Review on Silver 160W Stereo Digital Amplifier With Power Adapter - S.M.S.L SA-98E For Enhanced SEO by Amrozi Papi

Holy.Crap. The amount of power this thing puts out for its size is incredible. I also have an SMSL Q5 Pro DAC/AMP and this blows it out of the water power wise. With that being said, the power is not all good, if you dig a little deeper on the power ratings you will see that max rated powers are made with pretty awful distortion. If you listen at lower volumes (still very powerful), it can still be an excellent sounding amplifier that will give even your less sensitive speakers a good driving. The one trouble I have found is the volume knob, since you can't listen to music with this amplifier at the highest volumes it will probably have you using the very beginning of it's range. Since that's the case, it takes a little finesse to adjust as very early on the left or right channel might cut out until you are up to a decent listening volume. The power brick is huge, so make sure you have some area for it nearby your amp location. I'm using it with an FX-Audio DAC-X6 from my PC (via USB) and Chromecast (via mini Toslink optical). The two devices stacked are almost the exact same size, and look very nice.If you need to drive less sensitive or larger speakers that require more power go with this SA-98E and a DAC (such as the FX Audio DAC-X6), if you just have some bookshelf speakers in a near field setup the Q5 Pro is a great option that gives you a little more control. The Q5 doesn't have a headphone amplifier/jack though, so keep that in mind.