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AIYIMA A200 Stereo Amplifier Review

Rate this amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 13 5.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 74 32.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 130 57.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 11 4.8%

  • Total voters
    228

Cars-N-Cans

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Thanks Amir. My concern with those little amps is: is there hiss produced in the speakers? The Aiyima A07 does hiss in mine.
I can only assume yes as the relative noise floor is some 5-15 dB worse above 1 kHz compared to the A07, depending on how its fed.
 

tomtoo

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Yes, bro, the question is, is there a similar amp with DAC you need inside for this price?

Dont know. Maybe the A08 pro? Have to see measurements. There is just something in me that dont likes digital ins that lower performance so much. Makes the world more complicated. ;)
Another thing is, if i need a good dac for it anyway, i have not to pay for the build in. And can go with a A07.
 
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thewas

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It seems it is the successor of the A08, would be interesting to see what their differences are as the chipsets seem to be the same and the A08 is stated at their website with higher SNR:


 

MCH

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Thanks for the review.
Measurements are similar, or a bit worse than the 07, with the exception of the power at low frequencies. Question to the gang: how important is this? Is the 07 still the king or the a200 come to solve a critical limitation?
 

Thomas_A

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Nice review as always.

The size and price is good for portable use. I am however, looking for some small, cheap portable amp for outdoor speaker measurements. These ones seem to roll off from 5 kHz and up and have some load dependency. Is there any similarly sized cheap amp within +/- 0.5 dB to 20 kHz ( or rather perfectly linear to 20 kHz...)?
 

oscar_dziki

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Dont know. Maybe the A08 pro? Have to see measurements. There is just something in me that dont likes digital ins that lower performance so much. Makes the world more complicated. ;)
Another thing is, if i need a good dac for it anyway, i have not to pay for the build in. And can go with a A07.
Then go with A07 :D. good DAC like 10s is 110$, I know it would be cool if it would be included in a good amplifier that costs 160$ but it does not compute :D
 

dominikz

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Thanks @amirm for another interesting review!
Frequency response is flat enough but is load (speaker) dependent:
AIYIMA A200 Bluetooth USB DAC Amplifier Analog RCA In Frequency Response Measurement.png
A bit off topic but may I ask if you would consider including output impedance vs frequency graphs to power amplifier reviews?
IMO the main value of such measurements is that they allow one to calculate the resulting FR shape with any known load - here's one example of such calculation for an amp with high output impedance: link to post.
While the FR difference into two resistive loads shows qualitatively whether or not there is load sensitivity (and roughly how much), IMHO the output impedance view is more informative and can be more easily generalized to complex loads / loudspeakers.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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A bit off topic but may I ask if you would consider including output impedance vs frequency graphs to power amplifier reviews?
Unfortunately that requires a different setup to measure. AP sells a box to do it automatically but I hate to spend money on it just for this.
 

dominikz

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Unfortunately that requires a different setup to measure. AP sells a box to do it automatically but I hate to spend money on it just for this.
I see, thanks in any case for the response!
 

respice finem

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the AIYIMA A200 stereo amplifier with USB DAC and Bluetooth. It was sent to me by the company and costs about US $160.
View attachment 229400
The compact size should fit on desks well. Controls are simplicity in themselves: push in the volume control to select input (RCA or Bluetooth/USB). Rotate for volume.

View attachment 229401

Nice to see built-in power supply unlike other AIYIMA offerings that required large external ones. Design is based on TI TPA3255 IC.

AIYIMA A200 Measurements
Let's start with RCA input:
View attachment 229402

SINAD which represents a measure of noise and distortion is above average:
View attachment 229403

View attachment 229404

Unfortunately digital input degrades that some:
View attachment 229405

So the rest of the tests are with RCA input. SNR is good for class:
View attachment 229406

As is distortion as represented by multitone:
View attachment 229407

Frequency response is flat enough but is load (speaker) dependent:
View attachment 229408

Crosstalk is good:
View attachment 229409

Let's see how much clean power it can produce with 4 and 8 ohm loads:
View attachment 229410
View attachment 229411

Allowing for 1% THD we don't get more power but burst delivery is higher:
View attachment 229412

For a desktop amp, this is pretty good amount of juice.

Sweeping at different frequencies shows very predictable response:
View attachment 229413

Of note, power doesn't drop much at 20 Hz which is very good (and important).

Finally the amp is good more or less when you power it up:
View attachment 229414

Conclusions
AIYIMA once again shows that it has as solid hold in the mid-power amplifier market with above average performance at bargain prices. Integrated power supply solves one of the hassles of their separates and provides nice turnkey solution. Interface and build is good for the class. So really, if you want a competent amplifier with good power and little money, you have it.

I am going to recommend the AIYIMA A200 amplifier.

------------
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/
Fine, and very, very affordable, considering a USB DAC and Bluetooth are also on board.
 

Saponetto

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Quite curious to see if the motherboard got some variations compared to the 08.
Both of mine 08s required the replacement of a couple of smd capacitors to get rid of the on-off bump.
Nothing to worry about, anyway.
 

pma

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Distortion spectrum with digital input is full of high harmonics that may become audible

AIYIMA A200 Bluetooth USB DAC Amplifier Digital In Measurement.png

Frequency response depends on load impedance in audible band. Tested is only with resistive load. It will be much worse with many speakers, as I have shown many many times on the example of AIYIMA A07. It was also audible in a properly done DBT test against a linear amplifier with flat FR.

AIYIMA A200 Bluetooth USB DAC Amplifier Analog RCA In Frequency Response Measurement.png

Overall result is poor, in my eyes.

19+20kHz IMD was not tested, right?
 

Schlippwhip68

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I am pleased for Aiyima here with these results. They may need a little more refinement on the dac side but I have been looking at this to purchase for a while, so glad to see improved analogue results and hooking up even an entry level (Topping E30/SMSL SU6 etc) dac will get great results. Nice one Aiyima! Thanks Amir.
 

tomtoo

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Distortion spectrum with digital input is full of high harmonics that may become audible

View attachment 229472

Frequency response depends on load impedance in audible band. Tested is only with resistive load. It will be much worse with many speakers, as I have shown many many times on the example of AIYIMA A07. It was also audible in a properly done DBT test against a linear amplifier with flat FR.

View attachment 229474

Overall result is poor, in my eyes.

19+20kHz IMD was not tested, right?

Very interesting, how would FR differ with typical dome tweeter load where impedance goes up with frequence? Starts FR to rise than more early than with resisitve load? I look at it see something like +8db at 35khz and think i dont care a sh*. But if there would be a rise of +3 at 12kHz with real speaker load i would at least think about. So how does this behaves? So how i can imagine this filter curve with typical dome tweeter load vs. pure resisitive load? What i mean is if a see this peak as a typical filter curve do i get with real inductive load a higher peak with higher q. Or do i get maybe a lower peak with lower q( more worse in this case for me)
 
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Toku

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Nice review.

We need more of those good speakers amps for a reasonable price, IMO.

Still looking for a reasonably priced 2x100W/8 ohm amp ..

(One may wonder how they manage to include a DAC that perfoms worse than my smartphone or the Apple dongle, though)
The A200's USB input is realized using the D/A conversion function in the qcc3034 BT module. There is no dedicated DAC for USB input.
So USB input performance will be the same as BT.
 
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