A300

As an aged audiophile, I've been playing with mid-fi equipment for over 50 years. I've had amps from Rotel, Acdom, Marantz, Analogue Audio and others. Most recently I've been using a Schiit Audio Saga+ preamp with a Sonance power amp and KEF Q350 speakers. The Sonance is a quality amp, if relatively unknown. I was looking to reduce the footprint of my setup while retaining reasonable power. So I decided to try the A300. Swapped it in for the Sonance and started playing. Wow!! Another reviewer said the A300 was smooth, and that's pretty much the case. Smoother at least than the Sonance. I played Hi Res streamed from Qobuz and some CDs. Every part of the range was great. I wasn't hearing bass, mids and treble - I was hearing a cohesive one-piece sound. Not edgy like the Sonance but complete with fine detail and well placed instruments in a beautiful soundstage. Utilizing the built-in high pass filter made integrating a powered sub easy and very effective. I experimented by removing the Saga preamp and plugging my sources directly into the A300. An even more resolving presentation. Even though the Saga is a passive preamp, in comparison to the A300 in direct mode the Saga seemed to add a slightly soft glow to the sound, not at all unpleasant but without the detail and clear top end of the A300. The A300 is quiet and runs cool. The EQ menus are nice to have though I use Direct Mode most of the time. The proprietary SDB mode is akin to a loudness contour and is helpful at lower volumes. The Soft mode can help tame down an overly hot recording. As mentioned the high pass filter is great. I don't object to the blue info screen although SMSL has more attractive screens in lots of its other equipment. So that will be on the short list of things to be improved. The remote is simple and effective but it does need precise line-of-sight to the amp. For my purposes a third RCA input would be valuable but most people should be happy with the two provided. I don't use Bluetooth but I tried it out and it works OK; convenient, but no match for my DAC, CD, or turntable. This is great Amp. Period. Honestly, it sounds superior to any amp I ever used. My KEFs never sounded this good. I had tried an Aiyima A07 amp complete with Sparkos discrete op amp upgrade and while it worked well it always lacked the detail and beautiful top end of the A300. Seems like the Infineon chip in the A300 is as good as reported. The A300 size also helped me clean up my stereo layout. I am very impressed and very happy. My thanks to iiWi and other YouTube reviewers that recommended the SMSL A300.

This thing competes with amps along the lines of the loxjie A30 and Topping MX5. It has more power than the Loxjie and is cheaper than the Topping. The sound out of it is incredible. I'm no audiophile and I'm confident that this is as good as my ear is capable of hearing, so anything higher end would just be a waste. It has power to spare for a typical stereo setup. I have a pair of OLD (90's?) Bose 301 Continental speakers set up with it (8 ohm speakers). They are loud enough to be heard throughout the house by volume 30-35... and it goes to 60. 10-12 is a nice low level background level. I also picked up a Nobsound G2 mono sub amp to use an old passive sub-woofer with the sub out on this, and that pairing is great. I'm running this as speakers for a desktop PC setup and connected with the included USB-A to USB-A cable (a ridiculous setup, but it works... seriously though has SMSL not heard of USB C???). That worked flawlessly with zero additional setup. In fact Windows is great about switching back to the onboard sound if I just turn off the amp or switch inputs, so it defaults back to my headphones which is nice (since this doesnt have a headphone amp built in, which is fine for my needs). Having some of the additional features not always found in an amp at this price range is nice too (like high pass for using a sub, bridge mode even if Im not planning to use it, etc). About the only thing I guess is lacking compared to similar amps is a more functional display. It just shows you volume, not the extended information some show. I'm OK with that as it just sits off to my right and I dont really need to know anything by looking at it. Something to note, though. Really, though, I cant speak highly enough of this. It's functional, sounds great, and is a great price for what you get. Its a no brainer if the feature set fits your needs.

I have had this for a few years now and Its been great!! The Cheap Audio Man on Youtube had recommended SMSL..very happy with this purchase!

I needed a small amp to drive a pair of bookshelf speakers and needed a subwoofer out as a requirement. I started looking at units between $80.00 to $800+, upon looking I happened to find this. It looked to have more power than even some units costing more (even though I know manufacturers exaggerate the power output), a subwoofer out, remote, adjustable EQ, and an Infineon Amp setup. Upon receiving it, it turns out it is quite powerful, sounds fantastic with some tweaking, and I am fairly impressed by what I got opposed to how much I paid. It is by no means perfect, and I do plan on getting a better unit down the road, but this little unit delivers. Sound quality is very good; no audible hiss, low noise floor, treble, mids, and highs are nicely proportioned with no glaring issues. I like EQ1 with Treble and Bass at both +2. I have this hooked up to NHT SB2 bookshelf speakers and a RSl Speedwoofer 10s (which are incredible sounding) and outputting to it with a Topping E50 DAC with an Ifi power supply upgrade. This combo makes all my music and games sound incredible! I can highly recommend this amplifier, especially for the price! It delivers solid, clean output with more than enough power. You can also buy two and bridge them together for even more power, but I heard it is kind of wonky setup like that. Pros: -Sound quality. -Form factor. -Subwoofer out. -High pass filter. -Different EQ modes (I use EQ1 (Tone) for normal listening and EQ2 (SBX) for low level listening). -Adjustable Bass and Treble. -Plenty of power and able to drive most speakers without issue. -Has Bluetooth and USB-IN (can be used as a sound output device for the computer, but the quality is only so-so and inferior to most built in audio). Cons: -Blue display with limited characters (requires the manual to decipher what they mean). I would have gladly paid more for a full display! -Weird glitch, when scrolling through the menu, the display will make weird characters that are not supposed to be part of the menu items. These all have this! It happens when you scroll back and forth through the menu. -Remote is stupidly designed and does not sit flat. -Highpass Filter limited to 50Hz only. Adjustable would have been much better! -Not the best Bluetooth sound quality out there.

Just like with the A20a I had recently, I purchased the A300 with the intent to use them as monoblocks. I thought it would be cool to have amps underneath my Lintons on the stands, and admittedly, have gotten caught up in the swirling opinions regarding the benefits of “MORE POWER”. After some disappointments with the A20a, I turned to the A300 which I had just recently discovered. At the $150 sale price, I knew resistance was futile. Are these the cheapest entry into monoblocks? Naturally, I’ll be making comparisons to the A20a throughout this review. Starting with the build and functionality. Now, this is usually something I don’t care to spend too much time on, but this is where the main deciding differences lie between this and the A20a. For one, I think these just look better. Black just blends in effortlessly and they disappear visually much easier than the A20a. The volume knob is awesome! More like an infinitely spinning disc with gentle clicks for feedback. I love that it sits flush with the face of the unit, helping it look more streamlined. The power button is much preferred over the lever of the A20a. Bonus points for not having to hold it either! One click on, one click off. The blue display numbers aren’t too jarring, especially when turned down to 1 brightness, but are more difficult to read than the orange display on the DX3 Pro+. Binding posts look/feel cheap compared to the nicer ones on the A20a, but they function so I don’t really care. Same with the housing, A300 is thin and hollow whereas the A20a feels more substantial and hefty. But again, here we have a mediocre implementation of bluetooth. A feature most of us won’t use but have to pay for. Pass. On the brightside, the included remote is a glorious addition! Being able to power the units on/off remotely is invaluable, as is being able to control the volume if not using a preamp (more on that later). The included digital filters (tone controls) are also a nice bonus, being able to mess around with the sound if one wishes. And I’ll take the digital volume of the A300 over the analog volume of the A20a any day! All said, here we already have a better featured, more versatile package than what was offered with the A20a. On to power. I tested a single A300 in stereo, dual A300s in mono, and my PA3s in stereo. I set my UMIK-1 up at my listening position 6ft away from my Lintons and used REW to produce a 75db test tone in these different configurations. The amps were maxed out on the dials and my DX3 Pro+ was used as volume. The results: (2) A300 in mono: -43 volume (1) A300 in stereo: -37 volume (1) A20a in stereo: -34 volume (1) PA3s in stereo: -22 volume Much greater volume and power than the PA3s! But a less significant change going from stereo to mono. Using these as monoblocks, I detected a level of hiss that was consistent from 0 to about 50 on the volume. Onwards past 50 and especially at 55-60 (max volume), the hiss got louder and more distracting. Thus, I settled on using these at 50 when using the DX3 Pro+ as the preamp. However, I soon ended up stacking both A300s front and center, switching the DX3 Pro+ into DAC mode and using the volume normally on the A300s. Close proximity offered the advantage of using the remote to control both at once, although I didn’t always find this consistent and it would change the volume of one and not the other. Sometimes they both magically “rematched” themselves when adjusting volume, but other times, I had to get up and manually adjust one dial to rematch them. I liked this configuration better, knowing all the power was available and I wasn’t cutting a significant portion off at 50/60. The digital volume kept things perfectly consistent, being able to listen at 1/60 and the channels were perfectly matched. So what now? Well for one, these are definitely usable as monoblocks with their unbalanced RCA inputs, the A20a were not (much too noisy in unbalanced mode). Both are still perfectly viable to be used in stereo with a single unit, so don’t sleep on that. As mentioned earlier, the biggest differences between units come cosmetically and in functionality. It really depends on what you value most, but I just don’t see much advantage of the A20a unless you love the look or need balanced inputs. Otherwise, the A300 is an easy pick over the A20a for me. Grab ‘em at $150 and the decision is almost too easy. Finally, the reason I’m sticking with the PA3s lies in the hiss volume that emits from the speakers, or lack thereof! Seriously, the PA3s is so dang quiet and now I have a true appreciation for it. The A300, like the A20a, is definitely audible especially if in a quiet room. Even when I thought I got used to it, I’d hit mute on the remote and was like “ahhh quiet”. Some may never care or even hear it depending on your ambient noise levels and speakers. Personally, since I’d never approach even a fraction of the available volume and my preference for as quiet as possible devices, the PA3s becomes the winner by default. Plus, we all know that splitting a matching equipment “stack” is blasphemy. Oh. I almost forgot. They all sound the same to me.

This is my third D Class mini amp to power my Klipsch RB5 II speakers. The first wasn't powerful enough, the second was shouty and the A300 makes them sound magical. What a HUGE difference!! Definitely worth the extra cost. PROS: Solid construction. Comes with remote (no batteries) Sounds excellent. Plenty of power for home use. Easy to use menu. Internal power (no external adapter) Preset EQ (more like DSP) modes. Separate treble and bass controls. Powerful 5.0 Bluetooth. Subwoofer out for powered sub. One USB input. Banana plug speaker wire connections. 2 stereo analog inputs (great for CD player). Display is dimmable. Recessed volume knob. Attractive. Very thin. CONS: Remote connection SUCKS. You to be directly in front of it for it to work. Poor display. Old school 70s look. Incomplete directions. If you're looking for an amp that'll save you space and sounds great I would highly recommend the A300. Is it audiophile? Probably not but it's close. Highly recommended. Update: Picked up a new discontinued pair of speakers. The Q Acoustics 3050. Great match with this amp.

Got mine on July 2nd. Hooked it up, listened to Dark Side of the Moon, Nora Jones, and some electronic music. It sounds like other Infineon amps (which is good) with more power and features. The more power seems to provide a little better soundstage and imagine, it felt more present when listening to Nora Jones, you would really hear it with each strike of the cymbals. I’ve left most the settings as default, except I’ve turned on the highpass filter. The subwoofer out is lively, but the gain is adjustable if you want to change the gain on the amp. I ended up just turning the gain down on the sub. It’s definitely more powerful than say a DA-9/PA3s/AO200. I am curious to see the measurements from ASR just to see what the actual measured wattage. TLDR: I like it, it sounds like a more powerful PA3s You can bridge these for up to 300 watts in mono. You could get 2 and have a powerful system.

I purchased the S.M.S.L A300 and it worked from September 2022 until January 4, 2023. Then it just stopped working, with me making absolutely no changes to my set up. I checked the speakers, and the cables and they all worked fine, so it was the S.M.S.L A 300 that did not work. My manual said it had a one year warranty and that the device would be repaired within the first year if there were any issues. I reached out to the seller/ company and told them of the issue. We went through the troubleshooting and I answered their questions, and told them the device was still not working. I did not hear back from anyone about them repairing this device. To date, they have not offered to repair this device as they committed to doing in their warranty. While the price for this device is "cheap" for an amplifier, at $200 or so it is still an expensive product for most consumers. I do not write reviews, but with this, I wanted to WARN people. I do not want to see people lose their money by supporting this horrible company that does not stand by its products, does not perform repairs as required, and will stop communicating when you reach out. Given the competition in this space this is unacceptable and I hope everyone stays away and buys a brand than this.

Forse è stato un azzardo acquistare un articolo che il 19% delle recensioni valuta negativamente (da 1 a 3 stelle), tuttavia dopo cira un mese di utilizzo quotidiano, mi ritengo soddisfatto. Accoppiato a due casse Teufel e ad un giradischi di qualche anno fa, in uno spazio di circa 40 mq, la qualità audio mi pare elevata, con bassi non opprimenti e un orizzonte sonoro piavevolmente dettagliato. Anche la sonorizzazione di fonti BT è buona e in tal caso non ho riscontrato le problematiche di connessione o di stabilità descritti da altri. In conclusione, senza titrare in ballo impraticabili raffronti col mondo HIFI, credo sia stato un buon acquisto e che con un investimento di circa 600 € si possa già ottenere una qualità musicale più che discreta.... magari non si percepisce lo stridio del crine sulla corda del violino di Uto Ughi, ma il cigolio del pedale di John Bonham, sì.

Having owned ancient pioneer amps and even later onkyo higher end class ab amps this is by far the cleanest sound and also most expensive due to being new. The remote is under powered (no batteries included) but does the job Menu is super simple. Really only need to setup how you use it and leave it alone. After that I only need power and volume control to use. Eq is set to 4 (super bass) and I have a 10" sub. Also big box 6.5 double woof / metal dome tweeter. I'm no audiophile but I can notice more instruments in my music. Anyways recommend this amp has heaps of power more than 3x than I've ever needed

Muito bom

Très efficace et imbattable pour ce prix ! Qualité au rendez-vous comme tous les produits smsl. Vraiment aucun point négatif répertorié…

Schwur auf Geräte von SMSL genau in dieser 'Preiskategorie' ! Mag das Einspielen und Konfigurieren bei SMSL-Geräten eine Kunst und etwas überraschend sein, aber doofer als man ist kann man eigentlich nicht werden. Volle Empfehlung, genaue Musikalität bei zurückhaltendem und fein-aufgelöstem Klang zeichnet diesen Leistungsverstärker exakt aus !