I am thinking of buying a buffalo dac for two reasons. First to upgrade my rega dac and also to be able to drive the ncores directly without the use of a pre-amp. The ballanced connections are also nice. But i think I need to be convinced a bit more the it is worth to buy and build this dac. I do not have much experience in building audio equipment.
I->V conversion for DAC. Most dac's have current output (I), needs to be converted to voltage output (V).
Classe ssp300 has quite a nice stereo output aswell, you can bypass all (digital) filters physically.
If you select a "stereo no video" input (be that digital or analog) it bypasses al filtering sections physically (relay) and switches off all video related stuff in the preamp.
Would have gone for the 600 if i had the money (and if it was available on marktplaats
), the 300 doesn;t have xlr out Agree with you that Linn is quite good, I have Linn Ninka's for fronts
I got a version 1 buffalo, works fine and sounds great, but maybe the combination with the ncore's is a bit too "technical". It's definitely not the nice-y woolly warm tube-y sound (if that's your "thing"). I like it, although I'm not using them in combination with the ucd's (using the classe, the buffalo is not even in a box at the moment).
Building it is quite easy, the DAC modules come pre-built, the only thing you have to solder yourself are the psu boards and the I/V stage. Not sure if that is still the case though.
If you live near to Utrecht you could try it out.
I dont know how large the second batch was, but it looks like the Ncore is a real "hit" ? Thats great, and not unexpected.
Or maybe the run was too small or Bruno wants to make smaller batches with small upgrades in between. He did state he was busy routing boards, so ...
Compared to lots of members here at the forum I live arround the corner. Read: In Groningen. A bit too far for a quick visit. But thanks for the offer!
About the nice-y woolly warm tube-y sound. I like it when I am at some friends if mine, which do have Tube amps. But when I'm back at home I'm always glad that I do not have that nice-y woolly warm tube-y sound. I like it a bit more clean or technical as you call it. That is also the reason I went for the Ncore Amps. About the clean or technical, if it gets to technical/clean of analitic I don't like it either. It should be something in between. Well I could always try how it works with the rest my equipment, but first my focus is on the Ncore amps.
I also noticed that the second batch is sold out. Fortunatly I was told by Hypex that my order sits in the second batch!
How many Ncore modules can be connected to one SMPS? Lets say we want to power a multiway system with several NC400 which share one SMPS, and the summed output power drawn from the NC400's will never reach the max output from the SMPS.
Is there a current limit for the Driver Voltage output of the SMPS ?
Is there a current limit for the Driver Voltage output of the SMPS ?
Hey, another one from Groningen; I live some 2 miles from Hypex (Helpman), but no ncore for me yet.
Every time I hear people mentioning the "nice-y woolly warm tube-y sound" I am convinced they never heard a good sounding, clear, transparent, musically involving tube amplifier (forgive me my reaction as I quote an already off topic subject....). I could say "every time I hear a good sounding solid state amp somewhere I nevertheless am glad that I can enjoy my tube amp when I am back home". Don't you guys realize that remarks of this kind are completely senseless??
By the way I still enjoy my solid state Yamaha B2 VFet amplifier..... maybe because I see it as a means to listen to music
When you, Corpius, are looking for something "in between" (whatever that is...) maybe a hybrid is your taste
I wasn;t talking "good" tube amps, the sound I described is normally associated with "bad" tube amps. Mea culpa
Maybe a combination like Devialet employs is "the" way to go, solid state class A for voltage swing, low gain for the class D end stage
Quite a nice piece of engineering, I'd say. For my "study" (more like walk in closet/study/washok) I was actually thinking Arjan Helder's tube pre/buffer, buffalo & my old UcD's. Gain of Arjan;s tube is a bit on the high side though.
Anyway, back ontopic. @Hypex: Any news?
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I wasn;t talking "good" tube amps, the sound I described is normally associated with "bad" tube amps. Mea culpa
Maybe a combination like Devialet employs is "the" way to go, solid state class A for voltage swing, low gain for the class D end stage
For my "study" (more like walk in closet/study/washok) I was actually thinking Arjan Helder's tube pre/buffer, buffalo & my old UcD's. Gain of Arjan;s tube is a bit on the high side though.
Anyway, back ontopic. @Hypex: Any news?
Yes, we've received the boards and QC is working hard to check everything. We'll start with shipping tomorrow, and most likely monday the rest of the back orders....
I'm looking forward for more comments about the performance!
According to Hypex they will start shipping NC400 from the second batch this week or at the latest start of next week. Somehow Christmas was closer with only 24 days than it is to wait for these units – growing up certainly have some disadvantages but then pocket money at that age couldn’t buy these kind of toys…
I live 2,5 miles from hypex (de Weijert). But I do not think that the modules will be here sooner, unless they start bringing them personally.
When you, Corpius, are looking for something "in between" (whatever that is...) maybe a hybrid is your taste
I should have known not to start this conversation. It always leads to the point that none of the contributers has become any wiser. Yes, we've received the boards and QC is working hard to check everything. We'll start with shipping tomorrow, and most likely monday the rest of the back orders....
I'm looking forward for more comments about the performance!
I'd better start buying the the remaining needed parts.- Status
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