Integrated Amp Reviews

Audio Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
• Very impressive amplifier has the dynamics and quality for serious sonics
• Free Outlaw Audio app is basic but functional Hi-rez streamer
• Fully two-way bass management/sub output
• Well-engineered Loudness function, plus Speaker EQ option
• Solid onboard phono stage has both moving-magnet and -coil settings
• Lots of inputs and outputs, including pre-out/main-in; 12-volt trigger out, IR in/out
Minus
• Supplied remote control’s ergonomics lacking
• No signal-data display from streaming sources
• No on-board Bluetooth, HDMI, or volume-bypass input

THE VERDICT
A classic, thoughtfully designed stereo receiver updated with Wi-Fi, streaming, and an app, but retaining satisfying power and performance.

Is the stereo receiver still relevant? Outlaw Audio certainly believes so: its newly updated RR2160MkII re-thinks a long-running basic design for the streaming age with onboard Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, a free iOS/Android app, and a (very) modest power update.

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

Like many surround-sound audiophiles, I listen to a lot of twochannel material as well. It’s part retro sacrament, part necessary evil. Although I haven’t turned on my ancient stereo amp and preamp in months—their presence in the rack is mainly symbolic—I regularly run my 5.1-channel system in stereo mode when the nature of the content demands it. I also get a lot of use out of the cheap speakers and chip-amp in my kitchen, not to mention the powered iPod speakers in my bedroom. I use my 2.1-channel desktop rig throughout the day—not only when I’m at my desk, with the inevitable YouTube distractions, but also during the evening, when I curl up with a book. My armchair happens to sit across the room from my desktop system. Because the distance from the speakers is greater than the distance between the speakers—about a 3:1 ratio—this isn’t an ideal setup for stereo imaging. But it’s great for casual listening. I’ve spent some of the happiest hours of my life sitting in that chair, listening to that system.

Few audio companies are as closely associated with a single individual as Pass Laboratories is with its founder Nelson Pass, a man who has always blazed his own path when it comes to designing audio gear. Pass founded Threshold Electronics back in the early 1970s, but when he wanted to explore new, simpler circuit topologies in the early 1990s, he created Pass Labs as a way to market his latest creations.

The two integrated amps in the Pass Labs line, the INT-150 and INT-30A, are a good example of his less-than-conventional approach, seeing as both appear to be  identical except for the critical question of output power. Physically the two amps are indistinguishable, with exactly the same functions, weight, dimensions, and even price tag. It’s only when you take a peek at the spec sheet that the differences become apparent, with the INT-150 delivering a healthy 150 watts per-channel, while the INT-30A tops out at just one-fifth that amount.

So what gives? Why would anyone buy an inline four when they’re offering you the V-12 for the same money?

Maybe back in the 1920s, when Sound + Vision was called Superheterodyne Journal, we might have reviewed some giant tube amplifier that put out 2 watts at full blast. But other than perhaps some forgotten device from audio’s days of yore, this storied publication has never tested an amplifier so small, so weak, so limited in utility as the Qinpu Q-2.

Audio Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
USB inputs for PC and iOS
Premium Wolfson DAC
Bluetooth aptX
Minus
No DSD decoding
No Wi-Fi, AirPlay, or Ethernet
No streaming services

THE VERDICT
The Rotel A12 accepts direct wired input from PCs and iOS devices and gets the best out of both digital and analog sources with its great-sounding DAC and amp.

Connecting a computer to an audio system with a USB cable seems a perfectly logical idea. It’s simple, it’s direct, and it enables the computer to feed bits to the system and rely on the system’s digital-to-analog conversion. Yet this desirable feature is tantalizingly rare. AVRs and streaming amps tend to rely on wired and wireless network connections rather than on a USB port and asynchronous digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that can take over the clocking functions of the digital bit transfer and reduce the effects of jitter.

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Generous power
First-class sound
High-quality fit and finish
Minus
Network connection doesn't support audio
Lacks Wi-Fi, AirPlay wireless streaming

THE VERDICT
Rotel's MKII version of its RA-1572 integrated amp delivers impressive power and transparent sound with digital and analog sources but lacks the comprehensive streaming features found on similar designs from other manufacturers.

True story. My very first hi-fi system featured a Rotel integrated amplifier—if memory serves, a model RA-20 of some 20 watts per channel. I bought it brand new for around $60 from K&L Sound in Watertown, Massachusetts, with money saved from my after-school job building shelves, sweeping floors, and punching holes in sheet- metal panels that would become the very first ARP synthesizers. (The late Alan R. Pearlman was my next-door neighbor and a lovely, kind, brilliant guy.)

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Honest audiophile-grade sound
Free app delivers a good selection of streaming services
Proprietary two-channel room/speaker-correction EQ works well
Above average FM tuner included
Minus
Amplifier power may not be adequate for all speakers, larger rooms
No subwoofer output; no fixed-level line input for easy multi-channel integration; no 12V trigger
Lacks the touchscreen interface found on several competitors

THE VERDICT
An all-in-one streamer/amplifier that promises and delivers genuinely high-end sound, though with relatively modest amplifier power.

The twentieth century had its Roaring Twenties; welcome to the twenty-first’s Streaming Twenties.

Integrated amplifiers equipped with on-board streaming facilities and software, and the requisite digital-to-analog conversion hardware, have taken the place that the stereo receiver once held, back in the 1960’s, ’70’s, and ’80’s.