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Buckeye NC502MP 8-Ch Amplifier Teardown

Sokel

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OK, that is what I thought but I needed to confirm.

This is not the situation that the post about AC phase was talking about. In the USA your home's power, and any AC outlet you plug in to, comes from one of two phases of 120VAC AC power that are delivered to your home. Which one of these you are using is determined by how the wires are connected in your circuit breaker panel. Both of these are exactly the same at the plug, with one "hot" lead that has 120VAC on it and another "neutral" lead that is tied to ground at the breaker box. These are 100% equivalent, the same, exactly so, as far as an amplifier is concerned. The only difference is that the relative phase between the "live" wire for either of the power legs is 180 degrees out of phase. That is not at all the same as reversing live and neutral leads.

So, my point here and in all my comments about this topic is that your plots and that test have absolutely nothing to do with what that post was about.
In that case you're talking about I would also measure which of the two is cleaner cause the effect you see here can also be seen (way worst than this) if a motor/AC/heat pump/LED lights/etc are connected to the same phase.
Noise is a thing you know,it manifest itself in various ways and electronics absolutely care about it.
Do you want to see a dac connected in the same line with a led strip for example?It's ugly but let's not contaminate the thread more.
 

charlielaub

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Sure that is all good advice. It's certainly true that one or the other leg of the home's power may have more noise or has a DC offset, sometimes only intermittently from some equipment turning on and off, and you want to find the best one for your system. But again that is not what you posted about when you made a claim that the "phase" of the AC power makes a difference... If you are not an English native speaker, we would usually call this "polarity" when live and neutral are reversed, not "phase".
 

AdamG

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Let’s end the off topic debate here. Just so happens that @charlielaub gets the last word. If you wish to continue please start a separate thread.

Please and thank you.
 

Kevinfc

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I know, it’s a strange fetish, but I love the look of all those high quality caps lined up next to one another.
 

DWPress

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How many Buckeye amps have been submitted for measurement and teardown now - at least four without searching. I see a fair amount of armchair quarterbacking on the teardowns mostly by newer members. Dylan has always been open to listening and incorporating suggestions in his builds from day one and humble enough to ask questions to figure things out when necessary.

I can't think of any other amp builder who is more open and transparent about their process. I own the second box Buckeye ever made for public sale, a 4ch MC252MP build and have been very happy with it. Zero noise at idle in my high sensitivity drivers even without all the "optimizations" later added in his builds.
 

EJ3

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But why would you buy a 4000W combined amplifier in that case?
I have 6 NAD 2200's that can do this:
NAD 2200 stereo power amplifier power into 4 ohm Peak and Max audio measurements.png



Wow, we have one kilowatt of power coming out of this amp in short duration!

So, I have a possible 12 channels with the power level I want.
My question to you is why wouldn't I want to replace some (8) of them with this?
 
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DWPress

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I have 6 NAD 2200's that can do this:
Yes, 3 of them used to belong to me. ;)

And I replaced them with Hypex and IcePower modules that run cooler, have balanced connections, take up less space and sound equally as good!
 

EJ3

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Yes, 3 of them used to belong to me. ;)

And I replaced them with Hypex and IcePower modules that run cooler, have balanced connections, take up less space and sound equally as good!
Thank You for letting me get those three from you. 2 of them have been torn down and are in process with Peter (for those unfamiliar: at QuirkAudio). The third one has yet to be touched. I had told him to put them on the back burner, as I am still refurbishing this house and my wife has been elsewhere since Nov 3 (I am expecting her back in May). Unfortunately I have been in a bad car accident (On March 23 someone made a left turn in front of me [of course it was my wife's car and I had only taken it to fill the fuel tank] when I was tooling through the intersection at 45 mph (the legal limit, I think I got down to 40 MPH before I hit them amid ship [punted them about 12 feet. All of my body's damage is "soft tissue damage" so it's just taking a good bit of physical therapy, giving me time to evaluate the next evolution of my system.
I have nothing that uses balanced connector at home. (Yes, I have used them when I have run sound for bands or in a studio. But I have never ad an issue with RCA lead runs that I could not fix (my runs are never longer than 2 meters). Integrating that into my system is a quandary. And money for the audio budget is not available until January. So I have some time. But, I also must make back the money I am loosing from being unable to work for a while. I will retire in January 24, and for me: "everything is happening everywhere at once". And I am enjoying looking at the choices and planning is at least 1/2 the fun. So I am good & happy! And wishing the same for all of you this Good Friday!
 

wwenze

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What is a better color code for AC than black white and green?

Europeans (and their ex-colonies) will tell you

Reddish brown (or red) = Live because dangerous
Blue (or black) = Neutral because safe

What about red-black terminals then? Which is the voltage?
 

PeteL

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Europeans (and their ex-colonies) will tell you

Reddish brown (or red) = Live because dangerous
Blue (or black) = Neutral because safe

What about red-black terminals then? Which is the voltage?
Sure would be clearer if there was international standards, but sorry not sure I understand your last question, you are asking me to tell you what is the voltage at the speaker post? Is this a real question or you want to illustrate a point? What color would you have put + and -?
 
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Rottmannash

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In real world use (Music/Movies) not likely. The efficiency of these amps are incredible. Maybe if you ran full spectrum pink noise out of every channel at Max Volume for an extended duration. But that would damage your hearing first and would be an actual determined effort to destroy your Amps/Speakers and Marriage. Never say never. I have two 6 channel 502 amps (12 channels total) plugged into the same 15 amp outlet that also powers Dual 18” JTR 2400 Watt Subs Amp, a 85” Sony Tv, a Denon AVR 8500h, and a bunch of Other low power devices, hue lights, cable modem/router, ATV, Shield, 3 Aircomm cooling fan vents, Harmony Hub, Hue Sync Hub, Cable Box/DVR, and a few other things that I am forgetting about. After several years and many hours of multichannel music and loud as hell Movies. Not Once have I ever tripped a breaker or even noticed light flicker. I long ago expected to have to run a new 20 amp circuit to run all this kit. So in my use case experiment. I concluded that double power inputs are overkill on Buckeyes Amp build designs and are there as a step above and beyond in the extreme cases where this might be needed.
I'm glad you described your set-up, as I am stressing over plugging a similar amount of equipment into one circuit. You def have more current draw than I so I'll stop stressing if you haven't melted the incoming wiring.:D
 

AdamG

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I'm glad you described your set-up, as I am stressing over plugging a similar amount of equipment into one circuit. You def have more current draw than I so I'll stop stressing if you haven't melted the incoming wiring.:D
Yeah, I as surprised as you. When I bought the 2 JTR Sub with 2400 watt amps I expected to be required to run additional dedicated power to the room. But I have not had to. I removed two Emotiva XPA 5 channel Amps and replaced them with two 6 channel Ncore D amps and the power consumption went down and I gained 2 additional channel pairs. The efficiency of class d amps is a big plus for my situation. Less current use and less heat load is a major benefit here in Florida. Performance wise I have not noticed any negative effects. FYI I have crap hearing left. Can’t hear much above 12khz. YMMV.
 

NTK

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I'm glad you described your set-up, as I am stressing over plugging a similar amount of equipment into one circuit. You def have more current draw than I so I'll stop stressing if you haven't melted the incoming wiring.:D
The circuit breakers we normal have in our AC panels aren't fast acting. They will delivery 200% of their rated current for at least 10 seconds (to may be a maximum 100 seconds, some higher, some lower) before tripping. See below link for their typical trip curves.

 

Buckeye Amps

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Rottmannash

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The circuit breakers we normal have in our AC panels aren't fast acting. They will delivery 200% of their rated current for at least 10 seconds (to may be a maximum 100 seconds, some higher, some lower) before tripping. See below link for their typical trip curves.

I guess that's what worries me-that too much current will flow before the breaker trips-at that point my house is a smoldering heap of ashes.:oops:
 

Buckeye Amps

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At one point I had a Funk 21.0 Sub (4400w peak, 2200w continuous), (2) PSA dual 15” subs, an 8ch NC252, a 4ch NC502, an 85” QLED TV, and ceiling lights all running off one 15A circuit while listening to movies at reference. Never an issue.
 
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