Amped America AAP-1 Preamplifier and 2400 Amplifier Review

Their AAP-1 preamplifier has a built-in DAC, headphone amplifier, and phono stage, and their Class D 2400 amplifier pumps out 400 watts per channel into 8 ohms.

Amped America is a small company based in New Jersey, United States, and owned by designer Boris Meltsner. The company made its debut at AXPONA in 2018. Meltsner is an electrical engineer and audio technician, and he worked for many years with a wide variety of other manufacturers’ components before starting his own company. Amped America presently sells three components: a preamplifier, the AAP-1, and two Class D amplifiers, the AMP 2400 and AMP 2500. These components are designed, engineered, and assembled in the US by the company’s employees. They are covered by a five-year warranty covering parts and labor.

Amped America presently sells three components: a preamplifier, the AAP-1, and two Class D amplifiers, the AMP 2400 and AMP 2500. These components are designed, engineered, and assembled in the US by the company’s employees. They are covered by a five-year warranty covering parts and labor. And if you need any help or support, that’s just a phone call away.

Their looks are spartan, but that belies their wide range of applications and quality internal components. They are designed so that they will automatically adapt to any power source across the world. Assuming you are using the correct power cord, your Amped America component will work correctly no matter where you plug it in and power it up.

A lot of thought and design went into power management in Amped America’s components. They utilize HEPS, or Fully Protected High Efficiency Power Supply with Auto Selectable Mains. The components get regulated DC voltage to deliver consistent power and full bandwidth regardless of the resistance and impedance they encounter. Their high-efficiency power supplies provide high power despite their relatively compact size.

They also utilize AUSP or Audiophile Ultra Sonic Performance. Amped America components are designed and built with carefully chosen PCBs and resistors to reduce magnetic fields that can interfere with the flow of electrons, resulting in a very low signal-to-noise ratio.

Amped America AAP-1 preamplifier design

The AAP-1 preamplifier is both an analog and a digital preamplifier. I think of it more as a control center than just a preamplifier. Extreme care was taken in the design to isolate the preamp’s critical sound-reproducing components to give you the clearest sound possible. That’s a THD+N of -120db and 127dB of DNR. This thing is quiet and gets out of the way of the music.

Its face is finished in black anodized aluminum. In the center is a blue LED readout that displays the volume setting. On the right side are the volume knob, balance knob, and 6.35mm headphone jack. On the left are the power indicator, which glows red or blue depending on the power status of the unit, a selector knob, and a mute button, which glows red when activated. A small blue LED indicates which source you have selected.

On the rear panel, from left to right, you’ll find the analog inputs: a toggle switch to select between MM (47k ohm) or MC (100k ohm) phono cartridges, then the RCA inputs for phono, RCA1, and RCA2, and a single XLR input. Next are analog inputs: RCA for mono subwoofer, RCA main, and XLR main. The digital inputs are two coax, one Toslink optical, and one USB-A.

On the rear of the unit, there’s a USB-C port labeled “Software Update.” There’s a toggle switch to adjust the headphone level, 0db or -6db. And two inputs for IR input and a 12V trigger output. Finally, a toggle for main power and an IEC inlet for your power cord.

That USB “Software Update” input enables you to update the firmware of the unit. If there’s a modification you’d like, such as decreasing the brightness of the LED lights, call Boris Meltsner to discuss it, and he may be able to do that for you through a software update.

With all of those inputs, the Amped America AAP-1 preamplifier can be used in several types of systems: basic two-channel, home theater, surround sound, or with multi-room or zone amplifications. There are two subwoofer outputs, so the AAP-1 preamplifier can drive three pairs of speakers at the same time. And there is a balance control, to help you deal with asymmetrical rooms.

That’s a lot of potential. In my review, I used it only in a basic two-channel system and found no flaws whatsoever in sound or functionality.

The headphone amp

I think it’s nice to have a headphone amplifier in a component; it means that you can listen without anyone else in your living environment having to hear it. And the AAP-1 preamplifier is powerful and handled whichever headphones I used with it. Meltsner designed the headphone amplifier to work with a wide variety of headphones, and there’s a switch on the back of the unit to drop the output down -6dB for high-sensitivity headphones.

The DAC

You get four inputs for the DAC: two coax, one Toslink, and one USB-B. It utilizes ESS 9018K2M Sabre Reference HyperStream DAC 32-bit chips. It will handle PCM streams up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD up to 11.2MHz. There is also a patented Time Domain Jitter Eliminator.

I didn’t realize how much I liked the idea of having a DAC built into a preamplifier until I put the AAP-1 preamplifier into my system. To begin with, it meant that I could remove one component, one power cord, and one pair of interconnects from my system. And with its four digital inputs, this unit’s DAC will handle any digital source I could possibly connect it to in my system.

And I was impressed with how the DAC sounded. Much like the 2400 amplifier, I found that it essentially got out of the way and let the music come through. I heard very good resolution of low-level spatial detail and timbre, with lower frequencies that had presence; the bass integrated well with the rest of the frequency range to flesh out the soundstage and portray the sense of drive of the music.

The phono stage

I tested the AAP-1 preamplifier’s phono stage with two cartridges installed on the Jelco SA-250 tonearm in my Thorens TD-124 turntable. First, it was a Denon DL-103R in a Zu Audio aluminum body. This is a low-output moving coil cartridge with a .25mV output voltage. The other was an Audio Technica VM610MONO, a high-output moving magnet cartridge with a 3V output voltage.

The AAP-1 preamplifier’s phono stage drove both of those cartridges admirably. The sound had good body and drive with both carts, and the performance’s soundstage was readily apparent. I found that it wasn’t able to extract as much low-level spatial detail and “air” as what I’m used to with my Austin Audio Works Black Swan, but for rock music and big symphonic works the AAP-1 preamplifier’s phono stage enabled me to experience and fully enjoy the energy and personality of the vinyl I was listening to without thinking there was too much missing. And it definitely gave me more resolution than the phono preamplifiers in the under-$1,000 range I’ve heard over the years. I also like that it’s a set-it-and-forget-it phono stage, whether MC or MM, it will accommodate a wide variety of cartridges with aplomb, so you can just plug in your record-playing device and get straight to the music.

The remote for the AAP-1 preamplifier

I have a love-hate relationship with this remote. On the one hand, I like it because it is very small and weighs very little. It’s 40mm wide by 85mm long by 6mm deep. I’m guessing it weighs about ten ounces. It has thirteen raised buttons on its face that enable you to power the AAP-1 preamp on or off, raise, lower, or mute the volume, and select from one of its eight inputs. It is made of black plastic and all of the text is in a medium gray color, so that text is not too easy to read, even under direct light. And there is no backlighting on the remote. I found I had to memorize the location of the buttons and I had to use the small, printed diagram on the rear bottom of the remote to let me know where the top front of the remote is. Because of this, I would occasionally press the wrong button; instead of turning up the volume, I ended up selecting a different input, which gave me the exact opposite result. But, once I had memorized the remote’s button layout, I found it easy to handle and use. Like I said, love and hate.

The Amped America 2400 amplifier design

This is a two-channel, Class D power amplifier. Meltsner carefully chose and matched the components for the 2400 amplifier, and he designed it to work with any power source, preamplifier, or speaker. After thirty years of customer service, he told me he wanted to “just build it right.” After spending a few months listening to the 2400 amplifier, I can safely say that Meltsner achieved his goal.

The 2400 amplifier will output 400w into an 8 Ohm load and 800w into a 4 Ohm load, utilizing Pascal Class D ProXS2 amplifier modules. It outputs 29dB of gain, slightly higher than usual, but it only draws 3W at idle, so leaving it powered on 24/7 shouldn’t impact your utility bill.

Careful consideration went into the design to maximize the airflow through the amplifier, but there is a low-noise cooling fan in there as well. I didn’t have to push the 2400 amplifier particularly hard, as it had more than enough headroom to drive the speakers I paired it with, but not once did I ever hear any fan noise from it. It always ran cool and silently for me.

Its face is finished in a brushed black metal finish, with the company’s name in a gray uppercase font in the middle. On either side of that are twelve decorative concave cutouts that catch the light ever so subtly. The design gives off impressions of spartan strength and longevity, form before fashion, utility, and efficiency. To the left is an LED indicator that glows red or blue depending on the power state of the amplifier, and it blinks blue during the amp’s soft powerup process.

On the rear panel are a pair of RCA and XLR inputs and a toggle switch to select one or the other. You can have two different sources connected through the RCA and XLR inputs and switch between them with a flick of a switch. If the component you’ve connected has a gain control, you can do without a preamplifier altogether and theoretically get a purer signal. I did this with my Austin Audio Works Black Swan phono preamp, which does have a gain control knob, and I got a very clean and vibrant analog sound.

There are inputs for a 12V trigger in and out, and a toggle switch to enable the trigger. And there are two pairs of gold-plated speaker binding posts. There are cutouts for cooling, but the amp never felt warm to me, even after running for days on end. Then there is a power switch above the IEC power cord inlet. It weighs only 17.5 pounds which made it easy for me to move it around and put it into the system.

First, I removed my Schiit Freya+ preamplifier and Orchard Audio Starkrimson amplifier from my system. Then in went the AAP-1 preamplifier and 2400 amplifier. I connected those two together with Zu Audio Mission XLR cables. Sources I connected to the AAP-1 preamplifier were an Oppo BDP-205 and a Wiim Pro Plus streamer via digital coax input, an Xbox Series X via digital Toslink input, and an Austin Audio Works Black Swan phono preamplifier via RCA inputs.

Fully powering on each component is a two-step process. First, you flip the main power switch on the rear panel of the component. The front panel power switches on the left side of the components will light up in red; indicating that the component is powered up but in standby mode. To complete the process and listen, you press the front panel power switch, and it will light up in blue. If you are not using the component for extended periods, power it off completely by turning off the front and back switches.

You can automatically power on the 2400 amplifier if you have a preamplifier with a 12V trigger out. To do this you must set the set the AMP-2400 rear panel Trigger switch to ON. Using the optional 12V Trigger cable, connect the pre-amp 12v Trigger OUT to the AMP-2400 Trigger IN on the rear panel and leave the AMP-2400 front panel Power Switch in the ON position at all times.

At $5,000, the Amped America 2400 amplifier is not inexpensive, but I enjoyed every minute I spent listening to music with it. It controlled every speaker I powered it with an iron grip and yet it was still lively and entertaining, portraying music with a lit-from-within quality I usually expect from push-pull tube amplifiers. I experienced absolutely no fatigue at all, or any of that cold harshness you might expect from a switching amplifier.

I connected the 2400 amplifier to my Polk Audio Legacy L600 speakers with a bi-wire cable through the substantial speaker terminals on amp’s the rear panel. I also used the 2400 amplifier to drive a pair of Totem Bison Twin Tower floor-standing speakers, and that was also an excellent pairing. I should point out that the speaker terminals on the back of the amp are rather close together; they easily accommodated the banana-plug speaker cables I happen to be using, but you may be in for a challenge if you use thicker round or ribbon cables.

As an interesting test, I connected my restored McIntosh C28 solid-state preamplifier (circa 1977) to the 2400 amplifier. I heard the best quality of the McIntosh components of that era, which is a certain buttery warmth, but the 2400 amplifier still maintained the low-level detail of the signals passing through the C28. This combination gave me a satisfying synthesis of vintage and contemporary and a nice change from the purity and accuracy of my contemporary components. One reason I keep vintage solid-state components (which have been restored by skilled technicians with fresh capacitors and whatnot to run within expected parameters) is to provide myself with different, not necessarily better, listening experiences when paired with more recent components and speakers. And the C28 added a serious boogie factor to the 2400 amplifier. KC and the Sunshine Band never sounded so much fun in my system with this combination.

I was hard-pressed to identify any particular coloration to the music that may have been added by the 2400 amplifier. It played whatever I fed it as honestly as I thought possible. Of course, this means that it was not forgiving of poor-quality recordings, but that’s the name of the game anyway, isn’t it? And that poor quality of the recording usually adds something to the performance being portrayed. I found the 2400 amplifier’s accuracy refreshing.

Amped America is new to me, and chances are they are new to you as well, I am happy to be able to get the word out about them.

I believe their components have quite a lot to offer for their prices, and you should definitely put them on your short list of contenders if you are in the market for an amplifier or preamplifier. I am going to miss both of these components and the convenience and sound quality they provided, after I send them back.