Buckeye Amps musicality? Not measurements, musicality....


Hey Everyone.... question, I am contemplating the Buckeye Amps 9040 Purifi monoblocks. I am, at the same time, considering the Musical Fidelity M6x 250.5 (5 channel) all of this in an effort to run my LCR up front. (Arendal 1723 THX Monitors)  - everything I read from Dylan at Buckeye and hear from his interviews in YouTube videos all surrounds measurements. Let's assume that every amp, in particular these two options, measure incredibly well. I get that.

But I also get that amp measurements are only a piece of how an amp ACTUALLY SOUNDS in the real world with my room and my speakers.  Which is why its a red flag that Buckeye hides behind measurements as the end-all-be-all of buying an amplifier. If measurements were the absolute end of the discussion, there wouldn't have been a Class A or A/B amp sold in the last 5 years. I get that the Purifi stuff measures well, incredibly well, but to never say anything in public forums or in public interviews about how your amps actually sound or how musical they are compounds and continues the notion that while Class D measures insanely well, they sound cold, brittle, analytical, bright, shout'y and too forward. Class D or no Class D, it boils down to the amp designers' actual implementation of the technology in how it sounds, e.g. the input stage, the output stage, the signal path, etc.

So what I'm looking for I suppose is owners of exceptional Class A/B amps (like Musical Fidelity, Parasound, Rotel et al) who have made that leap of faith to the Purifi Buckeye either 7040 or 9040 modules and how your experience has been.....  ??  Thanks immensely! 

audiotruth

Showing 1 response by kerrybh

I haven't owned this amp, doesn't seem anyone else commenting has either so not sure how helpful any of this will be. This is pretty obvious but you won't know until you hear the amps in your system. If you like your speakers, and you have good source components, one would think "neutral and transparent" is not a bad thing. If you are hoping your amp will color the sound to compensate for something that's missing, maybe something different is better. If the amp is truly neutral, it won't produce an unpleasant, sterile sound unless that's how the rest of your system is tuned.

The unresolvable issue is that we all hear differently. I might find these "neutral and transparent" amps to be dry and sterile, while to you, they may be very natural sounding because they faithfully reproduce the source. When i first got back in this hobby I would read reviews or hear people I respected describe how gear sounded and sometimes I'd think, "it doesn't sound that way to me, I must be doing something wrong." Because I'm not very smart, it took me a while to figure out I wasn't hearing "wrong" - we all hear differently and what is pleasing-or not-is very subjective. Some prefer strawberry, some chocolate. Some people like Boulder, some people like McIntosh.

Good luck, I hope that whatever you choose brings you joy.