I bought the OPTIMUS MPA250 at a clearance sale in 1999 to start a Karaoke show it was paired up with a Beringer mixing desk and 300 watt speakers. WOW i have never been able to power this thing up to its full power.It just keeps going and going no matter how big the venue is .I often think of upgrading to a new AMP but i haven't seen anything as good as it.Best AMP i have ever bought.

I got this amplifier on a whim to power our out door Church P.A. system. I cannot beleive how easily it powered the two massive (15' woofers) JBL P.A. speakers. very clean and clear. It did not even seem to break a sweat. After the summer months I took it home to temporarily replace my Denon amplifier. I then sent my Denon off to be repaired. I listened to my system with the MPA 250 (this is the 125 watt per channel ver. of the MPA 200) and was stunned. It really sounded a lot better. I paid also $1,000 for my Denon and $300 for the RS amp. I just sounds so clear and easy going. Smooth extended low and crsp highs. It powers my KEF 105.2 speakers beautifully. The meters look great too. I think this is one of those great values that very few people know about. I highly reccomend this amp. the Denon now lives with the church P.A.

I'll bet your ready to swoop down on me and rip my throat out. Optimus? RadioShack?! But wait, hear me out. I bought this amp about four years ago when they first came out just so I could have a small, mobile DJ system. Nothing big or fancy. It sat in its box all year except for a few occassions, for about three years. My home system receiver/amp, an Onkyo TX-850, went tits up. I didn't want to pay the $100-$150 to fix it, so I started using the Optimus as my home amp. Even though it had volume control, I needed a pre-amp and tuner. I happened upon a pawn shop that had an old Fisher 'Studio Reference' pre-amp and seperate tuner. I bought them for a steal at $25. I don't have that much experience w/ seperates, but now I know why people are partial to them over receivers. The tuner alone mops the floor with my old Onkyo receiver. The pre-amp is okay as far as I know ; its so old it has but one 'aux' input and my choice of three 'phono' inputs, and two 'tape loops', as well as the once necessary 'sub filter'. My main speakers are Polk Audio SDA-CRS+ (about 11 years old).
My old receiver did a credible job of pushing my Polk's, though only rated at 80 watts/ch. I was quite bummed when it 'passed' because it was a feature laiden little receiver. I was pleasently surprised when I hooked up the Optimus MPA-200 amp. It added a depth of clarity that was missing from the Onkyo. Way better in the upper midrange and treble range. Better mid-bass punch -vs- the Onkyo's 'thump'. It handled hard rock, alternative, urban, and jazz very well. Its short coming was in the lowest freq ranges, most notable in classical music. Albeit, it was very musical with classical and brought out nuanses that I hadn't heard previously on the Onkyo. And it made my Polks sound much fuller and richer than before. With the Onkyo, I had the 'loudness' turned on most of the time, and I usually boosted the treble a few db. Not so with MPA-200. Because on most loudness circutry, the treble as well as bass is boosted. The Polks are a lot brighter on the Optimus amp than the Onkyo, and now too bright for 'loudness boost'. At .05 % THD it is also a much, much quieter system.

Most of you might wonder why on earth would I buy a Radio Shack amp when you can get better. Well, you can do alot better, but not for the money. That said, I'm in no way trying to imply 'audiophile' status to this amp. It is a good interim amp, small DJ amp (but not instrumnet or stage amp), or a great budget 'seperates' amp. It'll give you way better flexibilty when piece-mealing a stereo together. And if you don't already have a second stereo, its a great foundation. But by all means, if you can afford better and can hear the difference, don't bother.

These amps are on sale because they're being replaced by a newer model, the MPA-250; a 125w/ch amp with cooling fan for $299, but wait for the sale. Even if you can get used or new for as cheap as $200 or less that is as good or better, you can't get it warranteed. And the good thing about it is that almost all Radio Shacks carry the amp; the bad thing is that you'll have to go to a Radio Shack and suffer through their less than adequate sales staff. More over, the amp is almost never hooked up so that you can hear it. This is yet another case of Radio Shack upgrading its product line with a descent item and then hiding it behind the electronic penny banks, R/C cars, and telephone accesories. I wonder by what margin you'd have to fail an apptitude test to get a job there.

I own 2 of these amps. A steal at $199. These amps are actualy made by a company called pyramid who manufactures DJ equipment. According to a DJ friend of mine, pyramid is a very good company. I am happy with these amps due to the fact that they power up 2 passive subwoofers of mine. They Rock.