• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Douk A5 Budget Stereo Amplifier Review

Rate this amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 3 1.1%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 38 14.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 147 54.6%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 81 30.1%

  • Total voters
    269

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
47,353
Likes
271,827
Location
Seattle Area
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Douk Audio A5 stereo class D amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $99.99 as of this writing on Amazon including free shipping.
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier budget cheap review.jpg

I really like the look of the unit. The control on the right turns the amp on and adjusts the volume. The knob on the left adjusts a high-pass filter which is nice to have to tailor the bass response for typical bookshelf speakers this amp will be driving. And allowing subwoofer integration (although you have to bring your own splitter). Back panel is what you expect:

Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier budget cheap back panel power supply review.jpg


While the unit is rated up to 48 volts, the supplied power supply as you see is rated at 32 volts @ 5 amps. The terminals are rather small but I still managed to attach my chunky locking banana plugs into them.

As an interesting touch, a plexiglass cover is easily removed to change op-amps but also change switches which change the RGB lighting inside!

Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier budget cheap back panel RGB Light Swap Opamp review.jpg

Give the market segment they are going after, the lighting is a low cost differentiation.

If you are not familiar with amplifier measurements, please watch my tutorial on it:

[And subscribe to the channel :) ]

Douk Audio A5 Amplifier Measurements
As usual, we start with our 1 kHz tone into 4 ohm load at 5 watts to bring out both noise and distortion:
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier Measurement.png

That's above average performance and better than I expected:
Best cheap budget stereo amplifier review.png

Best cheap budget stereo amplifier zoomed review.png


I had not realized the A5 at this price had PFFB (post filter feedback) which reduces output impedance and load dependency until I measured frequency response:
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier channel frequency response Measurement.png

I was also surprised by the good performance of the high-pass filter at the setting I used. There is no ringing despite high attenuation. Very nice!

Another pleasant surprise was again, above average channel separation:
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier channel separation Measurement.png


The implementation is not perfect though as there is more high frequency distortion as seen in our intermodulation distortion tests:
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier Multitone Measurement.png

Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier 19 20 kHz Measurement.png


Noise performance is excellent especially for the class:
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier SNR Measurement.png


Power is fitting with price but more modest than the more expensive competitors (from memory):
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier power 4 ohm Measurement.png

Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier power 8 ohm Measurement.png

Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier Max and Peak power 4 ohm Measurement.png

Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier power 4 ohm 40 Hz Measurement.png


These chip based implementations are quite robust, not even turning on protection as I beat it in my "FTC like" full bandwidth and longer term test (45 seconds or so):
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier power 4 ohm FTC like Measurement.png


EDIT: forgot power vs frequency:
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier power 4 ohm vs frequency Measurement.png


Reactive loads don't matter to it either, going all the way down to 2 ohm (NOTE: both channels driven but only one channel loaded):
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier Reactive Power Voltage Measurement.png

Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier Reactive Power Watts Measurement.png


The amplifier was stable almost at power up:
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier Warm up Measurement.png


I didn't realize the volume control was also the power switch so I just disconnected the AC cable for on/off noise test:
Douk Audio A5 Stereo class D Amplifier on off noise Measurement.png


Conclusions
Our journey into these pocket/desktop amps started around this $100 price range but without PFFB feature. This caused high frequency variations which we accepted as a trade off to get such a low cost. Companies then stepped up and implemented PFFB but the cost was increased. Douk A5 disrupts this market by providing PFFB at the $100 price mark. There is a bit of high frequency distortion penalty there but otherwise, the rest of tests show excellent engineering, put a big smile on my face!

I am happy to recommend the Douk Audio A5 stereo amplifier.

EDIT: video review of Douk A5 posted as well:
------------
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/
 
Last edited:
Reserved for @AdamG to kindly post the specs.

Manufacturer Specifications:

IMG_1005.jpeg

Link to product details webpage:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
How salient to a discussion that took place on the Wiim Vibelink review thread! Thanks for the review.

Do you have the power versus distortion at various frequencies graph for this amp perchance?

I wonder if the power scales up as nicely as they show on the website with beefier power supplies.
 
I would like to see a standard-sized integrated amplifier, the large ones to be clear and not desktop with this 3255 chip, a nice integrated power supply, 4 or 5 inputs and maybe a phono card. It could replace the old A/B in the entry range, guaranteeing performances that are now tested and indeed often more than good while maintaining a reasonable price.

Thanks for the review Amirm!!
 
Great job Douk for sending a unit for testing. This amplifier is a marvel. It has been a few years since a product of such magnitude (understand, "value") dropped. This unit with its features existing makes the majority of the popular competition's offerings obsolete. Not only it has high pass filter, but the aux-out is controlled by the volume knob. This is the budget subwoofer integration solution. With active subwoofer(s), the 32V power supply is enough, and it will run cooler. Best amp purchase I have ever made.
 
Great job Douk for sending a unit for testing. This amplifier is a marvel. It has been a few years since a product of such magnitude (understand, "value") dropped. This unit with its features existing makes the majority of the popular competition's offerings obsolete. Not only it has high pass filter, but the aux-out is controlled by the volume knob. This is the budget subwoofer integration solution. With active subwoofer(s), the 32V power supply is enough, and it will run cooler. Best amp purchase I have ever made.
Agreed, great option for 2.1/2.2 setups. Solid engineering and quite a value in the right situations.
 
As an amp it's meh. As an amp for $99 it's outstanding.

An example: I'd like to see much better IMD and high-frequency distortion performance, but at this price point its low noise, very good channel separation, and ability to drive low impedance loads is IMHO more important to have achieved than ultra-low distortion at every frequency.

It's hard to see how anyone could rate this poorly given the price.
 
Other than the rising distortion at very high frequencies, looks really solid. Hard to find a better option for $99.
 
Pretty much all you can ask for for 99 clams!!! Desktop amps, dacs and speakers are ridiculously good for little money these days.
 
Do you have the power versus distortion at various frequencies graph for this amp perchance?
Oops. just added to the review:

index.php
 
I appreciate the implementation of the High Pass Filter in the Douk Audio A5 amplifier - a benefit to 2.1 and 2.0 configurations. Thank you Douk Audio and @amirm.
 
Back
Top Bottom