Feedback on Amphony L1600, L1550, or L1520 Wireless Systems

The Amphony 1600, I believe they are 150W a piece. I did have an opportunity to hear them and they sound very good for wireless technology. Having heard the Bose SA-2 and the Sony S-air and being severely unimpressed, this was a nice change of pace. I think you can pick them up for $199.00 from AV Express.

I have used the Model 1500 (same transmitter as the 1550 but no amplifier in the receiver) for a couple years with good results. Sound quality is excellent, haven't encountered any click or pops and no interference from other wireless devices. I'm transmitting about 20-30 feet through two walls. It is used to stream music from a laptop to the receiver of a modest whole house audio system which is played at moderate sound levels.

I thought I would chime in here. I have had the Model 1550 set for a few months now.

Unfortunately, one of the amps just died a couple weeks ago, so Im waiting on RMA info from Amphony in order to get a replacement.

As far as the sound quality goes, I was really impressed with them. Im also using them for my rear speakers and they seemed to handle it fine.

My only issue is that i am getting popping when using our cordless phones. The cordless phones are of the 5.8Ghz variety, and I guess thats why they interfere with this 5.8Ghz set. Maybe Ill replace the set with one of those DECT type phone systems.

Im wondering if the L1600 has improved the set to avoid that kind of popping. I noticed you said that the 1600 set can use the 5.1 ghz band. Im wondering if the 1550 set can do the same. If it can, it didnt help my situation.

Its great to hear your having no trouble with your setup. I did get my set replaced and what I recieved was the model 1600 set, so I was happy with that result. Thier warranty response was fairly quick and I didnt run into any delays in communication with Amphony.


Unfortunately, Im having an issue when trying to use this set. Im only trying it out with one rear speaker at the moment. The problem is that my pioneer reciever shuts off immediately when trying to send sound to that speaker. I can make that happen by going into the MCACC manual settings and trying to send a test tone to it, or just by playing media that would be using the speaker.

I was able to get some faint audio to it while testing with a movie, but any adjusted to the volume resulted in the reciever shutting off.

So if anyone has any experience with this issue, that would be very helpful.

I recently set up my 1600s but I'm having a problem with this passive monitoring. Watching a movie that switches from loud surround effects like an action scene to dialog with little surround sound results in the speakers going through this click/pop noise multiple times during the movie. It is very distracting. I'm thinking I've done something wrong with my setup but not sure what it is. I only have the amps at the speakers turned on to less than 1/4 volume (the white indicator is pointing to the seam between the silver and black plastic). In order to balance them with the fronts and my seating position I have to put my surrounds at -12 to -15 db. I'm planning to play with turning down the volume knob on the amp and bringing the db back closer to 0 relative to the fronts and see if this works. Anyone have other suggestions?

I will say, when they are powered up and getting signal they sound great. I don't notice a difference between the quality of the wireless vs. the wired fronts.

Thanks!

I've been thinking about buying the models 400 and 480 for my surround speakers and subwoofer. Paradigm adp320 surrounds and sub. But why do these receivers have volume controls on them? If you have the transmitter plugged into a receiver, you should be able to use the volume control of the receiver.

Do you just put the volume at max level, if using a receiver? The volume control seems redundant. And I don't feel like balancing the levels. Will Audysey work with this to balance the surrounds?

I was wondering how these are setup. I am looking for a wireless system for my grandfather because his hearing is getting bad. All he has is a Sony tube tv. I wanted to setup two speakers next to him on the couch so the tv doesn't have to be blaring. Would this work if I hook up the transmitter to the back of the tv? I dont have speakers yet so I would need to buy a cheaper set of small speakers.

Thanks for the help!

Audysey works with these. The volume on each amplifier gives you a baseline setting. But the +/- decibel settings using Audysey do work as do changes in volume of the receiver. I have an Onkyo NX-609 and it works well. The only issue is what I described above. I'm still adjusting the settings. I will say that maybe the 150W Amphony may be too powerful for my needs. I have the initial volume set very low so the rear surrounds don't overpower the front channels.

According to the manual of the transmitter, it states:
" If you are using the speaker outputs, adjust the audio level of your audio source to the maximum level where no clipping / distortion occurs at the wireless receivers. If the audio level supplied to the transmitter is too high, then distortion will occur. If the audio level is too low, the dynamic range of the transmission will not be used and the audio level at the receiver may be too low."

I fail to see how this product was designed for home audio receivers. If I have the transmitter connected to my Onkyo 807 speaker terminals, why would it matter how high I turn up the volume on my Onkyo? The instructions are ridiculous. It shouldnt matter what volume level I have my Onkyo at, it should be able to transmit without distortion and at full dynamic range, regardless of volume setting. The rear speakers should be able to be balanced in sound with the fronts, without having to mess with any stupid volume knobs on the Amphony products.

Hello from Italy.
I want to speak about my experience with a L1500 even if not in the thread title.
Bought from magicsound.it it was supposed to pilot the active subwoofer placed few meters away from the amplifier, but it didn't.
The signal from the sub outs was not transferred, only a full level signal out worked (tape out) but that is unuseful as the volume level fixed to the max don't follow the satellite speakers volume level.
Plus the auto-off did not work. The transmitter stays always on and overheat in few hours.
I returned the L1500 and after three (!) months I got a new one. Same problems.
I sent several emails to magicsound.it but they don't reply anymore. Amphony said that they would try to contact magicsound.it to discuss the problem but after weeks there are still no news.

I have the Amphony 1550 setup powering a set of rear speakers in a 5.1 setup. I have had it for about two years. Occasionally I would get a "pop" out of the right rear speaker, maybe once every 20 hours of operation. This was acceptable. A few weeks ago, the right rear began "popping" for 10-25 seconds every time I powered up the system or "unmuted" after muting the system. I have no cordless phone that would provide interference. I contacted Amphony customer support for help using their contact web page. After receiving no response, I contacted them again. This time I received an email from "Abraham" at Amphony requesting my contact information so that he could contact me. I sent it. That was almost two weeks ago and I have received no contact. Today, I contacted them again. The problem is getting worse, now "popping" lasts for one or two minutes after power is applied. I am still waiting for assistance from Amphony.

It could be that a capacitor is going bad. See this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imagebar/7770606162/in/photostream

I have an Amphony 1520 and after a couple of years, the 3300uF 25V capacitor in the receiver went caput. The speaker system would pop constantly every few seconds.

I have recently received the L1600 system. I had ordered it in the Spring but one of the amplifiers was defective and after some problems with the post office I finally followed up and Amphony sent me a new L1600 system this week. It is working well with no pops or crackles. I have one issue, however. When I try and use Audyssey set up on my Denon receiver the delay is too long between each of the steps and the amplifiers shut down. The test tones don't seem to be long enough to activate the amplifiers. I can only measure at one location but not at any others. Any suggestions for completing the Audyssey set up would be appreciated.

I really like the Amphony wireless audio transmitter. I have the model 1500 transmitter/receiver. It has rich bass and nice, smooth treble response. In fact, I have an Apple TV, but I use the Amphony unit instead. I have the transmitter connected to the line out on my Mac Pro. The receiver is connected to my TV, which is connected to my stereo. I use my TV to centralize inputs, as my stereo only has one line in (it's an older B&O system from the early 1990s).

I have A/B'd the difference between AirPlay -> Apple TV vs. the Amphony setup. Both are patched in through my TV to my stereo. The difference is obvious. The AirPlay -> Apple TV setup has tinny and brash highs. I like to listen to 70s jazz fusion, like Weather Report, and when the drummer is slamming away on the cymbals, it just sounds awful. The bass is thin, which does no justice to Jaco Pastorius' bass lines. The Amphony setup is much better. The bass is rich and full, the treble is smooth, and the stereo imaging is better. I have my speakers set up such that I sit at the vertex of an equilateral triangle between the speakers, much like one would do with studio monitors, but with more distance. The stereo imaging is much better with the Amphony unit.

The cool thing is I can remote control iTunes on my Mac (in another room) with the Apple Remote app on my iPad or iPhone. The improvements with iTunes 11 make it a pleasure to use. Sure, I don't get album art on my TV. I simply turn off the display on my TV. The album art is on my iPad. The music quality is most important to me. Of course, one may question why I don't play vinyl on some fancy tube amp system. I like the convenience of having music at my fingertips. I'm too lazy to get up and fiddle with records.

I wrote up some of this on my site, in an article about Apple TV's poor audio quality. Don't get me wrong, I love my Apple TV and use it all the time. It's just not audiophile quality. The Amphony transmitter is 24-bit. As I mention in my article, Apple TV is apparently doing a sample rate conversion on-the-fly, which damages the sound. If you have Apple Lossless or even 256Kbps AAC's from iTunes, they are 44.1k. AirPlay to Apple TV converts this to 48k. Whatever is happening, it doesn't sound right to me.

One tip -- if you have strange artifacts and popping sounds with your Amphony transmitter/receiver, it is most likely that your wi-fi router is interfering. Just pick another channel for the 5 Ghz band on your router, and it will solve the problem. I use an Apple AirPort Extreme, which is a really nice wi-fi router. I put the 5Ghz band on channel 32, and it works well now. The default (automatic) did not play well with my Amphony setup.

I've been research wireless transmitter/receivers for a couple of weeks now. I just ran across the Amphony name, and I was really pleased reading the specifications. I'm looking for a wireless sub application, and the Amphony's are rated to 2hz with less than 2ms latency. However on Amazon, they still have the reviews even though the do not carry the product (model 400). It's no wonder they don't carry it. Most 1 star reviews I've seen in a while. Many complain of the popping but also issues when dealing with the company. I was exciting, but now I'm deciding between the AudioEngine and Outlaw.

The annoying popping, which appears, when the transmitter cuts off the signal to the receiver after appr. 1 minute of silence, can easily been overridden by simply modifying the transmitters muting circuit adding a resistor. After that the transmitter will stay always on, the preferred mode.
Soundwise the Amphony wireless transmitter/receiver/amp solutions are just fine. I connected several active speakers this way. There are some other simple "tuning" measures, which improve the signal & noise ratio by adding an additional elko to the power input circuitry, which (almost) completely eliminates any residual hum from the external power supply.

Thanks for this info! I would love to do this to my setup, do you know where I could find a guide or schematics that show where to add the resistor?