Pyle Wireless Bluetooth Home Stereo Amplifier – Multi-Channel 200 Watt Power Amplifier Home Audio Receiver System w/HDMI, Optical/Phono/Coaxial, FM Radio, USB/SD, AUX, RCA, Mic – Remote -PDA9HBU.5

Unbelievable quality for the price
OK, first a mea culpa: I sent in a question about this product a few days ago asking if there was any way to make the LCD screen more legible. The company responded in less than 24 hours offering to fix the “problem.” But no need. Apparently, there is some kind of burn-in period for the screen, because after 4-6 hours of operation, it is now perfectly legible, even from across the room.As for the unit itself, it has really impressed me. I’m in my early 70s now, and I have purchased at least a dozen stereo amplifiers over the years, but given the low prices of Pyle stereo equipment, I never bought one of the company’s amps, just assuming it was cheap junk. My assumption was wrong. This little amp is a marvel. I bought it to use as a preamp because this is for an outdoor stereo that is kept in a water-tight acrylic case inside a gazebo. Despite the case, I have gone through several stereo components over the last two years and decided it was a waste of money to keep buying expensive components. So, I gave in and spent $116 (instead of a minimum $300-$400) on the Pyle PDA9HBU.5. I’m glad I did. The thing is built like a tank — solid and substantial (heavy) with incredibly quiet electronics, and rich, powerful sound. Keep in mind that I am not using the power amplifier portion of the device, just the preamp, so I can’t vouch for it’s stand-alone sound, but sending its signals through a Sony stereo amp produces wonderful audio, as good as any combination of consumer components (as opposed to audiophile components) I have used. It is feature-rich, offering both SD card and USB (flash drive) inputs. I record any music I want to play outdoors on micro SD cards, so I was worried about the quality of those readers. In fact, they (and the entire user interface) are solidly designed and built, and they are rich with features. The unit can only play MP3 or WAV files, but since those are the only compressions I use, the SD/USB is perfect for me, with five different kinds of repeat (including random). The unit is also capable of finding and playing music in folders and subfolders. I also found the FM receiver and Bluetooth radio to be first rate electronics. My only caveat is that this unit is still new, and I have no idea how dependable it will prove to be over time. But my first impression is that it’s simply one of the best bargains I have ever found in audio electronics.

Good volume, sounds great. But is a little quirky
Note: I’m writing this review after 3 days of ownership. So I can’t speak to reliability.The short: It’s got some quirks which I’ll get into. But it has surprising amount of power, and the output sounds great to me. On that alone, it’s feels like it provides good value.Now to the quirks.* Volume: There’s 21 (if I counted correctly) settings, which feels like plenty but I’ve found one setting can be a little too quiet and the other a little too loud. It’s not bad at all, but you’ll probably notice it.* MP3/BT/Aux and Display: It feels… a little more bolted on than integrated. You pick that option on the selector then everything on the top half of the controls is related to those functions. If you’re not using those functions, what’s on the screen is irrelevant.* Remote: And by extension of that, the remote can also only control those “top half” things. You can’t control volume, input, etc from it. I’m using it at a desk, so I don’t care. But feels like a pretty big limitation on the remote.* Minimal testing on this one but HDMI didn’t work for me. The video passed through fine but the receiver did not pick up audio. The device played HDMI audio fine outside of this. I had planned on – and now am – using optical audio for that input anyway, and that works fine so I gave up after one try.Other stuff I liked:* The compact size. This was my primary reason in purchasing it.* Digital inputs. The reason I chose this other similar products.* A phono preamp. I haven’t used this yet but i will. I have a turntable without a built-in preamp so that’s perfect.Other stuff I tried:* Bluetooth: Connected without issue and works.* Radio: Tried for this review. Works. It scans for frequencies and assigns them to “channels” which you can browse through one by one.Stuff I haven’t tried:* MP3: I did notice per the manual that it is only MP3. So no ogg or aac or other formats you might favor.* Mic input