[Paul427]

Well, I’ve had my three days with the ncores, I’ve listened to a lot of different types of music, and my conclusion is that these little amps are incredible! 

To backtrack a little, I’ve been an on-again off-again audiophile for the better part of thirty years.  I started with a solid state adcom amp, moved to mid-level luxman amplification, and then on to the audio research classic 60 and the warm glow of tubes.  I’ve had tangent speakers, spendor, omega, and martin logan aerius.  Sources have included a vpi turntable as well as various cd-players.  See my previous post from Thursday for my current set-up, which emphasizes simplicity and compactness.

Although I’ve heard other great and even state-of-the art systems at shows and dealers, I’ve never been tempted to spend the kind of big bucks required for an all-out assault on the state of the art.  I’ve always looked for good value.

These little mono do-it-yourself amps are probably the most value for the buck I’ve ever encountered.  I thought my bel canto integrated was highly detailed and revealing, and it certainly seemed so compared to the vintage audio research amp it replaced.  But I am hearing more nuance and subtle detail than I have ever heard before.  On top of that, it is all presented in a more natural and more realistic way—no electronic veiling, no digititis, no listener fatigue.

I listened to a lot of well recorded audiophile favorites—Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat, Jazz at the Pawnshop, the Chesky John Pizarelli  My Blue Heaven, the Dorian Sampler Volume 2 among them.  I also listened to HD tracks high res version of Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run.  I also listened to lots of other recordings I have heard many times over the years, such as Mozart Horn Concertos, Dire Straits Bonnie Raitt and Sting albums, and even recent Cold Play, Rihanna and Adele, some of the latter on the MOG service.  Incredibly, even the relatively low -sample rate music on MOG sounded better than I had ever heard it (on MOG).  Most of the source material was played from a macbook air through my dac, but some was played through a squeezebox (original) with the digital signal taken through my dac.

All the music I played seemed to be more present in the room, with better front to back layering.  The instruments and voices had good body and were fully fleshed out.  Complex musical passages and loud crescendos did not overwhelm the system or result in any congealing of the sound  (and this is with my extremely inefficient and power hungry small speakers).  Micro-dynamics were better, allowing you to notice the small changes in volume and energy that makes music so vital.  I did notice a slight tendency toward sibilance in some recordings—but I have no idea whether that is  because of the source,  because of the dac, or because of the amps.  High end: clear and clean.  Midrange: full of body and life.  Bass—solid.

Bottom line—the best amplification and the best music reproduction I have ever heard in my system.  Period.   A very exciting time to be an audiophile!

[ted_b]

Nice review Paul.  Glad they arrived safe and sound....and then sounded great in your system. 

[RCduck7]

I'm very intrested in these amps, they are effecient, it is the future. They would do nice for multichannel to. Though, if i would buy a multichannel amp rightnow i'm not sure i would go the Hypex ncore route or buy me a Earthquakesound Cinénova Grande 7. Not as effecient as class D but a beast of an amp. Reviewers say the Cinénova Grande sounds large but it can also be subtle. And with the cinénova there is also the possibility to request 2 of it's channel to produce class A. Very tempting if you ask me. Did someone had the opportunity to hear an Earthquake Cinenova amp by any chance??

[Chris Adams]

Thanks for the review, Paul. I quite enjoy reading about the different personal history, system changes, and how the NCores stack up.

[jtwrace]

I wait for my Ncore order to arrive.
George

Did you get them yet?

[rklein]

Nice review Paul.  My Ncore modules arrived last week and my RE2207 cases arrived yesterday.  I am waiting on my other parts and pieces to arrive so I can assemble these mighty mites. 

Regards,

Randy

[jtwrace]

The last member to have the amps said he should have his thoughts up soon.

[Rob S.]

I just shipped these back to Jason, and wanted to post my thoughts on my time with the little lightweight wonder amps.  I have to confess, I've been intrigued with the buzz from these amps and really didn't think they would deliver the sound that people have raved about.  Thanks to Jason for squeezing me into the tour.

I have an active three way speaker setup with a custom Selah floorstander, DEQX doing XO work, and atma sphere amps .  And really I need 4 channels of the NCore amps to really make my scenario work.  However, I've got some Selah bookshelf speakers , MF7 to use for this audition.  I've heard these bookshelfs with Odyssey amps,  Butler amps, Arcam receiver, Music Reference RM200, Atma sphere M60's mk2.2, atma sphere S30 w/ speltz autoformers.   I found the Ncores to be delightful.  Mostly on par with the atma sphere amps I own, more listening and A/B will determine my final thoughts( I did not do direct comparisons with the AS amps, my weekend with them was very very busy and time flew by)  I do know this.....  when you consider the increase in power, lower noise, lower power consumption, less heat, and I'm ready for more time with the amps.
 
Here's some of the music I listened to:
Edgar Meyer- uncommon ritual
Ny audio Rave '07, '08 demo discs
Sara K  - waterfalls
Damien Rice- O
Chris Whitley
Carla Bley, Red Horse, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard all on vinyl.

I did not hear anything that I could nitpick about these amps.  Power/ control on the low end, they drove the hell out of the little MF7 bookshelfs, and they held together better than they had any right to.  The Ncore were detailed and musical, and had a top end that was very nice. delicate and slightly rolled off on the digital ( but that might just be the dome tweeter in the Seas, I'll know more about the results with the Raal tweeter on my floorstanders when i build a pair.)  Mid range was very good too.  Sara K's voice was chesty and robust.  stringed instruments had detail, brass and trombones tone was very good, nice bite but not overly aggressive.  I found these non fatiguing.  Definitely great amps!!

Rob S.

[mr_bill]

I would hope these amps don't have a rolled off top end.
Others?

[Barry_NJ]

I would hope these amps don't have a rolled off top end.
Others?

I didn't get that impression in any of the systems that I'd heard them in.

[mr_bill]

Good!
That's a relief - thanks Barry

[Rob S.]

As far as my  rolled off comment goes, I found it to do justice to all my digital music, it made all those highs less pronounced ( when comparing to other SS amps).  Less fake fizzle and more natural refined highs is what I hear.   Words describing what I hear is not my forte.

Rob S.

[genjamon]

Not sure if this is the right thread, as I'm not on the tour.  However, I finally have my monoblocks fully assembled as of late last night.  I was able to put in about an hour of listening.  My room arrangements have been moved around a lot in the last month or so, and my system is still not fully dialed in with the new arrangement.  I will probably want to go back to the better acoustic arrangement in the future, despite the more "social" arrangement I have right now.  Basically, I went from short-wall with symmetry and speakers out from walls to a long-wall arrangement with speakers closer to back wall but far from sidewalls.  Expectedly, I'm having bass issues with my seating position too close to rear long-wall.  Just thought I'd give a sense of what I'm dealing with as context.

Amps I have in house and have listened to quite a bit in the last year: Dayens Ampino, Onix SP3 MkII, modded Miniwatt S1.  The rest of the system is comprised of MacMini 2010 w/SSD, DB Audio Tranquility SE, HornShoppe The Truth pre-buffer, and Tekton Lore speakers (98db, 30-30K in-room response).

I've been listening to the Ampino since the weather shifted a couple months ago and tubes didn't make much sense given the heat.  It has a light, detailed, and somewhat sweet sound.  My amp evolution went from Red Wine 30.2 (original, not LFP-V) to Wyred ICE monoblocks to the Miniwatt on Omega speakers and then Hornshoppe Horns, and finally to the Ampino on the same Horns.  A strange evolution, to be sure, but I found the Ampino to be a huge step up and had a great balance of detail and sweetness, but not as much tonal depth as I craved.  The Onix recently has been a tube exploration for me, and it definitely has more tonal richness along with lots more punch to the sound.  However, over time, I felt like that punch and the tube effects diminished the light microdynamic details I really like a lot.  The punch was also sometimes too much on my high efficiency and dynamic speakers.

Enter the NCore.  With my brief listening so far, and in a non-ideal system at the moment, I think I was hearing a lot of the qualities others have cited.  There was more depth of soundstage, and in a speaker position right now that presents significant headwinds in this dimension.  I also heard a naturalness to instruments that bested the Ampino.  I would not call the amps heavy on "air", but not lacking either.  The air that was there and presented had more resolution to it and wasn't just "air", but really gave better sense of depth into the recording, the venue, whatever.  I wouldn't call it recessed treble, just more of a three dimensional sound.  But the instruments did seem to have more character.  It does seem to add tonal richness and body to instruments above the Ampino, but without any diminished resolution of details (one of the Ampino's biggest strengths).  Finally, the bass seemed weightier than with the Ampino, allowing me to run without my subwoofer with EQ and feel like I wasn't missing much.  In my problematic bass situation, I did feel like the control over the bass was better and able to mitigate some of the boominess and one-note bass I have going on. 

Of course, with only about an hour of listening, these are only very initial impressions.  I'm quite curious to listen more for dynamics as time moves on.  Dynamics are very important to me, and it might be that these are great in every dimension, but not as dramatic with dynamics as what I have enjoyed from other amps.  Or maybe they'll excel there as well.  The great thing about dynamics is that I have options elsewhere.  I could go to a true preamp instead of my current buffer if I wanted more dynamics.  I also am aware of an upgrade to the Tranquility SE output stage that improves dynamics, and I need to send that in to the shop for the upgrade. 

All in all, it was a very promising start last night, and I'm really happy to have successfully pulled off my first somewhat DIY amp project.   

[roscoeiii]

genjamon,

Thanks for those impressions.

Impressive that the ncore pairs so well with such efficient speakers. With those Lores do you hear anything with your ear up to the speaker cone, with the ncore turned on but no music playing?

[bhakti]

Thanks for the writeup genjamon!

I'm curious if you allowed the amps any breakin time?  Not sure if this is an issue with these or not.

[genjamon]

Thanks guys.

My impressions were from stone cold right after finishing soldering and hooking them up to my system. I don't even have the cases fully assembled! Not sure if that means I'm probably not fully benefiting from emi/rf elimination from the case yet.

I do hear a little static and tiny tiny bit of hum with my ear right next to the woofers and tweeters. When I mute using the ampon switch I installed, I hear nothing. It's significantly quieter than my Ampino, though, which is in turn quieter than the Onix or the Miniwatt. I have to put my ear right next to the drivers to hear it.

I have them straight into my wall, and not on a dedicated line or anything. I have minimal power management in my system.

[poseidonsvoice]

Thanks guys.

My impressions were from stone cold right after finishing soldering and hooking them up to my system. I don't even have the cases fully assembled! Not sure if that means I'm probably not fully benefiting from emi/rf elimination from the case yet.

I do hear a little static and tiny tiny bit of hum with my ear right next to the woofers and tweeters. When I mute using the ampon switch I installed, I hear nothing. It's significantly quieter than my Ampino, though, which is in turn quieter than the Onix or the Miniwatt. I have to put my ear right next to the drivers to hear it.

I have them straight into my wall, and not on a dedicated line or anything. I have minimal power management in my system.

The fact that the small amount 'static' and the tiny tiny tiny bit of 'hum' that you hear from 98dB efficient speakers is great but do keep in mind that what you hear may be what is amplified from the source end, i.e. the Truth tube buffer. Just a thought. Note how you thought that the Onix was quieter than the Miniwatt and that the Ampino was quieter than the Onix and now the NCore is quieter than the Ampino.

Anand.

[roscoeiii]

Yes, very impressive that you have such little noise from the amp into such efficient speakers. To test Anand's theory that the preamp may be contributing, easy enough to disconnect the preamp.

[Emile]

I would hope these amps don't have a rolled off top end.
Others?

Nah the supplied shielded mogami lead sounds slightly closed up on top, just change for something else if it bothers you.

[mr_bill]

Emile,
shielded mogami lead - is that supplied with the NCore modules?