Nuforce Icon-1 - the next big thing from Nuforce (in a small package)

rustydoglim · « **on:** 4 Jan 2008, 11:53 am »

If you're going to CES 2008, come to our room at The Venetian Tower Ven 30-317.
We'll be showing Nuforce Icon-1 (the official name for the mini-amp) and S-1 speaker.
The sound is simply amazing and we will sure to break new ground in consumer audio.
Icon-1 uses Nuforce patented technology! It is pure, elegant, cool, and simply the best sounding desktop set on the market.

Icon-1 MSRP = $249 but you can soon order from Nuforce Online or our dealers at $199.
S-1 MSRP to be determined. Probably the same deal as Icon-1.
We anticipate huge demand worldwide so bear with us on preparing for our production. We hope to ship by end of March.

See the images below (the stand for S-1 is not shown here)

Icon-1 will include two sets of speaker cables:
Set 1 = Cat 5 cable for connecting Icon-1 directly to S-1.
Set 2 = Cat 5 cable with banana connector for connecting Icon-1 to other speakers.

vicdiaz · « **Reply #1 on:** 4 Jan 2008, 03:51 pm »

Specs???

raven · « **Reply #2 on:** 4 Jan 2008, 03:54 pm »

Headphone-jack?

rustydoglim · « **Reply #3 on:** 6 Jan 2008, 11:27 am »

Headphone Jack is at the front bottom.

Toka · « **Reply #4 on:** 6 Jan 2008, 06:40 pm »

Awesome!! I will be getting one of these for sure. Looking forward to the CES reports!

ecramer · « **Reply #5 on:** 6 Jan 2008, 06:46 pm »

Now that looks cool could very well be my next headphone amp

raven · « **Reply #6 on:** 6 Jan 2008, 09:14 pm »

And how good is the headphone output

Doublej · « **Reply #7 on:** 7 Jan 2008, 03:24 am »

Interesting. Why the use of cat 5 for the speaker jacks?

Jon L · « **Reply #8 on:** 7 Jan 2008, 04:24 am »

Is the headphone output taken off of the primary amp circuit (hopefully) or a separate opamp headphone jack?

rustydoglim · « **Reply #9 on:** 8 Jan 2008, 09:14 am »

We'll publish the spec after CES. Hey, we don't call it Icon-1 for no reason

. We're still going to work on it some more after CES. All those who heard Icon-1 on the 1st day of the show were surprised. Nobody believe that we can produce sound this good for this price point. Now, don't get me wrong that Nuforce is going low budget. In late 2008, there will be a super expensive line coming (I know, I have been talking about this for a while).

toocool4 · « **Reply #10 on:** 8 Jan 2008, 12:37 pm »

Super Expensive line? Any sneak preview or info Jason?

mcullinan · « **Reply #11 on:** 8 Jan 2008, 02:02 pm »

Hi Ed!

Does this come with a sub.. for my video games..
Mike

csc · « **Reply #12 on:** 8 Jan 2008, 11:24 pm »

Looks like a USB connection is there. So it has DACs as well?

timothyharnett · « **Reply #13 on:** 11 Jan 2008, 11:17 pm »

Still looking good. Interested to know the UK prices.

Is the 3.5mm socket on the back also an optical?

rustydoglim · « **Reply #14 on:** 12 Jan 2008, 11:25 am »

A sub will follow in a few months. The 3.5mm out in front is for the headphone out. There is no optical out (got drop). We plan to add a line out at the back.

raven · « **Reply #15 on:** 14 Jan 2008, 08:19 am »

The question is: how good is the headphone output?

ecramer · « **Reply #16 on:** 14 Jan 2008, 02:10 pm »

Thats an answer that i would be interested in

Quote from: raven on 14 Jan 2008, 08:19 am

The question is: how good is the headphone output?

BradJudy · « **Reply #17 on:** 16 Jan 2008, 08:12 pm »

I'm interested in checking this out and comparing the sound quality to the other small desktop amps. I have a couple here, waiting for a couple more to be released and I'm building an amp switch box to better compare them.

Having USB input and headphone out is definitely interesting. The Cat5 speaker connections is just plain weird (no offense, but I have to count non-standard connectors as a strike against a product).

I'm guessing it's using something like the PCM2704 chip to provide USB input. It could use the same chip for the headphone out, but then the headphone out wouldn't work for the analog input, so it's probably something else.

I like the aesthetics.

rustydoglim · « **Reply #18 on:** 17 Jan 2008, 06:37 am »

We have improved Icon-1 significantly from the prototype shown at CES 2008. A pair of RJ45 to bananna connector cable is included by default.
This amp is really good, reference class quality

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #19 on:** 17 Jan 2008, 06:48 am »

Does it have the power it takes to drive the sptech mini tps in a desktop environment?