One thought on “Burmaster 933 Amplifier Clone (BRZHIFI PA-933)”
As summer rolled around, my office began heating up quickly, making my standard HH Scott LK-150 tube amplifier feel more like a space heater than a piece of audio gear. Looking for a cooler-running solid-state alternative, I decided to seek out a reliable power amplifier for the season.
The BRZHIFI PA-933, a budget clone of the famous Burmester 933 — frequently came up with high praise. While BRZHIFI doesn’t actually design or manufacture the circuit (they package ready-made clone boards into branded chassis), the underlying topology has a strong reputation for offering wide bandwidth, fast dynamic response, and clean Class AB power.
Sound Performance
When it comes to pure sound quality, the amp genuinely deserves its positive reputation. While it isn’t close to its bigger brother, the Burmester 909 clone, in terms of sheer scale, transparency and effortless weight, it remains a very good-sounding amplifier on its own terms.
The bass is well-controlled, deep, and tight without feeling bloated or sluggish. The midrange is very good, offering a warm and inviting character that brings vocal tracks and acoustic instruments to life. The top end is smooth and transparent enough to keep listening fatigue at bay during long office sessions.
It clearly outpaces other budget Chi-Fi options in musicality, proving to be a noticeable step up over the Musical Fidelity A1S clone (also sold by BRZHIFI).
The Fatal Flaw
Unfortunately, all of that acoustic performance is ruined by a glaring design flaw in the input section.
When the volume pot on the unit is turned up past 50%, a very audible buzz introduces itself. Interestingly enough, this is not a traditional ground loop issue—the noise persists even when running the amplifier on an ungrounded circuit.
The moment you connect an upstream device (like a DAC) to the RCA inputs, the buzz starts immediately. At 100% volume, it becomes unacceptably loud. Hilariously enough, the upstream device doesn’t even need to be powered on or plugged into anything—no power cable, no USB cable connected to a computer. Simply plugging an interconnect from a completely dead DAC into the PA-933’s input jacks triggers the buzzing. This points to a bad grounding design inside the amp.
I tested the setup using three completely different upstream devices, and the behavior was identical across all of them. To rule out the possibility of receiving a single defective unit, I bought a second PA-933 to test. No such luck—both units exhibited the exact same buzzing issue.
Final Verdict
The BRZHIFI PA-933 is a frustrating piece of gear. Sound-wise, it offers deep bass, an inviting midrange, and smooth highs that outperform competing clones like the A1S. However, because of its severe input noise issue at higher volume pot positions, the unit is practically unusable if you intend to run it wide open as a dedicated power amplifier. Unless you plan to keep its volume knob below 50% and feed it a high-output preamp signal, this amp is impossible to recommend.
As summer rolled around, my office began heating up quickly, making my standard HH Scott LK-150 tube amplifier feel more like a space heater than a piece of audio gear. Looking for a cooler-running solid-state alternative, I decided to seek out a reliable power amplifier for the season.
The BRZHIFI PA-933, a budget clone of the famous Burmester 933 — frequently came up with high praise. While BRZHIFI doesn’t actually design or manufacture the circuit (they package ready-made clone boards into branded chassis), the underlying topology has a strong reputation for offering wide bandwidth, fast dynamic response, and clean Class AB power.
Sound Performance
When it comes to pure sound quality, the amp genuinely deserves its positive reputation. While it isn’t close to its bigger brother, the Burmester 909 clone, in terms of sheer scale, transparency and effortless weight, it remains a very good-sounding amplifier on its own terms.
The bass is well-controlled, deep, and tight without feeling bloated or sluggish. The midrange is very good, offering a warm and inviting character that brings vocal tracks and acoustic instruments to life. The top end is smooth and transparent enough to keep listening fatigue at bay during long office sessions.
It clearly outpaces other budget Chi-Fi options in musicality, proving to be a noticeable step up over the Musical Fidelity A1S clone (also sold by BRZHIFI).
The Fatal Flaw
Unfortunately, all of that acoustic performance is ruined by a glaring design flaw in the input section.
When the volume pot on the unit is turned up past 50%, a very audible buzz introduces itself. Interestingly enough, this is not a traditional ground loop issue—the noise persists even when running the amplifier on an ungrounded circuit.
The moment you connect an upstream device (like a DAC) to the RCA inputs, the buzz starts immediately. At 100% volume, it becomes unacceptably loud. Hilariously enough, the upstream device doesn’t even need to be powered on or plugged into anything—no power cable, no USB cable connected to a computer. Simply plugging an interconnect from a completely dead DAC into the PA-933’s input jacks triggers the buzzing. This points to a bad grounding design inside the amp.
I tested the setup using three completely different upstream devices, and the behavior was identical across all of them. To rule out the possibility of receiving a single defective unit, I bought a second PA-933 to test. No such luck—both units exhibited the exact same buzzing issue.
Final Verdict
The BRZHIFI PA-933 is a frustrating piece of gear. Sound-wise, it offers deep bass, an inviting midrange, and smooth highs that outperform competing clones like the A1S. However, because of its severe input noise issue at higher volume pot positions, the unit is practically unusable if you intend to run it wide open as a dedicated power amplifier. Unless you plan to keep its volume knob below 50% and feed it a high-output preamp signal, this amp is impossible to recommend.