise and distortion so can't recommend the AIYIMA A300. But your priorities may be different.

-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I must wonder if the 'warm heads' might enjoy the second harmonic distortion. Alas, there probably isn't enough for them.
 

hitechakias

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You should probably listen to both of them and decide if you should choose one over another because of some measurements or trust your ears. If it's distortion the fact that you can listen to music without pain in your ears then that's my choice!
 

JP Munoz

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Wait, how do you know this amp has high residual noise? You have one?
Oh it has, I do have one. Atthe beggining I thought I'd get used to it and nope... Totally hate it. Looking for something else currently
 
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