Dayton AudioMA1240a Multi-Zone 12 Channel Amplifier

Have two of these hooked up to 12 stereo zones in the house. Each zone is switchable from two inputs or a direct line in. Very flexible solution. I have 4 sonos zone players hooked up to two of these and it gives us 12 rooms of audio for a fraction of the cost. I am not an audiophile but they sound good to me!Update after 3 years:We have had these for three years now. Both units still work without any problems. FWIW, I have had these connected to a z-wave outlet for the past three years. This allows us to turn on the entire system (which is located in the attic) from the smartphone and control the music and the volume from the sonos. I have not even physically touched the units in more than two years - they just sit in the attic working fine and doing their job. Press the button, play the music, the z-wave automatically turns them off if we forget.I still have the 24 channels (12 rooms) divided into four zones, each with a Sonos "connect" (were called Z90s when I bought them). I would add more zones but the price of the connects make it a luxury I have just never been able to justify. If I were to do this today, I would probably put a set of airport express units on this (one can buy 7 express units for the price of two connects) and with iradio it offers much of the same functionality but would give you many more individually controlled zones.In any case, the Dayton units continue to work with no drama, no intervention, and no problems.Update after Five Years - okay I am upgrading to five stars:All good. No problems so far, they still work just as well as they did in 2011 when I first installed them. Admittedly, we do not run these a much as many people will, but still, five problem-free years. Props to Dayton (and Sonos, which is also problem-free after five years with regular software upgrades to keep the system and the app up to speed with the latest services). Five years of problem-free service deserves five stars.

Great amp, built well, sounds great and works well. That is, besides bridged mode. For some reason, when you put the speaker in bridged mode left and right are thrown out the window and it gives you a choice between left OR right on both speakers, by switching cables or whatever. Very strange and annoying but it is what it is. I can't seem to find a way to properly use bridged mode on this without that so it's basically a useless feature. Otherwise it's great, maybe runs a bit warm.

My home is wired for 12 speaker zones (24 speakers) and I was looking for a solution to easily play and control music in any zone from a phone or iPad. The MA1240a was the perfect solution. I currently have 6 Apple airport expresses hooked up to each of the 6 inputs and can play all of my music in any of the zones I wish. I already had a Mac mini and by using the "remote" app on my iPhone, I can play the same music over multiple zones as well as control the volume to each zone independently. That works great for parties or entertaining. My wife can play her music in our bedroom while I play my music in the backyard. I was skeptical about how this unit would hold up over an extended period but I've been using it almost daily for about a year and have not had any issues. I'm going to purchase a 2nd unit to hook up my other 6 zones to have control of every speaker in our home. I would recommend this product for anyone looking to do something similar to what I did.

Here is how I set up the system. I set up 6 zones downstairs that were pre-wired before the house was completed. I wired directly to the speakers, not using a volume control in each zone. I bought 12 Alexa Dots and 6 3.5mm to RCA converters. Then I attached 6 of the dots to the RCA inputs for each zone on the amp and put each of them on mute. I also placed a an Alexa dot in each zone. Then I named each dot carefully. The dot in the Kitchen is named "Kitchen Dot" and the dot in the closet for that zone is named "Kitchen Speakers" This allowed me to tell any dot, anywhere in the home, "Alexa, play music on the Kitchen Speakers" and the dot in the closet streams the music to the speakers. You can also tell Alexa to "Lower the volume on Kitchen Speakers", so I avoided having to install or purchase volume controls in each zone. I am going to buy another unit for the upstairs zones now. Alexa also has Groups, you you can group multiple Zones together and say "Alexa, play music Downstairs" and it streams to several zones. I also have a group I call "upstairs intercom" so, I can stream "Reveille" in the morning to get the kids to head downstairs for breakfast.Update: I added the second amp for the upstairs zones and everything is working as planned. I have 24 Alexa dots running the two amps and the kids love that they have control over every room in the house and what music is playing on the ceiling speakers. I made a few groups, Like "Master Bedroom" group, that plays in Master bath, office and bedroom, in Alexa to allow multiple zones to play the same music as well. Also made a "Main" group that plays on all the common area speakers. Update: Alexa now allows me to make a dot a member of more than one group, so the office is now part of "All Downstairs Speakers" group, but not part of the "Downstairs" group (which is just the common areas).

Item poorly packaged, sold as new, not in original box. Box was too large for item, with minimal packing. Corners of amp were chipped and damaged. Paying full price for a used item is frustrating.Seems to function well. I only tested two channels so far. This rating is a reflection of the seller, not product.This should never have been sold as new. Now I am left debating if I want to go through the frustration of a return.Amp sounds good, plenty of power for my needs, it is loud though(noisy amp).

A quality product but BE CAREFUL !!!The unit crazily ships set to 115V and not 230V. The note that comes with warns of this but it’s written in terrible English. You could damage the unit.Seller. You’re operating in Europe - set these by default to 230V. Dont be lazy