Rockville BluTube 70W Tube Amplifier/Home Theater Stereo Receiver with Bluetooth

Well designed product

I review based on price and usability. Great overall sounding tube amp. Nice warm tones and top notch balance. Acceptable distortion at high levels.I’m using this as a simple "Getting Ready" system in my bedroom area. 2 Polk Towers, 2 panel speakers & a Polk Sub. Love the integration with Bluetooth on a tube amp - nice convenience with little loss. Great function with the integration of a sub crossover to the amp > great match and adds expansion capabilities. When reading Q&A’s about adding a sub and speakers with the right sub you can have at least 4 and beyond.The tubes absolutely function (some claimed they do not) with great classic tube sound - they simply combined an amp & tube preamp vs full separation. For the money, hard to beat.As far as I can see this amplifier is branded under at least 3 different names > they all seem to have the same specs, including Monoprice who felt comfortable enough to put their name on it.• No bluetooth issues, including no connectivity loss with music playing overnight.* No feedback issues.• No power issues.• No headphone Issues• Tubes easily swappable (China or Russian) (2) 6P1 and (2) 6N1 you can find easily here on Amazon. You will hear a difference (not necessarily bad or good, just slightly different). Nice to try a few different sets (for fun).• The volt meter looks nice, but does not really do much and sometimes does’t move - makes no difference to me.• It seems to have a little issue with low HZ (below 40) but acceptable.• Highs & Mids nice & warm - you’ll def notice a difference here vs full solid state.You should follow general Tube Amp break in periods (at least 1 hour). Certainly with new speakers. When you get it don’t plug it right in and turn the volume all the way up and not expect possible issues as some made - especially with an integrated tube amp. Ignore anyone please who says this should not be done, even manufacturers. Make sure your tubes are clean & let them warm up a little.I have a Yaqin and a Reisong tube amp as well in office & library and this one does not sound harsh next to them. Can you hear the difference between a $2000 Tube Amp and this? Most likely but like I said, this one sounds great for the price and for most part you won’t be missing anything.

No sub woofer output. Awesome sound and great appearance.

The amp is cute and is a nice style piece in the right place, but overall it's got some warts. I will not try to use language like "sparkling highs" and "wide soundstage" because I don't know what they mean or if they even matter since the speakers you use will impact how the sound hits you. If you like sound that is neutral, progressive, chesty, strident, that also has a chocolatey midrange, I wish you the best, but you can stop reading now.What I can say is that the amp creates entirely inoffensive sound. You won't be unhappy unless you're a fancy person, but if you're that fancy, you're not buying a $150 Monoprice rebrand amp. If you're a normal person with normal ears, you'd say "hey, that's not bad" and you would probably be happy. If you crank up the treble and bass knobs to max, it will sound like you turned them all the way up. There are no real surprises here.My only beef with this amp is that I don't understand exactly who/what it is for. There is no phono preamp, so either you'd have to buy an external or you get a turntable with a built-in preamp. Given that phono preamps are kind of expensive and are supposed to produce superior sound, why would you buy a cheap amp and then plug in an expensive preamp? I have a turntable plugged in using it's own preamp and it's ok, but annoyingly the inputs are labeled as "CD" and "DVD". Not sure who is plugging a DVD player into this thing given how it's a stereo amp only. Vinyl sounds perfectly nice to my untrained ears even when using the TT built-in preamp. No complaints.Additionally, there is no subwoofer out on this amp. No biggy if you don't have a sub, but seems trivial to include. It has reasonably good power, but a powered sub can take up a lot of slack for a low/mid-range amp.The worst thing about this amp is the Bluetooth support. Given how it's called "BluTube" it seems that the Bluetooth feature is kind of important. However, it only supports the SBC codec which is the oldest and lowest-fidelity. I have a $90 Fosi Audio BT30D that is smaller, has a subwoofer out and at least supports AAC. No, it's not a tube amp, but despite the fact that it's not very pretty does everything this Bluamp does and more for less money.This is a case of style over substance; if you value the look over the sound and features, this will probably be a good choice for you. I purchased it with a different use in mind and then things changed. I would not purchase this for a turntable if that's what you intend. I would not purchase this to play Bluetooth-connected music unless you use Spotify (they do not support lossless audio so all their streams are lo-fi to match this amp's SBC). If the return period were still open, I would have returned this amp. It does make perfectly cromulent sound, but with too many small compromises.

This hybrid tube amp by Rockville is a fantastic steal for the price. Actually it sounds as good if not better than other brands costing far more. The soft gentle sound of this amp is difficult to describe. There is plenty of power to push any speaker to its limits. The version that has the wood side panels is well worth the extra 20 bucks. This piece of equipment reminds me so much of the beautiful equipment i owned and still own fro the 1960s and 1970s. The wood along side the metal silver faced amp brig out the professional look. All the controls this amp is packing will surly satisfy your needs. Also if you don’t care about the wood panels the amp is finished professionally with the black vinyl. Every comes packaged neatly. I am a Dayton sub fan also but in direct comparison I have to give the Rockvill the advantage in sound and price. You can't go wrong with either brand. Enjoy your music again.