Buckeye PURIFI 1ET9040BA Amp Review

[kyuu]

I could make a bespoke design mounted on a single piece of reclaimed plywood....

Hey, I'm a person of discriminating taste here. I demand reclaimed driftwood.

 

[DMill]

So much talk about the design of the box. Dear God where does this audience live that they have mono block amps as room decoration? It’s like a bunch of middle age men at a monster truck rally. Put your amps in a proper enclosure so nobody has to see them and buy a nice couch. Your wife will thank you. If you want audio bling buy a Gryphon or some other steampunk amp that will set you back 50k. You can invite your kids friends over to be impressed by your RAD audio room. LMAO. This amp just delivers.

 

[Mort]

So much talk about the design of the box

Nothing left to talk about, really.

This amp just delivers

Exactly

 

[Power Pop 23]

Hey, I'm a person of discriminating taste here. I demand reclaimed driftwood.

I want a nice hardwood veneer option for any reclaimed piece of plywood - AND no D or C grade plywood

Make that certified sustainably reclaimed driftwood.

The earlier threads with postings on the aesthetic of a Buckeye amplifier had me thinking one could buy some larger-size, 'baseplates' for LEGO bricks and bricks to create a new (ventilated) enclosure to house a Buckeye amp.

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-6384601-Gray-Baseplate/dp/B09JKVQ64M/

 

[Fahzz]

It certainly shows more power than the college football offense of the same name did last week.

That's coooold dude!

 

[Power Pop 23]

Well, what more could one ask for at that price?

93% great, that must be a record or near record! It certainly shows more power than the college football offense of the same name did last week!!!

ouch....

An unreliable source says this particular sample of a Buckeye Amp did originally intend to start the game.

Instead the sample decided it could increase its value in Name, Image and Likeness by using the transfer portal to be measured by Amir.

 

[Imakeller]

Sign the plywood with a sharpie- Bam! Signature edition.

Add a lighted Vu meter, and some glowing vacuum tubes (nonfunctional is fine, so performance is not affected), and BAM — add an easy $1k to the price. Serious though, Buckeye amps are as “Plain Jane” as they come in the aesthetics department, but as Han Solo said “She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.”

 

[Rottmannash]

I keep harping on it but just buy two of these, and put them in one of these.

View attachment 501903

Who builds that? it's beautiful.

 

[Power Pop 23]

Serious though, Buckeye amps are as “Plain Jane” as they come in the aesthetics department, but as Han Solo said “She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.”

I am NOT advocating copyright infringement but imagine....

A screenshot of a that (closed-captioned) frame of the film printed to an adhesive-backed piece of paper affixed to the front of a Buckeye amp in no extra cost Black.

Who builds that? it's beautiful.

Looks like a console from BDI


EDIT - https://www.crutchfield.com/S-wM02fVXnWrK/brands/BDI/

 

[Krusty09]

I keep harping on it but just buy two of these, and put them in one of these.

View attachment 501903

Where did you find this picture ? I kind of like like it for my place. If you have a link send it my way or post it. Thanks

 

[RickS]

The connection on the board is IDC, which is made to be used with ribbon cable, I believe. It would be difficult if not impossible to procure a different sort of cable that can mate with an IDC.

Why the IDC connection was chosen for use on the boards is something you'd have to ask whoever designed them.

While I agree that a ribbon cable is not really appropriate for use inside an audio amp like this, the cabling and general assembly are well laid out and we can see from the results that it's a non-issue here. Noise and distortion are below any conceivable audible threshold, even if you're using some obscenely sensitive speakers.

The designer for most of the amps is Bruno Putzeys. As many of these amps use ribbon cables to carry the input signals, he clearly felt it was suitable for audio signals. One notable exception is the Nilai amp that Amir recently reviewed. It has shielded twisted pair cabling for the audio inputs. Its SINAD is a few dB worse than this Buckeye 9040 amp. As has been discussed, often it is not so much about the kind of wire used, but how it is routed.

The IDC connector will accept other wiring than ribbon cable. It was popular to use Mogami shielded cable with a Dupont connector in some earlier Hypex amps. Being much less flexible than ribbon cable, it put added strain on the IDC connector and many subsequently abandoned that approach. I had a number of Hypex MP series amps using the Mogami wiring. The Hypex eval board uses ribbon and eventually I replaced all my Mogami cable with the ribbon cable. The connection to the XLR connector(s) was via shielded twist pair cable. The ribbon connection was much more reliable and often measured just as well as the original Mogami cabling did.

 

[Cote Dazur]

This looks great, lots of power with “perfect” specs at a somehow reasonable price of watts/$.
My only question is what would be the scenario that would make this amazing beast the proper solution?

 

[wineds]

This means there is a chance that this amp could be even better with a proper, balanced signal cabling.

Yes. Or a very short ribbon cable as per the purifi eval kit. Viz :

https://purifi-audio.com/web/image/product.product/2604/image_1024/%5BEVAL5%5D%20EVAL5%20Mono%20Deluxe%201ET9040BA%20Eval%20Kit?unique=f290db1

Or an input board that piggy backs on the amplifier board

 

[tineared]

This looks great, lots of power with “perfect” specs at a somehow reasonable price of watts/$.
My only question is what would be the scenario that would make this amazing beast the proper solution?

They're for folks who have large speakers and want to make large sounds in large rooms. With some finesse of course

 

[Mort]

My only question is what would be the scenario that would make this amazing beast the proper solution?

A little headroom?

 

[amirm]

My only question is what would be the scenario that would make this amazing beast the proper solution?

My amps are rated at 1000 watts into 4 ohm and I have on a couple of occasions turned the volume to max. Truth to be told, I was scared of dynamics that were about to come. They did and it was enjoyable rather than scary. Then I look down from my listening room into the living room and notice both the wife and two dogs had disappeared to escape the noise!!!

 

[tineared]

My amps are rated at 1000 watts into 4 ohm and I have on a couple of occasions turned the volume to max. Truth to be told, I was scared of dynamics that were about to come. They did and it was enjoyable rather than scary. Then I look down from my listening room into the living room and notice both the wife and two dogs had disappeared to escape the noise!!!

The first step to recovery is acknowledging that you have a problem

 

[amirm]

Agreed. In addition, the Purifi amp module is thermally connected to the bottom plate of the amp chassis. Touching the chassis cover, which is fitted over that with machine screws, is a poor way to assess heat generation.

Given this, I have gotten in the habit of checking amplifier bottoms and tops. I do that at the end of the test as I take the unit to my lightbox for photography. The Buckeye bottom was just slightly warmer than top.

 

[JSmith]

My amps are rated at 1000 watts into 4 ohm and I have on a couple of occasions turned the volume to max. Truth to be told, I was scared of dynamics that were about to come. They did and it was enjoyable rather than scary. Then I look down from my listening room into the living room and notice both the wife and two dogs had disappeared to escape the noise!!!

JSmith

 

[Roland301]

These second gen Purifi amps are mighty tempting...

I have a 1ET400A from Apollon that I use with all types of transducers (normal headphones, electrostatics, extremely insensitive headphones, speakers) and the lower noise floor of 1ET6525SA looked appealing to improve the 50mV SNR figure...

Then I figured I'm too scared to plug IEMs into the thing anyway, so it doesn't matter
With headphones, the noise floor is inaudible as is.

I've successfully recommended the Buckeye amps to several friends though, and they seem to like them a lot.