Interesting, I did not know of Cymax before. Looks ok overall, but I wish they would show internal pictures too.
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Purifi 1ET9040BA vs AGD GAN vs Class A/AB
- Thread starter vipersg
- Start date
EdW
Senior Member
As a confidence builder why not email Purifi or one of the better amplifier builders like Buckeye Amps (USA), BoXem or Apollon (EU) or MarchAudio (Australia) ? I am sure that they would be happy to advise before you spend your money.
I wouldn’t waste my money however by degrading a state of the art amplifier with a tube/valve first stage which will only add noise and distortion. The use of Weiss opamps is unlikely to give a discernible difference over the standard, very high quality, opamps from Texas Instruments as recommended by Bruno Putzeys.
Use a parametric equalizer (PEQ) working in the digital domain (eg RME DAC) if you wish to fine tune the sound from a particular recording.
I almost agree with the first sentence, but I would argue that musicality, as used in the audiophile community, is not related to music, though music is the class of signal typically used to "reveal" a piece of gear's "goodness" or "musicality."
How's this for a definition of musicality? Musicality: the degree to which noise, distortion, frequency anomalies, etc. of a device under test impairs or alters the experience of music or other complex signals; a purely subjective evaluation, lacking (at present) any agreed upon unit of measurement.
Addendum: When buying gear, I typically ignore reviews that blather about musicality, particularly as the musical tastes of most "audiophile" reviewers do not map well to my own.
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There's already a name for this : it's called transparency and is measurable by several factors.
Then, it doesn't exist. Also, since it has as many interpretations as there are audiophiles out there : better call it smurf, it wouldn't change a thing.
I'm not aware of any formal definition of transparency (in audio) either, nor am I familiar with any single measure of audio transparency. Transparency is simply used analogously with a term from optical science. In that way, it is not unlike the audiophile borrowing of musicality. Also, Dwight David Eisenhower's performance would be difficult, if not impossible, to measure comprehensively or exhaustively. Does this mean he didn't exist or had no significance? The lack of an acceptable or standardized metric does not exclude (or preclude) existence.There's already a name for this : it's called transparency and is measurable by several factors.
Then, it doesn't exist. Also, since it has as many interpretations as there are audiophiles out there : better call it smurf, it wouldn't change a thing.
Or at least as close as you're reasonably going to get.
Yes, this is why your system feels kind of empty and what it is you're trying to cure with this amp. Your speakers have a broad suckout between 2-600hz, a peak around 1k, another dip between 2-3k, and a sizeable rise from 6-12k. Basically your speakers are the cause of your issue and no amp will fix it.
Compared to a Dutch and Dutch 8C which is arguably one of the better speakers on the market in terms of meeting what we consider to be "good sound" in an average room, you'll notice that it's generally closer to a gently downward sloping straight line (the teal line is the measured in-room response, the black is an estimation computed from a Klippel Nearfield Scanner's data) Is it perfect? No, of course not, no speaker is - but it's closer.
Pic credit to Erin's Audio Corner.
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This may not be the exact speakers, but I can definitely spot some similarities:
Sonus Faber Amati Homage loudspeaker Measurements part 2
Notably, the double hump below 1 kHz, and the dip around 2-3 kHz and broad peak around 4-5 kHz and smaller peak around 10 kHz partially reflect off-axis behavior.
I would consider things to be very EQable up to 1-2 kHz (which would iron out a bunch of room modes as well), and improvements should also be possible above that but this should be approached with more caution as dispersion is only moderately even.
But yeah, definitely needs some form of parametric EQ, best via DSP.
Sonus Faber Amati Homage loudspeaker Measurements part 2
Notably, the double hump below 1 kHz, and the dip around 2-3 kHz and broad peak around 4-5 kHz and smaller peak around 10 kHz partially reflect off-axis behavior.
I would consider things to be very EQable up to 1-2 kHz (which would iron out a bunch of room modes as well), and improvements should also be possible above that but this should be approached with more caution as dispersion is only moderately even.
But yeah, definitely needs some form of parametric EQ, best via DSP.
For the OP:
1) Where are you located? This makes a difference in equipment availability in different markets.
2) What is wrong with the Parasound amp? You said it is faulty.
3) Besides the Sonus Faber speakers and Parasound amp, what is the rest of your equipment?
1) Where are you located? This makes a difference in equipment availability in different markets.
2) What is wrong with the Parasound amp? You said it is faulty.
3) Besides the Sonus Faber speakers and Parasound amp, what is the rest of your equipment?
I get it: just like clear IS a color! (example: the clearcoat on the color coat of paint on a car).I usually think the opposite: a "no sound signature" IS a sound signature for people used to colored amps.
Clear is a color in spite of it being absent of color.
This thread might help make it a little less random.
Audibility thresholds of amp and DAC measurements
Introduction A recurring theme on ASR is whether or not the various measured qualities of the devices are audible. In this post, I'll present some clear and visual thresholds for when those imperfections can be considered a potentially audible concern. I will not explain the basics of amp/DAC...
audiosciencereview.com
Thank you, I perused the thread and, while it is informative, it doesn't quite speak to my mild objection, that terms like transparency and musicality can have meanings independent of any one particular jargon and may have different (useful) meanings in multiple jargons.This thread might help make it a little less random.
Audibility thresholds of amp and DAC measurements
Introduction A recurring theme on ASR is whether or not the various measured qualities of the devices are audible. In this post, I'll present some clear and visual thresholds for when those imperfections can be considered a potentially audible concern. I will not explain the basics of amp/DAC...
Musicality to a musician (which is what I was for 40 years) has a very different meaning than it does to most audiophiles. In conversation with an audiophile, I would never think to impose my definition, as the audiophile probably lacks the frame of reference to understand it. Furthermore, the intersection of the musician's musicality and the audiophile's musicality is a null set, or very close to it. So I would, for the sake of discussion, adopt the audiophile's meaning so we might converse without rancor and so I might provide some assistance and just possibly learn something from the interchange.
That was my point. In offering a first cut definition for musicality, I simply tried to offer a common ground definition to facilitate discussion. Musicality - Transparency, Tomato - Tomato. (Let's call the whole thing Orf)
Kind of like the speed of darkness is the same as the speed of light.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
Not a good example if you ask me. And what's with the 40kHz ultrasound? KEF forgot to LPF the tweeter?
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
It's just a relatively meaningless, non-specific ASR/audiophile buzzword that gets thrown around here regularly.
What dome tweeter doesn't have a breakup mode?
ASR-specific? Good one.
Here's a little meta-quote, from 2012 (about 4 years before ASR).
What We Hear
FIRST SOME UPDATES: This is a promising sign. I’ve managed to publish another article in less than a week and it’s a big one! Since last wee...
nwavguy.blogspot.com
I suppose the notion may originate from the study of lossy codecs.
Transparency - Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase
- Thread Starter
- #38
Thanks for your inputs. The Dutch 8C also has dips in the range (green line), which to me is honestly expected because even with room correction, the room response exerts a large macro influence over the response. EQ correction should not be overdone anyway because it will over drive the speaker. When I use Dirac room correction, the Sonus Faber does have a smoother curve but the dips still occur at the room modes.
For my Amati with the Parasound, I don’t have issues with the sound. It is full bodied, hence the original concern is what sound character is different with a Purifi 1ET9040BA, and I was seeking people’s feedback on what is actually heard being different instead of only measured being different. I get it that some will stand by the opinion that all class D sound the same, but I don’t think that is the case because everybody’s implementation are different. For example, I have heard comments that NcoreX had stronger bass than 1ET400A.
- Thread Starter
- #39
The Parasound A31 is a 3 channel power amplifier. The center channel is faulty. My current setup is LUMIN P1 network streamer pre-amp to the Parasound A31 to the Sonus Faber Amati G5. XLR Interconnect is Siltech 680i and speaker cable is Wireworld Eclipse 8. Location is not so important since international delivery is easy.
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