[WerTicus]

interesting!
i shall have longer interconnect then - since it is going to be good quality shielded cable, of the balanced sort.

[Karsten]

interesting!
i shall have longer interconnect then - since it is going to be good quality shielded cable, of the balanced sort.

Balanced cables does normally not need to be shielded due to the high CMRR of this design. Any noise being induced into the cable, will effectively be zeroed out.

Regards,
Karsten

[WerTicus]

mkay - i know very little about balanced cables and how they work.

[Karsten]

As experiment I'm using a set of JPS biwire jumpers as speaker cable on one channel. Skipping the speaker cables seems to give a pretty good positive effect.......I might end up velcro'ing the amps to the rear of the speakers

Brg,
Karsten

[WerTicus]

mmmm could build these amps INTO the speakers and wire the silver leads directly into the x o

though then vibration becomes an issue.

[Karsten]

It seems like the NuForce really likes short speaker cables! Before using these biwire jumpers as speaker cables, I already had the highest resolution I have ever heard from an amplifier, now using just a few inches of cable, it is incredible. Just more of everything. Well, like removing the famous curtain..... It is definitely something I would recommend trying.
I was worried that the vibrations from the speaker would have a negative effect, but it does not seem to be the case. I guess the module is designed for active speakers as well, so this issue has probably been taken into consideration.

Brg,
Karsten

[WerTicus]

how interesting i would definatly like to hear nuforces's opinion about vibration issues!  because as we speak im waiting for new speakers - raw cabinets and i have a perfect opportuninty to build them into it.

[nuforce]

We have not done any investigations for vibration issues. This amp is only on the market for 2 1/2 months! And the pre-production version was shown recently in Jan.  But hey, it is already into 15 countries (we love how fast we can ship these 2.5 lbs baby).
Our first editorial review in Italy: http://www.videohifi.com/15_nuforce.htm
8 or 9 more to come soon ....

Our in-house audiophile Casey probably believe in vibration. But our CTO and I probably are a little skeptical. How can the sonic vibration (which is low compare to the switching freq) affect the electronics? May be there's some effect somewhere for other amps, but with the NuForce design, it detect the feedback directly from speaker terminal (quality of speaker cable is less important) and does the error correction every cycle.

We will have some speaker manufacturers looking into using it in active speakers. It will take another month or two before we know the result. We are very short of inventory.

[WerTicus]

karsten maybe you can do a little a/b with the amps in their current location - via isolating the amps from the speaker with foam or cloth and having them rest directly on top during a bassy sort of track.

i hope the rest of your system is hi end enough to notice a difference if there is one!

[Karsten]

karsten maybe you can do a little a/b with the amps in their current location - via isolating the amps from the speaker with foam or cloth and having them rest directly on top during a bassy sort of track.

i hope the rest of your system is hi end enough to notice a difference if there is one!

Initially I had the amps on the floor, after this I placed them im my Starsound rack, no real sonic difference I could detect. Then I had the one amp hanging in the little speaker cables to compare the difference from left to right channel. There was no doubt that the channel with the few inches of speaker cable sounded better.

Now I just put velcro on the lids of the amps to attach them to the back of the speakers. There is of course a suspension effect in the velcro, which might help to eliminate eventual microphonics.

Placing the amps inside the cabinet will be a more rough environment if you do not make a seperate and isolated chamber for the amps. In your situation I would simply place the amps on the back of the cabinets, as I did. Velcro seems to work fine.

I'm currently using an AA Capitole CD player connected directly to the NuForce with balanced cable. The speakers are SP Technology Revelation. I can hardly complain about the resolution

Brg,
Karsten

[WerTicus]

eheh the concept of velco and using it to attach an AMP to something is most amusing

something i have to get used to

I think ill do the velcro to the back thing  - then i can get the leads... to be ... basically as long as they are inside the speaker! might even be able to insert the amps terminals into the speaker termials and screw it down! wouldnt even need velcro then

[shokunin]

Looks like a pair is already on audiogon along with a placette pre...

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1120411182

[WerTicus]

someone upgrading to the 100w?

[nuforce]

The 70W Ref 8 retail for $1000 a pair NEW (only a handful were delivered before we switched to 100W).
Jason

[guest1632]

The 70W Ref 8 retail for $1000 a pair NEW (only a handful were delivered before we switched to 100W).
Jason

Hey Jason, can you give any hints about the preamp, feature set and possible ballpark price. I'm not asking for trade secrets here, although I would think you guys have something up your sleeves besides an arm and shoulder.

Ray

[nuforce]

Preamp will be priced below $2K, estimated price around $1600 and we hope it will perform as well as other preamp costing 2 to 3x more. Unlike NuForce amps, where we will keep pushing the limit until they outperform everything else on the planet , we have more modest goal for our preamp. But who knows, we might surprise ourselves again.

It will have a remote control, at least 2 source inputs, may be 3. We're thinking of proving both XLR and RCA mix and match (offering both means doubling the connectors). These connectors are very expensive so we might have two models.

Jason

[guest1632]

Preamp will be priced below $2K, estimated price around $1600 and we hope it will perform as well as other preamp costing 2 to 3x more. Unlike NuForce amps, where we will keep pushing the limit until they outperform everything else on the planet :), we have more modest goal for our preamp. But who knows, we might surprise ourselves again.

It will have a remote control, at least 2 source inputs, may be 3. We're thinking of proving both XLR and RCA mix and match (offering both means doubling the connectors). These connectors are very expensive so we might have two models.

Jason

Hi Jason, Probably like the amps, I'd have two models, one balanced and one just RCA's.

Only 3 sources? Are we talking tuner, CD and phono pre? or are we talking about three different amps to hook up for the sources?

Ray

[nuforce]

Ok, I got the preamp spec for you. This is not an official product announcement.
1)   Input:  2 XLR, 8 RCAs:  Balanced (1 set), Phono (optional card), CD, Home Theater, Tuner.
2)   Digital Volume control
3)   remote control
4)   Output:  RCA (2 set), Balanced 1 set
5)   AC input (120/240 worldwide 50/60Hz)
6)   Target Dimension, less than 16” wide, 10.5” deep
7)   Performance target:  100Khz bandwidth, low THD 0.001%

Jason

[nuforce]

John Clark from UK just wrote a review. NuForce Ref 8 is placed directly under the speaker (on the speaker stand). He's replacing his tube with Ref 8.
http://www.nuforce.com/reviews/endusers/JohnClark.htm
Jason

[WerTicus]

how does one wire the pins for going from XLR to RCA for the nuforce?

i have + and - of the XLR going to + and - of the RCA with the earth just being cut. and i am getting a loud hum.