Describing the Ncore is actually pretty difficult because it represents for me an even more vividly emotional presentation of sound than before. My Virtue is a very good amp, and as my first personal hi fi amp (I have heard other amps in various systems, but not for extended periods), it was also offered a jaw dropping, emotional connection to the music. I took it to its max capability. As my first amp I did everything I could to it, upgraded to an Astron LS-10a linear supply, then to a battery supply, then sent it in and had the preamp disabled, the high pass permanently engaged, and large ClarityCap MR’s installed.
But it’s clear now I’m listening to the Claritycaps with the Virtue, or rather, they are a large component of the sound, especially considering how drastic the change was between Auricaps, and then Sonicaps, and then ClarityCaps. With the Ncore, I didn’t get that sensation at all, rather the impression was I wasn’t listening to a capacitor coloration at all because the sound had none of the traits of the Virtue amp. The Ncores present an effortless and complete, high definition sonic hologram, it sounded perfect in my system, and it was pure magic. My source gear consists of an Emotiva Erc-2 player, and a Warpspeed ldr, battery powered. The Erc is also attributed neutrality with a highly revealing nature. I find that it is an extremely live and dynamic player, and the strong output signal (2V nominal, 12V peak to peak), combined with the passive nature of the LDR, worked quite well here. My speakers are Magnestand MMG’s with Jupiter Beeswax caps bypassed with Mundorf Silver in oil. The resulting sound of those devices, via Ncore, if it has to be described as having any consistent nature, is that of dazzling realism, given a light sweetening from the Magnestand crossover, just enough, to render everything immensely enjoyable, everything becomes an experience to be beheld. A sound that errs on warmth just so, with a dab of sweetness, but is utterly crystalline clear and utterly effortless. It’s very nice. And again, I feel I’m hardly describing it very well, because the sound was so much more than I could put into words.
This might do it better: When choosing my Virtue amp, I asked a lot of people their opinion, what they thought. My choice was between that and the SDS-470. I realized one was much more powerful than the other, but I wanted to explore amps and didn’t mind a lower power. That was in late 2010, when my speakers were 8ohm GR Insignia monitors and they didn’t need a whole lot of power. My main interest was getting the best sounding amp. The Virtue was given the nod every time.
Now, Anand, “Poseidon’s Voice,” a person who owned the SDS amps said that if the SDS was an 8/10, he would rate the Ncore 20/10, and I have to say the same thing about the Tripath, but how do you describe that? Now, to be fair, I now run those Magnestand MMG’s which like power, and the Ncore is capable of delivering far more of it, but even at very low level listening, between the two it was no contest. . such a tremendous leap in performance.One of my friends who is also now building a system, and was there and helped me pull an endless number of cd’s down from the rack, said very shortly into it, “you should sell your other amp.”
..When they first arrived, I couldn’t wait to get them into my system. My very first reaction to the Ncores, standing right next to the speaker as I hit play on Jimi Hendrix’s Valleys of Neptune, was, “hey... the Virtue isn’t that bad!” This was followed immediately by, “ohhh wait... hold the door.” I sat down and began fiddling with the dial on my Warpspeed, up, wow, up more, oh geez, then way way down… just as impressive.
Over the next half hour, as the mono’s warmed up, I wrote these impressions on a notepad: “holographic, airy, thunderous, super control, LOUD with no distortion, quiet sounds just as awesome. 3D beyond belief, toe tapping, stomach clenching-amazing, strong imaging, getting EVERYTHING. No smog or clouds, like the clearest of blue days, delicate where needs be, startling dynamics, front back is deep. TISS TISS TISS TISS. magic”
Such control, they had a vice grip on every centimeter of those planars, and every single note, breathe, or whisp of smoke was translated straight through the speakers, whatever was there, you got, without any strain whatsoever, and every frequency clearly played, every piece in the recording could be isolated and heard to be clear.
Turning the dial gave me a LOUDNESS I couldn't believe, I think I was too shocked to measure it, but in my small room it was stadium rock concert loud for sure. And the neat part was the Maggies just stopped getting louder at some point in winding the dial. Every speaker system I've ever used in my life, when you turn it up and get near max volume, it begins to sound like crap, and then distort. Not this, I'm still in shock over it, the volume went to ear bleed with no loss in sound quality, and then merely stopped getting louder. Never seen anything like that!
Bass was MUCH lower than before (now useful to 40hz and into the 30’s), accurate beyond words, snarling, extremely defined. Enough to not really care about a sub for most music. Definitely enough to completely rock your world at the listening position and just grab your senses. I found my brow furrowed, lost in complete enjoyment, every time. These Ncores may necessitate Botox injections. There was nothing thin or clinical or “digital”. I would more likely use the word magic. Just a fun experience listening to music with these amps!
Really a very addictive sound, and revealing beyond anything I’ve experienced such that differences in recorded quality are far more apparent here. Some albums, for example an album I DL’d from Zune on my phone, and then ripped with my laptop, sounded incredibly lifeless and flat (but sounded great with the Virtue), but well recorded material was extremely vivid. Stringed instruments were greatest here, guitar played through this system might as well be a real guitar in the room. All the intensity of the plucked string, the full power and twang very palpable.
Low level listening was a surprise all its own! Using the SPL meter on my phone I found even 55 dB avg as a satisfying listening level, bass remained live and zingy, highs clear and extended to just past the Orion nebula. It was just incredibly shocking how dynamic and powerful the music remained at very low spl’s. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
I packaged them back up on Monday, sadly, in fact the entire weekend I loathed the idea that I would be back to the old amp. Sure enough, after hearing the Ncores, I can now hear all the faults in my amp. It’s still quite a nice amp, and does the job very well. Heck, 8/10 ain’t bad. But at this point it’s like I’ve been to the mountaintop and I’ve seen the promised land. I look forward to having these back in my system and calling it a day on amps. I know Virtue plans to come out swinging in October with hopefully a 250 watt version of their amp, and that should be pretty interesting, and had I had one of those in the room, with the planned, I believe 55 volt battery system, that would have been a fairer comparison for sure.
My Two.2 will end up in my living room after this system is done, powering something cool, and easier to drive. Tekton, Vapor Breeze, Soundfield Monitor 1's, something like that, its career is far from over. I'd also like to say it has run like a CHAMP this past year and a half. Not one itty bitty little problem with it.
I’d also like to say that my experience gave me great confidence in Emotiva source gear. I realize that I can achieve even higher performance with more money spent, but the Erc-2 was flawless, liquid, dynamic, as hard edged or as delicate as the music it played, and it was dead silent. Perhaps with 100dB speakers it might have been different, I don’t know, I’ve not heard a high efficiency setup before, but there was nothing but dead blackness throughout. It worked extremely well with the Ncores and I can’t stress enough how enjoyable this combo was. Perhaps the high output voltage combined with the passive nature of the LDR had a lot to do with that.
