hypex ncore

[robbbby]

Originally Posted by slowlearner

mr_push_pull,

Quick question.

I ordered a Galaxy Maggiorato from Hifi2000 and sent the funds using their PayPal directions. I have sent two follow-up emails to confirm my order and I have received no response. Have you done business with them before?

I just recently ordered from them and it took them about 3 days before they sent me an invoice. The invoice had an error for my shipping address so i emailed them and have not had a response. Possibility that they don't have anybody that speaks english there?

[Humanjava]

Could one not use something like a Jensen transformer to take singled ended to balanced? I would think this yields better S/N ratio?

I was considering this for my build so I can have both balanced and single-ended.

[HFGuy]

At best the SNR will remain unchanged.

[mr_push_pull]

Originally Posted by slowlearner

mr_push_pull,

Quick question.

I ordered a Galaxy Maggiorato from Hifi2000 and sent the funds using their PayPal directions. I have sent two follow-up emails to confirm my order and I have received no response. Have you done business with them before?

no, I haven't but there are enough people here who got their cases.
I sent them an email a while back and they answered pretty quickly in decent English as far as I remember.

[Bruno Putzeys]

I wonder what kind of unbalanced cable can be so good that overall it actually performs better than a normal, decent balanced one. Even if we accept that certain construction details can have an audible effect, is it likely that they can make up for the gross problems fundamentally associated with unbalanced wiring, such as letting ground currents mix with the music?

I mean, to each his own, but people simply underestimate the advantage of balanced wiring (including balanced cabling with RCA on the source end). On the other hand they have been led by a parasitic audio accessories industry to woefully overestimate the differences between competently designed cables. One reason being that said industry produces a lot of disastrous products, like unshielded cables (e.g. Nordost or Anti-Cable), "pseudo balanced" cables or cables so sensitive to noise that you can use them as microphones. Well of course you get lost in the woods and of course after picking a favourite you'll hang on to it for life. But that's because one is made to believe that good cables are a rarity. Well, if cables do sound that different between them, this means only one thing: that those guys have no idea what they're on about. I don't concur with the naïve objectivist point of view that cables don't make a difference, but I do insist they shouldn't. This puts the onus on electronics builders to minimize the sensitivity to cables (provide balanced I/O with low output impedance and high common mode input impedance) and on the manufacturers of cables to get the basics right (shielding, symmetry, microphonics).

Fitting RCA's instead of XLR's because one is bamboozled by snake oil salesmen into thinking that not using their cable is going to eat into the improvement offered by a better amp is a retrograde step. You may think you're preparing the amplifier to fully receive the benefits of a special cable but instead you're limiting its potential by forcing one of the signal wires to carry chassis currents as well.

[StigErik]

Love your post there Bruno..... good that some still have the energy to fight the nonsense from socalled subjectivists that think they can design anything by ear alone.

[TheShaman]

Good post Bruno.
Now if you could actually persuade people to properly wire XLRs (see Pin1), that would make more sense...

If someone has a source/preamp with unbalanced outputs I'd probably put a pair of quality transformers inside the power amp for the SE->BAL conversion and then send the (now balanced) signal to the NCores.
Active devices could also be used (e.g. THAT1646) but then you have the added complexity of having to provide said devices with power.

[ds23man]

The XLR connector is from it's invention up till now by far the best and most reliable device there is. The RCA was only designed to have a cheap connection method for home audio as an alternetive for the Din plug, which is crap also. If you use decent ( Neutric) XLR's with a quality cable from Tasker ( C128) you will have the best solution you can have!

My two cents...

Regards Gerhard

[arend-jan]

OK I'd like to share my first impressions of the ncore amplifier.

Setup is a Tentlabs DIY CD player + Tribute autoformer volume control + NCore into a pair of mint Quad ESL 57 electrostatic loudspeakers (fully refurbished). An all dutch setup as it appears. Previous amplifiers auditioned in this setup are, amongst others, Marantz 8b, Lynn Olson's Karna (PP 300B), SE 300B, PP 6V6, SE GM70, Marantz pm80, and Hypex UcD400.

The first two things I noticed are sound stage and details,details,details. Sound stage is big, stable and has good depth. The music is 'in the air' and does not collapse into the speakers during difficult passages. With details I'm not referring to 'hearing sounds that you never noticed before', but more like everything is better defined. Sounds are more easily recognizable and on several occasions I had the 'aha, so that's what that sound is' experience. Studio effects like artificial refurb stand out more as you can hear deeper into the background. Complex orchestral works do not become a garbled mess, you can still follow each melody and instrument without effort, or just sit back and enjoy.

Compared to the Hypex ucd I would not call the NCore a small improvement. From my experience with the UcD there was a hint of glare in the mids and the highs sounded a bit dirty/aggressive. Not anymore with the NCore. The highs sound natural and clean. No smearing, sibilance or harshness at all.

I've owned the Tentlabs CD player for 3 years now so I know this player well. What I like about it is the low coloration, cleanness and naturalness. It does not have that digital restless and dirtiness to it. The NCore amplifier for me is the perfect match as it has the same qualities.

So far the NCore has made an extremely positive impression!

[Omholt]

Originally Posted by Bruno Putzeys

I don't see the point comparing with UcD. If Ncore weren't better than UcD I'd have a serious problem. By all means, pitch them against anything you can find.

Agree, and you're not a high-end salesman who only make some changes with coloration.

What's interesting is whether Ncore can compete with the best linear amplifiers, which seems to be class A. Or if class D will ever quite get there. It certaintly would be very nice to not need amps that operate like baking ovens.