3e audio A7/A7 Mono Amplifier Review

[howard416]

The TPA3251 is a bit better with noise & distortion but the TPA3255 has more power.

 

[cfwotzka]

Nice to see this one finally reviewed. The 3e A5 did a little better, any ideas why? Possible because of the 38v instead 48v Powersupply?
Does the AliExpress come with 38v and the audiophonics with 48v, did i See right?

I looked Back to the Fosi V3 Mono, Kind of similar but much cheaper, not that much to justify the Higher price for the A7 for me maybe.
So that brings me to the questions to keep this little D amps apart.

How hot does the A7 get? And is the On Off Pop similar to the A5? This questions should be answered in cheaper class d Reviews to Pick out the ones which have longlivety. @amirm did a Heat Test at some amps i think?

So its Close to the v3 but much more expensive, but cheaper than a topping PA7 plus and similar Hypex amps. At least the 3e have nice heatsinks. Want to know If the Higher price is worth it..

3e's are mot getting hot just warm. to my ears clearly better then Fosi V3 Monos.

 

[SMen]

Nice to see this one finally reviewed. The 3e A5 did a little better, any ideas why? Possible because of the 38v instead 48v Powersupply?
Does the AliExpress come with 38v and the audiophonics with 48v, did i See right?

I looked Back to the Fosi V3 Mono, Kind of similar but much cheaper, not that much to justify the Higher price for the A7 for me maybe.
So that brings me to the questions to keep this little D amps apart.

How hot does the A7 get? And is the On Off Pop similar to the A5? This questions should be answered in cheaper class d Reviews to Pick out the ones which have longlivety. @amirm did a Heat Test at some amps i think?

So its Close to the v3 but much more expensive, but cheaper than a topping PA7 plus and similar Hypex amps. At least the 3e have nice heatsinks. Want to know If the Higher price is worth it..

I have the V3 monos and the A5 and the A5 runs only warm, and to my ears 'sounds' more transparent than the V3 monos ... it almost makes the V3 monos sound 'tailored to sound nice' ... though that should not be possible objectively of course. No on/of pops ... just a gentle auto-on click. It sounds just as powerful with my speakers.

I understand that 3e are working on units integrated with power supplies: both mono and stereo, and I think that that is where I have might land for the higher power units some day ... Price though is a factor ... and branding...

For this type of amp, the small form factor of the A5 with it's small power supply ticks the boxes for me, especially at the early bird price that was briefly discounted further (£150.00). I'd be seriously hacked off with those tariffs!

I'm looking forward to doing a major amp and power supply clear out ...

 

[Crook]

Buckeye has already stated that his latest shipment of amp modules from Europe has incurred a 10% tariff so I would expect that a price bump is imminent

Ah, of course. I'd not considered the imports they need to then make the amps in the US. No avoiding this for US consumers then wanting Hypex etc.

 

[andrew]

I’m looking at getting four channels of amplification for some two-way active (DIY) speakers, and the A7 looks like a good option with it's low distortion, ample power and low price. What, though, are the circumstances in which the extra cost of a Purifi amplifier is warranted? My guess is that something like a March Audio provided Purifi amp will have additional headroom, better support, and is more flexible, but I don’t understand is whether there are specific types of speakers (e.g., high efficiency, capacitive loads….) for which the additional cost is merited on a performance basis. Thoughts?

 

[d4b0]

Is this normal for this amp that sound is not muted at min volume knob position?

 

[transformer-coupled]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the A7 / "A7 Mono" stereo power amplifier with balanced inputs. It was sent to me by the company. I have no idea what it costs in US. Audiophonics lists it for 379,00 €tax incl.
View attachment 444144
While the A7 may look like its competitors, it has a heft to it that I don't recall others not having. It really feels like it is filled with lead or something! A nice volume control in the middle adjusts the gain but it can also be bypassed using a switch in the back. Pushing the volume control quickly switches between XLR balanced and RCA. Two thoughtful clipping indicators are provided, making me wish it would be a standard feature on any amplifier. A minor nit: LED colors indicating which input is active is red and clipping in green. I think based on convention, the latter should be red.

Back panel shows nice set of features:
View attachment 444145
Trigger input is provided as is the aforementioned combo TRS/XLR balanced inputs. Low and high gain switch is provided but I focused on low gain as that is fully compatible with current audio products outputting 2/4 volts. Yes, there is that monster GaN power supply! It can of course be purchased with other options. The input connector says max is 48 volt but per designer, the mono configuration, which is just using the left channel, can go up to 52 volts. He said I could test in stereo just the same and that is what I did. I found no issues.

FYI, I was impressed with the secure way the power supply input accepts the plug. There is a lot of current and power involved here so good to see a tight fit.

One nice feature, beside trigger, is auto-shut off in case of no input signal. I left it on by accident and was pleasantly surprised when I came back and it had gone to sleep.

3e audio A7 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with low gain, volume control set to (volume bypass didn't make a difference), and XLR as inputs:

View attachment 444146
Very nice. Well above average in performance with distortion below threshold of hearing:
View attachment 444147
View attachment 444148

RCA input as usual loses a bit, but not much, scoring 100 dB with again, inaudible distortion:
View attachment 444149

SNR is the limit here, which is quite good actually:
View attachment 444150
At full power, it provides transparency for practically all music produced!

The A7 uses post filter feedback (PFFB) so it is essentially load (speaker) independent:
View attachment 444151

Crosstalk while much better than average, is a bit worse than 3e audio A5:
View attachment 444152

As is typical here, above 1 kHz, distortion does climb:
View attachment 444153
View attachment 444154

This is one powerful little amplifier, easily besting its nicely mentioned specs:
View attachment 444155
View attachment 444156

View attachment 444157

Edit: forgot to include the power vs frequency sweep:

View attachment 444184
Power is more or less sustained across the full audible band:
View attachment 444158
View attachment 444159

Its distortion goes from 0.05% to huge amount as it clips so I could not test it at 1% THD at higher frequency. So I searched for power point at just 0.05% which disadvantages this amp a bit.

My reactive loadbox still doesn't like these bridged amplifiers so I could only test the left channel (although per above, stereo and mono performance were the same):
View attachment 444160

View attachment 444161

You have to keep reminding yourself that this much power is coming out of this little box, no bigger than the old CD cases!

Finally, the amplifier is rock solid on power up:
View attachment 444162

Oh, too much on my mind so I forgot to run the power up/down glitch test.

Conclusions
If my memory serves me right, 3e audio was the first company to bring us high performance TI TPA3255 class D amplifiers with PFFB. While they have more competition now, it is clear they intend to stay on top of this game, squeezing every bit of performance out of this architecture, while providing nice feature set. We are talking high performance, high power amplifiers that are tiny yet deliver what people need in most cases.

I am happy to recommend 3e audio A7 / A7 Mono stereo audio amplifiers.

------------
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/

Great perfect review as always Amirm, my friends says it sounds amazing, wish the competitors @3eaudio would make for next model a true audiophile monoblock no fake mono stereo with volume for use our personal taste line stage, no always on auto off that make it suddenly blackout at low volume night late listening, just like the great this V3 Mono blocks by Fosi with its high current real monoblock no-autooff no-volume... but with the higher THD performance of @3eaudio , wish some engineer at @3eaudio listen our prays for next version

 

[3eaudio]

Great perfect review as always Amirm, my friends says it sounds amazing, wish the competitors @3eaudio would make for next model a true audiophile monoblock no fake mono stereo with volume for use our personal taste line stage, no always on auto off that make it suddenly blackout at low volume night late listening, just like the great this V3 Mono blocks by Fosi with its high current real monoblock no-autooff no-volume... but with the higher THD performance of @3eaudio , wish some engineer at @3eaudio listen our prays for next version View attachment 446486

@transformer-coupled
curious to know how many people will use only one mono unit to drive what? a woofer only?
if driver a pair of tweeter then you need 2 units, one A7 of 2xA7mono can do the job, with volume bypass and auto sense disable.so i am not seeing there will be a good/big marketing here,maybe?
i ask this question because we are designing a pure amp with build-in SMPS, the amp will based mono module design,can config as 2/4/6/8 ch for different SKU.

 

[mackat]

On Aliexpress, I'm getting a "This product can't be shipped to your address." message.

I assume this likely has to do with the imminent tariffs?

Edit: Yup, I'm guessing they disabled orders to avoid issues with people being charged the tariffs upon purchase

 

[BossBunos]

I've got the A7 amp and it's a great performing amp. The only thing I really dislike is the auto on/off that can't be switched off. Audio phonics states on their website that there will be a new version where you can press and hold the volume knob to turn the feature on and off. Mine doesn't have that. Is there a way to update the firmware of my unit @3eaudio ?

 

[transformer-coupled]

@transformer-coupled
curious to know how many people will use only one mono unit to drive what? a woofer only?
if driver a pair of tweeter then you need 2 units, one A7 of 2xA7mono can do the job, with volume bypass and auto sense disable.so i am not seeing there will be a good/big marketing here,maybe?
i ask this question because we are designing a pure amp with build-in SMPS, the amp will based mono module design,can config as 2/4/6/8 ch for different SKU.

Thank you so much for listen us, I have your 3eaudio diy modules and 3e A5 amplifier and both are almost perfect but the modules perhaps lacks the low impedance drive of 5A and the 5A lack de disable autosensing (like A7;for what I see too) (also compared with the great Fosi V3 Mono) but at same time both are more detailed with flatter frequency response than V3 Mono.
What I mean is that the Fosi V3 mono or the Topping B100 are mono blocks and for us audiophiles that is an advantage in terms of unparalleled purity because it means not only the absence of volume control to use our own balanced preamplifier but also the two units mentioned have the ability to disable autosense or just don't have autosense like B100, I think best option would be disconnectable autosense just like Fosi V3 mono. The problem with these two units (Topping B100 or Fosi V3 Mono) is that unlike the engineering of @3eaudio ,the topping lacks the necessary current to move some speakers ( being based on a personal concept the circuit instead Texas Instruments)(but nevertheless they have worked quite a bit on the post filter feedback and the distortion is very low and very good )and however the Fosi V3 mono let's say that it happens just the opposite it has the necessary current capacity low output impedance but they have not worked as well as topping or 3audio the issue of post filter feedback with which its distortion and above all its frequency response is not so good that is why we need you @3eaudio to make a new version of a pure power stage even if it has the separate power supply (that personally even comes in handy for me because in the future I can even make a linear power supply diy )but with the touch of low distortion and high current of @3eaudio

 

[transformer-coupled]

I've got the A7 amp and it's a great performing amp. The only thing I really dislike is the auto on/off that can't be switched off. Audio phonics states on their website that there will be a new version where you can press and hold the volume knob to turn the feature on and off. Mine doesn't have that. Is there a way to update the firmware of my unit @3eaudio ?

Yes exactly man just like my 3e A5 which is almost perfect and would be with if it could disable autosensing for late listening low levels. Also would be great it it would be a pure power amp (no volume pot even is great I can be disabled) for use our balanced traditional line stage. That would be 10 of10 score perfect power-amp with the THD and FR performance of e3audio and topping @3eaudio

 

[May Kasahara]

@3eaudio, what's the issue with your website? Has been like this for circa 12 hours;
JSmith

@3eaudio Any update on this topic? We are one week later and still got 509 (Bandwidth Limit Exceeded)?

 

[Robinson808]

Exactly, not very confidence inspiring to say the least.

 

[Nezil]

@3eaudio Any update on this topic? We are one week later and still got 509 (Bandwidth Limit Exceeded)?

I thought this was just me... The A5 looks like the perfect amplifier for my needs, but not if I can't buy it!

 

[Chaos01]

I thought this was just me... The A5 looks like the perfect amplifier for my needs, but not if I can't buy it!

You can buy it at AliExpress or Audiophonics and Not from the 3e Homepage...

 

[Chaos01]

Is this normal for this amp that sound is not muted at min volume knob position?

That is what im more interested to know about, maybe there is a bigger Problem and quality issue...

 

[harkpabst]

Auto sense should turn it ON after you power ON the smart plug.

I don't think this is related to auto sense. It's the default state when mains power is applied.

At least, this was the case with the first generation (non-configurable auto-off).

Nice to see this one finally reviewed. The 3e A5 did a little better, any ideas why? Possible because of the 38v instead 48v Powersupply?

The A5 and A5se use the TPA3251 chip which measures slightly better than the TPA3255 by it's very nature. Maximum voltage is lower for the TPA3251, anyway.

I looked Back to the Fosi V3 Mono, Kind of similar but much cheaper, not that much to justify the Higher price for the A7 for me maybe.

Putting it very carefully: I clearly enjoy my 3e Audio A5 more than the V3 Mono set. Cannot comment on the A7. Make from that what you want.

At least I'm not the only way rating the amps like this.