No thoughts on any of the under $50 amps? That was the jist of my question. Are they all going to be basically the same at that price point? I am considering the
Lepai lp-2020ti. At a lower price even, is the
Kinter K3118, which supposedly uses the same chip, and looks to be a rebadging, similar to the Lepy lp-2020a.
Anyone have direct experience with any of these?
I have no experience with the two you linked, and I'm no expert on Class D amps, but I'll offer a couple of observations.
First, you need to take the power output claims of all these with a grain of salt.
The specs listed for most Class D amps are often misleading to the average customer. Even though all the specs may be technically accurate, they don't accurately reflect the amount of power that the customer will have in a normal setup.
Wattage ratings that are prominently advertised are usually with 4 ohm speakers (which are not common in home audio), at distortion levels that are high (typically 10%).
And one of the characteristics of these Class D chips is that their power output is related to the strength of the external power supply. You will often find that the published specs are measured using a power supply that produces more power than the one sold with the amp. An amp advertised at 100wpc might only produce 20w when used with 8 ohm speakers at a reasonable level of distortion when used with the power supply that's sold with the amp.
Another trick is to measure performance at a single frequency that's super easy to reproduce without distortion - usually 1kHz - instead of measuring over the frequency range commonly produced by real music. Lots of amps do this, not just Class D.
So all of this gets confusing fast.
I'm mostly into tube amps, but I have a few Class D amps too. The only one that's in your price range is the Nobsound NS-04G Pro. I've been very impressed with its sound and overall quality. If you get it on Aliexpress it's currently $42, including power supply with free shipping.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256801446428627.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.379347cbYbRJd7&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"12000016900386803"}&pdp_npi=2@dis!USD!43.99!28.59!!!!!@210318c216636167504477521e6fff!12000016900386803!sea&curPageLogUid=bJxBS8KiB56e
Notice that they sell two versions, the NS-04G is "50 watts per channel" and the Pro version is "100 watts per channel" and they list them both with and without power supplies. So if you order one make sure you're selecting the correct version. The same amp is available on eBay but the power supplies are out of stock and the price is higher. Amazon lists them too, but also only without the power supply.
Besides the higher power output, the other big advantage of the Nobsound is that it uses binding post type speaker jacks that accept banana plugs or bare wires and they're much more sturdy. My first little Class D amp, one of the original Sonic Impacts, used the same type of speaker connectors that the Lepai and it's cousins use. They are very flimsy and can easily break so, whatever you buy, I'd suggest avoiding those.
