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Hi just purchased a bargain in the UK.
I bought 2 Nord monoblocks with Hypex NC500 modules, XLR inputs, Nice speaker binding posts for £1014.00 for the pair including delivery.
Wont get them for a couple of weeks as I am away but cannot wait.
I believe all internal components are the same as Acoustic Imagery ATSAH 500 so great price.
They are made by IQ Speakers in the UK and the guy who runs the company is great to do business with.

[poseidonsvoice]

Thanks a lot for the tip!

Enjoy, the NC500 is a great amp, I heard it RMAF.

Best,
Anand.

http://www.iqspeakers.co.uk/#!product-page/onbar/bfe0ee46-2cc1-e9a7-c90a-76f5145d09cd

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Forgot to say I believe they are going to do uprated input buffers soon with choice of op amp I think Buirson etc.

[ddark65]

Hi just purchased a bargain in the UK.
I bought 2 Nord monoblocks with Hypex NC500 modules, XLR inputs, Nice speaker binding posts for £1014.00 for the pair including delivery.
Wont get them for a couple of weeks as I am away but cannot wait.
I believe all internal components are the same as Acoustic Imagery ATSAH 500 so great price.
They are made by IQ Speakers in the UK and the guy who runs the company is great to do business with.

you ever get these amps yet ? thoughts

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Will have them up and running this week will come back to you with my thoughts once set up.

[jtsnead]

Atsah 500 in my system right now, I like what I hear very much
not  a great picture below, top down, I was really taking a pic of
my surge tank

Also for anybody familiar with VPI bricks would these being on top
have a detrimental effect

[Speedskater]

What in the world is a 'surge tank' and why?

[jtsnead]

I was taking a pic of it for another thread about my linear tracking air bearing tone arm see below

[Don_S]

What in the world is a 'surge tank' and why?

Looks like a pipe bomb. 

[TomS]

What in the world is a 'surge tank' and why?

The output of the air pump is not very consistent, more of a pulse output in sync with the pump action. At the low pressures the T3 uses, it can vary a significant amount as a percentage of output, so the surge tank provides a buffer. I have the same sort of 4" DIY tank on mine and it works well.

[jtsnead]

Correct Toms...the T3 is one of the best arms available...back to the NC500 based Atsah amplifiers they are amazing

[TomS]

Correct Toms...the T3 is one of the best arms available...back to the NC500 based Atsah amplifiers they are amazing

Glad you're enjoying the Atsah 500's. I've had the Atsah 1200's in my system for a long time and they do a great job 

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 I was going to post this last Friday but due UPS sending my monoblocks in the wrong direction and not putting things right quickly there was a delay in receiving them.

I had been away from home for sometime and as soon as I returned the Nord NC500 mono blocks were despatched on a next day delivery as promised, but UPS sent them all over the country and I received them 3 days late.

Anyway they were very well packed (just as well) for transit in very good quality boxes and eventually arrived safely.
I must say I am very pleased with the look and the finish.
Workmanship is of a very high standard inside and out, mine are black cases.
Speaker binding posts are very solid, they and the XLR connectors are very good quality.

As I said before they are made by Nord - IQ Speakers, the price I paid for two of them is £1,014 including delivery and I consider this to be a real bargain.

Plugged them in switched on and everything worked fine, no hum or hiss silence when nothing playing just as it should be.

So how do they sound well I have not heard my favourite music sound this good before.
They are neutral, very detailed, clean sounding and have exceptionally good bass control. The clarity is outstanding and there are subtle details in the music that I had not noticed before.
My favourite violin concertos and orchestral music sound excellent.
Also because of the power available the sound seems effortless and the sound stage is huge.
I am not very good at describing sound, all I can say is that I believe these amplifiers give exceptionally good performance and at a very reasonable cost.

The Nord model that I have is fitted with the Hypex input buffers and LM4562 op amps which I believe are the same as fitted to the Acoustic Imagery ATSAH 500 mono blocks that I was originally thinking of buying. This is before I discovered the Nord mono blocks at a considerably lower price.
A full review of the Acoustic Imagery amplifiers was published in another well known Hi Fi magazine recently and they were highly rated I am assuming that mine sound the same.

On the subject of sound quality when I purchased my mono blocks I knew that Nord would be offering uprated buffers with high quality discrete op amps at a later date but I did not want to wait the extra 4/5 weeks for delivery and so purchased the amplifiers with the standard Hypex buffers.
I did want the upgrade as I have heard that it makes a difference but did not want to wait so I arranged with IQ Speakers to have the uprated parts sent to me at a later date.
The uprated buffers will be available soon and I hope I have made the right decision to buy them as I am pretty happy with these monoblocks as they are.
On the other hand I can just about afford it so why not give it a try.
I will be fitting them myself as it is quite a simple job. IQ would of course do this for you in fact Colin at IQ offered to come to my home at no cost and I live about 100 miles away but I told him not to worry as I have done many similar tasks in the past and that I was happy to do it.
At the moment I will be getting the uprated input buffers fitted with Burson V5 but Nord are very kindly also sending me the Sparkos discrete op amps to compare. With either I hope to have another step up in detail and sound quality thus for a small extra cost I will be turning the basic Nord monoblocks into even greater giant killers.
I Will give you further info on how they sound after fitting the uprated input buffers.
Even with the extra cost for the uprated buffers the cost is still well under the Acoustic Imagery price and all the other manufacturers using the NC500 modules.

[jtsnead]

Yes Tweek Geek has said something about future upgrades, however these amps sound really good as they are, listening to them on my new Christmas present PSB Imagine T3 speakers

[tane0019]

....................................... .......

As I said before they are made by Nord - IQ Speakers, the price I paid for two of them is £1,014 including delivery and I consider this to be a real bargain.

....................................... .......

At the moment I will be getting the uprated input buffers fitted with Burson V5 but Nord are very kindly also sending me the Sparkos discrete op amps to compare. With either I hope to have another step up in detail and sound quality thus for a small extra cost I will be turning the basic Nord monoblocks into even greater giant killers.
I Will give you further info on how they sound after fitting the uprated input buffers.
.........................

Did you manage to compare the 3 opamp ? 

Reason I'm interested is because currently I've 2 DIY mono unit of NC400 and is thinking about potentially changing them to the Nord NC500.

Suppose the LM4562 in NC500 is having the same type of Sound Quality/Signature as NC400.

[poseidonsvoice]

Did you manage to compare the 3 opamp ? 

Reason I'm interested is because currently I've 2 DIY mono unit of NC400 and is thinking about potentially changing them to the Nord NC500.

Suppose the LM4562 in NC500 is having the same type of Sound Quality/Signature as NC400.

From a pm from Colin who runs Nord regarding the differences of the NC400 and the various iterations of the NC500:

Hi Anand
Very little if any for the standard Hypex Buffer board. With the new Nord UP buffer board using either the Burson or the Sparkos Labs discrete Op Amps along with Hypex discrete HxR Voltage Regs a marked improvement in terms of soundstage, texture and warmth but most importantly shear enjoyment.
Yes we do have two units going out this week, £75 shipping.
Hope this helps and look forward to make you happy!
Colin

Best,
Anand.

[poseidonsvoice]

 

Anand.

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Did you manage to compare the 3 opamp ? 

Reason I'm interested is because currently I've 2 DIY mono unit of NC400 and is thinking about potentially changing them to the Nord NC500.

Suppose the LM4562 in NC500 is having the same type of Sound Quality/Signature as NC400.

I should be receiving the uprated buffers very soon.
From conversations with Colin at Nord the Sparkos are his favourite but he feels that my interest with classical music may favour the Bursons. But he does feel that both are a step up from the LM4562.
I will post again but may be a few weeks as I want to run them both for a while before deciding which I prefer and post comments.

[tane0019]

 

Awaits your comments.

By the way, what source, pre and speaker are you using with the NC500 ?

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Awaits your comments.

By the way, what source, pre and speaker are you using with the NC500 ?

Speakers are a Troels Gravesen design made by me, I saw some Danish speakers recently which used almost the same drivers and they were £8000 pair plus stands. Mine are the Illumina 66 floorstanders.
Pre is Audiolab 8200 CDQ. I feel this is now the weak link so have put my name down for the John Westlake FDAC L3 with built in CD on another site.