Sonic Impact 5066 15-Watt Portable Class-T Digital Audio Amplifier

by Sonic Impact

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009W44B
• Batteries: 8 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,424 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 14, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Turn your portable music player or small bookshelf unit into a true quality home system with the Sonic Impact 5066 portable digital audio amplifier. This pint-sized device (it measures just 3 by 7 inches and weighs less than a pound) can be connected to any standard 8 ohm or 4 ohm shelf speakers up to 20 watts in power, and features a simple 3.5 mm mini-jack input that works with most game consoles, MP3 players, CD and DVD players, and computers. It's an ideal choice for listeners who already own traditional speakers and don't want to shell out extra cash to equip their iPod or CD Walkman with a powered speaker system--an often-costly option, unless one opts for a low-end unit. This amp, by contrast, is remarkably affordable, yet still delivers a crisp, vibrant signal that compares to most high-quality linear amplifiers. Plus, it runs on eight AA batteries, so listeners can take it to the stadium for a tailgater or to a park for a picnic. Alternately, listeners can opt to use an AC adapter (sold separately) for indoor purposes.

The amp is also a great fit in dorm rooms, midsized apartments, small offices, and anywhere else a big system would consume valuable space. In addition, the unit doesn't require a heat sink and offers intelligent short circuit protection. Sonic Impact covers the amp with a one-year warranty on parts and service.

What's in the Box
5066 amplifier, user's guide, warranty card.

Product Description

09-21-2007 - Brand New Item. Description - SONIC IMPACT 5066 15-WATT PORTABLE DIGITAL AUDIO AMPLIFIER

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely awesome, October 25, 2005

By 

vour - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sonic Impact 5066 15-Watt Portable Class-T Digital Audio Amplifier (Personal Computers)

This is my second attempt at a Sonic Impact review and I hope I get things right this time. :) I bought 4 amps at $20, but even as the prices have gone up, it's still a fantastic buy at $30. The amplifier has fantastic clarity and realism. Given its size, the sound can only be described as astounding. When playing instrumental or electronic music SI can vibrate the whole room at mere half volume. When playing vocals the clarity is also astounding. Considering the price and size of SI, this makes this amplifier even more amazing.

Sonic is best used with relatively sensitive speakers (SPL 90db+) and audiophile quality equipment or portable CD and mp3 players using audio out jack. With Ipod, use the sound output from the Ipod dock. Do not use earphone jacks on portable devices for sound output because that signal has already been distorted by those unit's built-in amplifiers and the sound quality will be anywhere from ordinary to awful.

SI requires burn in of at least 200 hours in order to sound its best. However even after a significant burn time SI tend to be rather bright when used with good quality audio cables. In my experience the best cables for SI are inexpensive 1/8 by 1/8 cables because they tend to muffle the treble. The one I really like is Monster iCable for iPod (A IC IP-7). The trade-off is that the SI's bass is also diminished; however SI becomes very warm sounding with no listening fatigue. In order to minimize distortion SI should be set at 10 o'clock and volume is best adjusted on a pre-amplifier volume control or the sound output volume control of a good quality CD player.

Power is an important consideration. SI works well with 8 AA batteries; in fact I still keep depleted AA batteries in SI to give it some heft. :) SI is so light that it needs some critical mass to hold all the cables in the back without tilting. :) When used with AA batteries SI sounds best only when batteries are fresh; it's also uneconomical so the best option for use at home is a regulated power supply. I like R. Shack (Model# 22-507) and a cigarette lighter power cord (#270-1594). Please note that the center pin on the power plug must be positive (+). *Please also note that incorrect polarity will permanently damage the amplifier.* This power supply is rated at 13.8Vdc (3amp) and produces 13.9Vdc, making SI sound louder and more dynamic than AA batteries or 12V adaptors. Another good 13.8Vdc power supply is made by Pyramid. If you want to save money, another good choice is SI's own 12Vdc adaptor. It produces 12.3Vdc, however it can only supply a peak of 1.5 amps, which does not leave you much in reserve.

Be careful of using many of the cheap 12Vdc adaptors available on the Internet, R. Shack or maybe laying around from other devices. Many are rated at 12Vdc *under load only* and actually produce as much as 18Vdc. However, SI does not have much of a load most of the time, especially when not playing music; 18V is 2 volts over the 16v limit of the SI's Tripath processor and will damage it. Additionally, many of these adaptors are rated at much less than 3A or the minimum 1.5A and are incapable of sufficient current. SI may need as much as 3A during peak demand. Most inexpensive adaptors are a switching type and may produce HF noise that may clash with the SI's own HF switching thereby producing more distortion. However when properly internally filtered, a switching power supply still produces the most dynamic sound. Some people use 12Vdc sealed lead batteries (SLA) with separate chargers from batterymart for a cleaner power source. Both can be had for $20 to $30 and with a simple DPDT switch the usage and recharging can be made automatic. I haven't tried this yet, the amperage of some of those 12 Vdc batteries (12A and up) is very tempting. :) However, the opinion at tnt-audio is that batteries still lack the liveliness of a quality regulated switching power supply. Despite the claims made by the SLA battery camp, the ultra expensive and most other high-end equipment does not use battery power.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, this amplifier knocked my socks off!, December 21, 2005

By 

Ron Eddy (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sonic Impact 5066 15-Watt Portable Class-T Digital Audio Amplifier (Personal Computers)

Being the conscientious do it yourself kind of guy I usually am, I was looking around for an amplifier a couple weeks ago to power a set of home made book shelf speakers. I spent a lot of money making these speakers of mine (lets just say well over 10x more for the pair than the subject of this review) and wanted an equally expensive (read: better) amplifier. I am typically under the impression that, especially with electronics, the more expensive an item is, the better it is (in most cases). This opinion developed from years of buying cheap parts, medium priced parts, expensive parts, etc and realizing the more I spent usually the happier I was with the results. After looking at all the high end dealers I gave up on an amp in frustration (too much to choose from and I don't have enough money!). So when I came across this amplifier and all its great reviews I couldn't pass it up. I had a gift certificate for 35 bucks and picked this up for 34 shipped from Amazon. That was what my life was like then, before the Sonic Impact.

Fast forward to today, and I can honestly say I am completely dumbfounded by what has happened to all of my priorities and common sense and cost/performance ratios so well established in my brain. This little amp, marvel, dynamo, whatever you want to call it is the single best purchase I have ever made in my life, period. Taking into account bang for buck, which as a DIY guy I appreciate, this amp is somewhere on another level. When I got this amp I wasn't expecting it to be bad, but I wasn't expecting it to be great either. Well, here is what I have, after about 75 hours of listening both with batteries and with it plugged in (please forgive me as there won't be many negatives in this review, so perhaps it won't help you all that much):

Soundstage: This is, in my opinion, the greatest part of this amp. I have never heard speakers so alive as this amp makes mine sound (not the highest end Boses or Yamahas or Klipsch that I have heard - granted there are a lot of variables there and I am not making a blanket statement by any means). Songs such as Sarah McLachlan's "Arms of the Angels" sounds so mind bogglingly realistic I can barely believe my ears. When I close my eyes the piano she is playing is literally sitting there in my room, slightly in front of my speakers and slightly off to the left. Her voice sounds as though she is playing facing the left, but turning her head to face me, and sing directly to me. I have loved audio and audio electronics nearly all my life and finally I feel intimate with it, like I am truly a part of it (or at least darn close). The soundstage this amp can create is unbelievably wide and deep, with the latter being the key. Prior amplifiers I have used have had plenty of left-right space, but never an appreciable amount of depth, this one is different. With classical, jazz, country, rock, pop, R&B this amp is great. With the classical, it sounded like the orchestra was on a stage in front of me (I am not exaggerating). I used to love my Grado SR-80's for their soundstage but now they just don't have the same appeal...

Sound quality: As long as you have decently efficient speakers (mine are only 90.5dB/W at 1 meter) this amplifier will put out very loud audio with very crisp detail with no discernible distortion or clipping. Increasing the volume beyond its limits does result in a LOT of noticeable distortion (10% THD at max output!). Some of the songs which stick out as exhibiting a great crispness and prescence of the audio were on the Johnny Cash: American IV album. All of the songs sounded completely different through this amp compared to any others I have used. The soundstage was there and Mr. Cash was there in my room with me, but his guitar strums were VERY detailed, with the amp paying great attention to the individual strings, instead of lumping it all together into a "guitar strum" like so many cheap (read: bad quality) amps do. The sound quality generated by this amplifier will amaze you, especially if you have no experience with high end amplification. Expect to hear small details you never heard in your albums before. In fact, if you have only used standard reciever amplifiers before I'll bet you that you will be pouring through all your old albums to play them on this little amp when you get it.

Tonal Balance: As soon as I hooked this up, I noticed the treble was very very crisp, maybe even a little too crisp. However, this extra treble did not sound grainy or tinny like many solid state or IC based amplifiers. Actually, I have noticed that as I listen more and more the treble seems to be calming down and it is at a point now where it is perfect for my taste (perhaps it "broke in" if there is such a thing with solid state electronics - or maybe I am just getting used to the new dimension of sound I am hearing). The midrange is quite strong with this amplifier, getting back to Johnny Cash, you can hear the mids come through brilliantly in those guitar strums as it adds real life to the instrument as you would get if someone were strumming a guitar in front of you. The bass is very tight and controlled, much like a good quality subwoofer amplifier, but unfortunately this amplifier just doesn't have enough umph to power the bass to the levels it should be at, but with only 15 watts can you really be mad at that? Don't get me wrong, the bass sounds great, but this would definitely be complimented with a powered subwoofer.

Value: Read all of the above, note the price of this amplifier, and you will have the answer.

I highly recommend this amplifier if you are in need of a low power amplifier to power bookshelf type speakers or similarily sized ones, although I bet it would do a good job with good quality cube speakers and a powered subwoofer. It must be noted, however, that this amp will only be as good as your speakers and if you have crummy speakers don't expect this amp (or any amp) to salvage their sound.

Rating/Recommendation: 5 stars hands down, although I would also recommend buying a plug-in adapter to go along with this, as the sound is much fuller and the bass is deeper with it. Also, recharging batteries (or replacing them) every day gets annoying. Although with 8 1.2V NiMh recargeables I could listen for 4 to 6 hours at decent volumes, which I think is incredible efficiency. In short, buy this amp, you won't be dissapointed. It was good enough for me to feel the need to ramble on this long!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No longer a skeptic, October 11, 2005

By 

Constant Shadow (Oregon) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sonic Impact 5066 15-Watt Portable Class-T Digital Audio Amplifier (Personal Computers)

I giggled when the mail guy handed me the box. It felt like it was empty. I opened it and pulled out the cheap-yet-solid-enough plastic box and giggled some more . . . most of the case is just a battery holder. The actual amp is like a couple square inches.

My speaker wires were way too big (8 AWG) to plug in to this amp, so I had to make some little adapter wires to fit into the clips on the back. I didn't have any batteries either, so I used a 2 amp 12vdc power box and clip-leads (hooked up in the battery space) to power the amp.

My hi-fi isn't anything fantastic, but not bad either. A Jolida 202a (40 w/ch class AB-tubes) and some reworked DCM TimeFrames. More to the point, I am very familiar with the sound of my system. My basis for comparison is simply that I know what my current system does to music so I should notice when the T-Amp does different things to the music.

The T-amp is pretty darned amazing. The burn-in thing is fun by itself . . . the sound noticably improves while you listen . . . it started off as thin and narrow but after a couple hours, had started to expand and deepen. I'm really excited to hear it after a hundred hours or so!

I can tell it's going to be ruthless though . . . choose what you listen to carefully, as it will go right in and for instance, reveal just how much Aphex most modern pop recordings have . . . yucky!!

The poor guy that made the long review panning everyone else must be hurting bad. Why is he so upset over a $30 amp? He's unnaturally vehement about it, so I bet it's cause he spent a bunch on his hi-fi and now a $30 toy just stomps on it. How fun is that?! :)

At this point, the silly thing is so worth $30. And at the rate it's going, it will sound like something worth much more than that. I will definitely be buying more of these amps! Anyone interested in a used Jolida?