Best Stereo Power Amplifier under $100 USD?

[dkinric]

Bump! Just bought my brother some speakers (q acoustic 3010i) but he has to supply the amp... 200 to 250 would be nice sweet spot

Always excellent deals here, especially if you are willing to look at factory refurb:
https://www.accessories4less.com/.

Really, really good deals in that price range on home theater receivers from Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo due to economies of scale. Use it in 2 ch mode, and with room to grow for a sub(s) and home theater down the line.

 

[HammerSandwich]

Micromega's Myamp might be worth $250. The MyDAC measured reasonably well.

 

[bilzebubba]

Micromega's Myamp might be worth $250. The MyDAC measured reasonably well.

I saw that! Looks like a relative bargain...Forwarded all to bro for his perusal -- thanks for all the suggestions

 

[Webninja]

If you can find the Niles SI275, that seems to be a relative bargain for how it measured -
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/niles-si-275-amplifier-review.12055/

Ebay (no affiliation with poster, just searched)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NILES-SI-2...AOSwz~VcFxf6:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!90272!US!-1

 

[sejarzo]

Always excellent deals here, especially if you are willing to look at factory refurb:
https://www.accessories4less.com/.

Really, really good deals in that price range on home theater receivers from Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo due to economies of scale. Use it in 2 ch mode, and with room to grow for a sub(s) and home theater down the line.

You have to be careful, though. I got rid of my original ICEPower amps and bought an Onkyo TX-SR875 refurb from them about 10 years ago because it was clear I really didn't use my speaker rig so much after moving to a computer based headphone rig. I popped for the 3 year warranty on top of the standard one, and the HDMI board went south a few months after Onkyo's extended warranty on those ran out. The long term reliability of some of those AVRs is highly suspect.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Over here we had a long-time repair program by Onkyo covering these (common) issues. (I guess they settled with TI over their defective DSPs.) Wasn't there anything like that?

 

[UCrazyKid]

OP, in which region of Craigslist are you located in MN? I’ll do a search and give you some options?

 

[bigx5murf]

You have to be careful, though. I got rid of my original ICEPower amps and bought an Onkyo TX-SR875 refurb from them about 10 years ago because it was clear I really didn't use my speaker rig so much after moving to a computer based headphone rig. I popped for the 3 year warranty on top of the standard one, and the HDMI board went south a few months after Onkyo's extended warranty on those ran out. The long term reliability of some of those AVRs is highly suspect.

Over here we had a long-time repair program by Onkyo covering these (common) issues. (I guess they settled with TI over their defective DSPs.) Wasn't there anything like that?

There was a time for a few years after the last recessions where every AVR manufacturer was having reliability issues. The Onkyo ones were well known, but they honestly weren't as bad as the others. Their failures were mostly due to cheap capacitors with too low a temp rating. I've had a few of them, recapping the hdmi board with higher temp rating caps seemed to fix them permanently. The Pioneer and Denon ones I've had from this era had bad dsp chips, and being BGA chips, there was no simple way to fix them yourself.

 

[sejarzo]

Over here we had a long-time repair program by Onkyo covering these (common) issues. (I guess they settled with TI over their defective DSPs.) Wasn't there anything like that?

I suffered a couple of detached retinas that forced me to do most of my viewing with my eyes a fixed distance from my 24" monitor for a few years while that Onkyo sat completely idle in the man cave. When my vision finally recovered and I fired it up last year, the HDMI board had gone bad after the extended warranty ran out. I haven't checked into what it would cost to fix it, but I think it's a moot point. I sold my Oppo Blu-ray player and if I were to watch a movie, it would be via streaming to the TV directly using optical out to the Onkyo.

 

[A800]

Budget is low.
I recommend the Behringer A800 anyway.

 

[wje]

Budget is low.
I recommend the Behringer A800 anyway.

Yes, but that will be nearly impossible to get in at $100. Possibly, finding a used A500 would be more realistic at staying under that price point. My A500 was procured for $45.00, locally.

 

[snip3r77]

$100 is quite low for a power amplifier. If you want something at just works here is one option: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-sa100-audio-amplifier-review.9706/

If one can bump up the budget a bit, what would you recommend? Thanks

 

[Panelhead]

I saw that! Looks like a relative bargain...Forwarded all to bro for his perusal -- thanks for all the suggestions

I purchased one at accessories4less for 229.00. Liked it so much I bought another and rigged them up as bridged monoblocks.
After selling two they must have smelled money and raised the price to 249.00.
Only use as a power amp. Drive them with a balanced Dac with volume control.
Very quiet, no noise at all. Fan comes on when you turn them off to cool the “tunnel”. It was disturbing at first, but never have heard the fan while playing music.
Considering the internal dac, Bluetooth, and it is a real integrated amp with Class A/B output this is a bargain at 649.00.
I decided to wait before ordering an AHB2. Would also be waiting if an AHB2 was ordered.

 

[Toku]

If one can bump up the budget a bit, what would you recommend? Thanks

I recommend SMSL SA300. We purchase two and use now, but are very good.
SA100 and LOXJIE A10 are slightly disappointing products.