Review on 🔊 Pyle PTA4 Black: Home Audio Power Amplifier System with 2X120W, Mixer Sound and Dual Channels for Amplified Speakers, PA, CD Player, Theater, Studio Use - RCA, AUX, Mic Input Included by Jesse Stewart

About my music system: Every room in my house has overhead speakers for background music. For several years he worked on a budget home theater system with 30 watts per channel into 4 ohms; Music provided by wireless FM stereo function. It works well, but it's time to upgrade to a more advanced solution with internet capabilities. For example, access internet radio and play media from my NAS drive. So I put together a media player using a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, the Volumio software, and a HiFi I2S DAC board (total cost around $90). This requires a power amp, and the Pyle PTA4 specs seem like a good bet. Start of product review: To my surprise, I found a Pyle PTAU45 device in a factory-sealed PTA4 box. For some mysterious reason, I received an updated model with a USB port (which I don't need). Since all the important properties are the same, I decided to leave it as it is. Here's what I found in the box: Pyle MINI 2X120 WATT STEREO POWER (PTAU45) The metal case amp is small and attractive, but surprisingly heavy. The amplifier owes its impressive weight to the fact that an old-school linear power supply is used instead of a modern switched-mode power supply. That's not bad, just an explanation for the great weight. Installation was easy, but I encountered a small problem. One of the spring-loaded connectors fell apart while installing the speaker wire (this issue has been reported in other reviews). Assembled the connector and completed the installation. The sound quality is good. But the maximum sound level without distortion is significantly lower than my previous amp, which was rated at 30 watts per channel (RMS). As others have pointed out, a Pyle amp cannot be 120 watts per channel. Based on my observations, I think 25W RMS per channel is more realistic. Overall, I'm happy with the Pyle amp. This was the final item needed to create my new music system. Now I have internet radio at home, a NAS music server with hundreds of my albums, smartphone control and a compact amplifier. Best of all, the overall cost was surprisingly low. By the way, if you are interested in building your own internet-enabled media player, here is a brief description of the required parts: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+: ELEMENT Element14 Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Motherboard HiFi I2S DAC: SainSmart HIFI DAC Audio Sound Card Module I2S- Interface for Raspberry pi B+ 2) Review Summary: Pros: Low cost, compact size. Cons: Fragile speaker clips. The output power is much lower than advertised.