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| Brand: AudioSource
Category: CE
List Price: $199.99
Buy New: $79.97
You Save: $120.02 (60%)
New (29) from $79.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  83 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 9.6
Dimensions (in): 16.5 x 9.3 x 2.9
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: Amp 100
Model: Amp 100
UPC: 041087001658
EAN: 0041087001658
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Zone 2 and Zone 3 amps for Home Use October 30, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am giving this product a 5 star rating, even though I am waiting for tech support to get back to me on one issue. At least they have tech support, and they are very knowledgable and helpful.
I bought 2 of these amps to power 4 sets of AudioSource in wall speakers I have installed. I have one pair in each of 4 bedrooms (the review I wrote on the speakers is also on Amazon). These amps are connected to my Yamaha 5890 receiver which is capable of driving 3 different zones using 3 different inputs, which is cool, but totally overkill for me.
When I activate Zone 2 or Zone 3 from the receiver, the AudioSource amps kick on automatically, a great feature. At first, I was having a lot of distortion in the speakers though. I called tech support, and they told me to reset the jumpers in my Russound in-wall volume controls, to allow the amp to push more power to the speakers at 8 ohms. Apparently the volume controls were cutting the resistance to 2 ohms, and the amps dont like that.
Well, I made that adjustment, and voila. The music comes through clean and clear. Not deafening, but certainly loud enough to enjoy in the bedrooms. Thus far they perform admirably, and I found no other products that match their functionality, let alone value.
But more than that 5 STARS FOR REAL TECH SUPPORT!!! They even called me back to talk, and were familiar with my volume controls and walked me thru the process. I know just enough to be dangerous, and the tech I spoke with was top notch. You just dont get enough of that these days, and I hope AudioSource keeps such a wonderful feature and resource, its truely a differentiator in today's market. Real people, with real answers, imagine that.
Nice Minimalist Amp with Strange Feature January 26, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
My feature-laden Yamaha RX-577 receiver/amp finally gave up after 11 years of service, and since we now live in the country with little or no radio reception, I looked for a simple amplifier, with simple controls and adequate capacity (hint on the meaning of "adequate" - I am no longer 19). This amp is an understated black box, with basic minimalist styling and simple controls that adjust balance and volume, and speaker outputs to A and B. It does a fine job on my average home stereo system. I concur with other reviewers that the silly feature of automatically turning itself to a stand-by state when no input signal is present is essentially useless on any kind of music other than the constant drone of Scottish bagpipes or techno. Between tracks of a CD, or even in silent pauses in music, it dutifully and maddeningly turns itself "off", and then, oops! - back on again when the music resumes - after missing a few measures, of course. Happily this feature is only present on line 1 of the system. If you use line 2 as your primary source, it overrides line 1. As an engineer, I find this logic perplexing. Since when should a secondary line signal override the primary signal? Who thought of that? Anyway, this is the only fix that I know of to stop the automatic stand-by feature, and it does work.
Beyond that user-correctable deficiency, if you don't need 110+db sound anymore (or never did), this amp is a highly suitable piece of equipment that appears well built, is simple to use and understand, and simple to hook up. It is relatively heavy for its size, and like watermelons, heaviness potentially equals quality, especially with things that supply power.
I am overall quite satisfied with this amp.
Very nice for the price May 21, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was looking for medium-budget whole-house audio system. Finding the right receiver at the right price was pretty easy. Using a speaker selector to split the audio to multiple rooms is an affordable option, but speaker impedance matching can be a problem and you need lots of power from the receiver if you want all rooms on at the same time. A power amp is a better solution, but the multi-room amps I found were over $1000. The AudioSource Amp 100 is a great compromise solution - even power distribution to all rooms, good sound quality, and enough power for enjoyable listening. I'm sure the $1000+ amps sound better and can drive more power, but the Amp 100 has what I need.
Some of the older review complain about the amp switching off too quickly when losing the audio source. I definitely don't have this problem - the amps shut off after about 5 minutes of no audio signal.
The one surprise I got when I received the amp was the volume selector. From the pictures I saw (with two knobs on the front of the unit), I assumed the two channels had separate volume controls. In fact, one knob is volume for both channels and the other knob is balance. Not a big problem, just not what I expected.
 Audio is always cutting out December 2, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
This would be a fine product except for the fact that it has this mechanism to cut sound output when the sound level falls below a certain threshold. There is a switch to turn off this "feature" but it doesn't work. The result is that the sound always cuts off when your music volume gets low. It's extremely irritating when you're trying to listen to the soft parts of songs or when you don't want to blast the output. I want control my volume via remote, buy I have to manually adjust the volume knob instead and when I don't feel like cajoling the amp, I just let the music periodically cut out but get irritated every time it does. I would not recommend this product as a result of this problem.
 No good for dual sources August 21, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This product had great potential and it does everything promised as long as you only use 1 source and you attach it to the LINE2 input. LINE2 is the default input meaning whenever there isn't any signal on LINE1 the unit instantly switches back to LINE2. The issue is with the "instant" result. When I play a DVD movie through LINE1 the AMP100 annoyingly switches back to LINE2 every time the audio goes quiet - even in between dialog. The switch makes a discernible "click" and usually does not return back to LINE1 right away so some of the audio you hope to hear is lost. Same issue with music tracks - during quiet passages the AMP100 switches back to line1 and if there is anything playing on LINE1 your other audio source starts chopping in and out. I have two AMP100's and they both operate this way. I spoke with Audio Source tech support and they acknowledged this shortcoming and tried to push me to buy the AMP200 which apparently has a time delay that prevents this undesired chopping of content that is connected to LINE1. They don't even provide a switch on the front panel to manually switch LINES, you have to unplug your cables to take control.
Otherwise a great product. It powers down nicely when no signal is sensed.
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