Taking a hard look at the Qinpu Q2 from Head Direct.

Exposing my noobness but WFC's so...

Will this power Absolute Zero Speakers satisfactorily?

Anyone have experience with this?

Anything else I should consider in that price range $79 ($99 Shipped)?

If you don't need it small, try your hand at vintage receivers on craigslist (or ebay)

Will I then be able to run my PC through AUX?

I don't know about the Q2, but the Q1 is good enough for some inexpensive speakers, and for driving my 11 yr old son's SRD-6 and Stax lambdas in his bedroom. And the sound quality with headphones plugged in or feeding the output into a Millett starving student hybrid is also pretty decent. I know Skylab reviewed the Q2 and it didn't suck either, so I suspect it is better than our Q1. That being said, the Qinpu A-3 is a noticeable step upward in sound quality for driving speakers, stats or even K1000, although at a much higher price.

Hey HA, does your son want to sell his Lambda? ;0

Hey HA, does your son want to sell his Lambda? ;0

Sorry, but he wont. At one point I tried to get him to take my SR-5NB gold edition so that I could keep the Lambdas for myself, and he insisted on the SR-Lambda as 6 months worth of allowance. So I had to buy myself another Lambda later from Fitz to replace it. Mine aren't for sale either.

Incidentally, prior to the Q1 he was driving the SRD-6 transformer/Lambda with an old Optimus (Radioshack brand) 5 watt mini-receiver, and the Q1 sounds a bit cleaner, while the Optimus was a little warmer and darker ($59 new). So, for $39 the Q1 is nice because it has an FM radio built-in, and CD or iPod input, speaker out, and pre-amp out that can feed his Millett or run a headphone. With the Q2 (which he did want) I think he'd need a separate radio.

The bets part is even though the specs say 100Hz - 20KHz, the Lambda or normal headphones played with the Q1 don't seem to be lacking much bass - it's better than I expected for the cheap price (not sure how they can make money on these).

Also, I don't want to confuse you guys - I'm not saying buying a Q1 will make you happy and to forget the Q2. I wanted to chime in that since the Q1 isn't crap, so the Q2 is likely to sound better (since Skylab didn't think it sucked), which should make you happier. It isn't mid-fi level stuff like the A-3, but it isn't FM transistor radio out of a 3" speaker quality either.