Awesome Amplifiers

Many bookshelf speakers have built in amplifiers, but if you want the best sound, pick up a pair of unamplified speakers and connect them with an external amp like the Douk Audio H7 Pro. This compact Class D amp peaks at 300W per channel, and drives 4 or 8 ohm speakers. It has RCA and XLR analog inputs, banana speaker jacks, and retro analog VU meters.

Musicians – especially guitarists and bass players – will love these desk organizers that look like miniature guitar amps. Etsy seller Lions Print makes these 3D-printed pencil caddies and dresses them up with logos from popular amplifier makers. They’re available with silver or gold caps and can be personalized, too.

Every musician should carry their lunch around in one of these Fender Amp lunchboxes. It features an officially-licensed design based on the classic Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb combo amp. The tin case features embossed dials on front, and the back is printed with a 1/4″ jack and Fender label.

Guitar and amp maker Fender cranks up the volume with this portable, 60-watt speaker with six custom-tuned audio drivers. It has touch-sensitive controls embedded in its natural maple lid and a built-in carrying handle. Its substantial battery offers up to 30 hours of playback per charge, and it has a 1/4″ port for connecting a guitar or bass and playing along.

Upgrade your headphone audio with this audiophile-quality DAC/Amp from Creative. It connects via a USB-C cable to your PC or Mac and has optical and line-in ports. It outputs crystal clear audio to headphones from 1 ohm to 600 ohm and supports 32-bit / 384 kHz playback with an imperceptible ~0.00018% Total Harmonic Distortion.

This miniaturized version of the classic Fender Tone-Master amplifier is perfect for practice sessions. Its vintage styling includes metal amp corners, a brown grille cloth, and white knobs for adjusting gain, volume, and tone. It packs a 1-watt amp and a pair of 2″ full-range speakers, and runs on a single 9-volt battery.

This compact device combines a USB-C DAC, pre-amp, and a powerful amplifier. It offers hi-res audio with 32-bit/384kHz PCM, native DSD, and full MQA decoding. Digital filters let you customize its sound profile. In addition to the alloy model, there’s a limited Anniversary Edition with a copper chassis plated in 18ct gold.

Custom built by David Brown Automotive, this retro MINI is loaded with rock and roll touches. Celebrating 60 years of Marshall audio, it has black metallic paint and gold accents, a custom mesh grille, Marshall and “60 Years of Loud” graphics, an 8-speaker Marshall audio system, and a DSL1 combo amp that slides out of the trunk.

Positive Grid’s battery-powered amp is perfect for practicing guitar or bass. It packs a 10-watt Class D amplifier, two 2″ full-range speakers, and a passive radiator for big yet nuanced sound. A smartphone app lets you tune sound profiles and can add live rhythm tracks using AI tech. It also doubles as a Bluetooth speaker.

This slick peripheral combines a DAC and a headphone amp. It connects to PCs or Macs via Micro-USB and has 3.5 mm headphone, microphone, and aux jacks. It supports audio sample rates up to 24-bit / 96 kHz, and drives headphones from 16 to 150 ohms. It also has 7.1 surround sound using EPOS’s Binaural Rendering Engine.

Soundbars are fine, but if you want truly immersive home theater sound, a component system like the Onkyo OHTS3900 is best. This 5.1 surround sound system decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and has four HDMI ports that support 4K/60 Hz and HDR content. Save $100 off the MSRP in The Awesomer Shop.

THX AAA linear amplifier tech offers some of the cleanest audio we’ve ever heard, so we’re stoked for this new headphone amp from Drop. This unit is a slimmed-down version of their THX 789 amp, designed for driving headphones at all impedance levels. You can also use it as a pre-amp for powered speakers or a power amp.

Handmade by a Liverpool engineer from a real SPAM can, the mighty, meaty Spamp Guitar Practice Amp is a versatile, low-noise amp with a seriously clean sound (“chilled”) and awesome distortion effects (“fried,” “grilled”). The circuit is an original design. Plug in headphones for practice. Use the belt clip for busking.

Give your headphones a smooth and crystal-clear analog upgrade with Douk Audio’s P1 headphone amp. It has a pair of 6J5 vacuum tubes, and can be used as a hi-fi headphone amp, a tube preamp, or a USB DAC. It supports USB, RCA, and Bluetooth 5.0 sources, and quality up to 24-bit, 192Khz from USB audio sources.

Helm Audio took the high-end audio of a THX-certified AAA amplifier and crunched it down into a pocket-sized gadget. The DB12 AAAMP boosts power for planar magnetics and high-impedance headphones with a bare minimum of distortion. It’s ideal for smartphone and laptop users, and runs for up to 6 hours on a charge.

Several years back, we featured a fridge that looked like a Marshall amp stack. Now, we have two versions, a 3.2 cubic foot model, and a 4.4 cubic foot model, ideal for keeping beverages and snacks cool in your office, living room, or man cave. Both offer blue LED interior lighting, and authentic Marshall control knobs that go to 11.