Hello - new to the forums, a LOT to read and take in.
In my home office, I have a Lepai LP7498E amp that are driving a set of Polk Audio Monitor 30's. For a source, I'm using iPad for MP3, Pandora and Amazon Music. I'm not that impressed with the sound, seems a bit flat to me. I ditched the Bluetooth connection and went with a 3.5 headphone to RCA - but the sound still isn't as good as would expect.
From my reading of the threads it looks like Lepai amps are a bit looked down on. Would a different amp help? I would like something commercially available if possible. I've seen some of the outstanding looking (and near professional looking IMO) DIY's you guys are doing, and while I like to tinker with things, I'm not ready to jump into that quite yet.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
In my home office, I have a Lepai LP7498E amp that are driving a set of Polk Audio Monitor 30's. For a source, I'm using iPad for MP3, Pandora and Amazon Music. I'm not that impressed with the sound, seems a bit flat to me. I ditched the Bluetooth connection and went with a 3.5 headphone to RCA - but the sound still isn't as good as would expect.
From my reading of the threads it looks like Lepai amps are a bit looked down on. Would a different amp help? I would like something commercially available if possible. I've seen some of the outstanding looking (and near professional looking IMO) DIY's you guys are doing, and while I like to tinker with things, I'm not ready to jump into that quite yet.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
First, if you're listening to MP3 files, consider using WAV or better yet FLAC files. A sonic world of difference. That said:
I've used Lepais for various projects. They're adequate for some purposes, particularly portable/outdoors/vehicle. Adequate is not the same as enjoyable. I bought a very simplistic amp, an AudioSource AMP100, for studio and test bench use. It was so surprisingly good, I bought two more. They work at home when I do (including studio, where we are now), they've served as PA/monitor amps on the road, and get carted around for testing equipment outdoors. I've never had one fail any worse than having the thermal switch turn it off temporarily when the input was too hot. I bought them from Parts Express when they were $99. They've since gone up to $129. At which point Dayton (P-E) had some made with their own logo on them and continued to sell them at $99. If your Polks are still giving you the 89 dB @ 1 watt they were intended , you probably will never need the 50/channel they push into 8 ohms (not in a home office anyway). If you do decide you want/need more power later, you can get a second one. They are bridgeable, meaning they can be set to put out mono at 160 watts into 8 ohms. One on each channel. Not exactly the bi-amping Steve Guttenberg talked about in his 2004 review of the Polks, but deinitely something that will scare both the neighbors and your Polks.
This amp has two inputs, one of which will cut the other off (with an eventually annoying click) if a signal hits it. It's for (la la la da de da muzak going on NOW SERVING NUMBER ELEVENTY SEVEN la la more muzak) voice over music like in some restaurants. Not to worry, just don't use the switched input. A dual RCA to 3.5mm cable will hook your player into the right jacks just fine. It also has two stereo outputs, in case your Polks decide they need some assistance (A, B, or A+B speaker pairs).
And if bolstering your Polks turns out to be called for, look into a pair of Mini-Advents. Compact, heavy duty, they come in wood bookshelf cabs or black metal indoor/outdoors. Mine still sounded great when the foam surround finally gave out (half their 20 years were in the car). They're running $50 a pair, give or take, on eBay. My replacement woofers ran $40, which by that time they had well earned. Mine now live in the studio, for listening to recently recorded tracks. They're plugged into an AMP100.
I've used Lepais for various projects. They're adequate for some purposes, particularly portable/outdoors/vehicle. Adequate is not the same as enjoyable. I bought a very simplistic amp, an AudioSource AMP100, for studio and test bench use. It was so surprisingly good, I bought two more. They work at home when I do (including studio, where we are now), they've served as PA/monitor amps on the road, and get carted around for testing equipment outdoors. I've never had one fail any worse than having the thermal switch turn it off temporarily when the input was too hot. I bought them from Parts Express when they were $99. They've since gone up to $129. At which point Dayton (P-E) had some made with their own logo on them and continued to sell them at $99. If your Polks are still giving you the 89 dB @ 1 watt they were intended , you probably will never need the 50/channel they push into 8 ohms (not in a home office anyway). If you do decide you want/need more power later, you can get a second one. They are bridgeable, meaning they can be set to put out mono at 160 watts into 8 ohms. One on each channel. Not exactly the bi-amping Steve Guttenberg talked about in his 2004 review of the Polks, but deinitely something that will scare both the neighbors and your Polks.
This amp has two inputs, one of which will cut the other off (with an eventually annoying click) if a signal hits it. It's for (la la la da de da muzak going on NOW SERVING NUMBER ELEVENTY SEVEN la la more muzak) voice over music like in some restaurants. Not to worry, just don't use the switched input. A dual RCA to 3.5mm cable will hook your player into the right jacks just fine. It also has two stereo outputs, in case your Polks decide they need some assistance (A, B, or A+B speaker pairs).
And if bolstering your Polks turns out to be called for, look into a pair of Mini-Advents. Compact, heavy duty, they come in wood bookshelf cabs or black metal indoor/outdoors. Mine still sounded great when the foam surround finally gave out (half their 20 years were in the car). They're running $50 a pair, give or take, on eBay. My replacement woofers ran $40, which by that time they had well earned. Mine now live in the studio, for listening to recently recorded tracks. They're plugged into an AMP100.
Thank you for your suggestions, I noticed on eBay that some of the (I assume) older AMP 100's were built by Phoenix Gold, or were at least a company owned by them. I remember back in my car stereo days, Phoenix Gold were one of the top amps out there. Think that these amps would be ok to pick up used, or just spend the few more $$ and get a new on?
A different source is helping a lot, switched from the iPad to a computer I had sitting around. Better sound already. Now I need to decide if I want to come out of the computer with a DAC vs. the on-board sound card. Is it correct to assume that the DAC would be better?
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