Best Entry Level Tube Amp? Nobsound AV-525 Review

The Nobsound AV-525 is a Vacuum Tube pre-amp with Class A/B power amp capable of producing 70w x2 @ 8Ω and 100w x2 @ 4Ω.
Lovely sound for the money.
Available on Amazon
Nobsound AV-525 : amzn.to/4aGcmpx
Use Coupon Code: 10PAV525 for 10% off at Amazon
(brings total even lower than Dayton HTA200!)
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[@VintageGearMan]

I just spent over 3 hours trying to find a distortion issue in my system. Turns out it was a bad new 4 week old stylus that had gone south in the right channel on my AR XA. Glad that's all it was. The Shure Obstacle Course Record was a life saver figuring out this problem. Ordered another exacting same Yamaha sub for my system thanks to you Rick.

[@RickRuizAudio]

You're welcome bro!

[@timothywells878]

I was looking to purchase this amp, however I decided to go with the Dayton HTA 200, for one reason and one reason only.The Dayton had the phono inputs that I needed to play my turntable. I'm a bit old school and love to listen to my vinyl's. Thank you for another great and insightful video review.

[@RickRuizAudio]

No problem Tim, Thank you for watching!! The difference is slight. Both are pretty decent. Ohh and if you have days when the sound is inconsistent, swap the rectifier tube first! I'm gonna try playing with that too.

[@VintageGearMan]

Hey Timothy how is your HTA200 doing now after 6 months of use? I had the HTA200 for less than a week and it was having volume issues. Parts Express tech and I both agreed it was not working properly. It got sent back. I ended up ordering the Nobosound AV-525 instead. This had no phono inputs. I to am a huge record old school guy myself so I bought a couple of different Douk phono tube pre-amps. One is the T4 Pro and the other is the T3 Plus so we will see how it goes. I hope you are still happy with the HTA200. Take care.

[@VintageGearMan]

Super clean records 1950's Harry James Orchestra is heaven to listen to.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Nice!

[@VintageGearMan]

Just got a great deal on a slightly used T4 Pro also with a brand new set of GE JAN 5654 W tubes also. Made in the U.S.A. Now I can swap tubes around and I will have a T4 Pro and a T3 Plus phono pre's to try out! WhooHoo!

[@RickRuizAudio]

Awesome. Yeah, let me know what you think. And yes, I'm in the US. In Los Angeles. But I have a decent amount of viewers from India for some reason. And thanks, hope you had a good one as well!

[@VintageGearMan]

The AV 525 remote is heaven! Works wonderful! Very responsive. I definitely made the right choice going with the AV 525 across the board. Believe it or not I keep the bass and treble controls flat 99% of the time. That is impressive to say the least. There is a lot of headroom on these controls if you want it but it is super rare they need tweaking at all. Just saying.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Glad you're liking it!!! 👍

[@VintageGearMan]

Oh the Ashly GXQ 3102 EQ gain controls are priceless also.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Nice

[@mrcarpentersc]

I bought this app last month. Love the looks, especially the glow of the tubes in the dark. Just wish the digital read out wasn't so big, takes away from the romantic looks. I have a Wiim Pro Plus going into a Geshelli labs J2S with Sparkos upgrade. From there into a B&K PT3 pre amp and finally into the Nobsound av 525 out to SVS UltraTowers. I switched back to my Forte model 3 after a couple weeks and of course the Forte is better although with inflation its a $3000 amp vs a sub $400 amp. With that in mind the AV 525 is definitely a great little amp.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Totally agree on the screen. Wish the led was defeatable. And yeah, that's exactly it, for the price it's great. Sounds like you got some nice gear! Thanks for the input and I appreciate you watching! 👍

[@VintageGearMan]

Hey Rick! Update! The AV 525 still all that and a great bag of chips! I did add one last thing. Occasionally mono jazz can be a tiny bit harsh on any system so I bought a beautiful like new dual channel Ashly GXQ 3102 EQ that is super transparent audibly. I am using it as a parametric EQ notch filter scenario. Not boosting frequencies nor do I need to. This EQ does not effect adjacent frequencies like many low end EQ units do. It has amazing specs plus my listening room is way less than perfect so for very slight tweakage it is wonderful to say the least. The high pass filters and output level meters on this dual channel unit are heaven to. I know, high end audio cat's do not approve of EQ's but, in my case I have it when I do need it. Just saying. I agree, a parametric EQ would have been even a better choice but it was just not in the budget right now. I am amazed there are not more reviews on the AV 525 in here lately. I think it is a smoking great amp! Now back to some more Count Basie and Harry James music LP wise. Ha!

[@RickRuizAudio]

How many bands on the 3202?

[@VintageGearMan]

@@RickRuizAudio 62 total. 31 per channel.

[@RickRuizAudio]

@@VintageGearMan nice. Yeah, with that many bands, those are going to be pretty small Q's. Very cool 👍

[@VintageGearMan]

@@RickRuizAudio I worked hard to find the best EQ possible to sort of come close to a parametric EQ. Man alive, a real parametric EQ is $300.00 plus now used.

[@VintageGearMan]

@@RickRuizAudio I kinda of thought maybe you would approve of this Ashly EQ.

[@VintageGearMan]

So far still loving the AV 525 and the T3 Plus phono pre-amp.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Glad to hear!!!

[@VintageGearMan]

Anyway Rick hope you are having a nice July 4th. A bit confused if you are based in the U.S.A. or not.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Thanks again!

[@vulcangunner58]

I bought this amp about 4 mos. ago. It sounds and looks great, and am very happy with it so far. The only criticism I have is that the USB input does not work, I don't care, I don't use that kind of source. The remote control is (as you've stated) only capable of volume and input changes. Fit and finish are nice for a chi-fi amp.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Nice! Glad to hear. That's odd about the USB. Did you try different USB drives or different music formats? It could be a format problem. I know if I have any MAC formatted USB drives, my Cambridge network player doesn't like them and I have to format to NTFS instead of exFAT. And thanks for watching!

[@vulcangunner58]

Hello Rick, My name is Dave....I tried both thumb drives and micro SD adapters with no luck. In fact, the large USB led goes out when I plug in a device. Perhaps a short or defective input. All of the devices work fine in other readers including my car. I also own the Dayton Audio HTA 100 amp that I like with the exception of the annoyingly loud cooling fan! I intend to change out that when I locate a correct alternative. Look fwd to more of your videos.@@RickRuizAudio

[@RickRuizAudio]

@@vulcangunner58 Awesome Dave. Thanks for the update on the drives! Yeah, maybe a short on the input. 👍

[@edshine1768]

Hi Rick, I received my AV-525 the other day. So far so good it I’m already thinking of changing out tubes. Just wondering if you know which model tubes are being used

[@RickRuizAudio]

Hey Ed. No, I don't, because they send a few different ones depending on availability. Check the manual or reading the number off the tube would be your best bet! Glad you're enjoying it!

[@VintageGearMan]

Hey Rick what is your opinion on the Douk Audio T3 PLUS Vacuum Tube Preamp? Most people say that you should install the GE Jan 5654 6AK5 tubes right off the bat. Your thoughts? I like that this unit has a small foot print.

[@RickRuizAudio]

I haven't heard the Douk T3 Plus, but I generally like Tube Phono Preamps. I really dig the xDuoos. I guess if you have the budget for extra tubes right away, sure. They're just $20 a set. Of course in the US that isn't much but in India or China where you might spend much more of your disposable income, I could see just sticking with the stock. Thanks again for the input! 👍

[@VintageGearMan]

@@RickRuizAudio I ordered the T3 Plus just now. I do not see how I can go wrong. I will try the stock tubes first and go from there. With the new Nobsound AV-525 coming and this phono pre I cannot wait to hear Supertramp Live In Paris double LP set again! 1950's jazz will be off the charts great to I bet!

[@VintageGearMan]

@@RickRuizAudio Very happy with the stock T3 Plus tubes honestly. Several days in. No complaints.

[@VintageGearMan]

Quick question. Is there any harm on the AV 525 running a Y adapter cable out of the single subwoofer RCA out jack to run 2 powered subwoofers? Thanks ahead of time. Let me know please. Seems a lot of people do this with amps and have no issues what so ever.

[@RickRuizAudio]

No problem at all. You'll be fine w a splitter cable.

[@VintageGearMan]

@@RickRuizAudio Big thank you sir.

[@dbelgrade]

Hi, great review and it made me change my mind completely from getting DA HTA200 into this AV525! Have you by any chance combining the Douk P1 preamp and the AV525? They're from same company so Im thinking of getting both. I appreciate any feedback or comments from the community especially from those who already tried this combination first hand.

[@RickRuizAudio]

I don't think you need the P1. Why were you considering combining both? And thanks for watching. I appreciate it!

[@dbelgrade]

@RickRuizAudio hi Rick, thanks for responding so quick. I wanted to play the audio files from my PC instead of using USB drive. I have an audio player that am used to using., thats why.. hope this helps.. so in case you combine the two, do think there will be difference in sound quality? (By the way, I already have the P1 purchased from Local Amazon here, I love it) hence asking the question.

[@RickRuizAudio]

@@dbelgrade Yeah, I wouldn't use 2 pre-amps, if you want to play music from your computer, I would suggest you get a small DAC in between the Computer and the AV525 instead. You'll get better sound. Maybe start with the SU-1 if you don't want to spend a lot of money, but the Douk U8 is awesome too and adds a very nice headphone amp.

[@VintageGearMan]

I also bought the AV 525 and positively love it! Has all the power I need for my room and sounds fantastic! Plus the remote is a million times better than the HTA 200. I know. I had it here in the house a few weeks. The AV 525 is a smoking great amplifier.

[@VintageGearMan]

Hey Rick question if ok? This could be a Billy Joel,,,I may Be Wrong I May Be Right moment,,,ha! Anyway, got the other matching sub in so,,,,,,I tried and experiment. I sent 30 hertz into the new AV 525 and using main speakers only. Left volume set at bout 11:00 o'clock on new amp. I had the wife sit in a chair best spot I could find for low freqs given our room. I then turned on one sub and set it at 50 hertz (lowest frequency setting it has but I could still hear 30 hertz coming out of it) I then turned up the sub too high and told the wife,,,, now I am going to turn the volume down on the sub. When you hear the sub disappear tell me when to stop. We did each sub individually (one sub on one off) with the main pair of speakers on. Ok, that's done. Then proceeded to play said music and you do not even notice the subs are on so I am thinking I have them dead on correct frequency and volume level for the pair of main speakers now. At this point the subs sound like my mains and transparent so to speak. Nothing is overbearing but the overall low end is fuller. I did leave the phasing on the powered subwoofers in normal mode being the system is not in a big room. Am I crazy trying this approach? It seems to work. All the music I throw on still seems natural audio wise to me but just a bit fuller sounding. My main speaker pair has 12" woofers in them. The Yamaha powered subs are rated at 70 watts and have a 6.5 " woofer in each.

[@RickRuizAudio]

There are many ways to get it "right". If it works for you, that's great. In "theory", your approach doesn't seem quite correct because you are using 2 subs and if one is dead on, then adding the 2nd at the same output level, should give you a 3dB boost. But theory isn't practice so I'm glad it sounds good to you. But for sure I'm with you to use the subs to just carry the lowest frequencies and let your main speakers roll off naturally. As opposed to crossing higher and adding a high pass filter to mains to get more out of your mains, because then this stresses the bass. Subs are made for low bass, or else they'd just be called woofers! Lol. But just an Opinion! And there are ALWAYS exceptions.

[@VintageGearMan]

@@RickRuizAudio Sorry, I should have stated 6.5" subwoofers in the Yamaha's. I see your point on 2 subs adding 3db overall set at the same on frequencies and volumes. Will leave it alone for now. You are the best!

[@jonathannieto8377]

Hello Rick, good evening. Just yesterday you had 2 videos related to Fosi zA3 and now I just can’t find them. Was there a problem with them?

[@RickRuizAudio]

Hey Jonathan. Yeah, they were incomplete. I was messaged by a viewer and decided to put them on private until I can upload properly. 👍

[@jonathannieto8377]

Got it! Have a good evening

[@Jil8840]

I assume that you can connect a turntable on the dvd input, correct??

[@RickRuizAudio]

If your turntable has a built in Phono Pre, then yes. If not, you'll need a phono preamp.

[@ianandyanderson1989]

I'm going to purchase the 525. Will the Douk Audio T8 Pro clean up the sound, or do I still need the Douk Audio U8 . Appearance is important to me (T8 Pro looks nice, the U8 does not).

[@RickRuizAudio]

Hey Ian, the 525 doesn't have a Send/Return or Tape/Record loop, so you can't bring audio out of the amp and into the EQ and back in to the amp. That's one downside to (most) integrated amps. The U8 will definitely clean things up. You can always hide the U8 behind something. If you don't need the headphone amp on the U8, you can also go with the SMSL SU-1 DAC. That will clean up a bit too. Not as much as the U8 but it'll also save you $200. I'd be very happy either way. And thanks for watching! 👍

[@edshine1768]

Hi Rick, I have been looking into Douk VU Meters. The VU3 is limited to 100watts so it wouldn’t work with the Nobsound. I think that is the VU2 you have. How many watts is it rated at?

[@RickRuizAudio]

Hey Ed. I'm using the Douk L3 for VU w RCAs. For the speaker lever VUs, I'm using another company. I can't recommend it quite yet. I'm having trouble with the meters and they are troubleshooting.

[@edshine1768]

@@RickRuizAudio Thanks

[@jafethuerta]

I’ve heard that sometimes these units when having a very low input volume from either Bluetooth, CD, DVD, ect the sound tends to cut off. Have you noticed something like this ?

[@RickRuizAudio]

It's was a problem with the Bluetooth adapter. When you have the volume on phone very low, the pre goes to sleep. But not a problem with wired devices. I didn't experience this though.

[@jafethuerta]

@@RickRuizAudio yeah the problem was exactly that. That even with wired devices with low volume it would cut off.

[@RickRuizAudio]

That's weird. No, sorry, I haven't heard of that or experienced it with either my Dayton or Nobsound.

[@StrangeBrewReviews]

Identical to the dayton audio ones.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Pretty close. I'm sure they use the same manufacturer. Dayton is also a small company, I think around 20 employees including their engineers. I'm sure those employees work for Parts Express as well. Which is fine by me. But the amps are not identical. I'm sure Dayton specifies some things they want. Nobsound as well. Nobsound used to make one with Send/Return which I would have loved to have.

[@johnbradleyjackson]

Bought it open box. Bad decision. Remote literally broken in a dozen pieces. A rear binding post broken off. Going back and forth with no refund yet. It may be a good product but my customer service experience is the worst which was my fear. I cannot believe they sent a broken unit. Beware.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Oh wow. Did you get it from Nobsound or Amazon? If it was from Nobsound, I'll send them an email John.

[@johnbradleyjackson]

@@RickRuizAudioNobsound. Asked for a refund but a new replacement would be best. Thanks for whatever you might do.

[@RickRuizAudio]

I'll ask someone to look at this! My experience has been that they are receptive. I'll email them tonight!

[@jacksonranch]

@@RickRuizAudio Nobsound said "Hello, This terminal is easy to repair, and we can also send you a replacement remote control for free. This is a return item and the price is different from the brand new product, so we will not send you a new one. If you accept to repair it by yourself, we can refund you $40 as compensation. Also could you also take a side view and take a photo of the area where the terminal is broken" I sent photos. Essentially, they will not replace it. They said go fix it. This has been a perfectly horrible experience. Yes, I purchased an open box item but they are not honoring their return process.

[@johnbradleyjackson]

What did Nobsound say? I am getting nowhere with them. I have escalated a complaint with PayPal. Truly, all I want is a new amp that works. ​@@RickRuizAudio

[@1258stdavid]

How do you connect a turntable to this amp?

[@RickRuizAudio]

If your turntable has a built-in Phono preamp, then you just connect via RCA cables to the line input on the amp. If your turntable doesn't have a built-in phono pre, then you will need one in between the turntable and amp.

[@Beb0ptrane]

Hi, what do i need if i need to use my turntable w/o phono preamp? Sorry just starting out with turntable rabbit hole.

[@RickRuizAudio]

You always need a phono pre amp. Sometimes it is built into the turntable and other times you have to provide your own. What turntable do you own or want to buy?

[@Beb0ptrane]

@@RickRuizAudio i have an old technics TT w/o phono. Looking to purchase a reisong a10 amp but im a bit confuse which component i still need to buy for me to use the TT

[@RickRuizAudio]

@@Beb0ptrane you need a phono preamp. It goes between the turntable and the A10, because the A10 only has 2 line level inputs. No phono inputs. What is your budget for a phono preamp?

[@Beb0ptrane]

@@RickRuizAudio i hope somewhere same range of the reisong amp or less. Just want to try tubes before spending for much better tube amp and preamp setup.

[@RickRuizAudio]

@@Beb0ptrane look at Ampama A1 or iFi Zen Phono 2 or 3. 👍

[@bborgstedte]

So, I guess a dumb question but why no phono input?

[@RickRuizAudio]

I don't know why they decided to go that route. Maybe they figured customers buying this unit would either have a turntable with built-in Phono-pre or maybe they thought this buyer would like to use an external. Hard to say. I personally prefer bringing my own compared to a poor or noisy convenience input. I'm sure they could have put a good Phono pre but maybe that would have increased the price $30 and they were worried about that price point. It always comes down to a business decision as to what will sell the most units.

[@bborgstedte]

Do you have a recommendation for a phono pre-amp that would work well in this type of setup? I have an entry-level Uturn orbit turntable. @@RickRuizAudio

[@RickRuizAudio]

@@bborgstedte I do like the little Douk T14-eq. It's around $50. Or if you have a larger budget, say $150, the Schiit Mani 2. If you want Tube Phono Pre as well, the Ampapa A-1 is nice as well. I think around $140. Here: amzn.to/3PbegW8 Amazon has a $15 coupon right now so that one goes to 125 and has a headphone amp included too. any of those lol would be nice. What turntable are you using?

[@simonzinc-trumpetharris852]

It's actually a hybrid amp.

[@RickRuizAudio]

My bad. I thought I mentioned it was Tube Pre-amp with class A/B power amp. 👍

[@stevegross9477]

Nice amp but somebody needs a metronome

[@RickRuizAudio]

Lmao. I'll try to switch up the music, but it's tough to find copyright free music.

[@VintageGearMan]

I bought this amp. Not here yet. "Just for once" I wish someone would demo any new amp with some Ted Nugent / Scream Dream or at least VanHalen! I hate this weird off the wall music. I do appreciate the review greatly but your demo music needs some Aerosmith or Pink Floyd or even some 1950's jazz would be cool!. Just saying!

[@RickRuizAudio]

Lmao. Noted. I can do Pink Floyd but we'll see if KZbin blocks it. 👍

[@VintageGearMan]

@@RickRuizAudio I think it is ridiculous that people are not allowed to demo gear with major bands in here. I would love to hear some Pink Floyd at least on this amp. Looking forward to getting my amp next week. It cannot get here fast enough. Again your review on this amp is outstanding. You helped me out a lot on making my decision purchasing. Thank you for that!

[@EsotericArctos]

Sound tests on KZbin are pretty useless with compresion and all. Sorry, I always find it amusing when people do that. It really doesn't show the sound quality at all. That said, this amp is cheap, and it sounds okay, but just okay. It really doesn't give a good sound image and staging compared to solid state amps of the same price. Sure, you get that slight tube coloration from harmonics, but don't expect an "audiophile" type experience with it, and also don't expect a true tube experience as it is a hybrid style amplifer with a mix of solid state and tubes. The rated "watts" is pretty well marketing garbage, like a lot of the D class amps try to push. The RMS output is a LOT lower. That 20 Watts difference.. No. Not different at all. The hum is very little to do with the transformers, it is to do with filtering. Output transformers don't hum if there is no hum on the signal and quite frankly, from what I can see Daton HTA 200 uses identical output transformers from the same manufacturing factory as Nobsound use. The Daton units are a little higher quality in their build and the do have a phono stage, but I prefer an external phono stage of quality over any integrated one. Overall, sure if you are a beginner looking to experiment, get the Nobsound and be aware it is cheap and of variable quality. If you are looking for better quality sound, don't bother with it. It's cheap and it's cheap for a reason.

[@RickRuizAudio]

Thanks for the input! 👍

[@leixinda2569]

This the worst amp i have tried. The sound is so MUDDLED! It should be renamed Nosound instead !

[@RickRuizAudio]

Where do you hear the muddles sound and what kind of speakers and sources are you using? Just to help others with similar set-ups. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@vespass225]

Would not call this a tube amp,,,

[@RickRuizAudio]

Yeah, you're right. Tube Pre Integrated.

[@mrcarpentersc]

Rick ice just done a comparison of the Nobsound AV-525 and the Fosi V3M'S. We've talked before but i can't seem to find your email or contact. If you're interested please let me know. Thank you

[@RickRuizAudio]

Sure. I'd love to hear your thoughts. [e-mail]