Right now I'm listening to the atsah 500 that I have on loan. I'm comparing it my brother's B&K AV5000 S2 125 watt into 8ohm amp. I thought for sure the 500 watt Atsah amp would blow it away. It's not even close. I'm I doing something wrong? The bass doesn't hit quite as hard, the voice is a lot softer and there's absolutely no detail in the high frequencies.
I read that everyone in this forum is changing the OP amp to give a warmer sound. Man, these are way to warm and soft already. I don't know why anyone would want to make it warmer. There's absolutely no detail in the music like I get from the B&K amp. The B&k was a lot clearer and more detailed, especially in the voice and higher frequencies.
I still don't want to give up on the NC500 yet, my question is this. Is there any OP amps that would make this amp more detailed especially in the higher frequencies? If the Sparkos and Burson makes it warmer, I definitely don't want those. I'm glad I didn't buy the Nords with the sparkos op amp which I almost did. Glad I got a chance to listen to these Atsah 500 first. Are there any options in OP Amps to give a more detailed sound? I defenitately don't want anything that's warmer then the standard OP amp that comes with these hypex buffer board.
Also what about the NC400 how do they compare to the nc500? I read in these forums that NC400 is much cleaner, sweeter, more open and more precise and detailed. But then again I read the same thing about the NC500 and so far I'm disappoint. I'll definitely be sending these atsah 500 back.
I read that everyone in this forum is changing the OP amp to give a warmer sound. Man, these are way to warm and soft already. I don't know why anyone would want to make it warmer. There's absolutely no detail in the music like I get from the B&K amp. The B&k was a lot clearer and more detailed, especially in the voice and higher frequencies.
I still don't want to give up on the NC500 yet, my question is this. Is there any OP amps that would make this amp more detailed especially in the higher frequencies? If the Sparkos and Burson makes it warmer, I definitely don't want those. I'm glad I didn't buy the Nords with the sparkos op amp which I almost did. Glad I got a chance to listen to these Atsah 500 first. Are there any options in OP Amps to give a more detailed sound? I defenitately don't want anything that's warmer then the standard OP amp that comes with these hypex buffer board.
Also what about the NC400 how do they compare to the nc500? I read in these forums that NC400 is much cleaner, sweeter, more open and more precise and detailed. But then again I read the same thing about the NC500 and so far I'm disappoint. I'll definitely be sending these atsah 500 back.
Hi Mark
Happy to exchange emails, or even a phone call to try and help you. The B&K certainly has a superb looking PSU and I know all to well how important this are is in a A A/B amp.
Struggling to find some specs on it at present. Our buffer board certainly adds more bite and focus. I'm guessing your in the States? Anyway the offer is there plus I realise you can not win them all.
Happy to exchange emails, or even a phone call to try and help you. The B&K certainly has a superb looking PSU and I know all to well how important this are is in a A A/B amp.
Struggling to find some specs on it at present. Our buffer board certainly adds more bite and focus. I'm guessing your in the States? Anyway the offer is there plus I realise you can not win them all.
Hi Mark
Happy to exchange emails, or even a phone call to try and help you. The B&K certainly has a superb looking PSU and I know all to well how important this are is in a A A/B amp.
Struggling to find some specs on it at present. Our buffer board certainly adds more bite and focus. I'm guessing your in the States? Anyway the offer is there plus I realise you can not win them all.
He might be a disgruntled competitor. This is why I requested a photo of the 2 amps together. What he's saying make absolutely no sense.
That's the problem with subjective impressions - they are simply opinions, not objective facts. The nc400 is very neutral and transparent, apparently so is the nc500 with the standard hypex buffer stage. I doubt anyone could hear a difference (as long as both are operating within their specified operating range) in a blind listening test.
I think I figured it out, I feel so stupid. My preamp was still set to 3 channel output. So when I was running the BK amp, I had the front, left and center channel running. Then when I turned the BK amp off and move the wires up to the atsah 500 amp, I was running only the left and right speakers but my preamp was set for 3 channel so I missing most of the signal.
The atsah 500 sounds very very good now. I'm still trying to figure out which on I like better but at least they sound very good now. I knew I had to be doing something wrong, with all the great reviews you all say about the NC500. I'm going to compare the two for an entire week before I make decision which one is better.
The atsah 500 sounds very very good now. I'm still trying to figure out which on I like better but at least they sound very good now. I knew I had to be doing something wrong, with all the great reviews you all say about the NC500. I'm going to compare the two for an entire week before I make decision which one is better.
I knew something had to be wrong. But a picture still says 1000 words. It's should be instantly apparent that the nc-500 based amps are superior.
What are you wanting pictures of. Here's a couple of pictures of my system.
Attachments
For what it's worth, I have both the NC400 and NC500OEM and have compared them a bit.
I'd need to do more blind A/B tests to say for sure, but here's my initial reaction / story:
I'd been using the NC400 in a stereo set up for quite some time. I've been a Hypex fan for some time and had been using the UcD400 HG solution before hand.
Switching to the NC400 gave a more musical approach to the sound. I found the UcDs by comparison a little more clinical and less forgiving, probably a tad harsher. The NC400 was a little more involving, dragging you into the music and added emotion to the sound.
I then switched to the NC500 using the base buffering design. To my ears, the was far less difference than the UcD -> NC change which is of course to be expected.
Comparing the NC400 to NC500, I'd say the 500 have a little more dynamic bite. They appear to show more potential power and speed and give an unbelievably "reassuring" quality to the sound whilst not sacrificing and musicality. Again, this is using a basic buffering design with a LM4562 with standard 78/79 regulators.
I'm fairly sure the limiting factor in my setup are my old Monitor Audio R452 MD speakers!
I need to test in other environments and see how the NC400 and NC500 compare there. In parallel, I need to get my act together and play around with different buffer designs like Colin has.
So that's my very unscientific view on them. Regardless of what you go for, they sound sublime and I wouldn't change them for anything else
I'd need to do more blind A/B tests to say for sure, but here's my initial reaction / story:
I'd been using the NC400 in a stereo set up for quite some time. I've been a Hypex fan for some time and had been using the UcD400 HG solution before hand.
Switching to the NC400 gave a more musical approach to the sound. I found the UcDs by comparison a little more clinical and less forgiving, probably a tad harsher. The NC400 was a little more involving, dragging you into the music and added emotion to the sound.
I then switched to the NC500 using the base buffering design. To my ears, the was far less difference than the UcD -> NC change which is of course to be expected.
Comparing the NC400 to NC500, I'd say the 500 have a little more dynamic bite. They appear to show more potential power and speed and give an unbelievably "reassuring" quality to the sound whilst not sacrificing and musicality. Again, this is using a basic buffering design with a LM4562 with standard 78/79 regulators.
I'm fairly sure the limiting factor in my setup are my old Monitor Audio R452 MD speakers!
I need to test in other environments and see how the NC400 and NC500 compare there. In parallel, I need to get my act together and play around with different buffer designs like Colin has.
So that's my very unscientific view on them. Regardless of what you go for, they sound sublime and I wouldn't change them for anything else
Try and used a balanced source if you can. Nice System
Thanks, right now the only things that's mine are the speakers. The atsah500 are on loan and the B&K equipment are my brothers. I had the B&K reference 200.7 but a couple years ago it melted (literally, a stupid mistake on my part).
So now I'm on a hunt for a new amp, I want something that sounds as good as my old B&K reference 200.7 but didn't get so hot. I've been reading about the NC400 for over two years now while trying to save up enough money. Then a few months ago I was getting ready to purchase the NC400 from hypex, I came across the NC500 in this forum.
I'd like to try the balanced source but at the moment I don't know what preamp or receiver I'm going to buy. I don't want to spend $150 on xlr cables if I'm going to get something that doesn't have balanced outputs. Right now I'm thinking of getting a receiver (only because I can't afford most preamps) so I can use the internal amps for the surround speakers and then get a better quality amp for the front 3 channels.
Hence the reasons I'm trying these Atsah 500. I just want to see what they sounded like before purchasing something with the NC500 amp.
You should be using a balanced preamp for best performance. See the NC400 manual for recommending connections. Same apply for the NC500's.
For what it's worth, I have both the NC400 and NC500OEM and have compared them a bit.
I'd need to do more blind A/B tests to say for sure, but here's my initial reaction / story:
I'd been using the NC400 in a stereo set up for quite some time. I've been a Hypex fan for some time and had been using the UcD400 HG solution before hand.
Switching to the NC400 gave a more musical approach to the sound. I found the UcDs by comparison a little more clinical and less forgiving, probably a tad harsher. The NC400 was a little more involving, dragging you into the music and added emotion to the sound.
I then switched to the NC500 using the base buffering design. To my ears, the was far less difference than the UcD -> NC change which is of course to be expected.
Comparing the NC400 to NC500, I'd say the 500 have a little more dynamic bite. They appear to show more potential power and speed and give an unbelievably "reassuring" quality to the sound whilst not sacrificing and musicality. Again, this is using a basic buffering design with a LM4562 with standard 78/79 regulators.
I'm fairly sure the limiting factor in my setup are my old Monitor Audio R452 MD speakers!
I need to test in other environments and see how the NC400 and NC500 compare there. In parallel, I need to get my act together and play around with different buffer designs like Colin has.
So that's my very unscientific view on them. Regardless of what you go for, they sound sublime and I wouldn't change them for anything else
Thanks a lot for the evaluation. I guess I will go for the Nords. I will need them in June and maybe the pound will go down some more...
By the way, when everything is set, they will connect the future with the past (Naim NAC-N 172 XS and Infinity IRS Omega). I am curious how everything will sound...
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