Hi guys, I want to give an update, an important one indeed....
It has been a while since I made some positive comments about the Nuforce V3. I have been going through a head-spinning experience, pretty much like that of Edgar's. I have exchanged many messages with Jason-Nuforce and his agent in Hong Kong, expressing the hugh dissapointment I had going from V2 (i was very happy, so i was hoping to get happier with upgrade) to V3 in my Ia-7...I have been bothering these gentlemen but they both have been very patient and supportive.
Reading the several very positive feedback from this forum and contrast that to what I was hearing made me feel my ears had problem. I did not like the new V3 at all, so much that I wanted to go back to V2 and tried to forget making any upgrade.
You just could not believe Nuforce amp could sound so slow, sluggish, so much rolling off from the top end, all the musical nuances and spatial information were missing, and for a while I started to wonder if my tweeters are malfunctioning. I don't like slow and mellow sound, and my Nuforce in its early hours sound like a good push-pull tube amp with a lot of negative feedback added, if you know what I mean....
....But wait....
A number of people on this forum has sent me messages, asking me to give it more time. I haev never been a true believer of "breaking-in", and if this matter does exist, I were not able to hear much difference in the past. And I haev always scored good second hand gears that were well broken in before reaching my hands. well, I have tried my best to break in the Nuforce v3 boards by leaving it on for a few days continously playing some music in repeat mode and left the room. When it reached around 80 hours I listened to it again with some positive expectation, thinking "should be quite enough to make a change", but I was presented with further disappointment, and at this point I made further communicatino with a few people and Jason. Everything sounded compressed, stressed, top end is extremelhy rolled off, sounding NOTHING like V2, and could possibilty the worst sounding amp I have owned. I left the room, and the amp on for another few days playing repeatedly the XLO burn in track, going for my last hope.
I returned to my listening room with negative expectation. Now the amp has reached 160 hours or a bit more. I did not care about the exact 150 hours mark, I was desparate to hear what the v3 hype was about.
WOW........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything that were missing are now BACk, BACK, BACK. Transparency, transience, and most important of all, the micro details and instrument textures which I treasured so much with the V2. Music comes alive again. The slightly edgy top end of the v2 was gone, and in v3, it changed from too mellow, mushy, rolled-off to now sparkling, crystalline and "just right".
Image depth is pushed further into the wall behing the speakers as if the wall was not there. Treble quality is better than v2 because the somtimes "too much high" sensation isn't there anymore. Everything is sounding so "crunchy" now (hope you understand what i mean as I run out of words).
My goodness, really. And really, 150 hours or more is really needed, and don't give up the hope. i did not believe it, and I did not want to believe it because I thought such well measured gear should sound right out of box and breaking in should make some but not a hugh difference. How wrong I was.
Now I would venture into the game of powercord rolling. i just scored a voodoo powercord tonight and will update here.
Thanks Jason for your patience. I am very happy now. But I do think you should change the recommended hours of burn-in from 75 to 150 hours in your user manual and website. It is necessary. A mistake for anyone to judge the amp right out of the box.
