This is a review and detailed measurements of the Buckeye Hypex NC252MP based, 6-channel amplifier. It costs US $1149 as of this writing. The owner/builder is @Buckeye Amps on our forum.
The looks are fine for a well-priced build:
The unit is quite light courtesy of rather thin sheet metal. I am not as worried about the top being thin but the bottom is as well and that is where heat is generated. You won't likely push all three modules to max but if you did, I would put taller feet under it and maybe even some temperature controlled fans. In my testing the bottom just got a bit warm so not a major concern.
Back panel shows standard connectors plus the trigger input:
I stopped using my Mogami Gold XLR cables because I wanted to have colored ones. I bought a batch from Amazon that is nice and flexible cabling but some kind of generic XLR connectors. I have found them to be a hair worse than my Mogami cables as far as fit. On the Buckeye amp though, I could barely get them into the XLR connectors and then back out. I tried other XLR cables and my other generic ones were also stiff. The Mogami cable however, was a bit tight but nothing as bad as my generic ones. I know tolerances very but I had not seen this level of compatibility before with any other gear I have tested. Anyway, it is a one-shot deal so not a big deal even if the problem exists.
Buckeye NC252MP Measurements
Internally we have three stereo amplifier modules. So I decided to drive the unit in stereo using first and last channels. This way we have some variation in modules and their placements. Here are the results:
Hypex spec is 0.002% which we are meeting here. I could not figure out why the one channel had so much more mains noise (blue). I tried every kind of grounding but it made no difference at all. SINAD though is dominated by the second harmonic so that noise is not so material in that regard:
So quite competent and better than any mass market AVR amplifier.
Frequency response is pretty good for a class D amplifier:
Signal to noise ratio is excellent even with that extra mains hum. It nicely clears the noise floor of a 16-bit digital format:
Crosstalk naturally was superb when measuring two different modules but also good in stereo mode in one module:
Fascinating that a DIY amplifier can be so good whereas many premium audio products we test struggle here.
Let's get into the meat of the review which is the power into 4 ohm load:
The red pair of lines is using the two channels out of one amplifier module. We see healthy amount of power to the tune of 224 watts each.
Strangely when I tried two different modules (first and last as before), performance dropped some in both channels even though one channel is the same as before! Maybe the two amps are fighting each other a bit for current. Or there is some kind of beat frequency between them. Not a real worry though as far as audibility but interesting nonetheless.
Typical of these class D amplifiers with regulated power supplies, there is no peak power:
Here is our output with 8 ohm load:
Testing for frequency dependency, we get good results as we expect from Hypex modules:
Conclusions
I don't know the module price for the amps within this unit but getting 6 channels of amplification with such performance is a heck of a deal. You are benefitting from a DIY person building these for you with no intention of making a living.
I will do a teardown soon and we can see if the internal build is good.
I am happy to recommend the Buckeye 6 channel, NC252MP based 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/
The looks are fine for a well-priced build:
The unit is quite light courtesy of rather thin sheet metal. I am not as worried about the top being thin but the bottom is as well and that is where heat is generated. You won't likely push all three modules to max but if you did, I would put taller feet under it and maybe even some temperature controlled fans. In my testing the bottom just got a bit warm so not a major concern.
Back panel shows standard connectors plus the trigger input:
I stopped using my Mogami Gold XLR cables because I wanted to have colored ones. I bought a batch from Amazon that is nice and flexible cabling but some kind of generic XLR connectors. I have found them to be a hair worse than my Mogami cables as far as fit. On the Buckeye amp though, I could barely get them into the XLR connectors and then back out. I tried other XLR cables and my other generic ones were also stiff. The Mogami cable however, was a bit tight but nothing as bad as my generic ones. I know tolerances very but I had not seen this level of compatibility before with any other gear I have tested. Anyway, it is a one-shot deal so not a big deal even if the problem exists.
Buckeye NC252MP Measurements
Internally we have three stereo amplifier modules. So I decided to drive the unit in stereo using first and last channels. This way we have some variation in modules and their placements. Here are the results:
Hypex spec is 0.002% which we are meeting here. I could not figure out why the one channel had so much more mains noise (blue). I tried every kind of grounding but it made no difference at all. SINAD though is dominated by the second harmonic so that noise is not so material in that regard:
So quite competent and better than any mass market AVR amplifier.
Frequency response is pretty good for a class D amplifier:
Signal to noise ratio is excellent even with that extra mains hum. It nicely clears the noise floor of a 16-bit digital format:
Crosstalk naturally was superb when measuring two different modules but also good in stereo mode in one module:
Fascinating that a DIY amplifier can be so good whereas many premium audio products we test struggle here.
Let's get into the meat of the review which is the power into 4 ohm load:
The red pair of lines is using the two channels out of one amplifier module. We see healthy amount of power to the tune of 224 watts each.
Strangely when I tried two different modules (first and last as before), performance dropped some in both channels even though one channel is the same as before! Maybe the two amps are fighting each other a bit for current. Or there is some kind of beat frequency between them. Not a real worry though as far as audibility but interesting nonetheless.
Typical of these class D amplifiers with regulated power supplies, there is no peak power:
Here is our output with 8 ohm load:
Testing for frequency dependency, we get good results as we expect from Hypex modules:
Conclusions
I don't know the module price for the amps within this unit but getting 6 channels of amplification with such performance is a heck of a deal. You are benefitting from a DIY person building these for you with no intention of making a living.
I will do a teardown soon and we can see if the internal build is good. I am happy to recommend the Buckeye 6 channel, NC252MP based 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/
