Review of the Arylic A50+ Wireless Multiroom Stereo Amplifier

These days, there are more entertainment gadgets in our homes than ever before. Go back not too long ago, for example, and most people had a single set of speakers. They were in the living room or family room, and your stereo and other devices all connected through an amplifier.

Nowadays, we have speakers in more and more rooms. If you’re a gamer, there’s a good chance you have a set of gaming speakers. And thanks to Bluetooth speakers, we often use speakers in multiple rooms. You simply carry your phone with you, and switch speakers as you move about the house. But what if you prefer larger, more traditional speakers, with a 2-pin or RCA connection?

In that case, a Bluetooth or WiFi-connected amplifier can be an excellent solution. You can still play music from your smartphone, but you can integrate it with your traditional speakers. Not only that, but depending on the type of amplifier, you can also use traditional wired inputs.

In other words, you’re getting all the benefits of a Bluetooth speaker, but with a more traditional setup. But how do you choose the right wireless amplifier? This is a relatively new kind of technology, so it can be hard to figure out what’s worth buying. Choose a poorly-designed amplifier, and you might find yourself wishing you’d kept your old one.

Arylic A50+ Wireless Multiroom Stereo Amplifier

With that in mind, we’re going to review the Arylic A50+ Wireless Multiroom Stereo Amplifier. This is a Bluetooth-enabled WiFi amplifier that can connect to almost any speaker. It takes just a few minutes to set up, and the companion app is simple and intuitive. Not only that, but you can link multiple units together to provide audio in multiple rooms.

But to know whether this amp is really worth the investment, we’ll have to look a little bit closer. We’ll have to look at how it’s put together, and how you install it. We’ll look at the various connection options, and what it’s compatible with. And of course, we’ll talk about the quality of the audio itself. Let’s begin!

Overall Design

The Arylic A50+ Wireless Multiroom Stereo Amplifier is a compact device that can fit almost anywhere. It measures only 4.72 inches wide and 4.33 inches deep, with a height of 1.57 inches. The height does not include the two antennas on the back, but they can be flipped down as needed.

At 2.64 pounds, the device is also fairly lightweight, so it’s easy to move around when you’re reorganizing. The housing itself is constructed from a silver-grey plastic, with black front and rear panels. You can order an individual unit, or it can be ordered in a 3-, 4-, or 5-pack.

On the front side, you’ll see a set of indicator lights for the Bluetooth and WiFi connections. These flash during pairing, and are solid when you’re currently connected. The rest of the important physical features are located on the back, starting with the antennas.

Looking at the back of the device, the Bluetooth antenna sits at the top left and WiFi at the top right. The antennas come disassembled, but assembly is easy. All you have to do is screw them into place, and you’re ready to get online.

At the left, just below the Bluetooth antenna, you’ll see a Micro USB port. Just beneath it is a small black button, which activates the power and reset functions. Next to that, there’s a pair of red and white RCA inputs, used by traditional stereos and turntables.

Continuing to the right, there’s an orange subwoofer out port. Beneath that is an optical in port. This isn’t used by a lot of modern devices, but it’s still something you may need to use. Moving along, you’ll find a standard LAN port, stacked over the top of a USB Type-A port.

To the right of the LAN port and USB port, you’ll see the standard speaker connection. This has a 4-pin design, with a single removable plug. The plug, in turn, has little holes in the back where you insert your speaker wires.

Screws in the top of the plug allow you to open the holes up and clamp down again on the wires. You can manipulate the plug easily and hold it in one hand while you’re working. It’s a bit easier than attaching the wires directly to the amplifier. At the far bottom right, there’s a round DC power port. The kit includes a power cable with a large AC block that plugs into your outlet.

Besides that, there are a few other useful tools in the package. To begin with, you get a handheld remote. This is a simple line of sight remote, but it lets you adjust a number of things without needing the app.

You can switch audio inputs, adjust your EQ, and turn the system on or off with just the push of a button. There’s a small screwdriver included, as well, so you can attach wires to the speaker plug. Finally, you get an RCA-to-RCA cable and a 3.5mm to RCA cable. These can be used to connect other devices to the RCA inputs.

Arylic offers a 30-day no-questions-asked return window. If you try the A50+ and it’s not to your liking, you can simply send it back. They also provide a 1-year manufacturer’s warranty to protect you from any factory defects.

Connectivity & Compatibility

To use the Arylic A50+, you’ll first need to set it up. Attach the antennas, determine where you’re locating it, and plug in any speakers or audio sources. Then, plug it into your wall power and turn the power on. This will give you access to the most basic functions.

But to get the most out of the A50+, you’ll want to connect it to the web. Install the 4STREAM app on your phone, and you’ll be able to pair with the amplifier via Bluetooth. Then, you can use the app to connect the amp to your WiFi network.

If you’re setting up multiple amplifiers, now is the time to do it. Put them wherever around the house you want to set up speakers. Keep in mind that this is just an amp; it doesn’t play any music on its own. Without a set of speakers, one of these devices is entirely useless.

When everything is configured, you’ll have full control of your music. You can play the same audio on all your speakers throughout the house. Or, you can control each amplifier independently. Through the app, you can see what’s playing on each amp, and what audio source it’s using. You can also control individual amplifiers from your browser. All you have to do is enter the amp’s IP address into your browser’s address bar.

The app also allows you to have an impressive amount of control over your amp. You can adjust the EQ, update your firmware, and set default playback modes. There’s even a built-in alarm clock. Like anything else, the alarm can sound in a particular room, or you can set it to play over the whole house.

You’re not just limited to playing music from physical devices like stereos and turntables, either. Using Bluetooth, you can cast your music to any individual amp. But the A50+ also has native support for all kinds of streaming services. Among others, it supports Deezer, iHeartRadio, Napster, Qobuz, QQ Music, QQFM, Spotify, Tunein, and XIMALAYA. Provided your service supports it, you can even stream different audio with different amplifiers.

You can also play music from a thumb drive or external drive. Plug into the USB port, and you can play back almost any kind of file. The A50+ supports the AAC, AAC+, Airplay1, ALAC, APE, DLNA, FLAC, MP3, Qplay, UPnP, and WAV protocols. So even if you’re using a less-than-common format, you’ll be able to enjoy your music library.

In addition to all that, you can also stream music from your PC. You’ll need to install third-party software that supports the DLNA or UPnP protocol. This will allow you to stream any audio from your computer, including YouTube videos. Or, you can use iTunes to play your iTunes library for free. That said, you need to have third-party software to adjust the gain. There’s no built-in gain function in the app or web interface. Not only that, but you can only adjust the gain from a PC. For whatever reason, there’s no software support on Mac.

Amplification

The A50+ provides impressive audio performance. It can deliver up to 50 watts per channel at a full 24 volts, if you’re working with 4-ohm speakers. If your speakers have 8 ohms of resistance, that goes down to 35 watts per channel at 24 volts. But no matter how you cut it, you’re looking at some pretty impressive performance. You won’t be able to supply huge commercial-grade speakers. But for anything you use around the house, this will be more than enough power.

As for quality, the internal circuitry can handle an audio quality of 192kHz. To put that in perspective, most streaming services stream at 128kHz. Unless you’re playing back high-definition audio, you won’t see any loss in quality. You also get support for an impressive 24-bit bit depth.

Before we wrap up, we should point out an unfortunate downside to the A50+. The companion app seems to deliver all kinds of information to third-parties. Testers have found that it communicates with Linkplay, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and a Chinese company. None of these communications are needed for the amplifier to function. In other words, your information is being tracked for advertising purposes. Whether or not you’re comfortable with that is a personal decision.

Final Verdict

All in all, the Arylic A50+ Wireless Multiroom Stereo Amplifier is very well designed. It’s easy to set up, and it can work across multiple rooms. You can connect almost any audio source to almost any speaker. And the app provides powerful controls that punch well above the affordable price. If you’re looking for a multi-room amplifier, you’ll be very pleased.