Nice to read that the dual channel case does not become very hot. With 9W idle of the SMPS1200 and 5W per NC400 its still almost 20W of warmth. The setup looks nice and neatly putt together. Although I think the dual case is very cramped, if it can dissipate the generated heat, than it should be no problem.
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Thanks Julf, that makes sense.
I did some measurement this morning. On one of the Motu outputs i saw +/-17 mv on the balanced output. Resulted in a whopping 700mv DC on teh ncore output. The driver just gets sucked in into a non neutral position when the AMP is turned on. Without inputs NCORE produced around 20mv DC offset on the outputs.
In anycase, do you happen to know why the ncore is DC coupled while the UcD400 is not?
That sounds somewhat excessive considering the nc400 voltage gain is only a factor of 20 (so the 17 mV should have resulted in 340 mV on the output - but as your measurement is pretty much the double, I suspect some sort of balanced-vs-non-balanced issue).
No, not really - I suspect hypex wanted to let users pick their favorite capacitor brand, as some audiophiles feel pretty passionate about it.
It's interesting to note that the NC500 'stock buffer board' also has no input capacitor (nor HF filter network). A rather risqué omission for newbie implementors although, of course, those designing their own input boards would most probably have picked up on this and added them in or added such components at their input board. 
The trigger voltage just needs to take the applied voltage to ground to turn the SMPS on. Surely this is incredibly easy. A couple of resistors and a n-channel logic level FET would do the job - with the 'standby' applied voltage coming from a wall wart or other convenient source. Easily bundled into the enclosure or an external box if desired. What am I missing?
I do find it odd, however, that Hypex deployed an external trigger option which is the opposite of every external trigger I have encountered (i.e. a +ve voltage is required to maintain standby/off for the SMPS rather than turn it on).
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From forum.zelfbouwaudio.nl • Toon onderwerp - Hypex Ncore
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
You could just solder the necessary parts directly to the connectors (mounted on the rear of your enclosure).
I don't need one, but I don't think it would be hard to make. I only glanced at the SMPS data sheet but the basic idea is attached. When the external trigger voltage goes high it turns on the MOSFET pulling SMPS pin 5.1 to ground and thereby enabling the supply and amp. (Leave nAMPon set such that the amp is on when the supply is on.)
Of course you can make it fancier by building a supply to replace the wall wart but not sure why you would bother.
I don't need one, but I don't think it would be hard to make. I only glanced at the SMPS data sheet but the basic idea is attached. When the external trigger voltage goes high it turns on the MOSFET pulling SMPS pin 5.1 to ground and thereby enabling the supply and amp. (Leave nAMPon set such that the amp is on when the supply is on.)
Of course you can make it fancier by building a supply to replace the wall wart but not sure why you would bother.
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The stereo case in those pictures is a Ghentaudio GK-NCORE-SE
To get an idea of the dimensions (it's identical to mono case).
Thats a curse and blessing at the same time
Specifications
Colour: Black
Material: Aluminium
Outer dimensions: L27,5cm X W20cm X H8cm
LED board with cable to SMPS included
PS.: They are supposed to be working on a new stereo enclosure right now (see attachment), which is 311 mm in length and somewhat wider too. Should be avilable in the "near future" (pricin unknown to me, probably same or similar to the current stereo case). Will fit 2x NCore NC400 and 2x SMPS600 or 1x (?) SMPS1200A400. The new stereo cable kit for the SMPS1200A400 can be fitted too.
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I asked Hypex support about that last year, and the reply was that their design goal is to keep stand-by dissipation at minimum.
Well yeah, that's dandy but as long as all other external trigger voltages work the opposite, it means you need another power supply just to keep this one in stand-by. If you don't want a wall wart, I suppose a 9V battery should last a pretty long time.
Yes we looked at options including internal PSU, extra circuitry or external PSU, extra socket for power, extra points of failure extra wall mains sockets. So we opted for a neat tiny self powered self contained opto, Triac solution, small, cheap, ultra quite and reliable. Opto sees a 12V trigger signal and energises the Triac. "Triac Circuit breaker" approach, surely pretty similar to ON/OFF switch?
Quite similar (apart from the semiconductor non-linearity in series with the mains feed, surely a concern for the "pure virgin unobtainium" power cable crowd), but instead of a triac switching power, I guess you could have used the same circuit with a transistor/FET triggering the SMPS standby.
I have a master-slave power strip, where my preamp is the master so it powers on everything else except the power amp. I'm sure it is using a triac to power the slave sockets, and I'm not comfortable with taking loads of current for a pair of large SMPSs via a triac. My power cables are quite ordinary, without any unobtainium involved.
If a triac controlled power switch was compatible with the rest of the SMPS design, wouldn't Hypex have used that?
All modern wall dimmers work with triacs, and you have to pay a premium for LED bulbs that are dimmable. OK, maybe a bad analogy...
If a triac controlled power switch was compatible with the rest of the SMPS design, wouldn't Hypex have used that?
All modern wall dimmers work with triacs, and you have to pay a premium for LED bulbs that are dimmable. OK, maybe a bad analogy...
Well it seems that BEL CANTO have implemented the trigger in their nc500 offering ...I know of at least one Forum Member that owns a pair... What have they done
Pretty sure they have a signal sensing circuit feeding the SMPS standby control - I can't really imagine them using a triac, but who knows...
I doubt, if they really got a signal sensing circuit built in, because that would make the unit sucseptible for having it switched it on accidently by some noise/pulses etc. on the input.
They might use a 12VDC trigger circuit fed by the preamp or another power amp as most power amps feature it nowadays.
They might use a 12VDC trigger circuit fed by the preamp or another power amp as most power amps feature it nowadays.
Taken from the Bel Canto REF600m manual strange
5/12V Trigger: Requires a 3.5mm plug connector with tip at 5 to 12VDC. The Power Switch must be in the ON position for the Trigger to work. When the trigger voltage is set between 5 and 12V the amplifier will go into a low power mode, shutting the LED off and stopping playback.
5/12V Trigger: Requires a 3.5mm plug connector with tip at 5 to 12VDC. The Power Switch must be in the ON position for the Trigger to work. When the trigger voltage is set between 5 and 12V the amplifier will go into a low power mode, shutting the LED off and stopping playback.
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