Audiophonics HPA-S400ET Review (Stereo Amplifier)

[Salt]

Then take a permanent one, be sure You like the colour (I for myself use only black for simple dimming).

 

[magchiel]

When you say 'what's there on the mix', does it mean clinical, analytical sound or 'realistic'?

Bearing in mind that I do some amateur music composition and production with more analogue guitar effects and valve amps than is good for me (more to be away from screens and complicated menus than anything else), I'd say neutral

The set is EQ'd to the room response (Harmann target) with mild acoustic treatment, so no overbearing room modes in the lows or too spikey reflections in the highs. Nothing is added to or subtracted from any source IMO. Supertramp's School on my TD160mk2 sounds clearer than ever, yet engages me from head (bobbing) to toe (tapping) - which is my benchmark. With an entirely different experience of course than a James Blake production.

Terms such as 'clinical', 'analytical' or 'realistic' really don't mean much to me (or likely something else than to you at least). The signal chain introduces no second- or third-order harmonics to goose up the music. No frequencies are boosted that trigger a psychoacoustic sense of detail or spaciousness. If you want those things, add a saturator, increase the airband and potentially a high passed room reverb every so slightly mixed in with a very short predelay to taste - your own personal mastering chain, or something to that extend. There are plenty of (free) plugins that may let you do that in the digital domain without having to hunt and spend for some esotheric hardware combination, made easier if the chain itself is completely neutral.

I myself, don't feel the slightest inclination to do so beyond said room EQ, trusting the mixing and mastering engineers have made their creative decisions on how they want to programme material to sound (and to which I may personally disagree on occasion, but to address that I should obtain the multi tracks rather than crudely fix it in my home stereo chain).

 

[bricesan]

in bypass mode it seems that there is less harmonic distortion in the speaker. the sound is super clean and dynamic. very balanced. and non fatiguing wich is an important fact for me. i use it for mixing.
with input buffer details are more forward , in bypass mode there is more dynamic depth in my system.

 

[Salt]

Providing sufficient input voltage would need no buffer. If it's really audible? Who knows.

 

[amper42]

in bypass mode it seems that there is less harmonic distortion in the speaker. the sound is super clean and dynamic. very balanced. and non fatiguing wich is an important fact for me. i use it for mixing.
with input buffer details are more forward , in bypass mode there is more dynamic depth in my system.

If you can hear harmonic distortion with a Purifi amp when using a buffer but it goes away when the buffer is disconnected then either it's in your mind or the buffer is horribly designed. I'm unable to tell a major difference except the setup without a buffer requires much more gain from the RME ADI-2 DAC FS to volume match and the volume control incremental increases are smaller with each remote volume click.

 

[bricesan]

If you can hear harmonic distortion with a Purifi amp when using a buffer but it goes away when the buffer is disconnected then either it's in your mind or the buffer is horribly designed. I'm unable to tell a major difference except the setup without a buffer requires much more gain from the RME ADI-2 DAC FS to volume match and the volume control incremental increases are smaller with each remote volume click.

i use the audiophonics 400ET with stock opamp in the input buffer.
i don't know if it's harmonic distortion but it is how i can describe the difference i hear.