Ampapa A1 Vacuum Tube Phono Preamp/Headphone Amp (Review) – What A Knob!

INTRO

Something a little different came across the hands of the audioreviews crew, the Ampapa A1 Phono preamp and headphone amp. Ampapa, founded in Seattle Washington, USA appears to be short for Amplifiying All Passions.

They seem be related to another company Nobsound, parent company of brands Douk Audio, One Little Bear, and now Ampapa. I have to admit they have not been on my radar at all. They have a sort of steam punk design aesthetic across many of their products.

While my collection of vinyl is thin, I can appreciate the attachment to technology of the (g)oldendays and forming a bridge to today’s technology. It seemed like a nice departure to experience something that can color the sound rather than always focusing on the transparency of other products.

The Ampapa A1 priced at $139 is one such device, and my expectations were open. It is a solid and well constructed piece reminiscent of a pro-audio effects device, that is free from hiss but not of coloration. Let’s dive in.

Disclaimer: Sent to me through Amazon direct from Ampapa, they had no strings attached to acceptance of this freely provided gear. Will pass onto to Loomis for further abuse.

TOTAL PACKAGE

The Ampapa A1 arrived in an easy to open box about the size of a small child’s shoe box. Inside was the unit, a 12Vdc power adapter, a set of flexible RCA cables, a cleaning cloth for the tubes, a manual and the tubes packaged separately in their own boxes to prevent damage.

The Ampapa has some heft to it housed in an aluminum enclosure with sharp easy to read lettering, solid metal toggle switches, and knurled aluminum knobs that feel great to turn and are free from play and noise. There is the standard bass and treble knobs to the left of the volume knob.

Surrounding the perimeter is a selected array of orange or green LED lighting that also lights up the vacuum tubes. Looking only at pictures one might assume there were separate lights, but instead uses a light pipe and internal lights to create this glowing switched effect so as not to appear overly bright adding additional cost for a cosmetic feature. There is also the option to turn if off altogether.

What is missing is a gain switch and it appears to play nice with 50-100ohm headphones. Not enough juice for the 300ohm or greater, but it will drive them to acceptable listening levels.

SOUND

Tested with SMSL C200, LG G8, Headphones Philips Fidelio H2XR, Drop Sennheiser HD6XX, Drop JVC HA-FDX1

Initially I paired the Ampapa A1 for use as a headphone amp with the recently reviewed Aoshida Audio SMSL C200 as the DAC preamp. With the Bass and Treble set to zero, the Ampapa A1 sounds rather unexciting and perhaps a bit dull. That’s ok, because this unit is designed to color so I found a few clicks ~+2 on the bass and treble let it come life.

It is clean sounding bass has a warm tinge but not exactly punchy. Midrange proves to be clear and concise but the treble takes on a bit of a brittle glassy nature. Even if I turn the treble back to zero it still exhibits this characteristic. I am a bit surprised as the headphone circuit uses the NE5532 op amp which is a staple excellent opamp for preamps and headphone amps, so perhaps this is the vacuum tube sonic signature. I lack experience in this area, so I can only report on this particular device.

SOUND (PHONO PREAMP)

I connected my vintage Technics SL-1500Mk2 turntable to the phono preamp of the Ampapa A1. Note it is only designed to work with MM cartridges and not MC. In this connection I noticed a bit more background noise that is probably due to the age of the turntable and the different circuitry required for phono preamps. In other words, I fully expected extra noise.

The Ampapa A1 has built in RIAA equalization to properly even out the shortcomings of the vinyl playback system. This is where the Ampapa A1 tends to strut its stuff. I found the brittle glassiness of the top end melt away and become an ally instead of a villain. With the bass and treble knobs at zero it sounds very analog, warm and comforting. It still helped to add some bass and treble to liven it up, but it did not feel as necessary as it did when using it strictly as a line-in preamp or headphone amp.

Another note, the volume knob controls both the preamp output and the headphone output at the same time. Beware of leaving high sensitivity headphones plugged in if also feeding the line-out to an amplifier speaker setup.

TECHNICAL MERITS

While it’s harder to rate something that is purposely designed to alter the sound, the Ampapa A1 does had good separation and clarity for tube preamp. It presented good depth and spacing so as not to sound flat or too low-fi.

It doesn’t have the gusto to drive a pair of Sennheiser HD6XX, but it pairs well with 50-100ohm headphones. In ear monitors are perhaps a bit too sensitive for this. As an example the Drop JVC HA-FDX1 was only able to utilize volume below 3 before it started to become unbearably loud. There is no gain switch, so choose wisely.

Just like opamp rolling which is a novelty or in some cases can cause instability in circuits if you select poorly, the Ampapa A1 allows the tuner to play with other tubes and they make some recommendations (6J1, 6K4, 6J5, GE5654W, 6*1N, 6*2N, 6J5, 6A2, etc). Of course the ones they have selected (JAN5654) are superior if we are true believers. I will not pretend to know or disagree since tubes are not my expertise.

THE END

The Ampapa A1 was a well constructed fun to play with phono preamp. I cannot recommend it as a line-in preamp/headphone amp as it has a narrow use and the treble was too sharp and glassy. However, if you want to use it primarily for phono preamp, this appears to be in its wheelhouse and I can get behind it.

SPECIFICATIONS

Contact us!

DISCLAIMER

Get the Ampapa A1 from Amazon or the DoukAudio Store or other distributors.

Our generic standard disclaimer.