Car power amps Axton A1250 and A4120: small and nice price
Car&Hifi magazine test and review (05/2022)

Axton always finds a gap for new products in its amplifier range. This time two new amplifiers have come onto the market that are even smaller and cheaper than any of the previous ones.

At Axton there is already any number of low budget amplifiers. Totally new are the A1250 and the A4120 with one and four channels respectively.

However, they are still positioned below the A101 and A401 as far as price and dimensions are concerned.

Equally one should not expect any excessive performance: Axton promises 60 watts and 150 watts per channel at 4 ohms respectively. We see the target group being those who simply want to go a step further than with the original system when listening to music.

Just the A4120 allows original front and rear door speakers to be to be operated significantly better than with a factory car radio delivering at best 10 watts. So 50 to 60 watts is a considerable advance.

Similarly, the A1250 can drive a small subwoofer or the bass speaker in a BMW or Mercedes without any problem. And you get 
that for a good 100 euros in either case, which is why we have just about the cheapest sound upgrade that there is.

If you want to go a step further add an aftermarket speaker – naturally here it does not have to be the expensive Reference Series. Our A1250 and A4120 come over as neat, small aluminum boxes. The bass power amp is 14 cm long, with the four-hannel variant being just a bit longer, so that both have no problem finding space in or under the dashboard. The configuration of the A4120 is very sparse. For the price we are happy to do without complex filters, but we do miss a high level input for the speaker wires of the original radio. Having RCA outputs available will get you off the hook, otherwise you‘ll need a couple of tenners for a high-to-low adapter. The A1250 does a better job, having high-level inputs along with auto turn-on and a bass boost. Even a remote gain control is included. Technically we have of course the latest Class D amplifier.

Here the four-channel A4120 appears fully up-to-date: The amplification is integrated in two small chips that manage almost completely without heat sinks: there is just one slim aluminum bar for heat dissipation underneath the circuit board. The mono A1250 is similarly highly integrated. It also has a driver IC, although the power transistors are macroscopic discrete components and have an aluminum heat sink.

Measurements and Sound

It is very pleasing to see how the little units behave in our test lab. At 4 x 55 watts the A4120 delivers more than enough power for a boost, the signal always remaining clean. Noise is also not an issue, equally so for the A1250. The latter even produces less distortion, and the frequency response up to 500 Hz is also adequate for a high woofer / subwoofer cut-off. As for power, there is plenty of that. At 4 ohms there is 143 watts, and at 2 ohms the A1250 even unleashes 247 watts! That makes the A1250 a hot tip for small (and medium) subwoofers. In practice the little mono makes you sit up and take note. It drives our 25 cm test subwoofer without any problems at all. We have no complaints either about the deep bass response or the pressure level. The level is easily sufficient for everyday use; we guarantee that no one will have any gripes here. And the A4120 also does a great job. Voices and instruments are clearly heard from the speakers and even the fun from the bass is worthy of mention. That is more than enough to be miles away from the original factory sound: here everything is simply louder and better.

Summary

A1250 and A4120 have become tiny, super practical amplifiers that for the price leave nothing to be desired.

You can download PDF-file with original article (with all charts and tables):
http://cloud.karma.digital/owncloud/index.php/s/0egQPhVGWrdLl9i

Detailed about these models on our site:
Axton A1250
Axton A4120