Smart Volume Control - 144 WATTS - Pairs with Amazon Dot - Wireless Operation

Just got my first one and it's great. I'm putting them in other rooms and pairing them with my Amazon Alexa Dot, when I turn them on the music automatically will switch to that room's speakers (as long as the others are off). I hope to get 3 more of these when money allows.The Instructions suck, but to change the Bluetooth Device name for each room. You first need to download the Cambridge Silicon Raido Bluesuite app (which is the chip this device uses). [...] Extract and install it. Connect USB to your amp, Power on until flashing, hold the small button on the top front corner of the circuit board for a few seconds until the light goes off. Your computer should now detect it. Then go to your device manager find the "Generic Bluetooth Device" (or similar) Right Click and update the driver choose from location and browse to "C:\Program Files (x86)\CSR\BlueSuite 2.6.2\drivers\win64" or win32 folder if you are on a 32bit machine. It should then install the driver.Then go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\CSR\BlueSuite 2.6.2" and open PStool.exe and connect via USB choose the device, Then set the name under "Local Device's Friendly Name" (you can filter on the right hand side for name to help). Then click set. Close Pstool, disconnect power from the volume control and you can turn it back on in normal mode with the new name.All in all it's great with some quirks. Looks good on the wall compared to other more "commercial" looking units, that I don't want on my house walls. I wish they were slightly cheaper though, especially since I plan on buying three more.

Multiple problems with this amplifier that I will go into detail on. I wasted a good bit of time going to the hardware store to get extra pieces, and ultimately the unit burnt up after the third power on. Really unhappy.The Good:* Class D amplifier, solid well known chipset from TI for this purpose. I have 2x MICCA ceiling speakers.* Includes multiple wall cover colors and knobs to help you match your wall.* Feels solid, looks solid, and sounded great when it worked.* Includes a feeder for power within the wall to a secondary plug which can be on a lower (behind furniture) place away from the upper (reachable) knob plate.The Bad:* The manual is absolutely atrocious. This is an easy to figure out product, but (good grief) if you can't properly write a manual in English (including understandable punctuation), then please just don't. A picture schematic is fine vs. this, which reads terribly.* The extra crap I didn't need that is called "included for free". Do you really think putting 3 color versions of two wall plates, screws, and knobs are just passed to you free of charge? No, you paid for it inclusively. Just cut that crap out and offer different versions of the unit with different plate colors. Lower the cost for the consumer, and quit calling it free.* The secondary (lower) plug for power did not have a wire in the box to run to the primary (upper) knob and control unit. Seriously? With all the extra crap I didn't want to pay for being "freely included" in the box, they left out a functional piece to make it work.* You are required to purchase a 24v min. 3amp power supply. It is $20 extra dollars on top of what seems to be the most expensive in wall unit on Amazon. I get it, they don't manufacture AC<>DC converters, but figure out the logistics to make that work and just charge for it. Even cheap-ass Pyle includes one so there is no screw up on the consumer's end.* The "NEW" BT2 version of this unit removed the 3.5mm stereo plug and put it in the rear (inside) of the wall. Hey, that is great, but they forgot to plug the hole that they moved it from on BT1 faceplate, which seems to continue to be shipped with BT2. Fantastic aesthetics having that AUX plug in the back, but leaving a hole in the front. And, what about people who want to plug an AUX into the front still? That hole isn't big enough to pass a 3.5mm plug head through. So, what - splice a wire through? Worthless.* Everything aside, it seemed to work really well. Until the unit...having no change at all...decide to smoke up (luckily outside my wall still during testing) after asking my paired Alexa Dot to tell me the time. Power polarity (check). Speaker Ohms within tolerance (check). Speaker polarity (check). Aux plugged (check). Just crackle and poof. I like my Cajun food blackened, not my amplifier chipset.Overall - Look else where. I thought about buying another, figuring I got a bad unit, and now it seems out of stock on Amazon - so I can't. Oh well.

I'd love to give this unit 5 stars, but it needs some refinement. This small in-wall amp provides a unique audio solution that for the right situation, has very few if any alternatives. I have it installed in my kitchen, which feeds to 2 Monoprice 6" In-Ceiling speakers (and passes through a remarkable compact subwoofer by Acoustic Audio). The speakers are 8 ohm, though the amp's documentation recommends 4 ohm, so keep that in mind if you are purchasing speakers. The Line In receives a feed from my living room Onkyo home theater receiver. The Bluetooth is usually connected to an Amazon Echo.Let's look at some pros and cons:Pros:This thing puts out TONS of sound in a remarkably small and streamlined product. Anyone worried that this won't push some air, please rest assured. Of course I am only using this in my kitchen, not a stadium, but even at 12 o'clock, this amp is putting out some serious volume (more than the wife would like, I am sure). It fits in a one gang electrical box (I would recommend getting the deepest you can find) and adds absolutely zero clutter to my sparse kitchen. That said, I would be cautious to push any small amp in a confined space too hard for too long as overheating would concern me. The Bluetooth has a strong signal and audio sounds great over it. I usually connect to my Amazon Echo but connecting my phone has also produced great results. This allows me to stream virtually anything in my kitchen, or link into our main entertainment system and stream that audio throughout the entire floor (great for parties)!Cons:From reading the developer's website, this product is still in a bit of a development stage and as such, some things need tweaking. The decision to move the Line In to the interior of the unit was the right call, however the unit's faceplate now has a vacant hole. I filled the hole with white silicone, which looks good enough, honestly, but it's an extra step and the hole just shouldn't be there. A better move would be to fill the vacant real estate with a button that toggles Line-In/Bluetooth or a Bluetooth Pairing button (or both)!As mentioned the Line-In is now internal, but is nestled precariously at the furthest point back on the circuit board which seems prone to damage when installing, if it is a tight fit (which it is). Be sure to use a 3.5 mm jack that is at a right angle to minimize the depth. Moving the Line In to a safer position or using screw clamps instead of a female 3.5 mm input would help to minimize this problem.My Line In volume was substantially lower than my Bluetooth volume. I must CAUTION, this might be a problem with my receiver and not this unit, as I wasn't able to cross-check with other inputs. Regardless, the Line In volume was inadequate and ideally Line In and Bluetooth volumes should be comparable. This was easily remedied by installing an audio line booster before this amp, but required an additional purchase (and a space to install the booster). That said, both Line In and Bluetooth are now punchy and full volume. The booster is not clipping or distorting the amp as I have it set up.The paperwork recommends 4 ohm speakers, which I did not notice on its Amazon sales page. Presumably this would make the volume even louder, but most consumer grade speakers are 8 ohm and the average customer is not in the market for 4 ohm speakers, so this should be made more apparent on the sales page. Frankly, I'm running 8 ohm speakers, and they sound great.There is no Bluetooth pairing button, which sometimes makes connecting problematic. At first I had trouble connecting my Amazon Echo (Although a dot paired flawlessly). Here and there I need to restart either the amp or the Echo to reconnect. It makes transferring from the Echo to my Phone an extra step or two that I sometimes don't wish to bother with.The unit comes with it's own faceplate, but my install was in a 2-gang box so I had to use a double faceplate. For whatever reason my standard faceplate will not sit flush over this unit...it's not so terrible, but of course if it sat flush that would be preferred.Conclusion:All in all, despite its caveats, I am very satisfied with this tiny mighty power amp! I hope they continue to develop it and I pray they are still in business heaven forbid I need to replace the unit, as there is nothing else really like it on the market. I really hope it provides me years of dependable service.