Wow. I was lucky to find the tube model of this preamp. Mine has a more open air mesh for a top cover right over the tubes so you can see the glow. I just lucked out. I tried reading up on the little AMC that could and assumed the 1100 was a solid state device. I still wanted it to mate with the 2100 amp. There is very little info on the fact that there appears to be at least two models of the 1100. I have seen most of them with a solid unvented top cover. I think these are the solid state models. I had heard good things, but this brand is a sleeper folks.
I have been using B & K's, Adcoms, and a few british pre-amps, and I can easily say this tube model blows them all away. Plenty of gain, plenty of control, and quiet as a mouse. I love the headphone jack too. Amazingly simple, seemingly very well made unit even with inexpensive military grade tubes stock. Also, I have to mention AMC customer service is second only to Polk, one of the best I have ever dealt with.. Impressive. Do not hesitate.

-Power
-overall styling ( Clean Lines.... very NADish )
- Price...price..price

None at this price

I am very pleased with the overall sound of the AMC 2100. So much so , I now own 2. They power my front and rears. Plenty of power for a 15x20 room. They do tend to be a little bright. I would suggest using them with traditionally bright speakers. This amp has never became warm at any time. One cool customer. My equipment is located in a 3x7 closet and still it never breaks a sweat. I would recommend anyone with a HT budget thats very tight to look at these nice amps.

Clean, bright, punchy sound Price

None I can find

Clean, bright, and punchy! What a great sounding preamp for the price. I went with the 1100 and 2100 amp after auditioning the AMC CD6 player which is a sweet sounding unit. Audiophile grade stuff for mid fi price. Now, if you have bright sounding speakers you wont like the slight brightness of this preamp. But, it has a punch to the low end that reminds me of kilibuck stuff. Good clean sound overall. I reccomend this as an audiphile cheapskate buy. Used with: AMC2100 amp AMC CD6 source Nordost 2 flat speaker wire Homemade nordost 2flat interconnects

Similar Products Used:

Nak, Yamaha

Performance, appearance, construction quality, versatility, price

None to date, but have not tried phono or mix functions yet

I recently purchased a AMC 1100-5404AS tube preamplifier. This is a new AMC product unlike the AMC1100 solid state preamps reviewed in this section. I have a home theater system but I have always kept a separate stereo system for the sheer pleasure of listening to music. My music system consisted of a solid state Acurus L10 line preamp, Antique Sound Labs Wave 8 Monobloc tube amps and Pinnacle Gold Mini Monitor speakers. This system sounded very good , but I wanted to replace the Acurus L10 ( an excellent solid state preamp!) with a tube preamp because I thought that all tubes would be an improvement. I was reluctant to pay the high prices usually asked for high-end tube products, but I knew that AMC had produced several reasonably priced tube amps/preamps in recent years that have received some good reviews. So I decided to look at their current line which took me to Retrodaze Audio Products, an authorized online dealer (retrodaze.com) offering the new AMC 1100-5404AS. This is apparently a new model produced exclusively for them. I found product details on their website and subsequently telephoned Retrodaze, where Brent Hite answered all my questions clearly and patiently. In particular we discussed the tube content and I chose to have the preamp supplied with Philips NOS 5814A/12AU7A tubes as being the most suitable. I placed my order and a couple of days later Fedex delivered the nicest looking component. This preamp is heavy and well constructed. It is a neat little package, standard width and just over 3 inches high by 11 inches deep. The front panel controls are bass, treble, balance, tape monitor, volume, and input selector for tuner, CD,DVD, Phono/Aux, Multimedia and Mix, also a headphone jack. The mix feature enables users to use this preamp in conjunction with a computer to simultaneously listen and mix sources with the best possible sound. I was pleased to find two line outputs provided which is necessary when using a pair of mono amps as I do, and equally useful for anyone using a stereo amp plus a powered subwoofer. On hooking it up I was amazed at the improvement in my system. There is a clarity and detail without harshness that is remarkable. The sound is also warmer. The music stage is wide and deep, filling the room with sound that is a pleasure to listen to. Non audiophile friends and comment on the “great sound’’ so I feel that it is not just my bias for tubes clouding my judgment! As a matter of fact I think this preamp would do wonders with a solid state amp too, and should not be considered just a tube thing. My experience with other brands of tube components shows that tubes last a long time under normal usage conditions, and in any event those used in this preamp are readily available. One of the attractions of this preamp is that tubes can be changed easily because they are in sockets, not fixed like some earlier AMC products. They can be changed as easy as a light bulb. So tube lovers will be able to try more exotic tubes at will in their never ending search for the ultimate sound. In my opinion the AMC 1100-5404AS at the list price of $475 is an outstanding bargain. There is no point in spending more for high-end sound. After nearly forty years of playing with audio I like the tube sound best, and the AMC certainly delivers it.

Similar Products Used:

Preamps - VTL, Croft,Acurus

Clean, transparent sound at a bargain price.

Creeping sense of boredom with the sound that is noted after many months of listening and by comparision with other high quality preamps.

I bought this preamplifier used at a very good price and on the strengths of reviews. Though I own other superior equipment by Onkyo (P304), Carver, and Harmon-Kardon (Citation IV), I can definitely state that this is a very uncolored transparent preamp adding very little personality to the sound and a pleasing warm smoothness. After many months of listening I found that something was "missing". More specifically, it was the lack of "personality" and associated musciality that characterized the other peramps I owned. It seemed by comparison to be "lifeless" with good rendition of the music, but an easy to ignore personality. I checked into the circuits to see it an improvement can be made. I found a surprisingly simple and effective design, but noted the the tone control chip was an inexpensive Signetics NE5532. I targeted this chip for replacement to a superior Analog Devices AD827 (recommended only if you have experience working with integrated circuits and desoldering wick). I was bowled over by the improvement. The lifeless muscicality became strong. The dynamics jumped markedly and this preamp now is eagerly listened to. If you should find the sound to be boring after many months of listening, investigate this simple and effective modification. All the signal passes though this tone control chip (even at unity gain) and all the sound character is affected by it. Before giving this mod an unqualified nod, you should also note that the "front end grudge" is reproduced more clearly and is of an irritating nature. But the improved dynamics, musicality,and personality make for a good recommendation. You should note that other chips are available and the AD827 is expensive ($11 versus $.90 for the Signetics). Finally it must be added that the Signetics chip is actually a very good choice for this circuit, as it effectively removes the front end distortion in the circuit, leaving a very clean transparent preamplifier. But for me and perhaps you, you may prefer the strong personality, musicality and dynamics that come with this simple modification.

An extrodinary design for the price.

Absolutely none for the price

An extraordinary high-end audio bargain---yes folks, high end for $99.00. Absolute brilliant design---can hold its own with many a $2000.00 preamp. One of the greatest values ever in high-end audio.

Transparent, attractive, beautifully constructed preamp.

Pop mentioned. Gain control is really not a problem, just could be better.

I received this preamp yesterday and have to put this out today as the unit is an incredible bargain. If you need a two channel preamp without remote and phono preamp, don''''t want to spend a lot of money, look no further. It''''s beautifully constructed, simple and transparent. Two pre outs and gold plated rca terminals for $99. With volume jacked and no input there is no noise whatsoever. Problems, a pop gets through when the cd player is turned on and the gain boosts early in the rotation of the volume knob, but is still easy to modulate. Overall, a great deal!

Similar Products Used:

Hafler 101, Audiosource pre/tuner, Preamp section of NAD c370, BTY a fine transparent preamp section.

Price. For the price, this preamp cannot be beat. With a decent amp, it will outperform even some of the highest priced receivers in terms of stereo music quality and imaging. The tightness of bass is remarkable.

Few if any: the knobs have cheap rubber grips on them that aren''t secured to the knob entirely. It just feels a little cheasy, but it works great! There is NO nob slippage even with greasy fingers.

The build quality of this unit is great. The connections on the back are all gold plated and extremely solid. My AR interconnects have very tight connectors and pushing them onto the RCA inputs on this device were a breeze. The simplicity of layout and organization is something receivers costing 3k can never accomplish. An added bonus on this preamp is dual amplifier pre-outs. #1 is routed to my Audiosource AMP One/A, and #2 to my Infinity IL120S. I purchased the IL120S from Ubid.com as a factory refurb directly from Infinity for 330. Right now I am driving JBL HLS 620 towers, renowned for their great stereo imaging. The midrange is not tonally accurate and the bass slightly boomy on these speakers, but this was taken into account in this review. I plan on replacing these with some Axion Audio MT80’s or MT60’s. The volume and adjustment knobs are operate silky smooth and with no graininess or pops heard during changes as can be expected with digital preamps and receivers lacking a true analogue volume dial. This makes volume adjustment very easy. The tone controls are extremely solid, not adding distortion, but actually tuning the sound instead of boosting. Receivers tend to distort the sound rather than promote the sound wanted when adjusting tone controls. However, as accurate as this preamp is, they really aren’t necessary unless you’re used to cheap Sony or Aiwa bookshelf boom sound. I cannot stress enough the build quality of this unit. The internal capacitance of the power supply is excellent, resulting in tight, clean, incredibly accurate bass. My Infinity IL120S sub took on a whole new musicality lacking when fed by an Onkyo receiver. The Onkyo pre-out for the sub was so weak; I had to crank the volume to turn on the sub. This preamp turns on the sub with the dial 1 percent turned on, and I have the gain on the sub almost all the way down, because of the signal strength which is EXCELLENT. I’ve been watching movies and music with this preamp for some time now, and I don’t even miss my center channel. The imaging, and tonal accuracy produced is amazing. The increased bass accuracy and treble smoothness is remarkable. All in all, this preamp is absolutely fabulous. If you’re looking for a reason to dump your piece of junk receiver for music, AMC has the solution.

Similar Products Used:

H/K 3470, Onkyo DS-484, Yamaha VR-2100

Transparent un-colored sound. Zero noise @ full output. Very smooth volume operation.

No AC power outlets for other components.

Beautiful high end performance at a mid range price. Excellent build quality and attention to detail. Very high quality components in a spartan package which offers no frills but an all business look. Easily mated to a mid priced power amplifier or as high end as you choose for audiofile quality sound.

Inexpensive, good build quality, plenty of inputs, transparent, looks good with NAD stuff

no speaker switch (phono jack cuts out speakers), no remote

This was a blind Internet purchase, since no one had yet reviewed it. A very decent preamp, and for what I paid, a bargain. I have contemplated getting a passive preamp, but I have to admit being quite happy with this product. It is very solidly built for this price range, with a separate circuit for the headphones, goldplated inputs/outputs, passive tone controls. Depending on the recording, the music sounds special, very natural. It seems to add little if nothing to the signal.

NAD 2200
NHT Super Twos (intl. version, biwirable)
JVC PEXL-V282
Sony TC-K670
Kenwood KR-5400 (used as a tuner)
DYI Plenum Cat-5 Speaker cables for mid/treble
12-gauge braided cables for bass module
Tara Labs Prism 11 interconnects (CD-preamp-amp)

Similar Products Used:

none