FedEx has the Ncores. I waived bye bye with some fond memories and some sadness.
OK, well, here are, IMHO, the five best amps I’ve ever heard (for longer than 10 minutes or not solely at a Show)
Pass Labs XA .5 series
Clayton monoblocks
My Modwright KWA-150 monoblocks
Sanders Magtechs in monoblock mode
Hypex Ncore NC400’s
No, I haven’t heard hundreds of amps, and REALLY haven’t heard a good tube amp for a protracted amount of time, so this small list is simply mine for reference. However, I have heard lots of amps, lots of Class D and Class A and Class AB and whatever. Spectrons, Krells, BATs, NuForces, etc. I’ve never heard an amp quieter or more resolving than the NCores, ever. Quiet as in black, darkness, void…and this with goofy RCA-to-XLR adapters mind you.
The music that the NCores produce is smooth, relaxing, neutral (whatever that perspective is for me) and several orders of magnitude different than any Class D I’ve ever heard. Usually Class D is resolving to a fault, meaning it faults in the upper atmosphere of haze, tininess and ethereal digititis. Not the NCores. They don’t call attention to any one aspect, and are the ultimate “transformer” for fixing a system that is slightly bright, or digital sounding (again, how weird to ask a digital amp to fix a digital sounding system).
As I stated in my first listen on Friday night, the biggest issue one needs to get over is the fact that they will keep up with probably any amp you compare them to. In my system they accomplished 95-99% of what I asked them to do, and for what….like $1800?? And in many less power-hungry systems, or for many less-dynamic hungry listeners, they will likely do 100+%. Their diminutive physical presence is almost a problem, due to bias and expectation. It’s like hearing those great modern mini-monitors and swearing a subwoofer must be on somewhere….so you have an obstacle going in that shouldn’t be there.
On a purely personal level, I am not going to replace my Modwrights with the NCores, based on this wonderfully generous evaluation from Jason (and taking eval time away from generous Randy). As I said, these mighty mites did almost everything I needed, but what they failed to bring to my ears was a deal-breaker of sorts, albeit small in perspective. I am used to the possibly-artificial-but-nonetheless-important air and presence that my KWA-150’s impart. A sort of dynamic that, given the right recording, makes a Marshall amp sound like it is in the room and electrifying the air. The NCores make it sound like I am listening to that recording perfectly; the KWA’s make it sound like the recording is happening in my room. This dynamic is not evident on many recordings, but when it is, I need it. My hunch is that a possible solution may be quite simple…bridged mono configurations. And I have an idea that will allow this eval to happen (I buy and have built bridged monos with 4 modules and 2 SMPS’s, then if I am wrong I use one mono for my center channel amp, and reconfig the other to be my 2 channel surround music amp…selling my 2 existing McCormack DNA amps in the process).
Anyway, the evaluation and listening session were quite revelatory. This amp architecture will change forever the stature and positioning of Class D, and will shake up the value proposition for DIY amplification.
Thanks again to Jason for the stupidity, er, generosity of loaning the amps to us AC goofballs, to TomS for his adapters and overall help with this momentum, and to Randy for his generous offer to split time. I gained a new local audio buddy in the process, and if that’s all that comes out of this…I’m ahead anyway.
