OSD MX880 GEN2 4 Zone Amplifier 8Ch x 80W, Class D, Front Panel On/Off Buttons, Distributed Audio

I've been pretty happy with this amp. I'm using it to control several outdoor speakers around my yard and pool area.Some tips for those of you that say the app doesn't work:- You're probably using a VPN, and the device can't be discovered when connected to a VPN even if you allow your VPN client to access local network resources. The app's logic seems to take your current IP address, which if connected to a VPN would be a non-routable IP address on your local network, and then attempt to scan for the device. So turn off your VPN, then scan for your Nero Max 12. Once you've discovered the IP Address, you can manually set it in the app settings and you can then re-connect to your VPN. This caught me up when I first got the Nero Max 12, but has never been a problem since I discovered the solution.In addition I was able to find a way to hook this into my Home Assistant setup and truly tie it in with the rest of my smart home. To do this, you can use the Home Assistant "Monoprice 6-zone amplifier" integration, and enter "socket://<nero IP address here>:8080" during the integration setup. This is a completely undocumented feature that took me some tinkering to come across. The only thing you cannot control with Home Assistant is the mixer, which is fine because it's not something that you always want to tinker with. So just use the phone app for the mixer configuration when you setup your speakers and use home assistant to control the zone power and volume for each zone channel.Another pro tip for people looking for a way to stream music across your multi-zone audio system. It's as simple as buying a device that can stream and connecting it to one of the Nero's source inputs. For me, I purchased the Audio Pro Link 2 (available on Amazon) and connected it to my Nero using the optical input source. This works flawlessly for me and have been very happy. You can also hook the Link 2 up to Google Assistant and then add it to one of your speaker groups if desired. Spotify sees it and streams to it perfectly and then it's just a matter of turning on the zone(s) I want to hear my music over outside.One other thing to note that is not documented anywhere in the manual that I came across when tinkering. There is a network configuration page where you can setup a static IP address for the device if desired. This seems to be for the rs232 controller that's baked into the amp. Simply goto http://<IP Address of Nero>, and the user & pass is 'admin'. I have no need for any of the advanced configuration there since I setup a DHCP reservation for the device on my home network so I have a consistent IP address for the device, but wanted to share the findings.One more thing to mention is that for me at least, there is no wifi antenna as depicted in the product images, just an ethernet port. That was not a big deal for me, because my Nero is racked in my home network rack and I directly connect the device to my network switch over ethernet. I didn't attempt to see if it has any wifi capabilities, but as mentioned in the previous paragraph, it appears you could potential setup a wifi connection using the advanced configuration page (I found this documented in the MAX12 connection and quick guide PDF).Finally, if you really want to geek out, you can connect to the device over telnet and send commands over command line. I did find all the commands documented in a manual (MAX12 connection and Quick Guide). Just run 'telnet <your nero IP address> 8080', and then you can start running direct RS-232 commands, which you can read about in the aforementioned manual. This could maybe be useful when building a custom automation via a script or some sort of a custom integration, and is basically how the Home Assistant integration works.

I purchased the OSD MX1680 as a multi-zone music distribution amplifier for my home to replace an ELAN 1650 digital amplifier that died last week. I currently have speakers installed in 7 rooms and one set of speakers on our backyard patio for a total of 8 zones. I use Google Chromecast audio devices as audio inputs to allow apps such as Spotify to cast music selectively across the 8 zones.While I have only had the MX1680 installed and working for the past week, so far I am very impressed with the quality, the features and the ease of configuration/use. Shipping was prompt and the OSD MX1680 arrived in great shape two days after placing my order. Packaging was excellent with the manufacuturer box securely fit inside the shipping container (i.e. double boxed) . The MX1680 is much smaller and lighter, delivers more power and has many features that make it superior to the ELAN 1650. Each zone of the MX1680 has as slide switch that allows easy selection of line input, BUS1 or BUS2 inputs. I connect the Chromecast audio units to the two BUS inputs and set the slide switches to direct a common audio signal to specific groups of speakers so that the same music track plays in multiple rooms. This is very easy to configure and change if I wish to group the speakers differently. The sound quality is excellent with plenty of power (50W or 80W/channel into 8 ohm and 4 ohm speakers, respectively). I also really like the audio sense feature that activates channels when the input signal is present and turns off the channel after a few minutes when the no input signal is present. This should prolong the life of the unit and minimize heat generation when not in use.While I only had the unit for about a week, so far I am very impressed with the quality, features and performance of the MX1680 and would recommend the unit to others looking for an multi-zone music distribution amplifier. One item to remember, the channel volume controls on the back of the unit are all set to zero by default, so remember to turn up the volume settings as you install the speaker wires. Hope this is helpful....enjoy!

I'm technical and could not get this to work, except I saw a review on Amazon where the person mentioned how they got it to work in Home Assistant.It is basically over-engineered. There is a built in access point for some reason. If you connect to it there are a couple of settings relating to network and serial but nothing useful. The manual, incidentally, is not helpful. Next, if you try to use the app while connected to either the built in AP or a home router with the amp connected via networking cable, the app cannot find the amp. Even if you manually add the IP address. They apparently sell a control panel separately. So no easy way to just get it to work, which is what everyone wants.If you want to just get it to work, you have to set some pin to 12V in order for the first input to be broadcast on all zones. Weird! So thankfully someone left a comment about using Home Assistant. I actually bought this so I could program it via RS232, but thankfully the Home Assistant integration means I don't have to do that.Anyway, good luck to this company. It's a shame they suffer from over-engineering and poor app quality. Instead, they should keep it simple.