You know, it is quite important. Amir tests the power amplifier under ideal, clinically clean, unrealistic conditions. Not a single user here will have it connected in such way. Talking about stray impedances and leak ground currents, just have a look what kind of difference it makes if the NC252MP is supplied directly from mains or through the isolation transformer with only 120pF stray capacitance.
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And, the plots shown in Hypex datasheets are completely idealized, moreover with strictly limited BW to 20kHz and THD+N plots shown up to 20kHz thus pointless. It is a kind of marketing, and almost everyone eats it as served.
The Nilai five warranty from an established leader in the field is part of the value calculation for me as a buyer of Nilai Mono 500 diy kit. I define value by the following equation: V = P/C. Performance divided by cost determines value. The performance here is more than just lost in the weeds numbers. The Nilai has good numbers and very high power in a small package, this works for me, perhaps not ideal, but nothing is ideal in this world except abstract math. The amps barely get warm and they seem invisible sonically. The warranty and large manufacturer backing of this product is part of the performance cost equation for me.
I could have bought from a very small one person company, but these have a hidden high costs. In single owner companies the personality of the owner has a giant impact on the company and this tends to dominate... sometimes for good but it is often not very stable. A single visionary is often overwhelmed, due to new visions just like an artist, and like an artist he or she can also stop and move on... and their company disappears. Hypex seems to be the leader in class D, and Purifi is a viable challenger. If there is a good alternative in very small companies as consumers that becomes part of the V = P/C calculus.
I bought the Nilai to get a solid reference point on class D. I could have spent less but it would have had risks like dealing with a very small business that probably will not last. Some small companies will make it. I started in a smallish company that made it, and I have worked with many good small companies building the small company I was at into a giant. I am skeptical of measures that we probably cannot hear, but if you are sure you can finance measures and blind listening tests. I would not ask skilled hard working folks to do more work when they do not work for you and they give you their work for free. Just seems a bit ungrateful when someone is being generous but also practical.
How many choices do we have for a measured 500 watts, with a 5 year warranty, with awesome specs, and from the leader in the industry? PMA can add more measurements, that's fine but they should come with some kind of double blind listening tests that prove something important. I am skeptical, but go all the way to the end on something that's important, but it can only be done on certain key questions, for example active versus passive speakers.
For me I would like to see the next generation Hypex Fusion amps tested at some point. The next step, I think, is to stop buying amps, and cables and all that stuff because the numbers and subjective tests seem to be showing that if we want the most value, that is instrument grade system or just the highest performance for a given price point then active seems like the way to go. Why spend good money on huge fancy caps if they make no difference? Why clutter your house with a 100 boxes if they make no difference? Why not just have awesome active speakers and a great front end and then spend time with software to tweak stuff, or flip a switch to play around with first order crossovers?
It would be interesting to measure distortion of active versus passive implementations of the same speakers and blind tests with expensive and cheap capacitors to figure out what really is the optimal path, is a hybrid of some active and some passive best? This might be worth going all out with a ton of testing? But I don't think testing fantasies is what this thread is about. It is about a single product and if it has good value. The calculation of costs, like ease of use, ease of build, warranty, do they have service department, all these are factors in using the V = P/C equation. This equation is unique to each buyer, some people want chrome.
Audio can be death by a thousand cuts- or a thousand black boxes, the placebo and Veblen effects are in play, and many companies die slowly when lies are exposed and some just explode. However genuine value that is registered by the average consumer endure, and ASR as I understand it is trying to emerge from the voodoo audiophile cave into the light of real value. I applaud Amir for trying to keep people away from the ripoffs, if anything will breath life into hifi it is this. In the end a lot of measures are necessary... not everything can be tested but a lot of BS should be cleaned up so real improvements can be celebrated.
