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Arylic A50 Review (wireless amplifier)

DuncanTodd

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AH does great objective reviews (some of them can be found here: https://www.audioholics.com/amplifier-reviews), with extremely detailed measurements, but not on all of the products they review. I'm not sure how they pick the products to do measurements for, too bad they don't do measurements for all of their reviews.

The Arylic A50 was probably won here: https://www.audioholics.com/news/enter-free-to-win-arylic-a50-wireless-stereo-amplifier.
Yeah, I've seen detailed reviews there, but I don't frequent the site.
Should either be a pure affiliate links site like What Hifi? or serious reviews one with links. I get it the site needs to earn it's keep, but these kind of recommendations based on a promotional review doesn't add credibility.
I'd argue choosing SVS as High-Value Subwoofer also smells a bit. Not to say it's not good and it does have an app(!), but there are better value products in the category.
 

beagleman

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I don't think it will sound horrible, after all at 2 x 20W it has 0.1% THD+N, so at this level it should be transparent enough. However, from a purely technical perspective this device, as an amplifier, doesn't excels at all.


Maybe it "Sounds worse" after knowing the measurements.....(sarcasm a bit..lol)

In all seriousness, not the best for sure, but I am sure many things I've listened to over the years would have measured even worse!
 

RichB

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I think it is safe to say, that most of my family members and friends would love this thing hooked to a decent pair of budget speakers.
The video review compares it to Sonos gear and the use cases for the products are solid.

- Rich
 

catbb67

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I got the A50 at half price for Thanksgiving that was a good deal. It was for kids play room TV and music set up with a pair of old tower speakers (90db sensitivity). I previously used a pair of JBL LRS305 actives for this purpose but had to re-task them.

I tested the A50 a little and it sounded fine at low/medium volume. I was happy for a few days. Then I sat down for a longer session and cranked it up some. It started sounding stressed and a bit distorted. Just for comparison, I replaced it with a long mothballed Yamaha AVR which showed no stressed nor perceivable distortion at high volume. Was disappointed as the AVR sounded better, let alone the JBLs.

Now to put things in perspective, what I got for the money was a good value. For the game setup, it was fine. The Arylic's small size is perfect for the purposes. It is also feature rich, having AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth, DLNA/UPNP. The streaming app also gives better user experience than Denon HEOS which is quite clunky. For whole-house audio for casual listening, this would be great.

I thought of keeping it just to use as a streamer. But then I have some extra Chromecast Audio laying around and the Yamaha idle. All functionalities are covered for free and sound better. Returned the A50 pretty quickly. I may eventually get another pair of JBLs or try out some Presonus Eris XT actives.
 

bevok

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A shame as the streaming and multi-room capabilities of this were so promising.

A big knock on this reviewer:

“We actually compared the A50 to our Naim Unity Atom and I have to tell you it wasn't embarrassed. Yes, yes the Naim Unity Atom is better; it sounds better, it's better built, it's more turn-key out-of-the-box, not to mention it has more functionality, in terms of connections, and it can drive harder to power loudspeakers… but that said in terms of overall kind of experience, and a large chunk of its sound quality, the A50 is kind of like a mini Atom. And so if you can live with say 75% of the performance of an atom for under 200 bucks that's the a50 in a nutshell.”

The review here didn’t actually comment on actually listening to it. As long as you’re not expecting massive sound in a big room this amp sounds fine and has some useful digital functionality.
 

Vaskis

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The review here didn’t actually comment on actually listening to it. As long as you’re not expecting massive sound in a big room this amp sounds fine and has some useful digital functionality.

Spoiler use "HIFI sound ..."!!! Whatever hifi really means in this "reviewers" mind...

Price/performance might be ok on the first look on specs, but who really knows... no one. General comment any way is it's to cheap to take it serious.

But I and suppose others expect from reviewers to comment on real performance, not just sound, but also functionality and etc. This and other reviewers do not give a single comment of how really streaming works. So in that regard those (promotion) videos should be entertainment for us, because for them it's just business. Quite often they are misleading and confusing...

What else stays ? Numbers and measurements of this site, thanks ASR for light in audio tunnel.
 

ta240

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A shame as the streaming and multi-room capabilities of this were so promising.

A big knock on this reviewer:

“We actually compared the A50 to our Naim Unity Atom and I have to tell you it wasn't embarrassed. Yes, yes the Naim Unity Atom is better; it sounds better, it's better built, it's more turn-key out-of-the-box, not to mention it has more functionality, in terms of connections, and it can drive harder to power loudspeakers… but that said in terms of overall kind of experience, and a large chunk of its sound quality, the A50 is kind of like a mini Atom. And so if you can live with say 75% of the performance of an atom for under 200 bucks that's the a50 in a nutshell.”


This is the audio infomercial host number one tool when they don't want to say anything bad about a product; they compare it to something ten-twenty times as expensive. That way they can say "it clearly isn't as good but then again it shouldn't be" rather than saying "for a little bit more money you can get something that is much better". It wouldn't get the masses as hyped up if he said "if you are looking for low level background music or something to use when high fidelity isn't crucial this might be okay for you" Nobody is going to link to that review, buy through an affiliate link or wipe out the companies inventory of it. Between audioholics and Andrew "you just can't understand" Robinson they probably sold hundreds if not thousands of those to people that are grinning from ear to ear thinking they nearly have an Naim Atom.

Speaking of number one tools, just look at that picture, he looks like he is trying to tell a puppy something it just can't understand.
 

bevok

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The A50 isn’t a big investment so I’d be happy to buy something to replace it in a similar price range with a worthwhile increase in sound quality and similar functionality. What should I be looking at?
 

Vaskis

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This is why this product is so interesting to so many - most wanted features all in one small box for ~200 eur. But as we see from measurements implementation isn't the best one :D And as usually if you want more (better) you must pay more or better say adequately. For example Yamaha WXA-50 are far more better in any aspect compare to Arylic, but it costs almost 500eur.

Audiophonics offer CLOUDYX CL-250W and DAYTON AUDIO WB40A, but I'm not really sure are they comparable functionally. Anyway I think this price range is pure lottery.

But I have a feeling that market knows what people want and this kind of segment will be more and more crowded in future = d-amps with DAC+streaming and streaming DAC's.

I hope to see Harman Kardon Citation One Amp in arms of @amirm some day soon :) https://no.harmankardon.com/citation-series/CITATION+AMP-.html additional aprox. +100 eur compare to WXA-50 but it have more power and have Hdmi which is deal breaker for me.

P.s. accidentally Robinson couple soon after this review has reacted to topic of measurements specifically - as usually, you know they don't matter :D
 
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Killingbeans

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I hope to see Harman Kardon Citation One Amp in arms of @amirm some day soon

+1

I'd like to see what the Axign chip can do for tabletop amps. The Citation isn't cheap either, and it probably isn't anywhere near Purifi/Ncore in terms of performance(?), but I keep my fingers crossed that it's still better than what we've seen in that weight class so far.

EDIT: Is it just 'Citation Amp'? The 'Citation One' is a smart speaker?
 

bevok

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Yes the Yamaha does look interesting, my dream would be an AS amp with one of those as the source (well one of my dreams anyway!). I wish they would include Chromecast in the Yamaha solution as it would tick quite a few boxes e.g. Youtube Music, Amazon Music etc.
 

catbb67

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Not everyone's use case is the same. This thing is not for good sound. But it has it value in the market. For people who want a space saving all-in-one solution that does not sound completely trashy, say a gaming setup for kids like as my scenario, I could have kept it. Hey, my kids think their laptops sound fine. Go figure. But given the just OK sound quality and more importantly, I could achieve the same functions with some idle (but bulky) gears , I did not keep the Arylic.
 
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ta240

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Not everyone's use case is the same. This thing is not for good sound. But it has it value in the market. For people who want a space saving all-in-one solution that does sound completely trashy, say a gaming setup for kids like as my scenario, I could have kept it. Hey, my kids think their laptops sound fine. Go figure. But given the just OK sound quality and more importantly, I could achieve the same functions with some idle (but bulky) gears , I did not keep the Arylic.

That's where the problem arises with the modern online version of a salesman on every street corner. They aren't pushing this to be used as you outlined. When it gets 'reviewed' as a mini version of a $3,300 component
 

catbb67

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That's where the problem arises with the modern online version of a salesman on every street corner. They aren't pushing this to be used as you outlined. When it gets 'reviewed' as a mini version of a $3,300 component

Agreed. But gotta give him credit for the line "...for the price less than the sales tax of the Naim....". That catches people's attention. :)
 

ta240

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Agreed. But gotta give him credit for the line "...for the price less than the sales tax of the Naim....". That catches people's attention. :)

Oh, definitely. They are the kings of getting people's attention. They have the same skill set as the people that write the really good menus; where the description makes your mouth water. I just feel bad for the people that buy the stuff thinking they are getting an exceptional value in high performance audio. The people that are on their 10th component that costs around $200 and still searching for the elusive 'bargain hifi' that the youtube hucksters are always pitching.
 

MrTree

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Arylic A50 stereo amplifier...

Long time “lurker” here. Finally registered, at last.

It’s a pity not having a full review... I bought this Arilyc A50 on a (somewhat foolish) whim.
I must confess it sounds fairly decent to my barbaric ear. Little room, desktop setup, mostly low to medium volume. I know 57 SINAD is bad, but I’d really like to know how others parameters would compare.

Any chance of a little update?
 

beagleman

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Ayrlic A50

How is this product rated at 4 stars on Amazon, are they unable to discern what sounds horrible?


How did you ascertain that it actually "Sounds" horrible?

I saw no mention OF sound quality, in the review. Again, not having heard it myself, I would have no idea how it sounded honestly, but....

I wonder if it would be more helpful to listen to the devices under test first, without the knowledge of the measurement, and get an idea of what it sounds like first? Then when measurements are done, we could see if they back up or dispute what was heard.

I may be in the minority, but it seems that as soon as mediocre measurements are found, there is no attempt to correlate them to actual sound many times..
Could we be (maybe) writing everything off too quickly based on never even having listened to it?
 
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