Onkyo A-50 vs Buckeye Purifi 1ET6525SA


My wife is in love with the looks of the A-50. I'm thinking I might be better off with the Stereo Purifi Amp and a Wiim Ultra as the preamp for now. More power, possibly more robust. We have a CD Player and a cheap Audio Technica turntable for now. Speakers are BMR Towers, 4-6 ohm and 85 DB. Listening distance is about 9 feet in a 14 by 14 by 8 foot room.

 

What are your thoughts on the Onkyo vs the Buckeye? Which set up would you go with?

This will be only for music at least for now. 

 

Appreciate your input. Thank you. 

chanur

I know it's AB. The Pioneer/Onkyo sound signature has been about the same since the 1970s.

 

I'd prioritize power and look for sound signature elsewhere. If you can find both in the same amp without costing an arm and leg (ie McIntosh), great.

 

btw the off the shelf class D modules do not have remotes and have to be kept on all the time. They're not as elaborate as a real amp. ie They don't have resistors to slow discharge the capacitors so they make a moderately loud whine through the speakers when you power it off. Annoyingly cheap but not a deal breaker.

I think the Buckeyes have a 12v trigger. So hopefully they will automatically turn on and off with the WiiM. If not that's probably a deal breaker for me.

I don’t see a compelling reason for either one to drive such hard to drive speakers.

I am not a Class D fan so I would go with the Onkyo but for that price you have a lot of options (Quad, Mission, AVA, NAD, Primare, Belles, Vincent, used Simaudio, used Hegel, etc.) 

What would you recommend then? I don't want used but open to other new recommendations. Not familiar with some of those.