Customer Reviews

TIC CORPORATION AMP10 Exterior Receiver Amplifier (Black Finish)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I purchased this product for use on a riverside dock. It is perfect. It is small and is sealed. The membrane buttons are waterproof. The sound quality is good and power is adequate. I connected 4 100 watt outdoor speakers and it drives them well. The unit comes with multiple cables for input. I was at first happy about that until the ipod cable developed a short very quickly. Oh well, I did not expect it to be included anyway. Considering the price, this is a great solution for poolside or dockside.

Let's start by setting the right expectations - you're spending under $100, so you know right off the bat this is not a high-end full featured auditorium quality unit. It has limitations as you would expect - no equalizer so you won't be adjusting the tone quality. No balance control, so you have to achieve balance with speaker placement. You will need to go to the TIC website and search to find anything close to detailed instructions for things like setting the pre-set radio stations.

All that being said, I bought this unit because I wanted decent sounding music on my back patio when entertaining, doing a barbecue, things like that. It's PERFECT!!! I can leave it on top of my outside fridge under the gazebo and it won't be destroyed by moisture. Although you can't fine-tune the response with an equalizer, it's not too shabby - nice and crisp, the bass comes through. Not a ton of volume, but I don't need a ton of volume - I just want some music in the back because I spend so much time on the back patio. It's paired with a set of Hifi Works 'rock' speakers that sound great.

A couple of cautions - some of the other reviews spoke of bad or decaying sound quality. I suspect that this is the result of mis-matched speakers (use 8 ohm speakers), old speakers or bad wiring. Make sure the gauge of your speaker wires is correct for the distance of the wire runs. Other than that, if you are only interested in putting a sound-track to your outside activities, this is a great little unit!

Considering the price of this item it's not a bad deal. My main complaint is that it arrived with no instructions. Other than that the unit is as described. It is not overly powerful so don't attempt to drive more than a small pair of outdoor speakers with it. The tuner works well as do the inputs for outside sources. I did not however try out a microphone. I am using it on my patio and I will be making a small box for it to sit in. Although it is designed for outdoor use the power supply states that it should not be subject to wet conditions. If I had expected more I would have given it 2 stars so I am on the fence with that.

I was hopeful this would stand in for an outside receiver in the gagage, since it has am/fm and a pretty good number of input plugs, but I sent it back (very rare for me) because:
1. sound quality (SQ) was really poor; sounded like a loudness button was on: heavy on bass, not good for low listening levels, though it got better with louder volumes. but pretty crappy with my wharfedale bookshelf speakers. might be better with some bright speakers
2. the 12v transformer had a high-pitched hum that was pretty audible
3. the lcd display was very poor, no matter what the light condition. almost impossible to read.

in short, if you need a waterproof unit, this is prolly ok; and maybe it sounds good with the TIC rock or omni- style speakers, but it was definitely a 3 strikes you're out for me. definitely inferior to a garage-sale or goodwill receiver for much cheaper. I will say that the unit looked pretty rugged and the power attachment and other plug-ins seemed pretty weatherproof. maybe I just got a bad unit for SQ and the transformer hum?

this reciever is a piece of junk...fried in 3 days...not powerfull enough to drive rock speakers..no tone selection
Dont buy...suggesttion...by a boombox and a rubbermaid tote drill holes in tote for wires to go in or out.silicone the holes..when done for the day put on lid. instant weatherproof stereo.

The good

- they brought it in a cheap price point
- It's weather resistant.
- It has no shortage of inputs (3 separate stereo in's aside from radio)
- It has enough power to make the rock speakers in your backyard noticable to your neighbors (not that that's a plus). Just saying it has enough power output for patio speakers.
- It remembers 20 or 30 channels, I forget how many because...
(see "the bad")
- LARGE SELLING POINT: You are to a large degree more protected from shocks & possible electrocution due to this running on 12V from a 110V adapter which you can shield / protect / encase / hide (choose your method). Your mileage may vary - you have to use some intelligence about protecting the transformer when setting it up.

The bad

- The sound quality is LOW FI at best. If you'd like some clear treble or clarity in general - look elsewhere. It feels like everything is rolled off over 4 or 6Khz. Possibly due to inexpensive op amps. When listening you're always longing for some ..less..mush I guess. Yeah you can acclimatize to it but it's not satisfying.
- The manual is terse to the point of being pitiful because..
- You'll go insane trying to store the FM presets with the manual they give you.

- TIP: You GOTTA find their website and buried on the site is a * slightly * improved manual which will give you a fighting chance to correctly program the radio presets.

So...it's sort of a stopgap measure - I'm keeping it but I'm not exactly thrilled with it. My wish for this company is they would charge another 40 dollars for this and upgrade the sound quality to say Teac level - presentable / decent commercial mid-fi. Either that or would Teac or Sherwood, etc get on board and do this themselves? Probably not as it's such a niche market. Maybe some of the boat marinas sell upscale weatherized (grundig??) systems. Didn't have time to look for that. I think weatherized stereo receivers are hard to find.

I use this to stream my iTunes from my Mac to our deck via Air-tunes. The only draw back I have found is when the power to our home is interrupted, the unit turns itself on.

This stereo receiver works great. I simply plugged it in and connected it to an old set of outdoor speakers I had and have been listening to the radio and my iPod outside by my pool. The receiver comes with multiple different cords to connect iPod, etc. The bass is a little high on one radio station that I listen too, but not with the other and not with the iPod. There is no equilizer function or any way to turn down the bass. I may just need a new set of speakers. I do keep the receiver covered, but it looks like it could tolerate the elements. The only thing to consider is that the plug may have to be covered (I have a weatherproof cover attached to my outdoor electical socket) and there is a small connecter device a few feet from the plug, which is attached to a few more feet of cord that connects to the receiver. This connector device has a warning that it cannot get wet.

I recently purchased this receiver for use in a storage/work building. I wanted something that would stand up to the extremes because this building is not heated or cooled. The receiver came with all cables need to hook up a CD player or an mp3 player. The receiver only took a few minutes to hook up. The fm tuner section of the receiver works fine. After hooking up the antenna (included with system) it scanned and picked up numerous station. The tuner sound was bassie and sounded just ok. I attached a CD player and a mp3 player to the system and they sounded very good. The amp puts out about 25 watts this is more that enough for my building. Overall a good receiver for such a cheap price.

I use this product in my gazebo and have mounted 6.5 feet high. Unfortunately the display is not visible from that angle. Other than that it works fine.