Audiophonics HPA-S400ET Class D Purifi amp

[Fledermaus]

Well, i'm not too far from that - except the amps and Xover DSP will be outside of the speaker cabinets, which gives ample opportunity for audiophile cable tweaks

 

[Soundstage]

We will release a LPA Purifi Mono during August, then we will start to think to a 3ch HPA .

3x SMPS600 or SMPS1200 + SMPS600 ?
I think most of you will prefer 3x SMPS600

Has the dream of the mono Purifi amps from Audiophonics come true yet? August is almost done!
Thanks.

 

[jorgen]

fledermaus, why not a stereo purifi unit, one for each channel and this way the amp is placed next to the speaker.
then do XO filtering with Acourate ?

 

[VintageFlanker]

Has the dream of the mono Purifi amps from Audiophonics come true yet? August is almost done!
Thanks.

They said to me they're still working on it. Release is planned from September.

 

[jorgen]

fledermaus, sorry :2 stereo purifi units

 

[Fledermaus]

Yes, one stereo LPA400 per channel is what I'm set on.
Xover / Eq will be done in the only box I took the trouble to learn how to hook and set up, a Xilica Solaro QR1 processor - and I don't mind its FIR filter modules being less apt than those in software-only solutions, I only use PEq anyway

 

[HansH]

Looking forward to combine 2 x LPA Purifi Mono with the EME ADI-2 FS https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-...ak4493-32bit-768khz-dsd256-black-p-14174.html or Okto DAC 8 Stereo https://www.oktoresearch.com/dac8stereo.htm

 

[Fledermaus]

I noticed when I switch the gain to bypass (lowest), there's a noticeable channel imbalance prioritizing the left channel.

FWIW, I encountered the channel imbalance problem in bypass mode, and after a bit of troubleshooting, turned out I had misplaced one jumper on connector pins (connecting nothing to 1 instead of 1 to 2) - for my defence, these are tiny black jumpers on black PCB and it had been a long day
Besides, I noticed some minor assembly issue (ribbon cable partly pinched during casing assembly), Audiophonics support replied as soon as reported and the replacement part is on its way - so nothing to really complain about.
Soundwise, at first sight it's just as expected : no hum, no hiss , dead silent and a feeling of unlimited clean power.

 

[eduardw]

Any news about the upcoming audiophonic purifi mono

 

[Neto Rare]

FWIW, I encountered the channel imbalance problem in bypass mode, and after a bit of troubleshooting, turned out I had misplaced one jumper on connector pins (connecting nothing to 1 instead of 1 to 2) - for my defence, these are tiny black jumpers on black PCB and it had been a long day
Besides, I noticed some minor assembly issue (ribbon cable partly pinched during casing assembly), Audiophonics support replied as soon as reported and the replacement part is on its way - so nothing to really complain about.
Soundwise, at first sight it's just as expected : no hum, no hiss , dead silent and a feeling of unlimited clean power.

It seems the channel imbalance was caused by my passive SE preamp (schiit sys). I bypass/retested it with my balanced preamp Freya S in (SE & balanced) and confirmed no channel imbalance in both.

 

[tmtomh]

So we've now confirmed there's no channel imbalance with the Audiophonics amp, using any of the gain settings. It's user error (no offense intended) or an upstream component.

 

[Kennyknetter]

Any news about the upcoming audiophonic purifi mono

I didn't actually know that y'all had any info or contact with Audiophonics on this matter when I contacted them yesterday to suggest exactly such a product. Their response today was as follows:

"Hi,

Yes a mono one is planned on a near futur.

We are hoping this week or early next week.

Price is not fixed yet.

I stay at your disposal.

Best regards

David Aubert"

It's coming! Soon!

 

[eduardw]

Hi, had the same update from audiophonic for almost 2 month. Let see and wait. I'm still interested but now because of the upcoming nad c298 I also would like to hear the NAD.

 

[eduardw]

According to David it will take another 20 days. The made a mistake ordering the face plate of the amp.

 

[Morla]

Hi @TabCam,

as i recall you used the bypass option of the audiophonics board. I bought a gustard a18 with 6V output and set bypass on my audiophonics amp.

Bypass is said on their website be suitable for "preamps" with max 10Vrms so since I'm a sceptic with little experience:

Is that gustard suitable for bypass mode of the amp? I do not want to damage anything in the long run.

I hope I do not compare apples and oranges here..

Thank you for reading

 

[Oklei]

Hi @TabCam,
Is that gustard suitable for bypass mode of the amp? I do not want to damage anything in the long run.

First things first: You won't damage anything
Is it good though? There are two things involved. First is output impedance of a18. Info on this board says it's around 100 Ohm for XLR output. Input impedance with bypass to the purifi modules will be 4.4 kOhm. There is a general *10 rule so you should not use equipment with higher output impedance than 440 Ohm with bypassed purifi modules and the a18 is far below that: good.

The second question is simply: Is it loud enough for you? The gustard a18 will not be able to drive the purifi modules to full output power (you will need ~9V rms for this) but that might just not be necessary. If it is loud enough for you under all circumstances you are absolutely fine. I'm driving a purifi module without buffer with a SMSL M500 (approx 7V max) and I could shake the earth with this.

 

[Morla]

My Speakers are measured 95.2dB(B)/2.83V/m.

I bypassed the amp and set the a18 to 0dB (I do not think there is a special dac mode). Source controlling the volume to -40dB gets me a spl of 48dB at the listening position (simple android app measurement here). -20dB im at 70dB. It's getting pretty loud after that not going to measure that without micky mouse ear protection.

Is it reasonable to keep bypass set? Now that I know it is not going to damage anything: I think yes.

I could switch the jumpers back for crazy party mode twice a year.

Another idea I had was: what if I set only one of the two jumpers in bypass position? I naively assumed I might end up with something in between bypass and low gain and therfor better matching the 6V of the gustard a18. Sent that question to audiophonics but the replied that setting is not possible so I did not try.

 

[Oklei]

Is it reasonable to keep bypass set?

I did it primarily to have more usable volume steps. With the M500 and my Canton Vento 896 (88.5 dB) I could only ever use the first 15 out of 40 steps. With bypass I can go up to 25 without deafening sound.

 

[Morla]

I did it primarily to have more usable volume steps. With the M500 and my Canton Vento 896 (88.5 dB) I could only ever use the first 15 out of 40 steps. With bypass I can go up to 25 without deafening sound.

So you control volume in the dac itself?

 

[Oklei]

So you control volume in the dac itself?

Yeah, I'm an old geezer and like to use my remote control for volume control. But it is digital volume control in both ways (dac/app). My M500 also plays TV sound via Toslink and if I would leave it at full volume for music I would die everytime someone turns the TV on.