Very interesting group test in Hifi News. It's a group test. The results are as follows for sound quality;
Trichord S300 (Hypex) (£2400/$4800) 78%
Rotel RB1092 (Icepower) ((£1600/$3200) 75%
Channel Islands D100 (Hypex) (£1595/$3190)72%
Nuforce Ref 9 v2 (Nuforce) (£2300/$4600) 69%
Flying Mole MA-S160 (Flying Mole) (£1196/$2392) 66%
The prices are the ones quoted in the magazine for the UK; it's my rough conversion to US dollars - our prices include 17.5% sales tax. I've added the manufacturer of the boards in brackets. I've added the prices so you can see how the units compete in the UK market.
The speakers used for the review were B&W 802D.
These are the comments on the measurements. I think Paul Miller did these.
"This proprietary 'self oscillating switching amplifier' achieves close to 165W/8ohm with 320W in to 4 ohm, but btcause its switch-mode PSU is impressively 'stiff', there's virtually no dynamic headroom - just 170W/310W/425W in to 8/4/2 Ohm. Otherwise, the Reference 9 has a low 0.05Ohm output impedence and flatter response (+1dB at 30-40kHz falling to -2.5dB at 100 kHz) than specified in to 8 Ohm. The response does vary with load impedence however.
Distortion also varies with load, frequency and power, between 0.16-0.031% through the midrange at 1-100W and up to 0.45% at 20kHz. Noise is low and S/N ratio wide at 105dB re. 100W."
