Douk Audio P1 Vacuum Tube Bluetooth Preamplifier, GE5654 Audio Preamp, Hi-Fi Headphone Amp, Stereo Wireless Receiver with USB DAC & APTX-HD for Home Theater Amplifier/Active Speaker

I decided to build a fun sound system for my home office. The goal was something that looked interesting, sounded good, and was expandable. I picked up the Douk P1 and paired it with a set of Edifier R1280DB powered studio monitors.Pros:Small sizeSwitchable tone controlsGood Bluetooth (stable, easy connection, APTX support)Built-in DACCons:No optical inputUnnecessary bright blue light on power supplyClicks when turning amplification on and off on BluetoothIt has a good build quality. The tone and volume knobs turn smoothly with soft clicks. It feels sturdy and all the connectors are solid.Setup is easy - plug in the tubes, connect to the speakers, plug the PS into the wall, and hit power. The tubes that came with my unit went right in - I didn't have to mess with the pins, but YMMV. Pressed power, flipped the switch to Bluetooth and the unit went into pairing mode. Connected my phone and played a few songs. This is where I would hear the clicking - when not actively playing sounds, it seems the amp switches power modes (?) so you hear a click when it goes to low power mode, then a click when you do something on your phone that causes sound again as the amp powers up. Really not an issue, but it made me think something was amiss until I figured out what was happening.Sound is great out of the box. Running with tone off, it is a nice balanced sound - no muddiness. Tone off is roughly equivalent to both tone knobs at the 50% (straight up) position - if they are both turned down it has the effect of lowering the volume.Bluetooth connectivity, at least when in the same room, is rock solid. And it is easy to switch devices - I disconnected my phone and the unit went back to pairing mode, then I connected my PC as a test. I switched to USB and back and it immediately connected to the last source (PC).It did a good job driving my Sony MBR-7506 headphones, and when I plugged them in it switched off the RCA out, which is nice as it means I won't have to turn off my speakers if I want to do some headphone listening.USB worked like a charm for both my PC and my Android phone. The included DAC is better than either device's built-in option, which is a plus.My only real complaint is the super bright LED on the power supply. It's unnecessary. Plus, did I mention it's bright? Because it's bright. If you plan on keeping this in a room where you sleep, unless you need a nightlight you'll have to do the electrical tape mod.All in all, this is a solid 5-star preamp, especially considering the price.

This is an amazing affordable little pre-amp with great sound and tonal features, i.e. the volume, bass and treble control are spot on. I strictly use it as a pre-amp, not as a headphone amp, although it can do that too. I find the looks stunning and love that I can switch the lighting from a tub-glow-like amber to a blue. It works decently over Bluetooth but I use it mostly with the RCA inputs. MAC>>DAC>>RCA>>Douk P1>>RCA>>Power Amp>>Speakers. The small size and low price should not diminish the fact that this little pre-amp can hold it's own against many much pricier options. I've tried many other pre-amps and DACs with built-in pre-amps to connect to my variety of power amps (both tube and solid state), and this Douk P1 never disappoints me. Every time my main pre-amp (Schiit Freya+) breaks (5+ times in a year so far) and I have to send the Freya back to Schitt for repairs, I take out the little Douk P1 to replace it and every time I am amazed. Obviously it only has one RCA input and one RCA output, but it always works. I did add a iFi linear ("silent") power supply (wall wart style) to further enhance the sound but the standard power supply seems to work fine too. You can also buy new tubes for it quite easily if you like tube rolling, but in my opinion the standard tubes sound great and last a very long time as they're not getting very warm. Amazing little until, probably value for dollar (and practicality) the best purchase I made on my audiophile journey so far!

I tend to be impressed with Douk Audio products, having used a variety of different model head amps and DAC's in the past. I purchased both the earlier version of the P1 (with Chinese tubes) a year ago, and I found that by just changing out the stock tubes with GE-based varieties, the sound improved substantially.I also found fault with that earlier model, specifically, with the headphone jack. which is only a 3.5 version. The problem with this particular headphone jack is that most 3.5" cables have too short of a connector on the end, and when inserting those into the P1, full contact may not be made - thus you may only get sound out of the left channel, or when jiggling the cord and connector, static may erupt. But the sound coming from the RCA jacks - when using an external DAC (a quality one) - is glorious.Now enter the newer P1 where they supposedly made some circuitry changes and Douk now also provides you with the GE tubes to begin with. I purchased this one also and my new review is based on the new (so called) improved version.1. Let's talk sound using the RCA outputs:a. When listening with the interior DAC: The DAC that comes with this newer P1 is the same one that came with the previous version P1. It is a 24 Bit 192 kHz version - your standard fare. It sounds like most other 24 bit models - nothing special, yet it does a very good job with sound-staging (has a more laid-back quality to the sound-staging) and is quite neutral. If you are just using this as an all around combo DAC and headphone amp, then you won't be disappointed (except for that 3.5MM headphone jack).b. When listening with an external DAC attached: For my listening, I attached the Schiit Modi 3E DAC to this P1 and the sound quality was characterized by a much forward, overall dynamic sound quality. The Schiit has 32 Bit 192 kHz decoding (max). The sound with this external DAC could best be characterized as "lively," yet with all the tube characteristics you may be looking for.2. Connector flexibility: Now the key to remember here is that if somehow you are lacking on inputs on your amplifier (or powered speakers), which usually means only one set of RCA inputs - then you're in luck with the P1. What I mean here is that you can switch back and forth between the interior DAC and the external DAC that you may attach - yet you still only wind up using one set of RCA outs to your amplifying devices. You just switch back and forth on the front of the P1's panel by switching to USB (for the internal DAC) or RCA for the external DAC (since you are connecting the external DAC to the P1 via RCA cables). A very flexible arrangement to be sure.The P1 is a very attractive preamplifier/headamp/DAC unit with gold toned control knobs, and you can switch back and forth on the front of the panel with the lighting on the tubes (blue or yellow). Not that this is a big feature, but at night, one may choose with the glow style here.So I really love this P1 for RCA output music - but the 3.5 MM headphone jack on this P1 leaves much to be desired - connection-wise. Why Douk didn't just put a 1/4" headphone jack in there is beyond me as there is plenty of room from what I can gather.I would have easily given this P1 five stars due to sound quality and low pricing - but the headphone jack is a huge let-down for me, thus I assigned it 4 stars.The way to get around this headphone jack is to purchase an adapter off of Amazon, which is a simple 3.5" to 1/4" jack adapter. This adapter's 3.5 MM end is long enough to make full contact with all the P1's receptors. Once you plug that adapter into the headphone jack, then connect a 1/4" plug into the other end, the sound improves substantially. I strongly suggest that everyone purchasing P1 (whether the older version or the newer one) also get this adapter.Here is the link to that adapter (the 3.5 mm end of the adapter is seemingly longer - which is good):https://www.amazon.com/Stereo-Copper-Headphone-Adapter-6-35mm/dp/B07MLNR2YM/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3QHZRQU8MQO37&keywords=3.5+MM+to+1%2F4%22+headphone+cable+adapter&qid=1663598611&sprefix=3.5+mm+to+1%2F4+headphone+cable+adapter%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-5Enjoy, and do remember that reviews are subjective, and your mileage may vary (YMMV) - but overall, this P1 represents tremendous value (except the headphone jack part of it).Have a great day!

This unit provided me with a way to easily connect my headphones and conserve my PC speakers when i'm not using them.The amplification is strong and the sound quality is very crisp. I like that you can disable the effects using the switch on the front, though I usually leave them on.Like the title says, I'm not an audiophile - decades of misusing q-tips have made sure of that - but I can definitely hear an improvement.Not only that, I was able to connect my powered PC speakers to the RCA outputs (using an adapter) and the amplification noticeably boosts those as well.Because this unit also features an RCA input, I was able to use it to "switch" between my PC and Game Console (which share a display) while using the same speaker setup.I don't intend to use the Bluetooth feature, but it also allows me to stream bluetooth audio from my phone to my desktop speaker setup, if the need ever arose for that.The device itself feels solidly built, and is compatible with many types of vacuum tube I might tinker with some day.Something I hadn't considered is how warm the tubes get, which I suppose makes sense in hindsight (they're essentially just lightbulbs, after all). I like the illumination on them but wish it was a bit brighter.My only complaint is the gold accents on the knobs. The knobs themselves are very clicky, and feel like they're high quality, but I would love alternate color choices.I find the gold color to be a bit garish and am glad I can keep the unit tucked away.The fact that the color is my only complaint should speak volumes, though.I have nothing bad to say about the performance of this unit, it gets plenty loud for my already deaf ears and makes me feel like a nerd because look, vacuum tubes!!!!

No soy audiofilo. Pero he tenido oportunidad de escuchar diferentes amplificadores y dispositivos. Es curioso como este dispositivo, aparentemente modesto, logra enaltecer el audio de grabaciones, incluyendo mp3 en formato estándar. Al parecer se logra mediante un sutil efecto de reverberación por los bulbos, logrando la "calidez" que tanto se menciona. Es evidente dicho efecto, siendo grato al oido. No se podría comparar con un amplificador digital HD para FLAC u otro formato sin pérdida, ya que en realidad tendrían distinta aplicabilidad. Pero definitivamente lo recomiendo. Comento también que cambié los bulbos por otros que tanto se mencionan, y en lo personal no noté una radical mejoría. Pero es cuestión de apreciación.

Showed up after around a month. It worked very well and sounded amazing with my HE4xxs. However, within the first day of use, the vacuum tubes that came with it broke. I have no clue if it was due to a fault with the vacuum tube or a handling error on my part.

Muy buena calidad de audio. Yo lo combiné con un amplificador de bulbos vintage, y el match fue genial.

Didn't know what to expect but was very pleasantly surprised! Great sound and build quality for the money, not really tube like sound in my system (I am currently using Dared MP 7, Musical Paradise MP 301, MP 303, Dynaco ST 70) but extremely musical with the stock 6J5 tubes. On tone bypass mode the top end is ever so slightly rolled off, midrange a bit laid back but warm, not quite lush sounding (compared to all tube), bass is satisfying, but the sound is very well balanced and enjoyable! Maybe there's a hint of tube sound, enough to take the harshness out of digital. Bass and treble controls fine tune the sound without degradation. Adds authority and rounds out the sound perfectly for my Grado SR325e and SR80s while taming the sibilance. Streaming Spotify using the USB DAC, Marantz CD5000 through the RCAs, Samsung Galaxy S10 via Bluetooth through an Adcom GFA 555, Klipsch RM51s and absolutely pleased with my purchase! Tube sound? Not really, it's more of a tube buffer and maybe the tubiness is diminished by the solid state equipment downstream. But really great sound overall for the price? Definitely! Retro chic look rounds out the experience. Update: liked it so much I've ordered another one! Changed the tubes to GE 5654W for better detail and connected the preamp to a first gen netbook streaming Spotify through the built in DAC, vintage 70's Yamaha integrated amp and Klipsch RM 15 speakers.Update: sadly after a few hours one of the tubes stopped glowing and the left channel died.... The other tube glowed much brighter than normal with lots of distortion in that channel.... Interchanged the two tubes and the issues changed sides too. Definitely the tubes... Swapped in the GE 5654 tubes I got off eBay for $5 and the pre-amplifier is singing again. The pre-amplifier is excellent... just the tubes are problematic. I've had similar problems with Chinese tubes so not a surprise. I have no doubt that Amazon would have looked after me very well but I had the tubes anyway and it was a cheap fix.... Actually upgrades the sound. For me, this experience in no way diminishes my impressions of the pre-amplifier. Love it!