NOBSOUND B100 -The Truth About Budget HiFi - Underestimated But Often Quirky

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[@MrBenherrmann]

Matt - as usual, thanks for this review. I purchased this amp 2 years ago and for me - in my opinion of course - I was pleasantly gobsmacked at how good it sounded when I first powered it on. I purchased it when it was still around $150. Yes, you are limited to "just" that one style of Chinese-made tube model, but they run extremely cool and will last a long time (glad to see that Nobsound finally sells replacement ones because I was one of the folks early on, arguing/coercing them to do this since we had no other options.). The thing that surprised me the most (as you also mentioned) was the fantastic sound qualities to this B100. I was met with an extremely airy sound with excellent depth, wide sound-staging, and quite frankly, I thought I was listening to an audiophile amp. Of course, I am using it in a desktop, near-field scenario, hooking the amp up to KEF Q150's and Wharfedale D320 bookshelf speakers. To this day - even after 2 years, my B100 is running superbly and I strongly recommend it. As usual, I love your even-keeled, laid-back reviews. We need to get you around 200K+ subscribers....

[@MattCoykendall1]

Thanks for the in depth comments here and I think its really great to hear its still running strong after 2 years, a lot of people are curious on the longevity of some of these products. As for the 200k, it would certainly be fantastic, until then, one video at a time.

[@Newrecordday2013]

I dig this channel. Subscribed.

[@MattCoykendall1]

Thanks Ron! I appreciate that.

[@mikecampbell5856]

Great review again. I'm glad they are finally adding more inputs and actually making these things useful. Adding a remote power switch is cheap and easy.

[@MattCoykendall1]

Yes, easy enough to fix the few concerns here.

[@sugarsaint]

Great review i feel in love with this the moment i saw it but went with a T9 for tone controls and love it

[@MattCoykendall1]

Good choice! That's a good one too!

[@damayor9559]

Outstanding as always Matt. I've had my B100 for about 6 months and like you, I was pleasantly surprised by this magic little black box. I saw Steve Huff's review on it and bought one immediately. Nice to see we're all in the same camp on the B100 and being a budgetphile and for the price, the B100 hard to beat. It makes all my bookshelf speakers sound better than ever. The sound stage width, depth & height is improved vs. my solid state systems. This is an ideal desktop/near field or small room integrated amp. I was similarly impressed with the Dayton Audio HTA100. You may want to check it out one of these days. Thank you and keep up the great work.

[@MattCoykendall1]

I have a very similar model to the HTA100 coming.

[@phrayzar]

For the last 7 years I have been using the Nobsound NS-02G JLH class A amp with diatone clone speakers(DIY cabinets). I have had very many audiophiles hear it over the years and they are always blown away. Nobsound make some amazing quality gear for the money. The key with all these small amp's is efficient speakers.

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

Yep ... but isn't that the key to any good setup?

[@lijay1]

I'd like to know what your issues are with the DAC. Not questioning you, but I've had mine for several months now and I love it. I have it paired to some Klipsch RP600M-IIs and it's lovely. Just an absolute workhorse day in and day out. My biggest issues are the power button placement, as you said, and the fact that the headphone jack is in the rear AND the output defaults to the headphone jack whenever it's plugged in. This means that I have to physically turn the device around, with all of the cables connected to it, in order to find the headphone jack each time I want to use it. I can't even leave a 3.5mm extension plugged in because, again, it will automatically default to that as the output instead of allowing me choose. The input selector is also kind of slow, but those are my only gripes. I was worried about 25wpc, but that hasn't been an issue AT ALL. I sometimes use it to power my Martin and Logan Motion ESL 8s, which are a little power-hungry, and it's perfectly serviceable when paired with them. A great little piece of equipment!

[@guillermobrito4987]

Great review as always Matt, hope u have a great 2024 and keep them comming. Just one question, if i want to be able to listen the differences between a tube amp and solid state one can u refer me a couple of song to listen and what to look up in them?. Thanks a lot, i just got a Douk u10 and an Aiyima A07 to dive in and maybe start my path up.

[@MattCoykendall1]

The general idea of the tubes are to soften the what some describe as digital sound and communicate tube warmth through "pleasant" distortion or harmonics. In my experience with budget Tube amps like this it wont be a dramatic change in sound, but there is certainly a change, you may find recording that were of lesser quality have fewer pronounced issues, but this vary depending on the amp your working with. Looks like you have a good start to your collection there, have fun with it!

[@guillermobrito4987]

@@MattCoykendall1 as always thanks for your time and advice. Will try it with some Hendrix, Soft Machine, and Zombies, and them some Miles Davis, Brubeck and Bill Evans. Just a few first steps.

[@JoseFerreira-zb7wh]

Nice one. Will you be reviewing the new and upcoming fosi audio small bookshelf speakers?

[@MattCoykendall1]

I just took a look at them, they look interesting enough although its hard to say how these would really perform being their first design, also the specs are claiming 40hz to 20khz so thats a bit of an alarm, might be stretching it there. If they send them over I will gladly put out a review.

[@JoseFerreira-zb7wh]

@@MattCoykendall1 nice. that's another reason for you to review them - reality check. 😀

[@Audiodreamer192-24]

The Andrew jones pioneer speakers exemplified what you’re talking about with value way above the price. I still have the whole series, don’t use them as much now a days but I will always keep them because they are so good and one of the big reasons we have affordable hifi today.

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

I have a pair of the AJ designed Pioneer towers ... they're not gong anywhere soon. I did a small modification adding a baffle between the two top woofers and that was a significant improvement.

[@Audiodreamer192-24]

@@Douglas_Blake_579 Ya a while back Danny from GR Research did a crossover mod on the bookshelf version and it was quite good. I thought about doing it on all of mine but I ended up not doing it because I always felt that those speakers were special because they were the first really well designed very affordable speakers that made other manufacturers up their games back in the day. I remember Polk tried to challenge them with their”T” series speakers that were crappy smeared 1st order crossover junk. I wanted to keep them original . I have long since moved on from them but I still have huge respect for them. The spfs 52’s are awesome,and the others are good too. True time capsules.🍻

[@MattCoykendall1]

Value above price is what its all about!

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

@@MattCoykendall1 Yep, rejoice when you find it. But... knowing what goes on inside the cabinets and housings is worth it's weight in gold.

[@Jeff_Sant_Anna]

Muito interessante este amplificador. Um ótimo 2024 para você.

[@MattCoykendall1]

Hope you have a great 24 too!

[@contemporaryartist6542]

Thanks. Any noise/hiss?

[@unstablenetwork4744]

I could be wrong, but I believe that the HTA series Dayton Audio is also made by Nobsound/Douk Audio. They receive high marks as well. Same features, bigger foot print, but with a remote and a power button on the front.

[@MattCoykendall1]

I believe your correct and I actually have one of the Douk versions on the way.

[@coachtomas]

So for example would this amp work with Kanto YU4 speakers ? 4 Ohms with "power handling: 70 Watts Per Speaker" ?

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

The repeated urging not to be disappointed by the low power rating begs a very interesting question... _How much power does one really need?_ I'm using a modified TPA3255 amplifier, the thing can produce 110watts per channel on 8 ohms... On my 6 ohm speakers it will hit 150. But I also have a pair of peak reading power meters that I hook up occasionally. When watching a movie or listening at neighbour-friendly levels they almost never get over 2 watts ... yes that's right... 2 watts. Occasionally, when the Schwarz is blowing stuff up or the Mad Drummer is completely out of control, they might hit 10 watts for a short moment. On the occasions when I get a bit carried away, 75-80db spl in the room. The meters will hit 40 watts on peaks, averaging about 5. An even better indication is to look at the venerable McIntosh power meters... and note where centre scale is... yep, usually around half a watt ... So crankin' your Mac to half scale, which can be really loud, only averages about half a watt. From my experience, I would say that unless you're trying to make your ears bleed or drown out a naggng 3 year old, there's no need for 500 watt behemoths that weigh like cement blocks... Most people would probably be very happy with 30 to 40 watts, like we were back in the good old 1970s and 80s.

[@MattCoykendall1]

Its something that you certainly hear often, especially in the tube amp realm, overwhelming surprise on what is outputted in some cases with as little as 5 watts.

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

@@MattCoykendall1 Take the way-back machine to 1975 when most of the big hifi companies of the time were bragging about 2 x 30 watts ... Things got plenty loud back then too! 😏 Unless the laws of physics have changed ...

[@benjaminqilafku5714]

Oh it depends. I've hooked a pair of Harbeth p3esr speakers to Hegel 190 Amp 150w in 8 ohm 250 in 4ohm complemented by Rel t7x sub. Given the low sensitivity 83 dB of the speakers and closed design they sounded tiny and washed with my Cambridge cx61a Amp for 60-90w in 8-4ohm..The Hegel waked them up but I have to crank it up to 4 o'clock. So my assumption is that mimi Harbeth need at least 300w into 8ohm to dance without a sweat. X

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

@@benjaminqilafku5714 Sounds to me like the problem is your speakers ... not your amplifier's power. I just looked up the crossovers they use in those speakers ... 17 components for a 4 inch 2 way bookshelf speaker ... absolutely ridiculous! 4 would be average, it can be done with 2. But then, so is dumping 300 watts into 4 inch speakers you paid $1,900 for.

[@JoseFerreira-zb7wh]

It'd be Nice if you could try the Juson Audio Jta35. Seems like an upgraded version of this. Jta50 even better.

[@MattCoykendall1]

strangely I was just reading on that one.

[@JoseFerreira-zb7wh]

@@MattCoykendall1 it's a sign you should review it 😀

[@JoseFerreira-zb7wh]

@@MattCoykendall1 it's a sign you should review it 😀 It fixes the criticisms you had with the B100 and it seems to have a bit more power. If you want to up the game the Jta50 has a lot more power. (while adding tone controls and some aditional inputs and another vu meter)

[@gdj6298]

Is this available in the UK ? We'd buy it just for the name....

[@gregkoblentz7872]

🤣😂

[@Roddy451]

... just feeding... the "quirky" algorithm...

[@MattCoykendall1]

Hey Roddy, I dont mind a quirk or two, sometimes they even make a product more interesting...as long as its not something that causes sonic issues. Case in point look at Doug DeMuro, he has made a living discussing the quirks on cars over the last 10 years. Thanks for watching!

[@Roddy451]

@@MattCoykendall1 Oh, no... not at all... it's all in good fun... The VU meter reminded me of the useless gauge on the front of the Sunfire amplifier decades ago: the "Joules" gauge. As for my comment... I was feeding the channel's algorithm.

[@MattCoykendall1]

Haha I will have to check out that Joules gauge and I always appreciate the comments!

[@vincentwerner4856]

That's a great way to cover up a lie: it claimes to be class A, but YOU expected it to be class D, and it turns out to be actually class AB: what GOOD news(!) And what about some standard specs like how much Watt in how much Ohm, THD, bandwith etc. ...

[@sugarsaint]

Calm down