[rustydoglim]

We will be launching the most important development in our company's history, the version 2.0 of our amplifier. A lot of work (including testing) has gone into redesigning the amplifier board to remove RFI on FM, reduce noise (it is 20db below existing amp) and improve long term reliability.  The sound quality of V2 board surpassed all our expectations.  2 Ref 9 V2 amps have been running at continuous 100W since March 16, 7 am.  They have been sentenced to life in permanent torture chamber.  We take them out for test every week (less frequent as time goes by).  Two other Ref 9s got even worst sentence, they have been subjected to 200W continuous burn-in every 30 minute (with 15 minute cool down).

This will be the first time in high-end audio history that we demonstrate the NuForce benefit of technology protection and migration for customers, for an entire product line!
Unless you specifically request for V1 based products, all amplifier products ship from today will be based on V2 amplifier board.  You can't actually order V2 products or upgrade to V2 until after May 5 as we have been working hard to bring hundreds of V2 boards into production.

We will provide more information about V2 on our website in the coming days.  Check out the V2 FAQ topic.

[rustydoglim]

We will provide a few audition units for some of you to try it out around mid May.  We are just starting to prepare review units for all the usual websites and magazines.

[NealH]

Please post the plots of conducted and radiated emissions.   This will tell us where the amplifier stands in regards to noise output.  Saying that V2 is 20db less is not telling us much.  Saying it is 20db below the class B FCC curve tells us noise is no longer a concern from this amp. 

[daz_bike]

Jason and Nuforce,

Congratulations on what sounds like a killer board. 

Thanks for looking after your customers in typical Nuforce style rather than leaving us with obsolete gear. 

Not many companies have this practice.

I for one will be looking forward to the upgrade through my dealer.

Cheers

[rustydoglim]

We'll try to provide more data and some photo. We are simply overwhelmed with backlog of a few hundred upgrades in May alone.  The international distributors got a head start (2 tier distribution there so we have to service them first) so they are keeping us busy. We will send out review units to all the reviewers in May.

A lot of the reviewers already used Ref 9SE as their reference amp so we plan to send Ref 8.5V2 or Ref 9V2 for them to compare with Ref 9SE.  Then upgrade their Ref 9SE to Ref 9V2SE.  Readers will be able to find out how V2 compares with V1.  I think worldwide there will be at least 20 reviews of V2 by end of the year.

[Halfdeaf]

Clapclapclapclapclap!!!

As one who has (patiently) awaited the arrival of a non-RFI emitting version of the Ref 9, please allow me to get in the domestic upgrade queue now.

[rustydoglim]

Photo of V2 versus V1 amp board:
http://www.nuforce.com/V2.htm
You can see from the arrangement of all those hundreds of tiny little parts that we have redesigned it.

[timothyharnett]

Jason and Nuforce,

Congratulations on what sounds like a killer board. 

Thanks for looking after your customers in typical Nuforce style rather than leaving us with obsolete gear. 

Not many companies have this practice.

I for one will be looking forward to the upgrade through my dealer.

Cheers

Agreed.  This is a very, very significant change. 

[edmond]

Any V2 upgrade available for IA-7E ?

[rustydoglim]

Please take a look at the upgrade information on the website:
http://www.nuforce.com/upgrade.htm

By the way, we just updated the spec for Ref 8.5/9/9SE V2.
With V2, 9 and 9SE gets higher power at 8 ohm (190W versus 160W with V1).  Well, it is not very relevant since most listening power are at 50W.  The THD+N vs freq plot do not use any AES 17 22kHz filter (most manufacturers use that to make the high freq numbers look good and we used that for V1 plot too ) and you can see that the distortions are very low for typical listening power from 10W to 100W.

[togil]

Does the Upgrade info also apply outside US, ie do we have to raise support ticket ?

[rustydoglim]

Upgrade outside of US should be handled by the distributor or dealer.  Please be patient with the upgrade.  .

[JayDoubleU]

Jason,

How many upgrades can these amplifiers handle, technically? I already went from Reference 9 to 9.02, and from 9.02 to SE. These amps sound absolutely brilliant, but if even better transients and bass are possible, I am seriously interested. Will my amps be ok with another upgrade or should I consider trading them in for all new Ref 9 SE V2? Maybe something to add to your FAQ's?

Thanks, JW

[nuforce-casey]

No problem and no reliability issue.  We developed the upgrade for a drop-in into the old chassis and it's not 're-working' of your old board.

[rustydoglim]

Please read my follow up posting on the V2 FAQ about all the work that have done into testing V2 boards.
As we explained, your amplifier is just a platform where we swap things in and out, like your PC.
Unless you abuse it by trying different cables every week or move things around, there is very little wear and tear on the connectors. The SMPS is telecom grade and will last a long time (probably more than 10 years).
Therefore all we're doing with each product upgrade is replace the amp board (for the SE, added another board), just like you would replace your PC motherboard or sound card 

We can do that because we developed the amplifier technology in house.