Ref9 upgrade path?

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JayDoubleU

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Ref9 upgrade path?
« on: 23 Dec 2014, 11:09 pm »
Over the years I have enjoyed my Ref 9 amps, upgrading from Ref 9 to 9.02, V2, V2 SE, and V3 SE. I am ready for further upgrades, especially now that even better sounding amps are on the market: NuPrime's own Ref20, but also Hypex nCore, Auralic Merak and some others. There was always the promise of further upgrades to Ref 9, either with CMA like Ref 18, better power supply, Ref 10 or even V4 iteration. Most of my questions about this have gone unanswered by NuForce, and the answers that were given have come out false ("Ref10 will be here soon" etc).

My question: will there be a serious upgrade path, either through technical upgrades or trade in, for Ref9 owners? Or should I forget about NuForce/NuPrime?

rustydoglim

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    • www.nuprimeaudio.com
Re: Ref9 upgrade path?
« Reply #1 on: 24 Dec 2014, 02:10 am »
NuForce will not answer any question about the high-end products as they are now under NuPrime brand.  They won't even refer customers to NuPrime. These two companies are sort of competitors not directly in product line, but perhaps in brand recognition. You have come to the right place.

For the past 9 years, the V1, V2, V3 amp modules were evolved from the same principle design. And they can be easily upgraded because the power supply remains unchanged. So that means we can simply swap out either the amp or the power supply board.  But in order to have further breakthrough in design, we need to "go back to the drawing board" and try many different things.  Think of the patented design as the blueprint for inspiration.  If a brilliant engineer sees the secret, he can unlock the potential.  We have expanded the engineering team under NuPrime and therefore sparks are flying with proliferation of designs.  IDA-16, ST-10, and the up coming MCA-K28 multi-channel amps are all based on different designs.

So for Ref 9* upgrading to Ref 20 or beyond, we have to change the entire internal parts: amp module, capacitor array, power supply.  So there is really no upgrade path except trade-in.  We can give you a very good price for the trade-in toward new model, even if it is a down grade.  May be you retired and want a simpler all in one setup like IDA-16, just contact us and we will work out something for you.

Jason