Denon PMA-50 Compact Digital Amplifier

This was a little bigger than I expected. But that's on me for not doing my homework. Tisk tisk. For some reason I was expecting something the size of a DVD case and about an inch tall. But size doesn't matter in this case because boy does it ever pump out the power when it needs to. I use it to power a set of klipsch rp 160m and I rarely push it past half power unless the right song comes on.

This is a great little integrated amp. I wish I could give it 4.5 stars as its not perfect but it's really great for what it is. I'm using ours to power a pair of Polk RTi-A3's with a Hsu research sub. The sound quality exceeds expectations. We're running ours in the living room with a tv sending signal via optical cable as a 2.1 configuration. We also have a Blu-Ray player connected as well. And we connect our smartphones and tablets to it as well. It provides great flexibility offering a lot of connectivity in a small package.For my uses this is as close to perfect as any product that currently exists. That is to say, small foot print, optical input, subwoofer output, flexible connectivity, and high quality sound.Though it is not perfect. The remote is pretty bad and feels like a total after thought. I'd almost rather not have one than the cheap little plastic thing they include. I wish it had just a drop more output wattage for the main speakers, it's enough for our monitors, but I'd be concerned poweiong anything that was bigger or with lower sensitivity. My biggest gripe is that I wish it was wifi enabled rather than Bluetooth. This way we could likely use a remote app without the need of a device like a Pronto for controlling it from our phones. It would also allow us to stream to it anywhere on our network rather than from the somewhat limited range from Bluetooth. One final nitpicking complaint, Denon provides these little plugs to fill whatever side is up, depending where you use the feet (for either short and wide vs tall and thin configuration) and not only are they very cheap plastic, the silver color doesn't match the aluminum body well.Complaints aside I have no regrets purchasing this, as far as I know it is the closest solution available to what's important to me. And most importantly the sound is really great. It's just forward enough to be exciting but not too far forward to be fatiguing. Our room is big and the Polks with the Hsu sub sound fantastic at all volumes.

Happy

This amplifier is great - while it works. Unfortunately for us the two separate units we tried each failed within a week. Given the number of positive reviews for the amplifier this may be just an anomaly, but it was enough for us to move on to a different and hopefully more reliable amplifier.

Started blipping and crackling after a month. Disappointed. Sent it back. Lovely looking unit and it sounded great until it became faulty.