Yes I think it is a combination with the Quad ESL that causes this, as it has a scary low input impedance + significant phase shift above 10kHz. When listening with the UcD I had a 1 ohm series resistor that solved the emphasis on the highs. Interesting enough this resistor is not needed nor wanted with the NCore.
Arend-Jan, thanks for sharing your impressions. Mine were quite similar, although your speakers present a much more difficult load. I hope the guy with the expensive Accuphase Class A posts more of his impressions.
You mean biamping speakers with passive crossovers? The better an amplifier is, the smaller the benefit of biamping. But if you are curious to play around with a few things, try biwiring. Let both cable runs start at the NC400's screw terminals. My guess is that this should be as good as biamping, considering the low output impedance of the amp.
Which UcD400 were they? I'm told a recent Tentlabs implementation proved quite capable for your speakers at the ETF.
Further impressions of nCore vs UCD-400HG HxR:
The first impressions of nCore was the sound is more solid (esp. mids, highs better articulated) compared to UCD but other than that there was not much difference. That statement is still true.
However, i figured that if the there is not much difference, there could be a limiting factor other than my ears. I changed spikes under the speakers and added weight in the speakers' sand chambers. With UCD modules resulted in a bit too harsh/bright/small/"pointy" (hard to define the correct adjective) sound image to my ears and i soon reverted back to more "relaxed" speaker mounting. But, now, with nCore modules, the sound picture only gets better and more solid with kind of changes described. The warmth/smoothness stays with certain recordings, but theres only more resolution.
Like with many things in hifi, after certain point the improvements only create potential for better sound. If the improvement is not given opportunity to implement itself, it's not a real improvement.
I am slowly starting to love nCore and i am excited of what it can provide for me in the future. There seems to be more potential than in UCD modules.
The first impressions of nCore was the sound is more solid (esp. mids, highs better articulated) compared to UCD but other than that there was not much difference. That statement is still true.
However, i figured that if the there is not much difference, there could be a limiting factor other than my ears. I changed spikes under the speakers and added weight in the speakers' sand chambers. With UCD modules resulted in a bit too harsh/bright/small/"pointy" (hard to define the correct adjective) sound image to my ears and i soon reverted back to more "relaxed" speaker mounting. But, now, with nCore modules, the sound picture only gets better and more solid with kind of changes described. The warmth/smoothness stays with certain recordings, but theres only more resolution.
Like with many things in hifi, after certain point the improvements only create potential for better sound. If the improvement is not given opportunity to implement itself, it's not a real improvement.
I am slowly starting to love nCore and i am excited of what it can provide for me in the future. There seems to be more potential than in UCD modules.
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Very much true. At ETF we had the 1 ohm resistor in place. Without it the highs were just too much and sounded tiring. I observed a similar effect two years earlier with the hybrid amp. That's what inspired me to do the experiment with the series resistor at this ETF. I don't know which exact module was in there but you probably do.
Yes, I meant beaming with passive crossovers. I am biwired now directly to the NC400 screw terminals as I had seen that suggestion from you earlier in the thread. Thanks. At some point I hope to take my speakers active in which case I will pick up a second set of NC400 modules.
I'm using 1 SMPS600 to power 2 NC400's now. Under what circumstances would I want to get a second SMPS600? As long as the NC400's aren't clipping?
Thanks.
So far I've placed 2 separate orders from them and the first was a little slow but eventually arrived so I figured it might have been caught up in customs. The second arrived 3 or 4 days after placing the order. They seem to respond, most of the time, to email within reason. Hope this helps and the quality is worth the wait.
Cheers!
rondr
So you're saying there is no sonic benefit to having one PS for each NC400?
I doubt it. I'm sure that before I know it someone will try it and report a huge difference, but from a technical perspective you only need one supply per module if you plan to squeeze the last watt out of them.
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