AUDIOPHONICS HPA-S450ET Power Amplifier Class D Stereo Purifi 1ET6525SA 2x450W 4 Ohm - reviews - There are 6 reviews.

Happy
I'll cautiously give this five stars. Replacing an old Marantz SM-80, this amplifier is astonishing, albeit only with room correction. On the one hand the Purifi controls the speakers much better than my old amp. The in-room loudspeaker response is measurably flat to within +/- 2dB over most of the range. This was not the case before. On the other hand there is a massive, one octave wide, almost 12dB bass bump, peaking at 80Hz. This may well be down to my speakers and their positioning at only 10 inches from the wall. However this effect is more pronounced than it was with my old amp, itself no slouch in the bass department. I ironed this out with room correction EQ, which turned out essential for my living situation.

That said, the precision and instrumental separation this amp wrings from my 30-year old Polk (not KEF) LS50 speakers has redefined what I thought those speakers were capable of. This amp is in a different league. The ability to hear into a recording now rivals that of my planar magnetic headphones. At the same time I find it less fatiguing than my old amp. It also performs much more evenly across my record collection. Records that previously sounded good still do, but the Purifi tends to bring up muddy and/or complex recordings to a similar standard. That's a big win.

If there is a downside, it's that on some recordings I find snare drums, and raspy sounds in general, a little too prominent. However that may be due to an interaction with my speakers or with the ability to better single out instruments in the mix, including drum kits and tambourines. The emphasis is that this applies to _some_ recordings only.

Coming from a 30-year-old amp, I of course find the value and performance of the Purifi hard to judge against it's peers, but I will say that it runs cool, Audiophonics' build quality seems good, the connectors appear of high quality, and the amp was well packaged and arrived on time. That said, while the power switch is satisfying and includes a ~2s relay delay, I can confirm the slight power on pop, more like a static click in the speakers, noted by another customer. It happens about a second after the relay engages the amp. There is also a small amount of coil whine, emanating from the amp while turned on, though only audible from a distance of about 1m or less while the house is quiet, at night.

A very good and powerful amp
Delivers clean and high gain without any colouration or distortion. It is what I wanted. Only negative is a slight power on pop noise and the screws are of low quality and it looks like they could start to rust just by breathing on them.

Excellent
This amplifier could be described as very versatile for different music genres. Purifi has never disappointed my own ears. This does everything without adding or removing anything from the sound, however, being a little on the warm side. The treble is not dry as is typical for class D, it has nice details and brightness. The bass is also not a little dry as is typical for class D, it has nice thickness and meat, but still perfectly controlled. Overall, the sound has a nice "loudness". Physically very sturdy and high-quality housing. The adjustable gain is a big plus. The only small minus in my opinion is that the connectors on the back (speaker and RCA) are quite close to each other. If you use spades, there may even be a small risk of short circuit! However, there is no danger if you use balanced XLR connectors. This does not affect the number of stars. One of the best power amplifiers in its price range.

Quel ampli !
Utilsation hifi, home cinema, mastering !
Ultra precis sans etre froid, maitrise absolue de mes enceintes dont le HP de grave est un 12 pouces, reserve de puissance infinie !
Fait prendre conscience immédiatement des limites du signal qu on lui envoie et necessite donc un preampli digne de ce nom.
Un interrupteur general aurait ete le bienvenue, a l arret l alimentation émet un leger sifflement.
Les event de ventilation situés sur le dessus de l' appareil emettent une lumiere bleue gênante qd l ampli est installé devant un ecran de projection.
Bref, que du bon a part ces 2 details non rédhibitoires.
A voir dans le temps pour la fiabilité.
A acheter sans hesiter !

Pourquoi dépenser plus?
Voici mon avis de cet ampli out of the box. Esthétiquement il est très simple et robuste. Au niveau audio c’est autre chose.
C’est doux, riche avec une image sonore profonde. J’ai gagné un peu en largeur avec des opamp Sparkos. Mais ceux d’origine sont vraiment très bons.
Je pense que je vais encore avoir de longues heures d’écoute devant moi pour découvrir les capacités de cette belle machine.
Les Sparkos apportent un peu plus de détails, non pas qu’ils soient absents avec les 1656 mais il y’a un peu plus de relief sans être chirurgical.
Ce qui est impressionnant c’est l’énergie et la rapidité, une main de fer dans un gant de velours.
Je remercie monsieur Aubert pour m’avoir mis sur la piste de ce modèle.

Amplificateur Exceptionnel
Je viens de remplacer mon ampli Roksan K3, considéré comme très bon sur beaucoup de forum hi-fi par cet ampli et je suis impressionné par le gain obtenu dans tous les domaines (Transparence, bande passante , timbres, spatialisation). Pour prendre une métaphore sportive, plusieurs divisions d’écart.
Mon installation :
Source: Qobuz + Rivo
Dac/preampli: Smsl D400ex
Enceintes : Triangle Magellan Cello 40 th anniversaire
La Classe D d’amplification supplante toutes les autres classes et les remplacera très rapidement.
Jean Pierre.