Free Standard Shipping in the US on orders over $99

APPJ mini2013 6J1+6P1 Tube Amplifier

overview

details

reviews25

photos1

discussions523

01 / 11

ALL PRODUCTS / AUDIOPHILE / APPJ

APPJ mini2013 6J1+6P1 Tube Amplifier

Name: APPJ mini2013 6J1+6P1 Tube Amplifier
Brand: APPJ
SKU: appj-mini2013-6j1-6p1
Price: 94.99 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.2 (25 reviews)

Where's the price?

To negotiate the best possible price for our customers, we agree to hide prices prior to logging in.

1.2K requests

183 Sold

Product Description

Featuring two 6J1 driver tubes and two 6P1 power tubes, the new mini2013 6J1+6P1 tube amp delivers great noise performance, frequency response, and power output for the price. It’s beautifully built with a solid metal chassis in the color of your choice, and provides enough oomph to drive your favorite bookshelf speakers Read More

Customer Reviews

4.2

(25 reviews)

(17)

(2)

Images

Sort by: Newest

maclem53

Jul 27, 2019

Verified Buyer

Outstanding amp in small form factor.

Conservatively I have well over 1500 hours on this unit, since it was delivered 13 months ago. Running Svetlana 6P1P-EV's and WE 403B's. Desktop PC > Topping D30 DAC > APPJ > EV Aristocrats. The EV's are triple digit SPL but even with a pair 90db Spendors it has more than enough power in my 11 x 13' room. The volume knob rarely gets above the 10:00 o'clock position with the Spendors and 9:00 with the EV's. I run a small 4" fan on mine in the summer since the case acts as a heat sink. I have more expensive tube units but this is my daily driver. It doesn't have the bottom end that my PP unit has but this unit is lively and fun. I would order a 2nd if they do another drop with orange included.

Was this helpful?

Vote

loofah

May 10, 2019

Verified Buyer

One audio channel keeps cutting out, I have to wiggle the potentiometer to get it to come back. It often cuts out when I'm adjusting the volume as well. Just found out that Drop changed their warranty period from 1yr to 30 days.

Was this helpful?

Vote

hiilari

Dec 30, 2019

loofahMine does exactly same....but only when the amp is still a bit cold. After couple of minutes when the amp is properly warm (or whatever the cause) everything seems fine. So far.

Tygur

Mar 2, 2019

Verified Buyer

Great little amp! Looks fantastic and sounded good out of the box. I swapped for Voskhod 6J1Ps and Svetlana 6P1Ps and it really puts pretty much everything I've owned to shame except my McIntosh 240, but that's not really even a contest.

Was this helpful?

Vote

BenjaminWebber

Dec 1, 2018

Verified Buyer

My hope was that it would make my eminence asd1001 tweeters sing better than what I had been using in a diy tri-amped system. I stated by hooking the amp directly to my eminence 12lta's. Already impressed! Then I re-connected the system as planned. Goal achieved! I can't believe what an improvement it is making! Plus, mine is dead quite. Also, this was my 1st experience with Massdrop. It was worth the wait to get it for $94. Very happy!

Was this helpful?

olneylee

Sep 20, 2018

Verified Buyer

Finally have it set up with new tubes: JAN-GE 5654W and Winged "C" (SED) 6P1P from the TubeStore. Not sure if they are better than supplied tubes or not (did not try them), just glad I have an equalizer to pump up the bass a bit. Driving my Paradigm Atoms in my office setup they sound sweet and airy, a nice and major improvement over the Lapai Class -T amp I was using. In my kitchen setup this mini was not up to competing with the APPJ EL34 ($275 massdrop), but this cheap and tiny form factor is a great trade-off vs. its bigger brother. From photo you can see Schiit modi multibit, Loki, and Vali 2, w/Topping mini audio rack, all sitting on an Atom speaker, driven via coax from Linux desktop computer. Overall fine in this application where I hardly have room for a larger amp. Wish the sound were a bit more chunky, but maybe with a powered sub I can further compensate. HI's/midrange are a bit thinner&rolled off, but Nora Jones live sounds great right now.

Follow-up: well the lack of bass finally led me to replace this cute amp with a logical and equally great value step up - sold for $179 by Tubedepot, the 3.5 watt/channel Tubecube 7 (but also made by APPJ, it figures!). With bigger transformers and EL84s it delivers a decent amount of bass and fits the same mini audio rack in my office. I did not try adding a subwoofer to the MINI2013, which might have achieved the same goal. Anyway unless you dont need much bass or have just minimal space I would not recommend this vs. the Tubecube 7, which has been wonderful driving Atoms w/o subwoofer. With more space I would still rather have an APPJ EL34 amp here, but EL84s are great also.

(Edited)

Was this helpful?

highfiman3549

Sep 9, 2018

Verified Buyer

Amp has been running for three days (about 30 hours of play). The system is computer via coax to Conrad Johnson DAC (which tends to makes things sound smooth) to amp to JVC SP-UX7000 (4 ohms and est 87 db sens. - this speaker tends to make things sound smooth) and a Andrew Jones Pioneer 8 inch sub. Music via CDs and Spotify.
I am comparing to my old TEAC MC D80 (60 watts claimed)
1st impression: Lack of low bass (20-40 hrz), lack of control with the rest of the bass. The lack of control tend to make male voices too boomy. The upper mids are a bit pronounced (in a tube way) and bright. Highs a little ragged. Good spaciousness and imaging.
Current impression: The bass tightened up a little, but the bass and mids are about the same. The upper mids and the highs have smoothed out a bit. It was so bad before, I ordered some new driver tubes and was considering selling the unit. The amp has a lively top end rather than a classic tube sound. Now, after the tubes have had some time, the amp sounds much better. However, the lack and lack of control over the bass is still underwhelming, but hey it is only $100.00 for the amp.
The above comparison was done against the TEAC MC D80. It is an older unit. A solid state unit. Pleasant sounding, but tends to round out the highs. This tube unit brings out much more detail than the TEAC. Again, however, the TEAC is able to do lower and differentiate bass better than this unit. I consider them equals. TEAC a bit boring vs. this amp has a lively mid, but lack low frequency control.
Maybe I am not running efficient enough speakers. Not sure, I will continue to play around with this amp. I look forward to more time with the amp. Will try out the after market tubes soon.
Just FYI, there is no comparison to my main system (VTL amp, CJ pre). This is not a giant killer type of amp. I consider a fun amp. Something to play with and cool to see the glow of the tubes next to the monitor screen.

Was this helpful?

Vote

johncelliot

Aug 14, 2018

Verified Buyer

When I received the product the volume control potentiometer was very loose. I tightened it up and it does work fine. However this potentiometer feels very poor quality and I don't expect it to last. I haven't opened it up, but I can see that the overall build quality is poor on the outside. As far as how it sounds, it's okay, not great. lacking in lows to my ear and the treble is a little too much. I guess that's what you get with a $100 tube amp.

Was this helpful?

Vote

MaskedAdvance

May 1, 2019

johncelliotHave you tried to open it up yet? I haven't found a sane non-destructive way to do it myself

Vote

loofah

May 10, 2019

johncelliotOne audio channel keeps cutting out, I have to wiggle the potentiometer to get it to come back. It often cuts out when I'm adjusting the volume as well.

Vote

Dacer238

Aug 10, 2018

Verified Buyer

Ordered this amp after reading the reviews and to use in my system in the summer months in central Texas. My VTA120 simply gets to hot for summer months, making my AC work twice as hard. The amp totally exceeded my expectations on every level! You will need some very efficient speakers, I have Klipsch La Scalas in my system. They really sing with this unsuspecting amp.

Was this helpful?

Badchile

Aug 9, 2018

Verified Buyer

I really don't want to like this amp - seriously. I didn't mean to buy it because I have too many amplifiers already and anything that does show up is one less high end amp I can purchase. But it did so I made the best of a bad situation and put it in in the system in my seven year-old son's room. This system consists of a pair of Klipsch KG1 speakers we found in a neighbor's trash which we rebuilt the crossovers (new capacitors and resistors), with an old Amazon Fire tablet as the source via its headphone jack. The speakers are 94 dB/2.83V at 1 m, and had been driven by an old Onkyo receiver. Also used in our comparison is a self-built Elekit TU-8200 amp, with numerous component and upgrades running KT88 tubes pushing Klipsch Heresy III speakers at 99 dB/2.83V at 1m. Between component and tube upgrades I have about $1000 into that amp. Cutting to the chase: the Mini2013 isn't going to replace the TU-8200, it isn't even close. But let's describe what the APPJ does accomplish when paired with the KG1 bookshelves: relatively open soundstage, which as other reviewers have noted is treble heavy. At 3.5 Watts a channel it produces similar power as the TU-8200 but lacks the higher-end amp's bass control. The APPJ produces reasonable bass but at times it seems like the woofer gets away from the amp leading to bloat and sometimes disappearing bass. It isn't neutral, looks better in photos than in real life and the volume pot isn't linear. Four sound quality it exceeds the quality of a $29 Lepai T-chip amp but even with the sensitivity of the speakers it would have a hard time driving me from the room. I wouldn't go less than what other reviewers say: if your speakers are less than 90dB/2.83V at 1m don't even think about this, and even the KG1s I wouldn't put in anything larger than a small bedroom with this amp. For $100 this is a reasonably fun amp to introduce you to the world of tubes. I wouldn't pay more but at the price it is worth having around. Three stars as I'm not sure if anyone - anywhere - has a need for this amp unless you just want a cute tube amp to show off your street credibility to your office mates. You can pay less for equal quality with solid state; or if you pay $100 there are options out there in the SS realm that will perform better than this amp. My son loves showing his friends his tube amp which is "just like what my dad has" and he thinks it is great saying that he has a tube amp in his room, but if I were to invest $100 in an amp for highly sensitive speakers this wouldn't be it.

Was this helpful?