Buckeye Amps: 2nd Generation Purifi EIGENTAKT 1ET9040BA Amplifier

[thegeton]

The tone of this thread is getting to be a bit corrosive. I get the need for "perfect", but give people a chance to review/fix before jumping on them. 100% QA is a myth...unless if is handcrafted bespoke product, it is impossible to do this. It's just an amplifier at a relatively low price point and exceeds many expectations...even if it doesn't meet spec (which will be addressed).

Anyway, good cheer and all that!

Totally agreed. People expecting testing 100% of production to 100% capability/functionality have never worked in modern manufacturing and have unreal and prohibitively expensive expectations. Get over yourselves.

 

[thegeton]

From my point of view, this is not enough. I would expect at least the 5-Why Method here. The RC could also have affected other deliveries/products.

I get it. I've been a participant and driver of dozens of '5-Whys.' Worthy efforts all, but they are expensive, intrusive, and often result in no action despite understanding the exact root cause. In the end, everything is a business decision and must be. All manufacturers are in business to make money. Producing excellent gear is also a senior objective, but it can never be number 1. Anyone who says that it is lives in a dream world. I'm not condoning this behavior, just stating the obvious.

 

[ahofer]

Producing excellent gear is also a senior objective, but it can never be number 1. Anyone who says that it is lives in a dream world. I'm not condoning this behavior, just stating the obvious.

The ‘balanced scorecard’ method tends to make objectives vs methods more explicit. But having a sense of mission above and beyond profits is always present in performing organizations.

7 Balanced Scorecard Examples in Several Industries

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www.heflo.com

For instance, most Japanese companies in the 1980s prioritized quality metrics as a route to market share and growth. Apple certainly prioritizes customer experience.

It does get ridiculous in the “making the world a better place” formulations, but thankfully Silicon Valley (the show) put a stake through that one.

 

[thegeton]

The ‘balanced scorecard’ method tends to make objectives vs methods more explicit. But having a sense of mission above and beyond profits is always present in performing organizations.

7 Balanced Scorecard Examples in Several Industries

Explore 7 Balanced Scorecard examples to enhance strategic planning, track success, and achieve goals. Ideal for leaders seeking practical insights and growth.

www.heflo.com

For instance, most Japanese companies in the 1980s prioritized quality metrics as a route to market share and growth. Apple certainly prioritizes customer experience.

It does get ridiculous in the “making the world a better place” formulations, but thankfully Silicon Valley (the show) put a stake through that one.

I can only relate to you my nearly 30 years experience, but I won't argue with you. I have many friends and former coworkers at Apple. Not everything is as advertised.

 

[Multicore]

I agree. Only the makers of toys can pile on that level of cost to appeal to those few wealthy enough that buying them is like buying the supercar in the driveway—a toy.

Whereas purchasers of real equipment understand and evaluate the relationship between reasonable risk and reasonable cost, and choose accordingly.

But that’s why I bought from a guy I can talk to on the phone if need be, and traded vast cash out of my pocket for the very small risk that I might have to make such a call.

Rick “buys lots of toys” Denney

The "Show us your Cars" thread is a good way to look at that.

 

[Power Pop 23]

The difference between real and toy.

Yes

This post may revive the new trope that The Fisher Radio Corporation came into being as a spin-off from the Fisher-Price Toy Company - as demanded by an activist shareholder.

 

[jruser]

Do the modules or powe supply use the chassis as a heatsink? Or are they just open air?

 

[quattro98]

Do the modules or powe supply use the chassis as a heatsink? Or are they just open air?

The module has a metal heat spreader on which the output transistors are mounted (that's the bottom layer in the side view). The circuit board is above this. When the module is mounted in a metal chassis, the chassis serves as a heatsink for the module. Open air refers to the modules not being mounted in a chassis.

The drawing is from the data sheet (https://purifi-audio.com/document/share/59/a82eb980-951a-4387-85ce-43caaa1e5c2e).

 

[pogo]

NAD thermal measures for heat dissipation at Purifi stages:

 

[HaveMeterWillTravel]

Yes, proper quality control should be and is part of the normal process in any serious company. However, what is proper quality control? I would certainly not expect every single unit to be tested - sampling is the norm, and for good reason.

With modern ATE, 100% bench test of all critical functions is very achievable.

 

[HaveMeterWillTravel]

I would love to see actual consumer law (in any country) that mandates 100% final testing. There are no such laws. I can think of a bunch of faults, some serious, that I have came across in new cars being delivered to customers. The manufacturer or merchant has to fix the problem, but there is no obligation to ensure a car (or a piece of electronics) doesn't have any faults before being delivered.

While you may love it, I would wager there are many more consumers who would not appreciate the increase in cost.
BTW: outside of a very small number of heavily regulated industries (Nuclear, etc), there are no "100%" final testing.

 

[HaveMeterWillTravel]

Let's talk about a company that does test every single product, and maintain records (and many spare parts) way back to their very first product in 1973.

Accuphase. Sure, you pay for it, but I would argue it's great value in the long run.


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There's one statement I don't quite believe is true. See if you can find it.

*Yawn*
It's not to ASME NQA-1 standards ....

On a less flippant note: I do not see mention of them performing a test such as IEC 61000-4-11, -29, and -34 to ensure the device works properly without perfect(tm) clean power.
On second thought, if it did pass it would seriously impact the sales of $1k/m power cables and $125k Sankara stones .

 

[Julf]

While you may love it, I would wager there are many more consumers who would not appreciate the increase in cost.
BTW: outside of a very small number of heavily regulated industries (Nuclear, etc), there are no "100%" final testing.

My bad - poor language. When I wrote "I would love to see" I meant "I would love for jamesdyson to show examples of such laws", as what I wrote next was "There are no such laws.". This was in response to "it would probably fall foul of consumer law in many countries".

 

[HaveMeterWillTravel]

My bad - poor language. When I wrote "I would love to see" I meant "I would love for jamesdyson to show examples of such laws", as what I wrote next was "There are no such laws.". This was in response to "it would probably fall foul of consumer law in many countries".

Ah.
The crux of the issue is what does one consider "100% tested"? It's a value judgement on the value of testing X versus the cost of doing so.
Let's look at the whole subset of (mostly) snake oil products which ostensibly provide 'clean power'.
There are several EMC standards which test a devices ability to function without any effects from non-optimum AC power. The IEC 61000-4-X series of test methods is generally the most common (*) and typically covers from line frequency (50 or 60Hz) up to 80 MHz, all kinds of power fluctuations, dips, etc.

If audio components were built sufficiently well enough such that it passed when compliance tested; the end consumer would be assured he doesn't need sankara stones.
On the other hand, such testing can run well into the six figures. The extra engineering and component part cost can easily swamp that just to cover some of the extreme cases.

In actuality, most well designed but not perfect devices will perform flawlessly across a wide enough subset of reasonably expected conditions in the home. In those edge cases where the equipment would encounter some anomalous behaviors, the issue may be significant enough one may be better off calling an electrician or your power company.

 

[Buckeye Amps]

Here is a quick and dirty IMD 19+20kHz measurement of the monoblocks shipping out to JA (Stereophile) on Wednesday.

 

[Buckeye Amps]

Almost forgot:

Measurement was done on Medium gain (20.5dB), 50w, 8ohm.

 

[Full Zhou]

Actually, you could use your APX555 to measure and publish a complete report. So far, it seems that no company has released full test data for the complete unit; they all just reference the official data provided by Purifi. Based on my measurements, the 1ET9040 achieves around 0.0002% THD+N with an 8-ohm load, and with a 4-ohm load, the THD+N reaches 0.00056%. Therefore, I’m also wondering if there’s an issue with my power supply or if there might be an error in my measurements.

 

[Buckeye Amps]

Actually, you could use your APX555 to measure and publish a complete report.

What AP unit? We no longer have one.

 

[Full Zhou]

Of course, under no-load conditions, the THD+N measured was 0.000075%. E1DA Cosmos ADC

 

[David_M]

Actually, you could use your APX555 to measure and publish a complete report. So far, it seems that no company has released full test data for the complete unit; they all just reference the official data provided by Purifi. Based on my measurements, the 1ET9040 achieves around 0.0002% THD+N with an 8-ohm load, and with a 4-ohm load, the THD+N reaches 0.00056%. Therefore, I’m also wondering if there’s an issue with my power supply or if there might be an error in my measurements.

I don't think so...The reason you'll never get the datasheet numbers is that those specs belong to the module alone. The front end buffer is the 'weak link' and contributes to most of the measured distortion in a packed amplifier, be it IMD or THD+N or otherwise, as seen in the latest IMD plots from Buckeye and other vendors. So, when listening to the built amp, we really are listening the distortion effects of the buffer and any back end source equipment, audible or not.