Pyle PT8000CH 8-Channel Amplifier Review

[eeMGee]

Nice review Amir, but again Power Cube is not correct - 41Vrms into 4 Ohm gives 420W...
It is 200W more than you have measured!
There has to be a bug in the AP script.

Martin

 

[mctron]

For a brand with such a poor reputation (Pyle of ____ as they say) that's fine for the price. I wonder how their home audio stuff would fare out of curiosity.

 

[TonyJZX]

https://www.amazon.com/Sonance-Sonamp-12-Channel-Amplifier/dp/B01H5XWYVC

i havent seen anything as powerful as this "Pyle"... let us assume it does a real 80-90w at real thd

but usually 8-12 channel amps for home installation usually is 30-60w since you're most likely powering ceiling speakers in your toilet so you're nothing going to be blasting THX spl while you have a shower

so 12 channels you can route 6 rooms in stereo... work out how you would waste inwalls in your house?

my dad's place has 6 beds so I guess that's 12 channels gone (if you were that so inclined)

 

[Dmitri]

I’ll reserve my opinion until the tear down. Something’s got to give. Without knowledge of what, if any protection circuitry it has, I wouldn’t let it near my system. Perhaps just my suffering from low pricing paranoia, not to mention having fused a speaker with a faulty amp years ago… but either Pyle is losing their shirt on this or there has to be some pretty sketchy build/component issues.

 

[pma]

Frequency response is good although I wished for a bit more bandwidth as to get a flatter response to 20 kHz:

What is the load impedance in this measurement? Why is it not stated? Measurement is done at only one resistance value?

 

[prerich]

Really? From what I have seen, a high-distortion amp never stopped any audiophile. There are plenty of tube lovers out there for instance. And plenty of niche high-end equipment is sold with far less than stellar performance, and yet, people are lyrical about it.

At about $20/channel, this is pretty good value, regardless of the performance. Note that your average AVR will have an even lower cost per channel than this thing. Offset by the additional years of fine-tuning those AVR circuits, it's really amazing how little one needs to spend for a well-performing amp.

Agreed, the Pyle beat out the Sunfire Cinema Grand, Carver 350, and the Carver Crimson 275.....there's a lot of price difference there. "The average AVR will have even lower cost per channel"....also true!

 

[CedarX]

I see that each group of 2x amps can be bridged. What kind of power can we expect in a 4-channel configuration? Would SINAD and SNR stay the same or improve slightly?
If you need 8 channels and more power, buying two of these and use them bridged is still cheap...

Edit: I understand the basic maths... but with a multi-channel amp, I assume the power is limited by each of the amp module and the power supply, which is why I asked this question.
I also believe that a number of real use case scenarios do not require driving all 8 channels with the same signal, same speaker impedance, at the same time. Actual available power may be somewhere between the 2-channel and the All-channel driven measurements.

 

[Ajax]

I bought a second hand 6 channel Parasound HCA 1206 a few years ago for about $US600. It weighs a ton (70 lbs) and is very very difficult to manoeuvre although it has decent specs.

Discontinued Products > HCA-1206 6/5/4 Channel Amplifier

From a practical view point if you are going to install and leave the amp in one location the PYE should be fine, however, Amir is not joking when he complains about his back while carrying these monsters.

IMO Class D amps are the way to go for multi channel. If you want something lighter and with far better performance have a look at the Buckeye range, although a lot more money.

Buckeye Amps

Buckeye Amps utilizes the most advanced audio amplifier technologies available. Authorized seller for Hypex and Purifi Class D amplifiers. Based in the US. Free shipping and worldwide service!

www.buckeyeamp.com

 

[PeteL]

As long as you can put up with the sometimes commerical connects (70v?) and the fact they dont measure good to our standards.

How could someone "put up" with 70v? You either need distribution or you don't, and if your speakers don't have the transformers, it will not work. You don't just put up with it, 70V is not for home hifi, well it's not for Hifi period.

 

[DonH56]

Nothing on the amp indicates it is for 70 V systems...

 

[PeteL]

Nothing on the amp indicates it is for 70 V systems...

I think Tony was taking a side track from this amp review yes.

 

[Steven Holt]

it's really amazing how little one needs to spend for a well-performing amp.

Do you believe that this supports the theory that 'all good amps sound the same'?

 

[PeteL]

either Pyle is losing their shirt on this or there has to be some pretty sketchy build/component issues.

I think you are missing the most obvious one though... At some point we have to ask ourselves if we are OK with children working under threat for just enough food to not pass out.
I apologize in advance I know it's a place for science and not politics, but then let's just say that. In this case, the maths don't add up...

 

[tomtoo]

Great value for the money, but I'd be too embarrassed to use an amp anywhere that says "8000 Watts" on the unit while only having 800.
It's like driving a Ferrari that only has 50HP.

They say 8*100W rms. Dont know how this 8kW are measured? But who cares, with the 8*100 RMS they are ok. If not i had downvoted. If you start with something else than rms you would need to read books to understand the ,measurements. Or the sales department.

 

[Rewind]

Big Pyle of sh…

 

[sarumbear]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Pyle PT8000CH 8-channel or 8-zone distribution power amplifier. It was kindly drop shipped by a member and costs US $269. Member purchased it for just $158 on sale!
View attachment 275047

You probably can't tell from the picture but this is a massive box. It weighs over 50 pounds/23 kilograms and is quite deep. Rack mounts are provided and needed for both front and back. A review says the back holes don't align right however. Back panel shows why this amplifier is also tailored for multi-room distribution:
View attachment 275048\

By selecting "bus mode," a single input is distributed to any number of channels from 1 to 8. In mono or stereo. Trim pots are provided to adjust the gain for each channel although there were kind of too sensitive to set accurately.

The side panels gave me paus until I powered the unit:
View attachment 275049

I feared that those fans would make huge amount of noise but to my pleasant surprise, they barely move and are essentially silent. They never sped up or got louder during testing. This is far better solution than my pro amps I test with loud and small fans that are not even temperature sensitive.

Back to the front, the power switch is quite bright (blue) and bleeds into the LED bar graphs. But once the unit is on, the LED bar graphs themselves light up and more or less cover that issue. The power switch feels quite solid.

Pyle as a brand is know for cheap (read junk) so my expectations were not high going into the review. The overall construction though, with dual toroidal transformers in front, portrayed a different picture. Let's see how it measures.

Pyle PT8000CH Measurements
I stayed with stereo measurements for this section selecting the channels 7 and 8 that are next to the AC power input. Warm up allowed the amp to improve a bit:
View attachment 275052

Here is our dashboard:
View attachment 275053

We have a spray of harmonic distortion that sinks SINAD fairly low:
View attachment 275054
Zooming in:
View attachment 275055

We see that the company that it keeps is not too bad! SNR falls inline or perhaps a bit better:

View attachment 275056

Multitone is as we would expect from the dashboard:
View attachment 275057

Frequency response is good although I wished for a bit more bandwidth as to get a flatter response to 20 kHz:
View attachment 275058

Crosstalk though was surprisingly poor:
View attachment 275059

Let's see how much power we have into 2 channels:
View attachment 275060

Benefit of large power supply comes in when just driving in stereo:
View attachment 275061

Here is 8 ohm performance (company spec = 100 watts):
View attachment 275062

Finally, here is power vs frequency:
View attachment 275063

Here is on/off noise:
View attachment 275067

I hooked up the amplifier to an infinity R253 speaker and I could hear a faint pop on power up. Power off seemed silent although the fan noise may have masked that.

Multichannel Amplifier Testing
My analyzer is only stereo but I drove all channels with the same 8 ohm load. Here is the output power in stereo and 8 channels:

View attachment 275064

We are meeting spec here which is good (there is some nonsense about 8000 watts peak which we forgive and ignore).

All the testing so far has been resistive. Let's make the load "reactive" by 30 and 60 degrees angle and also sweep down to 2 ohm and see what happens:
View attachment 275066

This is quite robust! At both 4 and 8 ohms, the amp doesn't care if the load is reactive or not. At 2 ohm though, it starts to complain, dropping its output voltage by nearly half. Testing at 1 ohm resulted in momentary shutdown.

Conclusions
The build quality of this 8-channel amplifier seems quite substantial. Massive power supply courtesy of dual toroidal transformers powers the 8 channels well, allowing the amplifier to meet spec. Distortion and noise are rather high though and rank well below our average. The amplifier protection and ability to handle complex loads is excellent.

You are paying almost nothing for this amplifier (the case alone could cost you this much!) yet you get way above a broken design. The PT8000CH won't be my main choice for a high-performance 2-channel system but for surround duty and certainly multi-room amplification, it seems fine.

I am going to recommend the Pyle PT8000CH. Not because it has great measured performance as far as noise and distortion. But that it delivers way, way above its cost point.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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@amirm would you consider publishing the average noise figure or the noise spectrum? Often on amplifiers like this noise is more of an issue. You may live with above average distortion on say, a surround channel, but you will not be happy if the surround speakers near to your ear, hiss.

 

[sarumbear]

Gotta love the wording above the "VOLTAGE SELECT" switch:

"DESIGNED IN THE U.S.A."
"ENGINEERED IN JAPAN"

...and, finally: "MADE IN CHINA"

Quite the international effort!

What is the difference between designed and engineered I wonder? Do they mean designing the case?

 

[voodooless]

Do you believe that this supports the theory that 'all good amps sound the same'?

If we’re talking about most AVRs, most definitely. This amp? Maybe.. Probably the SNR will show up in an ABX test.

 

[DSJR]

In audiophile circles, the "Pyle" name is considered of appropriate -- as in "pile of ...". The is amp might have its application especially given the price. But the the high distortion means it has no place in a "high fidelity" system. This much distortion, given most of it is high-order harmonics, will mean an audible degradation of sound quality. (So say I; sound difference deniers can just back off.)

I rate this Pyle as 'Poor'.

HIGH DISTORTION?????

Seriously sir, forty years ago it would have been highly recommended in the few rags that did measurements (HiFi Choice* being one of them). Sure the 15kHz performance ain't that grand today, but I bet it still beats established audiophool confections costing thousands!!! It appears to have output protection as well!

* One very well known UK brand back then offered distortion at -80dB at 20Hz and 1khz at rated power, reducing to -60dB at 20kHz. IMD (19 + 20kHz) was around at rated output 'in the upper -60's. Obviously tested with different gear, but I'd suggest worse than this eight channel amp and these old relics fetch many hundreds per box even today and due to circuit drift after a couple of thousand hours use, there's an entire after-market for servicing them!!!

 

[ck42]

For so little money up front, that leaves quite a bit on the table for possible modifications!
Seems like it would be a good platform for some knowledgeable enthusiast to grab and figure out to make some noticeable improvements w/o breaking the bank.