This is a review and detailed measurements of the boXem A 4216/E2 stereo balanced amplifier based on Purifi 1ET6525SA class D module. It was sent to me by the company and costs €1,160 (USD $1,350).
While not built out of billet of aluminum and such, the 4216/E2 still manages to look unique and attractive. The case is plenty big and airy and in use did not even rise above the room temperature. The protection circuit is very robust and did not care how many times and how much I pushed it into clipping. It would keep going without shutting down.
Was happy to see trigger support for automatic turn on with sources that sport the same:
While there is a standby mode, I was surprised there is no hard On/Off switch. Otherwise, the binding posts are solid and high quality. There is a high and low gain which I appreciated especially since even the low gain mode can be driven to max power with nominal 4 volt input.
boXem 4216/E2 Stereo Amplifier Measurements
I started the measurements with low gain:
Distortion at -120 dB is well below threshold of hearing in all cases. SINAD therefore is noise limited (see later). This is top level performance:
High gain has a very slight penalty of about 2 dB as reflected in SNR:
As a reference, my requirement for above is 96 dB! Given the large amount of power available on tap, max SNR shoots way up:
Frequency response is nice and flat, with no load dependency:
Crosstalk is incredibly good:
Multitone and dual tone IMD tests show excellent results:
While we have a number of excellently measuring amplifiers, not all of them are powerful. The boXem is:
There is not much variation in power either as we go lower in frequency:
You can see the same in our "FTC like" power vs frequency:
Can't explain why it produces more, rather than less power at 20 kHz! It is reflected the same in our power sweeps vs frequency:
Distortion rise with frequency is managed quite well especially for a class D amplifier.
The amplifier cruised through my reactive stress load tests down to whopping 2 ohm!
It doesn't quite "double down" but close enough.
Amplifier is ready for party on power up:
There is a small chance of turn off pop:
Conclusions
The boXem 4216/E2 is an attractive amplifier both in looks and performance. It produces everything you want in a power amp: lots of clean, absolutely clean power with very low noise and distortion. The value is surprisingly good for a product assembled and sold in EU. A feather in the cap of residents of that part of the world.
I am happy to recommend the boXem 4216/E2 amplifier.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
While not built out of billet of aluminum and such, the 4216/E2 still manages to look unique and attractive. The case is plenty big and airy and in use did not even rise above the room temperature. The protection circuit is very robust and did not care how many times and how much I pushed it into clipping. It would keep going without shutting down.
Was happy to see trigger support for automatic turn on with sources that sport the same:
While there is a standby mode, I was surprised there is no hard On/Off switch. Otherwise, the binding posts are solid and high quality. There is a high and low gain which I appreciated especially since even the low gain mode can be driven to max power with nominal 4 volt input.
boXem 4216/E2 Stereo Amplifier Measurements
I started the measurements with low gain:
Distortion at -120 dB is well below threshold of hearing in all cases. SINAD therefore is noise limited (see later). This is top level performance:
High gain has a very slight penalty of about 2 dB as reflected in SNR:
As a reference, my requirement for above is 96 dB! Given the large amount of power available on tap, max SNR shoots way up:
Frequency response is nice and flat, with no load dependency:
Crosstalk is incredibly good:
Multitone and dual tone IMD tests show excellent results:
While we have a number of excellently measuring amplifiers, not all of them are powerful. The boXem is:
There is not much variation in power either as we go lower in frequency:
You can see the same in our "FTC like" power vs frequency:
Can't explain why it produces more, rather than less power at 20 kHz! It is reflected the same in our power sweeps vs frequency:
Distortion rise with frequency is managed quite well especially for a class D amplifier.
The amplifier cruised through my reactive stress load tests down to whopping 2 ohm!
It doesn't quite "double down" but close enough.
Amplifier is ready for party on power up:
There is a small chance of turn off pop:
Conclusions
The boXem 4216/E2 is an attractive amplifier both in looks and performance. It produces everything you want in a power amp: lots of clean, absolutely clean power with very low noise and distortion. The value is surprisingly good for a product assembled and sold in EU. A feather in the cap of residents of that part of the world.
I am happy to recommend the boXem 4216/E2 amplifier.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
