P801 Power Amp

https://www.whathifi.com/tech-events/sound-image-awards-2025-the-hi-fi-amplifier-and-dac-winners

@Alan March Has there been a recent change made with your enclosures that have restored the model number on the front, I see in the above Sound + Image Awards there is "P801" printed in the bottom right corner now, have all your models seen this change too like the P482 & P481 amps?

Oniiz86 wrote:
@Alan March Has there been a recent change made with your enclosures that have restored the model number on the front, I see in the above Sound + Image Awards there is "P801" printed in the bottom right corner now, have all your models seen this change too like the P482 & P481 amps?

No its an old picture.

Alan March wrote:
You need to be careful when talking about "frequency response". The tonal balance of a speaker playing in a room is not soley dictated by the on axis frequency response. The room reflections, wall, floor and ceiling play a massive part.

As such the directivity characteristics of the speaker are crucial. The reflections must be similar in balance to the on axis. Also the wider the directivity the more overall bright the balance will be. In room measurements should always indicate a falling response with increasing frequency. Getting the gradient of slope right WRT the directivity is the critical factor.

And the flip side is that if one has a reflective room, then directivity is importantly, or a narrow directivity may be helpful.

Alan March wrote:

Looking at just the on axis frequency response will tell you virtually nothing about how a speaker sounds playing in a room.

Again, I don’t buy into the "euphonic distortion" concept. I have never found audible levels of distortion to sound good.

Yeah - obviously as you have a low distortion amp.
The point was that many people do like some distortion.
And usually the speaker’s distortion dominates what the amps are doing.

Usually people using Purify drivers, and Purify amps have a low distortion combination.

This combo can make the system sound quieter than an app says that SPL is at… I’ll quote myself again, at the risk of binge irksome…

Holmz wrote:
…
The way I figured out that your’s were low distortion, is because it sounded somewhat quiet.
Having excess 2nd and 3rd harmonic, and even more so having higher order harmonics is something that the brain uses to determine SPL.

Historically, and most people with even a small fleck of grey beginning, just know that the way one knows it is subjectively loud, is when they turn it up and hear the distortions… and then they turn it back just a bit.
…

Hey Alan ... I guess you going to increase the price of the P801 (and other models and products I guess) to reflect the new tariffs. If so, when will the new prices be reflected on the website?

SmartOne_2000 wrote:
Hey Alan ... I guess you going to increase the price of the P801 (and other models and products I guess) to reflect the new tariffs. If so, when will the new prices be reflected on the website?

No, this is the great misunderstanding many Americans are labouring under. We are getting a lot of questions from customers about it.

We the manufacturer / exporter do not pay the tariffs.

Tariffs are a tax levied on *you* the US consumer and is collected by the US government.

So you buy the product from us as normal. There is no increase in price. However, the courier (DHL in our case) will contact you the consumer when the product arrives in the US for payment of the tariff tax prior to final delivery. DHL are effectively the customs brokers to the US government.

This will no doubt discourage some US sales, but we are just concentrating on developing other markets. Massive increase in enquiries/sales from Canada for example. Europe has increased too.

Sadly, the only people losing out in all of this are the US consumers.

Holmz wrote:
And the flip side is that if one has a reflective room, then directivity is importantly, or a narrow directivity may be helpful.

Yeah - obviously as you have a low distortion amp.
The point was that many people do like some distortion.
And usually the speaker’s distortion dominates what the amps are doing.

Usually people using Purify drivers, and Purify amps have a low distortion combination.

This combo can make the system sound quieter than an app says that SPL is at… I’ll quote myself again, at the risk of binge irksome…

Got any links to proper research that supports this euphonic distortion theory? We will probably have to agree to disagree 😀.

The impression of being quieter (something many comment on and which I agree) is probably more to do the slope and smoothness of the sound power and in room response. This is where many speakers fail. They sound harsher which seems louder is certainly more fatiguing.

Alan March wrote:
No, this is the great misunderstanding many Americans are labouring under. We are getting a lot of questions from customers about it.

We the manufacturer / exporter do not pay the tariffs.

Tariffs are a tax levied on *you* the US consumer and is collected by the US government.

So you buy the product from us as normal. There is no increase in price. However, the courier (DHL in our case) will contact you the consumer when the product arrives in the US for payment of the tariff tax prior to final delivery. DHL are effectively the customs brokers to the US government.

This will no doubt discourage some US sales, but we are just concentrating on developing other markets. Massive increase in enquiries/sales from Canada for example. Europe has increased too.

Sadly, the only people losing out in all of this are the US consumers.

So, for the dual P801 configuration, that is about $4K, then add the 10% Australia tariff to bring the total to about $4,400 out of pocket?

Alan, a new Purifi-specific (optimized?) universal buffer from Neurochrome has just arrived, using the LM4562 buffer. How does it compare to the Ultra Buffer?

It has specific jumper settings for the 1ET400, 7040SA, 9040BA, and other Purifi amp models. Not sure what these jumpers are supposed to do (gain settings optimized for the different Purifi models?). It also offers gains of 0 dB (1.00×), 11.6 dB (3.80×), 13.0 dB (4.47×) and 13.2 dB (4.57×).

SmartOne_2000 wrote:
So, for the dual P801 configuration, that is about $4K, then add the 10% Australia tariff to bring the total to about $4,400 out of pocket?

Seems about right but just for clarity it's a 10% tariff imposed by America on Australian products but paid by Americans.
Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding Alan.

SmartOne_2000 wrote:
Alan, a new Purifi-specific (optimized?) universal buffer from Neurochrome has just arrived, using the LM4562 buffer. How does it compare to the Ultra Buffer?

316

It has specific jumper settings for the 1ET400, 7040SA, 9040BA, and other Purifi amp models. Not sure what these jumpers are supposed to do (gain settings optimized for the different Purifi models?). It also offers gains of 0 dB (1.00×), 11.6 dB (3.80×), 13.0 dB (4.47×) and 13.2 dB (4.57×).

Lm4562 is not a good choice for the updated Purifi modules. It is prone to RF problems and is higher noise than alternatives.

Also, 13.2dB gain isn't high enough to get the 1ET9040 module to full power output with a 2 volt RCA source. It will get to about 575 watts instead of the rated 750 watts.

All this, plus I can see from just looking at the board, that it's implementation/topology means it will be noisier than our ultra buffer. DIP sockets for the op amp is sub optimal.

SCPB1967 wrote:
Seems about right but just for clarity it's a 10% tariff imposed by America on Australian products but paid by Americans.
Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding Alan.

Yes you are 100% correct.

So all this extra money Trump claims he will raise from tariffs is simply a direct additional tax on US citizens.

All hifi prices are going to rise in the US because even the domestically manufactured products rely on components imported from overseas.

For example with our direct competitors:

Buckeye

• Cases from Canada
• Purifi modules from Denmark
• PCBs and other misc components from China

VTV

• Cases from China
• Purifi modules from Denmark
• PCBs and other misc components from China

The total cost of these impacts are far greater than the 10% tariff impact on our landed price in the US.

So for a company like Buckeye who were already selling close to cost, this is very serious.

Also, as I mentioned previously, due to tariff retaliation from other countries and the anti US sentiment that Trump has created in the rest of the world, their export markets have also just tanked.

We pray and hope this tariff war will be over and done with by the end of summer. I believe many are delaying their purchasing until all this is over.

Alan March wrote:
Lm4562 is not a good choice for the updated Purifi modules. It is prone to RF problems and is higher noise than alternatives.

Also, 13.2dB gain isn't high enough to get the 1ET9040 module to full power output with a 2 volt RCA source. It will get to about 575 watts instead of the rated 750 watts.

All this, plus I can see from just looking at the board, that it's implementation/topology means it will be noisier than our ultra buffer. DIP sockets for the op amp is sub optimal.

Probably was optimized for 4V XLR sources?

SmartOne_2000 wrote:
Probably was optimized for 4V XLR sources?

Then why gave a 27dB gain setting? 23dB is correct.