huge thank you to today's sponsor, Policy Genius. More about them later. I am very excited to talk about today's product. This is the IMA A07 Max. My name is A, and this the Cheap Audio Man. So sit down, grab a cup of coffee, and let's talk about these exceptionally awesome high-five [Music] products. This is the new Aima A07 Max, a new take on their classic best-selling amplifier, the A07. This one has a few secrets of its sleeve, and we're going to learn about those later. This amplifier by itself, with no power brick, comes in around $65. And right now, it looks like you can only order it from Aima's website. No stock on Amazon. Hey, Aima, get stock on Amazon because I actually wanted to buy two of them. Why would I need two when I already have one? Well, that's one of the secrets which we're going to discuss later. This is based off the 3255 Texas Instruments amp chip, has removable and replaceable. I hope they're

replaceable op-amp chips and has better construction and better cooling so so let's dive right into it but first a word from our sponsor policy genius if you have anyone relying on your income you need life insurance it's that simple the Pomeranian needs to get fed the kids need to go to college they need shoes and the reindeers need their vaccinations that's why you should check out policy genius policy genius is your One-Stop shop to find and buy the insurance that you need at the right price nobody likes looking for insurance but policy genius makes it super easy you just have to type in a few things about yourself and they're going to give you a whole bunch of options from multiple companies with policy genius you can find life insurance policies that start at just $292 per year for $1 million of coverage some options offer same-day approval and avoid unnecessary medical exams the holidays are great we get to spend time with our families but it's also a reminder of the responsibility that we

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mind and a life insurance policy through policy genius can give them just that. So head over to policy genius.com audioman or click on the link in the description and get your free life insurance quotes today and see how much money you can save. I am thoroughly excited about this product. Why? Well, because it's very, very good. Maybe as good as or even better than the fzy audio V3, the darling of the affordable amp amplifiers. Same chipset inside, most of the same functionality, premium parts just like the fzy audio V3, and it has removable and swappable op amps. There are some differences though, but first let's talk about the specs. The Aima a07 Max comes from our friends at IMA. Know that's probably a big surprise to you. Mine came with a 36v 6 half in mine came with a 36v 6 1 12 amp power supply, but you can also buy an optional 48v 5 amp power supply, which will push the power up to what 300 W time 2 into 4.

Ohms. Maybe actually, I think that rating is for a 48V 10 amp power supply. Here's the secret, my friends. This little gray box of audio file happiness can be bridged, which means you cross the streams, combine the power, and get more power. How much power? Once again, very ambiguous. 600 watts Time 1 into 2 ohms. I don't know what that means for four or 8 ohms, which would have been a lot more useful to know. But even if it's 300 watts, even if it's 200 watts in mono mode, I'll be happy. However, we need to figure out exactly how much power this thing puts out if it's enough. So, the one thing that the IMA A07 Max can do that the V3 cannot do is Bridge, so you can kind of use this as a monoblock. You still have to deal with the volume control. We'll get into that next. I keep teasing the segment, so let's talk about how it works. And by the way, if you're just

finding this channel, which you probably aren't. And whenever I put up a new video, I lose subscribers. So that means people that have watched the channel have found it again and have decided against it. However, if you're a new viewer and you haven't watched a lot of my content and become annoyed at my personality yet, then please subscribe to my channel, maybe even like this video. Okie doie, let's go around this thing. What you have on the front is volume control. You control power by rotating the volume knob all the way to the left or counterclockwise. Then you turn it to the right. Here, a little click. That means this puppy's running. And then you have the volume knob. It goes all the way to the right. This volume knob is pretty much a quick throw the first half of the volume span. So you will get a lot of gain before you even get to midnight. And then when you get to midnight, the gain kind of slows down a little bit. But I was able to put this thing at full tilt all

the way up. Pause the music. Get my ear real close to the speaker. What speaker? I'm glad you ask. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. And I heard zero noise coming through it, maybe just an Ever So slight. What's on the back, you know we're going to talk about that later, just kidding. On the back, it's pretty straightforward. Here RCA input single one. You have a ox output, not a preamp output ax output, which means this is not going to control volume when you're doing this on the front. Then you have these off set binding post gives you a little bit more real estate. A lot of amplifiers of this size and performance don't have offset binding posts, not a deal killer, but I like the way Aima did these. Okay, if you want to bridge these things, these top two binding posts are the place where you plug the one speaker into. I guess I need to read the manual. The problem is I don't have two of these. Actually was going to go on to Amazon.

and order another one. But guess what, they're not in stock on Amazon. And usually, because I love that sweet, sweet affiliate income, I don't do a video unless something is in stock on Amazon. However, as soon as I turned it on, I fell in love with it. So, you can purchase it from Ima's website. It'll get here probably third quarter 2027. Just kidding, actually shipping from China is not that bad at all. And then you have your power input right there. Like I said, it will take anything from a 24-volt power supply all the way up to a 48v 10 amp power supply. But the ones that are regularly available right now that sound good are 48-volt 5 amp power supplies. You can get them from either Aima or even Fzy Audio or on Amazon. And then at the bottom, you have a little switcheroo right there. No, you can't see it. I'll take a picture of it with my phone. One says stereo and one says mono. When you put it into mono, you're no

longer in Stereo shall we pull this thing apart see what it looks like on the inside look like we have two Allen screws there at the end let's see if I have one that works nope too big too big also too big looks like I'm going to need different tools let's try this again got it perfect fit oh there we go tored in there pretty good I broke it Loose with a cheater bar or as we called in the Navy a torque amplification device there were no cheater bars in the Navy it's really exciting for everybody I think I'm going to turn the camera off now we have two additional screws on the bottom thinking we have to take those out too there we go I'm bound and determined to Lo lose these screws right take off the volume knob take off let's see if it's a set screw no set screw let's take off the volume knob do not want to have to pry this off because I think it's one of those very nice aluminum knobs come

on nothing that a old rusty vice grips can't take care of. Don't worry, I'm going to put something around it so we don't damage the beautiful aluminum knob. I don't want to clamp it too hard. All right, see if we can work this thing out. Yep, that did it. All right, see if we damaged the volume knob. Careful. Oh, yes, we did. Got a little scratch there and a little scratch there. Maybe don't use a vice grips. Maybe have stronger fingers than I have. And we have a nut in there. That's why it wasn't budging. Let's try this one needle nose. Ready for the big reveal. Look at that. Got some fancy caps in here. And if you can see right there, one, two removable opamps. The bottom there looks like you got a heat sink. It's all through soldered. Not great, but it's not terrible either. Not too shabby. What excites me about this amplifier is Sparkos opamps. Bon opamps because Sparkos opamps while being discreet.

opamps, which is little teeny teeny parts, give off some second-order harmonics, which shows up as THD. So, it shows up as like distortion because noise and distortion is what goes into THD. So you could put a Sparkles op-amp on a bench and measure it. It's not going to measure as well as far as THD compared to maybe another op-amp. But what you get since you have second-order harmonics, larger spatial yumminess. And I've heard that for sure in the Jelly Labs J2 AKM 44.99 version with a Sparkles op-amps upgrades. So very interested to see what this thing sounds like with an op-amp upgrade. However, today we are not talking about it with an op-amp upgrade. That will be a video for later date. Actually want to compare it to the V3. Actually, there's a new amp coming in that can also be bridged that also has the same amp chip but from a different company. So how does it sound? Well, I really love the way this

sound. So what I did was I got out my Sony SSC S5s, because this is a perfect combo for this amp. We have an $800 amp paired with $120 speakers. And then I put the Weim mini going into the SMSL SU-1. Weim mini is about $80, SU-1 is about $80. That whole setup is pretty affordable. And the one thing that shocked me about this amplifier is just how good it made the Sony sound. Now, to be fair, I haven't listened to the Sony's for quite some time, and I was all smiles because this speaker is just not all about clarity. There's also some decent bass punch on this thing. The Sony's, if you look how they're measured, there are some bumps and troughs in the mid-range and going into the treble. I don't personally mind that. I kind of think they sound awesome, but at louder volumes, they do get a bit fatiguing. The A7 Max did not exacerbate that fatigue. If anything, I think it brought it down.

little bit. I did use the weam EQ brought down 1K about a one 1 and A2 DB. I brought down 500 about 1 and a half 4K down about 1. And then I brought up 60 Herz just a little bit. And that was right in my wheelhouse. And I was also surprised how well the Sony's played between 75 and 85 DB. I was able to get them cranked into the '90s with this. And just the stock 36 6 and 12 amp power supply clean Dynamic no noise turned it all the way up with a track that was paused. No noise just the slight impression of a almost like someone inhaling from across the room. That's what you could hear. But I had to put my ear on the Tweeter dead quiet lovely sound signature dare I say even a little bit more Dynamic than the fzy audio V3. But I'm not doing a direct comparison to the V3 right now. That'll come later why.

because I gave my speaker and amp switcher away away somewhat by accident, so I need to get a new one. I think I would be hard-pressed if I had a blindfold on to pick them out, but I think if I had to guess, I think this one's going to be a little bit more dynamic, a little bit more punchy on the bottom, but it sounds absolutely spectacular, and it was the most fun I've had in my office for months. And I think it's because I'm back to my roots. I got cheap speakers, I got a cheap amp, I got a cheap DAC, I got a cheap streamer, and I felt like I was lacking nothing, not even a subwoofer because the Sony's thump. They're actually really good. I am going to figure out a way to get a subwoofer off of this thing though and dial it in just perfect because for me, this could be my endgame desktop setup. So what are my final thoughts? Final thoughts: I could not be happier with the A07 Max. Everybody is

going to be asking me which one is better this or the V3. The Aima or the the V3. Well, I can tell you this much. If you want to bridge it, if you want to run it in mono, then this one because the V3 can't do that yet. However, there's a new product coming out. You probably already know what it is that can be bridged. You have much better ventilation on the a07 max as you did on the a07 or even the a07 pro. I think got your little switch right here. Volume knob. This feels more premium, a little bit sleeker. And you want to know the reason why I think because of this one doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out. When this one came along, all of a sudden this one came along. And contrary to what some people believe, Aima and fzy are not the same company. Quite frankly, they are fairly extreme competitors. We, you and I, the audience, the populace, are the ones that are benefiting from Aima and fzy.

being competitors because they are fighting to get the best Sonic signature, the best value for dooll Hi-Fi equipment out there, and they keep trying to one-up each other. I had some correspondence with one of these companies, and there's something very exciting coming out the pipeline, something that we haven't seen before, and that used to be something just for like skit audio emotiva, just Shelly Labs. That type of competition, that type of innovation, was only happening with more established IND independent brands. Well, guess what fzy I think is becoming an established independent brand. Aima a little bit behind them, not necessarily from Sonics, but they are becoming an independent innovative brand, and they're not the same. Anybody that says these class D amplifiers, even if they share a 3255 amp chipset, if they say they're the same, they are not. They're not all created equal. Very impressed, and I can't wait to get another one 'cause I want to run these in mono in stereo, even with just the 36v.

6 and 1/2 amp power supply. Well into the '90s, the Sony's held together just fine. Maybe the Sony's got a little bit forward in the mid-range, but once I eqed things, it was impeccable. My music was so enjoyable, more enjoyable than a lot of other speakers. So if you can find one and you're interested in getting an a07 Max, I will link it in the description. I don't think that will be an affiliate link. Unless somehow miraculously they get stock on Amazon tomorrow. Very good, very fun, and cannot wait to play with this more. So if you want to support the channel, you can sign up for Patreon, patreon.com a man. Every Sunday night, we have Patreon-only zooms, Patreon-only Discord, Patreon-only Facebook group. You can also use the links in the description. Most of those are affiliate links, which means if you click and you buy, I get a commission, but it doesn't cost you any more, so it's a great way to support the channel. You can also sign up

for Amazon title or Rune links in the description those are also affiliate links. You can also buy me a cup of coffee, put a couple of bucks in the tip jar, but don't feel compelled to buy me anything. Finally, you can just like this video and subscribe, so don't binge watch anything on Netflix or Hulu, binge listen maybe through your new a07 Max, which I highly recommend. We're going to find out just how good it is in a future video, but I have a feeling it's going to do just fine, so don't binge watch anything on Netflix or Hulu, binge listen maybe through your new 07 Max, and fill yourself with happiness. And with that, I'm Randy, I'm the cheap Audio Man.

These Amps Crush and People Hate It! The Aiyima A07 Max Amp takes it to "11" for less than $100

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These Amps Crush and People Hate It! The Aiyima A07 Max Amp takes it to "11" for less than $100

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