Tangent Ampster BT II Amplifier: The Best Value Budget Amp Out There?

The war is well and truly raging on the budget amplifier battlefield these days, with firms turning out respectable kit for less than £160/190EUR.

So when we heard about the latest budget amp offering from Denmark’s Tangent Audio we felt obliged to see if it was true: can you get a great sounding amplifier with bluetooth and a great remote for less than £160/190EUR?

The Ampster BT II is a neat little package. It’s roughly half the size of a ‘standard’ amplifier — but don’t be fooled. It’s perfectly proportioned, and it sounds great.

We tested the Ampster BT II with a pair of KEF Q150 speakers and a Denon DCD-600NE CD player.

The latest iteration of the Ampster BT amp (there was a previous version) comes out of the gate with all guns blazing. Connectivity options range include Bluetooth, AUX, digital and analogue line inputs, and a sub-output. A USB charging port is also included.

The Ampster BT II ships with wake-on bluetooth (a new addition to the second generation of the Ampster series) which is a nice little feature, especially at this price point. It saves time and just adds to the sheer usability of this amp. It’s super quick and easy to get set up, and the bluetooth feature isn’t troublesome at all. It paired with everything we tried first time, with no errors.

Remotely Interested…

The remote that comes with the Ampster is a well thought out affair, and very easy to use indeed. Everything centres around the rocker switch at the top, the buttons are soft with a decent amount of give, but solid. At this price point we’d expect to see a very basic remote with limited functionality, but this goes several steps beyond that. It’s also compatible with the tuner and CD player from Tangent Audio, so you can control the whole system with one remote — nice.

In The Listening Booth.

The Ampster BT II sounds great, but more specifically it sounds a LOT better than you’d expect for the £160/190EUR price tag. There’s a decent level of power here, nice separation and strong sound staging. Thanks to the built-in EQ you can tweak things to your liking and customise things a little further.

The power supply is built in here, so that’s one less chunky box hanging down behind your setup.

The only downside we found was the lack of phono stage, although this can be remedied by using a turntable with a built in phono stage or purchasing one separately (you can pick one up for around £50/70EUR), if you’re intending to use the Ampster BT II with a turntable.

So, What’s the Verdict?

If you’re just starting in Hifi, as so many of our readers are, the Ampster BT II is a solid first step into building a system — especially considering its price. The bluetooth functionality is well implemented and with the inclusion of the aptX codec you can stream music in high quality using certain devices (not iPhones or iPads). Connectivity options are good and the sound quality is very good again, given the price.

For those looking to build a system with a CD and/or tuner it’s worth looking at matching budget separates from Tangent Audio at www.tangent-audio.com