When it comes to cables, I'm not a believer..... so its plain 6 mm2 installation wire to the speakers. Signal cables are from the time I actually did believe, so they are teflon-insulated silver stuff. Balanced of course.....
Bauer was a Swedish artist best known for his trolls, gnomes and fairies, and not much else
I agree - the thing with the nCores is that you want to make sure the cable has a low enough resistance and can carry enough current - you don't want to waste the capabilities of the nCore on the cable instead of the speaker.
As I am multiamping, I am using a 4 x 4mm from Van Damme.
Sam,
I've put in the two way ATCs on standard Sound Anchors stands before, they are very solid and sturdy. No need for the custom built ones. fill the bodies with sand if you must. But get the standard adjustable studio model, then you can fit it to your room in situ. Its a very nice sounding system. Even better I bet when powered by the Ncore. I was using Bryston 4B SST's on them.
coupling beneath the speaker and using spikes are good ideas, but that will get you 99% or more without committing yourself to one position.
wire? big and short. I, like Stig (or Julf), don't believe in wire, (isn't this the wireless age?) Even though I can sometimes hear a difference between different juju wires, I attribute it to mucking up something, at least for speakers. If a speaker/amp combination relys on a certain wire with non standard specifications to sound good, its broken.
Alan Garren
I've put in the two way ATCs on standard Sound Anchors stands before, they are very solid and sturdy. No need for the custom built ones. fill the bodies with sand if you must. But get the standard adjustable studio model, then you can fit it to your room in situ. Its a very nice sounding system. Even better I bet when powered by the Ncore. I was using Bryston 4B SST's on them.
coupling beneath the speaker and using spikes are good ideas, but that will get you 99% or more without committing yourself to one position.
wire? big and short. I, like Stig (or Julf), don't believe in wire, (isn't this the wireless age?) Even though I can sometimes hear a difference between different juju wires, I attribute it to mucking up something, at least for speakers. If a speaker/amp combination relys on a certain wire with non standard specifications to sound good, its broken.
Alan Garren
I received my amps ((4) nc400 and (2) smps600 for biamping) and am now thinking about enclosures.
I read someone here (was it Sam Lord?) saying that steel panels should be avoided, or at least cable runs should be isolated from them.
Cheap enclosuresd are typically made with aluminium fronts and steel panels:
Boitiers économiques - Audiophonics - Câbles, Amplificateurs et Accessoires DIY
Should these be avoided in favor of all-aluminium ones?
I would like the cheapest enclosure I can get as I don't care for design and it is meant to be stuck on the rear of a wooden box anyway (à la plate amp)
I read someone here (was it Sam Lord?) saying that steel panels should be avoided, or at least cable runs should be isolated from them.
Cheap enclosuresd are typically made with aluminium fronts and steel panels:
Boitiers économiques - Audiophonics - Câbles, Amplificateurs et Accessoires DIY
Should these be avoided in favor of all-aluminium ones?
I would like the cheapest enclosure I can get as I don't care for design and it is meant to be stuck on the rear of a wooden box anyway (à la plate amp)
I agree - but my EE studies (Helsinki University of Technology) were 30 years ago, and my memory isn't what it never was. Anyway, pretty sure a box of mu-metal would be pretty expensive...
The general claim for using alu cases for audio equipment is due to that it is supposed to be non-magnetic and thereby shouldn´t add any induction to circuitry and cables inside and around it. Other good qualities are far better heat conduction than steel and good mechanical stability. The later is typically due to far greater plate thickness too.
Whether any of these apply for the ncore is of course a different matter.
The ncore amp that I have heard was in a thin steel case (if I got it correctly) and I did notice that the case got more than luke warm. So if ncores generally waste a lot of heat when idling heat conduction could be a practical concern...
That said, the amp was powered by a smps600 so that might very well have been the actual cause for the heat dissipation to the case.
Any other experiences with heat dissipation from ncore and/or smps600 out there?
Whether any of these apply for the ncore is of course a different matter.
The ncore amp that I have heard was in a thin steel case (if I got it correctly) and I did notice that the case got more than luke warm. So if ncores generally waste a lot of heat when idling heat conduction could be a practical concern...
That said, the amp was powered by a smps600 so that might very well have been the actual cause for the heat dissipation to the case.
Any other experiences with heat dissipation from ncore and/or smps600 out there?
My ncores are at most lukewarm (mounted on a thick alu plate), whereas my Ucd400 in a small alu box get rather hot.
mine are SMPS and NC400 in a single enclosure made of medium thickness AL. PSU on all the time, no problem with heat dissipation. Ran over night with approx 2/3 power wideband signal (pseudo-random signal train) into 8 ohm load and the enclosure was slightly warm, output inductor was the hottest thing, but that not bad. Nothing too hot to touch and actually quite a bit less.
Most of the dissipation does appear to be from the SMPS.
Alan
Most of the dissipation does appear to be from the SMPS.
Alan
Thanks Alan, the SMPS would also be my guess to cause most dissipation at idle.
If you are concerned with inductive effects from the proximity of signal carrying conductors, whether wires or circuit board traces, to the case (and I know of one highly respected amp designer, Yves Bernard Andre of YBA, who is concerned about this) then aluminum is as bad as steel, due to the fact that induced emf in it will produce a magnetic field which will then influence your (again, not magnetic) conductors and thus, contaminate the signal.
Here's a demonstration which shows how aluminium can react to magnetism:
Magnet Brakes its own fall - YouTube
Great input Russel. It appears to be the same effect as when using alu VC former in drivers. They typically induce a lot of mechanical breaking reading as rather low Qms and thus works as a dynamic break to the coil movements.
I´m not sure that the impact will be entirely similar to that of steel, though.
But you are completely right the alu also does influence electrical signals.
Maybe brass is better -also tougher
I also wondered how a ceramic enclosure might work...
I just quickly plugged one module on a wooden board ans it is working fine, but I wonder if the temperature I get is normal: when idle the aluminium plate of the nc400 gets hot after some time. I can still keep my hand on it for as long as I want, but barely: it looks really hot for only 4W.
What is your experience?
What is your experience?
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