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

Did you see this? Kalman Rubinson liked them…

https://www.stereophile.com/content/buckeye-purifi-eigentakt-1et9040ba-monoblock-power-amplifier

I did see that, about a week ago as I was going down this rabbit hole. I really appreciate it, thanks for sharing. I subscribe to Stereophile. I've been rattling around in this rabbit hole for about three weeks, and keep thinking I just need to pull the trigger on the Buckeye and stop sweating the whole thing.
And then my stupid brain starts thinking about the (maybe) superior musicality of the MF 250.5, and I get stuck/paralyzed. And then I think, "would I really and truly hear a difference??"   And I'm stuck.

Not Buckeye but I own other Hypex and GaN Class D amps and high end Icepower  prior as well as various other designs prior.  
 

All are very good quality amps that sound very good but different. You have to hear to know if for you. 
 

What would you have a vendor “hide behind” other than objective measurements?  Marketing Hype?  
 

A year ago I was considering the Buckeye mono amps. I was on a merry-go-round of power amps after selling off my Threshold design Nakamichi PA7A-II. I tried a few different class D and Hybrid amps and found out that my speakers have a 0.5 ohm draw at high frequency that would cause the amps to clip at volume. I asked Dylan if his amps would clip. He said they might. That was all I needed to find a stable class A amp. 

However, with the Arendal 1723 speakers there is no real potential for clipping so the Buckeye amps should do great, particularly in a home theatre set up. If this was a two channel, music only, situation I would encourage you to focus on class A or A/B units. 

You ask a great question. Measurement will tell you very little about how they sound. 

I got this from an AI summary of Buckeye. This description is a resounding no on musical / natural sounding... if that is what you want. This has all the characteristics of being on the analytical side... not musical and warm.

Buckeye Amps are known for their neutral and transparent sound, allowing the natural character of the music to come through without coloration. They are praised for their detail, clarity, and ability to reproduce sound with accuracy. While they don't add warmth or smoothing to the sound, they excel at revealing the nuances and imaging of recordings. 

You have to verify from other reviews. Reading lots of reviews and you learn key words that give away the sound. 

If this is still available you’ll get musicality and save $$$…

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650080066-mccormack-dna-ht-5-5-channel-power-amp/

@mapman  I mean, yeah, maybe a little. I just know there's so much more to an amp than measurements, so to never say a single word about the input stage, or the potential sound quality differences in SMPS compared to LPS, it just concerns me. In Class A, sometimes the crappy measuring ones sound spectacular. Not super crappy, but you see what I mean. I wish the Buckeye amp company owners and amp designers of the world would say something, anything other than "our amps measure the best on the planet."

Like, OK, that's one factor in sound quality, let's hear more, why did you choose XYZ capacitors, why didn't you use a linear power supply (Axiom Audio Amps for instance) - why do you use a Hypex power supply over XYZ power supply and how do you think that affects sound quality.........   All of that stuff is important and not necessarily marketing hype.

Hmm the Buckeyes sound pretty “musical” to me based on that description. 😉 

Of course the other things in the system will have a say as well.  

Some vendors in that space offer different op amp options with their amps to tailor the sound from more neutral  and accurate for some to warmer sounding for others.  Your choice!   That’s a very practical way to go. 

Vtv: high performance Class D amps with opamp options to tailor the sound

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. 

I use Apollon Audio’s implementation of the Eigentakt. All they do for me is get out of the way to make my speakers play effortless and loud without losing their character. They don’t have an inherent sound on their own. That’s why I went for them. If you want a sound, then they’re not gonna be for you. They let you hear your speaker/room truer than almost every amp @audiotruth 

To answer your musicality question. If your speaker/room, music lacks it, using the Eigentakt model will expose that

Go ahead get that class D and get it out of your system. 

I own  Buckeye, Deer Creak, and Nord monoblocks. As far as I know, there is nothing special with Buckeye's "implementation" that would distinguish it from other diy assemblers. That said, if it's for home theater, you should be ahead of the game over more expensive A/B amps. The clarity and bass slam/control are great on all the above. They'll drive almost any speaker very well. If you haven't looked into these other brands, do so. Also VTV have great options. You can roll op amps with some of theirs as well as Nord products. 

I own 2 buckeye amps.  3 channel Purify amp for LCR, and the 8 channel Hypex amp for my atmos and surround.   

I also own the Arendal 1723s towers and surrounds.

To me the combination is very musical and very revealing of the source.

The clean power I get to my speakers is what I like the most. No matter how high I push the volume I get no clipping or distortion.

Im happy with my Buckeye amps.

Rest of my system includes Anthem Avm 90, Holo Spring kte dac, Eversolo  A8 as a transport.

I didn’t see mention your listening habits, what genre is your favorite and what is your typical listening level? I tried Class D early on with a Rogue integrated, but it was not to my liking for the usual reasons, though I suspect things have improved since then. 
 

Personally if I was going to go Class D I would be looking at Bel Canto Ref601m’s, they review well and come from a company that used to build tube amps.

@audiotruth The reason Buckeye doesn't talk about his amplifier sound is because, and I quote this is coming from him all his amplifiers are "true to source". A straight wire with amplification. What about other amplifiers like the AHB2? Well they are also "true to source" and thus sound completely identical. 

That is his claim, whether they sound identical or true-to-source or not, I cannot report. 

Personally I find him very lacking in knowledge. Saying things like "all op-amps sound identical when implemented properly" and "measurements tell the absolute truth". 

@samureyex ​​​​​​, that is true. I even asked him what the difference between two brands of modules that he offers were, and he told me, "nothing. They'll sound the same." Maybe, but I like being able to roll opamps in my Nord monoblocks. I certainly can here a difference. 

@samureyex you find him lacking in knowledge because of ideas based on experience designing solid state, low output impedance, high damping, wire gain ish amps?

I'm not sure I follow your logic here. Unless you're Bob Carver, or some mysterious electroacoustic engineer, this is just your hubris talking.

I could never own one, well, just because of the name.  Now if they were Wolverine amps, that would be another story.

@samureyex  - @ericrhodes1  mostly agree. I find him maybe not lacking in knowledge so much as having a really poor bedside manner. If you contact Dylan directly, he makes you feel "less than" or you’re asking a inconsequential/unimportant question. I sent him an email once asking he had any plans to offer different op-amps, sort of like Apollon and Nord do..... his response was a VERY dismissive, "that would make utterly no difference in sound quality." Really?  OK, maybe, maybe not. But I’m not a dumbass for merely asking. And maybe give me some tangible reason that op amp rolling "makes zero difference in sound."
@corelli  -  LOL, I love that!      

@kofibaffour I find him lacking in experience directly from the things he say.

"all op-amps when implemented properly sound identical"

"all amplifiers engineered properly would sound true-to-source"

"Measurements tell the absolute truth"

These are things knowledgeable engineers do not say. Also he has no background in engineering. He studied biology. He's merely a DIY assembler of Hypex and Purifi amplifiers.

Power supply is very important to the sound quality of an amplifier. Of course he would never mention such a thing.

@audiotruth He's extremely dismissive of a lot of things. Some people have been unpleased with the casing and had suggested him ways to improve it, he told them his products aren't for them.

But he did say hos products are selling extremely well so I guess he doesn't have to please a fee outliers.

@samureyex he makes them to a price  point. Better cases can be had elsewhere for a premium. If I were using his amps for surround channels in a closet, I'd be fine with them. 

+1 @kerrybh .

You won't know till you hear them in your own system.

I bought a pair of Merrill Audio Veritas a year ago. These are now a ten year old design. I love them. They check many boxes.

I was going to go with VTV but ended up buying Class D Audio.  Reason being I would have gone with the most "straight line" vtv opamp option anyhow and Class D audio offerred a brand new GaN based product that is also "straight line" in nature plus also even smaller and less expensive.  The Class D audio Gan amp has worked out perfectly...best sounding amp I have owned and I’ve owned a lot over the years.   I’ve found dynamics and detail to be  their most unique sonic attributes,plus seem able to drive even the most challenging loads very well  .

All I know is, I’ve owned top of the line Class D modules from Hypex and Purifi and I’ve owned very good Class A/AB amps from the likes of Parasound, Bryston, and Aragon (a brand new hot-rodded Titanium). And my first listening impressions with the D’s always left me impressed. But over time, I would scratch my head in puzzlement. Having gone in afterward, and A/B’ing them to whichever A/B amp I had at the time, I could see that what the D was lacking (though hard to describe) was a soul. I want to say "depth." But that is too simplistic. They have many impressive attributes, but compared to my other power amps, they were more like a well mannered sociopath who has learned to blend in to the masses by studying those of us with souls and mimicking us, but still having no light in their eyes. Soulless. 

@corelli +1

Honestly I got out of Class D and I'M not going back. That Buckeye stuff is for HT and folks that want or need power on the cheap. And l'm not that particular anymore at my age.

@ericrhodes1 I agree with the lack of soul. It felt lifeless which is a very hard thing to explain. The time when I had the class D I kept telling myself tonight I will really give it a chance, but everytime I just want to turn off the music and do something else.

It was smooth but microdynamics was lacking. The beautiful shift of tone which makes vocals sound convincing was not there for me. Subpar layering. It wasn’t transparent and see-through like my other amp, it gave the illusion of being clear with 1 instrument but the whole picture was foggy.

I don’t think all class D are created equal, even in 2025. I still think power supply has a lot to say regardless of the topology. When it comes to class D, I’m more interested in Atmasphere, AGD Audion, and maybe even Starkrimson.

Another thing, my class D was undeniably smooth which is a fabulous trait but it wasn’t smooth and airy/supple like a nice class A or tube. It was smooth and rigid like marble. I believe some describe this as sounding glossy which is terrible for piano.

My system has soul when James Brown or Al Green are playing.  Not so much with Kraftwerk or Metallica.  Tool is right out!

Watt for watt, those GanFET amps you mentioned are much more expensive. Yet, they don't dare have a shootout with top-of-the-line Purifi or Hypex modules that are much cheaper. Their only claim is that their specs are better than most standard silicon based Class D amps. Although, for what it's worth, I did just get an admission from a YouTube reviewer that he prefers the Pearl Acoustics Eigentakt based amp over the Laiv Gan amps. 

I have GanFET and Hypex.  The Class D audio GanFETs take performance up a notch in regards to detail and dynamics.  The Hypex is warmer and very good as well.  It will come down to personal preference.  Don’t operate under the assumption that all Hypex amps are created equal.  They vary greatly in both sound and how implemented.  Same true of GanFET but the technology itself provides an advantage if done well.