Buckeye PURIFI 1ET9040BA Amp Review

[GS430man]

Happy owner of multiple Buckeye 1ET9040BA and 1ET6525SA amps.

I appreciate equipment that is power-efficient, simple and powerful. I especially like equipment that lets me hear music and movies without drama.

I'm not an audiophile. I use my equipment to listen to music.

 

[Gregm]

Are you serious? You would preffer believing in mind reading rather than entertaining the idea that we are missing to measure something? Really?

Hi- if you mean that there may be something we that is measurable and wasn't measured, maybe: for example, you could easily measure a few sweeps in your room using either amp combo and using identical electrical parametres, and check if there are response differences...
Ultimately, if you're happy, it doesn't matter.
If however you ever did try to substantiate (or otherwise) the perceived differences experimentally, it would be very interesting!

 

[Julf]

If however you ever did try to substantiate (or otherwise) the perceived differences experimentally, it would be very interesting!

Especially if it was done in a proper, controlled and verifiable way. Unlikely to happen.

 

[mdunjic]

Happy owner of multiple Buckeye 1ET9040BA and 1ET6525SA amps.

I appreciate equipment that is power-efficient, simple and powerful. I especially like equipment that lets me hear music and movies without drama.

I'm not an audiophile. I use my equipment to listen to music.

Based on your description you are the real audiophile imo

 

[Billy Budapest]

I sure do! There is one being on offer for me, for 8K, as an open box.

I'm seriously considering it. Get done with all these "giant killers."

$8,000, dude. $8,000. 8x the cost for identical performance? I know to whom my money would go.

 

[mdunjic]

$8,000, dude. $8,000. 8x the cost for identical performance? I know to whom my money would go.

LoL a no brainer indeed

 

[RickS]

Thread closed for maintenance due to recent off topic content.

Re-opened and Topping E50ii posts moved to here...

Topping E50 II DAC is up on the Topping Store

https://www.topping.store/products/topping-e50-ii-hi-res-audio-dac Also on the Shenzhen site: https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/topping-e50-ii-ak4497s-digital-to-analog-convertor-dac

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[David_M]

Maybe because we can hear above 10KHz? Maybe because that could explain why so many people find class-d sounding bad? Maybe because music peaks go well above 95 dB? I don't know.

A distorted 10KHz signal, intermodulating with an even more distorted 12kHz (assuming rising THD with frequency), will produce a distorted 2KHz midband signal. This is audible, hence the desire to have a flat distortion with frequency.

 

[EdW]

A distorted 10KHz signal, intermodulating with an even more distorted 12kHz (assuming rising THD with frequency), will produce a distorted 2KHz midband signal. This is audible, hence the desire to have a flat distortion with frequency.

High level 10kHz and 12kHz signals don’t routinely occur in music. But in any case the 9040 has extremely good IMD performance - just look at the @amirm graph with the even higher 19kHz and 20kHz test tones which produce audible tones almost 120dB down - below the threshold of human hearing. This very much state of the art performance.

 

[mdunjic]

High level 10kHz and 12kHz signals don’t routinely occur in music. But in any case the 9040 has extremely good IMD performance - just look at the @amirm graph with the even higher 19kHz and 20kHz test tones which produce audible tones almost 120dB down - below the threshold of human hearing. This very much state of the art performance.

If there is scepticism about anything in Buckeye PURIFI 1ET9040BA performance at frequencies above 10K, it's definitely well below any audibility threshold levels ... the mono-blocks sound amazing, sophisticated, relaxed, with plenty of power and headroom at hand and with zero audible artifacts either added or subtracted. I have them set to low gain, and hooked upstream to Benchmark DAC 3 B + Benchmark LA4 pre-amp chain ... they are driven by studio level voltages, with equipment that also has ultra low distortions and nothing is concerning ... pure clean and enjoyable.

 

[David_M]

If there is scepticism about anything in Buckeye PURIFI 1ET9040BA performance at frequencies above 10K, it's definitely well below any audibility threshold levels ... the mono-blocks sound amazing, sophisticated, relaxed, with plenty of power and headroom at hand and with zero audible artifacts either added or subtracted. I have them set to low gain, and hooked upstream to Benchmark DAC 3 B + Benchmark LA4 pre-amp chain ... they are driven by studio level voltages, with equipment that also has ultra low distortions and nothing is concerning ... pure clean and enjoyable.

This would be the ideal way to connect to these purify modules. Set them to the lowest gain possible, assuming you have sources capable of 10 Vrms or more. In this way, you are feeding a high-SNR+D signal into an amplifier configured to output its lowest possible noise.

 

[mdunjic]

This would be the ideal way to connect to these purify modules. Set them to the lowest gain possible, assuming you have sources capable of 10 Vrms or more. In this way, you are feeding a high-SNR+D signal into an amplifier configured to output its lowest possible noise.

These are also THD+N measurements of Buckeye 1ET9040BA mono blocks across all frequencies and with 8/4/2 ohm loads. The worst case stays below absolutely inaudible 0.015% (-76.48 db) … absolutely nothing to worry about … and yes … use them in low gain (15.5 db) mode if you can … I drive them with Benchmark LA4, and LA4 is driven by Benchmark DAC3 B in compatibility mode (i.e. DAC3 B internal attenuation jumpers in 0db position)

 

[dcolak]

Can we have a simple summary so we don't have to watch a 20 minute video?

How Loud is the Distortion from Your Power Amplifier?

We took Stereophile's THD+N plots for 7 top-rated amplifiers and replotted the data to show the loudness of the distortion and noise at the listening position.

benchmarkmedia.com

 

[Julf]

How Loud is the Distortion from Your Power Amplifier?

We took Stereophile's THD+N plots for 7 top-rated amplifiers and replotted the data to show the loudness of the distortion and noise at the listening position.

benchmarkmedia.com

Thanks. Ah yes, the one with the totally inappropriate comparisons. Would you hear a washing machine if you are at a heavy metal concert?

 

[dcolak]

Thanks. Ah yes, the one with the totally inappropriate comparisons. Would you hear a washing machine if you are at a heavy metal concert?

You could listen to the music on medium, but the peaks will be 100dB+ loud and those peaks will come distorted, specially with some class-D amps, playing 5Khz and above.

It's totally appropriate comparison in the report.

 

[Julf]

You could listen to the music on medium, but the peaks will be 100dB+ loud and those peaks will come distorted.

It's totally appropriate comparison in the report.

If the peaks ate 100dB+, they will mask the distortion and noise components.

 

[dcolak]

If the peaks ate 100dB+, they will mask the distortion and noise components.

So, no distortion can be heard, even though it's 35dB within the 100dB sound?

 

[Julf]

So, no distortion can be heard, even though it's 35dB within the 100dB sound?

Exactly. Ever heard of auditory masking?

I suggest you do a test. Take a piece of music in whatever audio editor you use, make a copy of it, attenuate it by 65 dB, pitch shift it up one octave, and mix it back in. See if you can hear a difference between that and the original signal.

 

[mdunjic]

As a happy Benchmark customer myself (in combination with Buckeye 1ET9040BA mono-blocks) and as much as I love the company, John Siau unfortunately occasionally goes on a limb by hyping ... another Paul McGowan in the making? Benchmark doesn't need to do these things ... their engineering is excellent and speaks for itself - DAC3, LA4/HPA4 and AHB2 - all exceptional performers - on the test bench and in real listening. Purifi Eigentakt engineering is also excellent and speaks for itself. You can use DAC3+LA4+1E9040BA together and have audio nirvana, as much as you can by using DAC3+LA4+AHB2.

 

[mdunjic]

You could listen to the music on medium, but the peaks will be 100dB+ loud and those peaks will come distorted, specially with some class-D amps, playing 5Khz and above.

It's totally appropriate comparison in the report.

Distortion peaks at 100db+ with 1ET9040BA? ... distortion + noise is kept well below 0.015% across all frequencies and load impedances - 8/4/2 ohm (i.e. worst recorded SINAD value is -76db) ... see the Stereophile measurements of the Buckeye 1ET9040BA with non-faulty boards