Review on 🔊 Kinter MA170 12V 2 Channel Mini Digital Audio Power Amplifier for Car or MP3 - No Power Supply Included by Stephanie Young

I bought this primarily as a small aux input with volume control for a vintage car which I didn't like the factory radio placement. This item costs $10 without the plug and $16 with. How about neither? I opened it up, unplugged it, and connected the power and ground wire to it. I also wanted to screw it to something at the bottom rather than the top, but then all the labels would be upside down, so I took it out of the case and turned the guts over. This required drilling two holes in the side of the case to screw the amp chip heatsink to the case as it is now on the other side (leaving two empty existing holes). I also just ordered a 3.5mm chassis connector (actually 5 pack, the more you spend the more you save! wait.) which I will mount above the tweeter and cable. The only real purpose of this in a car is that if someone hits or snags the input cable, they (probably) rip it out rather than breaking the back of the circuit board and the RCA connectors on the back. In terms of performance, it doesn't have much. It works well and is (at least for 2 channels) as good as a cheap car radio. However, it suppresses signal noise. Not bad if you're feeding speakers directly, but if you're unwisely using it as a speaker level input to a real amp like I did, it's noticeable. I find the color changing LED a little annoying, as other reviewers have mentioned. As I took this thing out of its case, I noticed that the LED is on a fairly long set of wires and is simply bent next to the faceplate to illuminate the buttons. I bent it as much as possible and it's a lot less distracting, but I still wish I could just pick a color and stick with it. Maybe I can, but I just didn't look closely enough at the board. Anyway, for $9? Yes that is cool. Just go in with reasonable expectations.