[pearsall001]

The P-8 will be mated to a Van Alstine OmegaStar 440EX solid state amp, very fast, dynamic & musical. Presently I am using a NAD T773 receiver as my preamp. My source (for now) is the OPPO DVD/CD player using it's 2 channel analog output. My main speakers are AAD 2001 monitors. My room is semi treated w/ a bass trap, corner traps & absorption panels at the first reflection points. As we speak I think my CD playback sound is pretty darn good. What will the P-8 do to my system musically? What will it bring to the table over my NAD used as a preamp? Any present users of the P-8 that can fill me in on how you like it & how it adds to your system musically would be appreciated.
Thanks

[beachbum]

hello and welcome to the nuforce family, i really cant say how it will replace your nad as i havent heard one, but in my system the p-8 fills the audio bill, quite, fast, full featured remote, enough inputs, and the best part for me my ears like it, good luck and have a good one

[Daemon]

I've never heard the power amp you're using (not common in Australia unfortunately), but I do own a P8 and I am familiar with the sound of the NADs.  

I would expect that the first thing you'll notice is that the sound seems less bassy and colder (more forward, without being actually forward). Then you should notice that the base is actually still there as strong as ever (if not stronger and richer), but lower mid and upper bass is less emphasised and this is what makes it seem less bassy. This is what neutral sounds like (NAD are intentionally voiced warm). You will notice more detail and sonic texture within notes over the entire audio range, and you'll note you've swapped artificial warmth for accuracy and clarity. You'll notice an increase in attack speed (if your Omegastar has the jones to keep up, which it reputadly should have), and also in decay time; intramusical silences will stand out, and be dead silent. Your Omegastar will be able to shine and it'll sound like it has a slight extension if range at both top and bottom. High notes will be sweeter, and tricky to reproduce things like violin solos will be smooth and heart breakingly sweet. THings like cymbals will have more 'shimmer' but without the extended wiz of artificial treble extension (unless you have speakers that wiz anyway). You should find mids to upper base reproduced with far more clarity. The speed of the pre should allow the omegastar to show its transient authority too.

At first you're going to wonder if you made the right decision, then you'll get used to the sonic neutrality over a few weeks, and if you plug your NAD back in, you'll find it murky and quite lacking in detail by comparison. At first you'll miss the induced warmth (you may even long for a tone control or an eq), then eventually you'll be over it and you'll never want for it again.

Of course, I could be wrong.

[rustydoglim]

Agree. Once you hear the accurate Nuforce sound, you can never go back .  That's our design philosophy. We'll soon introduce an exceptionally powerful (the bass will shock you), super low distortion (you'll hear every instruments precisely as it should be) and very compact speaker. We have been working on this speaker for many months with a very talented speaker designer that the world has overlooked.  We'll have more announcement in the near future.

[alpsy]

hi jason,

any update on the p-9? release date?

cheers,

julie

[rustydoglim]

It is in production. P-9 has a motorized mechanical volume control with remote (very cool) so integrating the software with the circuit board takes more time. It is so cool that when you turn it off, the volume will rotate itself back to zero. And because it has memory, it will rotate back to previous volume level.

P-9 is still 3 to 4 months away but we'll be doing more pre-production listening test in a few weeks. P-9 comes from the same design as P-10 but with more down to earth parts and chassis.  Current est. price is $2500

See another topic for P-8 trade-in program if you can't wait.