blickpunkt
Member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2026
- Messages
- 14
- Likes
- 10
Don't think they are the same, only similar. And 3e Audio said this another design
-
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!
Multi-channel Amp,Which one you would like to own?
- Thread starter 3eaudio
- Start date
-
- Tags
- multi-channel pffb tpa3251 tpa3255
Roland68
Master Contributor
Where did 3E Audio say that?
blickpunkt
Member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2026
- Messages
- 14
- Likes
- 10
sorry the info came from harkpast and you
Multi-channel Amp,Which one you would like to own?
Chose PAM252 instead of 3E Audio A7 because of the internal power supply. Will hopefully arrive on the weekend.
www.audiosciencereview.com
I think you are meant to provide a text summary / reason for why you are positing a video link, and it's definitely needed in this case because I've watched it twice and still have no clue how it relates to your previous comments about hearing a difference between the 3e A5 and Alsozone PAM252.
blickpunkt
Member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2026
- Messages
- 14
- Likes
- 10
@Andsaku Please share the link for the updated logo. (I couldn't find it on AliExpress).I didn't like the ALSOZONE logo, so I updated it
My PAM158 should arrive any day now.
Last edited:
I'm late to this party, just noticing and reading this entire thread today. The 3e Audio website is usually down, and it never occurred to me to search for an Alsozone website.
The most common topic on this thread is lettering on front panel. Also I read much ado about heat sink orientation. If you are one of the several here calling these design choices "problems," there is a quick fix. Convert the top panel to become the front panel, so that the offending logo faces down towards the shelf. The heat sinks will enjoy more natural convection that way.
The most common topic on this thread is lettering on front panel. Also I read much ado about heat sink orientation. If you are one of the several here calling these design choices "problems," there is a quick fix. Convert the top panel to become the front panel, so that the offending logo faces down towards the shelf. The heat sinks will enjoy more natural convection that way.
Yes, that special film needs to be removed and then trimmed to fit neatly covering up the logo on front panel. Doing that can only improve the ventilation.
Last edited:
I’ve been using the PAM158 for about two weeks now and am very satisfied. It powers all channels in a 7.2.4 system except for LCR+Sub.
Signals come from the Denon x4700 and are fed into the PAM via an ADC/DAC Dante bridge with a +4 dBu balanced signal (large jack to XLR). The sound quality is very good. Turning it on and off via a trigger from the Denon works absolutely flawlessly.
The 3252 has more than enough power, even when I temporarily used it to power the two front speakers. So far, I haven’t been able to make the PAM clip.
Signals come from the Denon x4700 and are fed into the PAM via an ADC/DAC Dante bridge with a +4 dBu balanced signal (large jack to XLR). The sound quality is very good. Turning it on and off via a trigger from the Denon works absolutely flawlessly.
The 3252 has more than enough power, even when I temporarily used it to power the two front speakers. So far, I haven’t been able to make the PAM clip.
StuartKevinBob
Member
Out of curiosity, why use ADC/DAC with the Dante bridge and not the Single-Ended pre-outs of the Denon?
I use the single ended preouts of the Denon. RCA unbalanced to the bridge -10dBV in and +4dBu out to the PAM158 balanced with a nice hot signal. Further the Dante bridge brings a galvanic isolation in the signal chain after the unbalanced denon rca and before the balenced connection from bridge to the PAM158.
And there is the whole world of room acoustic correction / dsp on a mac mini in the Dante chain.
Bought a PAM253 last weekend from Amazon UK and thought I'd post my thoughts about it. Sorry that I'm new - I tend to just read the reviews and stuff. I was replacing a Behringer A800 which I'd bought previously based on positive value-for-money review here. I use the A800 to drive front Monitor Audio Silver floorstanding speakers, and a Yamaha A6A to deal with the res of a 7.2.4 setup.
The primary reasons for changing that were that the french 12v trigger "add-on" I had for the Behringer had failed, and I always wanted the Centre on the same amp as it does a lot of heavy lifting in my setup (Monitor Audio Gold centre). Being honest, I also fell into the trap of thinking "It only cost 150ukp so it can't be that good really" for the A800. I'd had my eye on a BasX A3+ as I wanted the XLR balanced inputs (fun to use those outputs on the A6A) but 750ukp is a lot for something that gets fairly "ho hum" reviews around here.
So, I saw the PAM253 on Amazon at a middle-of-the-road price, read this thread and figured it would do what I want feature-wise over the A800 and probably sound better too since the TPA3255 seems reasonably well liked. Anything with the Hypex stuff in seemed to cost 1500-2000, which I didn't want to spend. The PAM253 was 450 - nice middle ground.
It turned up in a brown box, but well packed. Included were the necessary banana plugs to fit on my bare speaker wire. They were fiddly to fit as my speaker wire for the LCR is thick. My fingers ended up quite painful, and I "mostly" got them on - they use a rubber sheath which slides over your cable, then a grub-screw to anchor the speaker wire in the metal head. You then slide the rubber back over the metal head (which is a tight fit). With my cables, everything was super-tight and was really hard to get up/down cable and over. However, at least it *did* work - the monoprice bananaplugs I bought at the same time wouldn't fit at all (fortunately the rest of my speaker cable is narrower). Overall, thanks to Alsozone (etc) for the inclusion, but my fingers are still sore!
On to the unit. It it much smaller than the Behringer - I'd have preferred a slightly larger 5 channel unit but they don't do it. This box size goes up to 4 channels. I probably should have bought the 4 channel version in hindsight (for atmos height as an alternative) but it was more expensive. The ALSOZONE logo is crap, but not backlit in any way, so isn't really noticeable once in AV rack, esp as the room darkens. So far I haven't felt the need to cover it. More annoying are the red channel LEDs - in life, red usually means error, but not here. Blue or green would have been preferable. Also they come on even if no input or speaker is connected, so not really useful information. Just red lights for the sake of it really.
Connectors seemed fine at rear - everything plugged in OK. XLR for left/right and a coax rca for the centre. Switches on rear allow you to choose between XLR/RCA and (separately) set gain to high or low. High XLR = Low RCA gain, which is rather handy to know. However, cloth-eared me likes to boost centre for speech clarity so I left gain on high for all. This may slightly increase distortion at high volume, but I didn't notice any, and we mostly listen around -25-30 range at most.
12v trigger works fine - just make sure you have the poweron switch on the rear set how you want it. It can be on all the time, start when a signal is received (per channel) or use the 12v trigger. The on/off switch on the front doesn't do much in trigger mode - perhaps an emergency off? The unit seems to run pretty cool - when I've touched it I haven't noticed any significant heat.
Sound-wise it is... fine? OK? "Does what it says on the tin"? Yeah, not great praise. I'm cloth-eared really - I like my home theatre and enjoy the tech, but have come to realise that outside of big differences, most nuance is lost on me. Speaking entirely subjectively, the PAM253 soundstage seems narrower/more localised than the Behringer which was a bit more expansive. The L / R seems quite close together - maybe I need to move my speakers!? I found the treble/high freq could be a bit "bright/sharp/shrill" on my MA Silvers (which are quite old now - I feel like speaker tech doesn't move as fast as digital stuff so don't change my speakers as much as receiver etc). For example, listening to the opening of Time by Pink Floyd (Dark side of the moon) the clocks seemed quite harsh/uncomfortable, although I read this may be as the artists intended. On Mike Oldfield's "Return to Ommadawn" the opening (penny?) whistles were a bit sharp/shrill although again, this may accurately reflect the original sound. I also don't listen to these songs enough to vividly really remember the A800's interpretation of them, so this could all be in my head. Classical was a mixed bag - mostly pretty accurate but would have liked a larger soundstage, and the flutes/oboes were rather pronounced. That said, I find that so many classical recordings in my collection are fairly badly recorded / engineered, it can be difficult to know who's to blame.
More Pop/Ambient/rock tracks and most movie soundtracks were much better though, and enjoyable. I'll likely get used to the treble too, once I've had the time to do a bit of calibration etc.
My gut says that the DAC/DSP in the receiver can/is doing probably do more to colour/shape the sound than the PAM253 ever does, although I tried pure direct mode several times. The various audio modes offered by the Yamaha make for quite different sounds, and honestly it becomes hard to know what I like best or which piece of equipment is affecting what audio-aspect.
Overall, for my main use - TV, movies and games - I'm pleased with the unit. It does the things I wanted by way of upgrade from the A800, although I can't honestly say that the sound is improved. I figured I could send it back if not happy being Amazon-sourced, but will likely keep it (unless I decide to try the 4 channel version for Atmos duties). I'll be keeping the A800 though, as I've come to love it that bit more for its value - esp now I have popped open its banana-holes so I don't have to un-banana the leads!
In terms of improvements to be made to it... blue LEDs please, and remove the dreadful logo. A bit of subtlety goes a long way. 5/7/9 channels to handle the basic surround setups would also be preferable to the 6/8 models. A switch to turn off all LED lighting would also be a nice touch.
If anyone has any suggestion to slightly smooth out the treble, I'd love to hear, but overall I think I'm happy with the PAM, and don't really feel I'd have got another 300ukp of value from the BasX A3+. The jury's still out on whether I should have dropped the extra 1000-1500 for a hypex unit (Nord) but my gut says probably not. Anyway, the takeaway here is "yes the features seem to work, the unit is real, and you can get it from Amazon (UK) for easy returns". I'd be more cautious of Ali Express for the larger channel versions as returns are much harder if you aren't happy sound-quality wise.
The primary reasons for changing that were that the french 12v trigger "add-on" I had for the Behringer had failed, and I always wanted the Centre on the same amp as it does a lot of heavy lifting in my setup (Monitor Audio Gold centre). Being honest, I also fell into the trap of thinking "It only cost 150ukp so it can't be that good really" for the A800. I'd had my eye on a BasX A3+ as I wanted the XLR balanced inputs (fun to use those outputs on the A6A) but 750ukp is a lot for something that gets fairly "ho hum" reviews around here.
So, I saw the PAM253 on Amazon at a middle-of-the-road price, read this thread and figured it would do what I want feature-wise over the A800 and probably sound better too since the TPA3255 seems reasonably well liked. Anything with the Hypex stuff in seemed to cost 1500-2000, which I didn't want to spend. The PAM253 was 450 - nice middle ground.
It turned up in a brown box, but well packed. Included were the necessary banana plugs to fit on my bare speaker wire. They were fiddly to fit as my speaker wire for the LCR is thick. My fingers ended up quite painful, and I "mostly" got them on - they use a rubber sheath which slides over your cable, then a grub-screw to anchor the speaker wire in the metal head. You then slide the rubber back over the metal head (which is a tight fit). With my cables, everything was super-tight and was really hard to get up/down cable and over. However, at least it *did* work - the monoprice bananaplugs I bought at the same time wouldn't fit at all (fortunately the rest of my speaker cable is narrower). Overall, thanks to Alsozone (etc) for the inclusion, but my fingers are still sore!
On to the unit. It it much smaller than the Behringer - I'd have preferred a slightly larger 5 channel unit but they don't do it. This box size goes up to 4 channels. I probably should have bought the 4 channel version in hindsight (for atmos height as an alternative) but it was more expensive. The ALSOZONE logo is crap, but not backlit in any way, so isn't really noticeable once in AV rack, esp as the room darkens. So far I haven't felt the need to cover it. More annoying are the red channel LEDs - in life, red usually means error, but not here. Blue or green would have been preferable. Also they come on even if no input or speaker is connected, so not really useful information. Just red lights for the sake of it really.
Connectors seemed fine at rear - everything plugged in OK. XLR for left/right and a coax rca for the centre. Switches on rear allow you to choose between XLR/RCA and (separately) set gain to high or low. High XLR = Low RCA gain, which is rather handy to know. However, cloth-eared me likes to boost centre for speech clarity so I left gain on high for all. This may slightly increase distortion at high volume, but I didn't notice any, and we mostly listen around -25-30 range at most.
12v trigger works fine - just make sure you have the poweron switch on the rear set how you want it. It can be on all the time, start when a signal is received (per channel) or use the 12v trigger. The on/off switch on the front doesn't do much in trigger mode - perhaps an emergency off? The unit seems to run pretty cool - when I've touched it I haven't noticed any significant heat.
Sound-wise it is... fine? OK? "Does what it says on the tin"? Yeah, not great praise. I'm cloth-eared really - I like my home theatre and enjoy the tech, but have come to realise that outside of big differences, most nuance is lost on me. Speaking entirely subjectively, the PAM253 soundstage seems narrower/more localised than the Behringer which was a bit more expansive. The L / R seems quite close together - maybe I need to move my speakers!? I found the treble/high freq could be a bit "bright/sharp/shrill" on my MA Silvers (which are quite old now - I feel like speaker tech doesn't move as fast as digital stuff so don't change my speakers as much as receiver etc). For example, listening to the opening of Time by Pink Floyd (Dark side of the moon) the clocks seemed quite harsh/uncomfortable, although I read this may be as the artists intended. On Mike Oldfield's "Return to Ommadawn" the opening (penny?) whistles were a bit sharp/shrill although again, this may accurately reflect the original sound. I also don't listen to these songs enough to vividly really remember the A800's interpretation of them, so this could all be in my head. Classical was a mixed bag - mostly pretty accurate but would have liked a larger soundstage, and the flutes/oboes were rather pronounced. That said, I find that so many classical recordings in my collection are fairly badly recorded / engineered, it can be difficult to know who's to blame.
More Pop/Ambient/rock tracks and most movie soundtracks were much better though, and enjoyable. I'll likely get used to the treble too, once I've had the time to do a bit of calibration etc.
My gut says that the DAC/DSP in the receiver can/is doing probably do more to colour/shape the sound than the PAM253 ever does, although I tried pure direct mode several times. The various audio modes offered by the Yamaha make for quite different sounds, and honestly it becomes hard to know what I like best or which piece of equipment is affecting what audio-aspect.
Overall, for my main use - TV, movies and games - I'm pleased with the unit. It does the things I wanted by way of upgrade from the A800, although I can't honestly say that the sound is improved. I figured I could send it back if not happy being Amazon-sourced, but will likely keep it (unless I decide to try the 4 channel version for Atmos duties). I'll be keeping the A800 though, as I've come to love it that bit more for its value - esp now I have popped open its banana-holes so I don't have to un-banana the leads!
In terms of improvements to be made to it... blue LEDs please, and remove the dreadful logo. A bit of subtlety goes a long way. 5/7/9 channels to handle the basic surround setups would also be preferable to the 6/8 models. A switch to turn off all LED lighting would also be a nice touch.
If anyone has any suggestion to slightly smooth out the treble, I'd love to hear, but overall I think I'm happy with the PAM, and don't really feel I'd have got another 300ukp of value from the BasX A3+. The jury's still out on whether I should have dropped the extra 1000-1500 for a hypex unit (Nord) but my gut says probably not. Anyway, the takeaway here is "yes the features seem to work, the unit is real, and you can get it from Amazon (UK) for easy returns". I'd be more cautious of Ali Express for the larger channel versions as returns are much harder if you aren't happy sound-quality wise.
Last edited:
Update - I took it to a hifi shop today to audition some Kef Reference speakers. I appreciate the grade-mismatch of that sentence. However, the shop integrated amp only had rca pre-outs not XLR balanced. I noticed faint/soft hiss/fuzz on the Kefs when there was no sound playing. Bringing it home, I'm not hearing anything on my Monitor Audio RS8s but that's using the XLR connectors. The centre, which was/is using RCA now has a slight hiss/fuzz too. I hadn't noticed this before, either because the volume wasn't enough to notice, or because it wasn't there. I suspect I would have noticed it because I was looking out for things like that, but it was so quiet it is possible I missed it.
I have now ordered an RCA->XLR cable. I doubt it will make a difference since it is still unbalanced, but we'll see. I'm not sure if it is a case that the RCA connectors are the problem, or whether it just works better with balanced input.
I've also registered a return with Amazon, as I'm running out of days, and not sure if I can put up with hiss. Since they've dropped in price significantly since my order, a replacement arrives Monday and we'll see if that's any better.
I have now ordered an RCA->XLR cable. I doubt it will make a difference since it is still unbalanced, but we'll see. I'm not sure if it is a case that the RCA connectors are the problem, or whether it just works better with balanced input.
I've also registered a return with Amazon, as I'm running out of days, and not sure if I can put up with hiss. Since they've dropped in price significantly since my order, a replacement arrives Monday and we'll see if that's any better.
There are proper SE RCA to balanced XLR conversion devices, ideally bidirectional with gain/trim controls
but one-way only might be less expensive, especially secindhand.
The nice thing about having gadgets like these - assuming good quality transparent, no audible issues
is that you can buy the devices you want - probably saving money - not limiting yourself with interconnect issues.
but one-way only might be less expensive, especially secindhand.
The nice thing about having gadgets like these - assuming good quality transparent, no audible issues
is that you can buy the devices you want - probably saving money - not limiting yourself with interconnect issues.