Nord One Up Ncore NC500 amps, Class D ready for prime time .....

MikeCh said:
Nice looking unit Tom! What does the "dualmono" button do?

Still loving my Nords with Sparkos op amps here. I need to swap in the SI994's again (to compare with the Sparkos) but can't stop listening to the Sparkos as they are so easy (and fun) to listen to.
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The button on the front for dual mono just allows you to manually raise the overall volume with with either knob. Otherwise you can just raise volume for each channel's respective knob. But all these functions are on the remote as well.
 
Jack said:
Franz

It is kind of hard to tell what is offered from the less than informative Hattor website, but it appears that if you chose the balanced option you get a mix of SE and Balanced inputs and outputs. Maybe the guys who have dealt with Hattor will chime in.
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Arek can customize the unit to your liking with however many balanced or single ended inputs/outputs. He responds pretty good to emails so that would be the best way to get more info because like you say the site doesn't provide much in terms of any specifics.
 
Not directly relevant but i am listening to Arek's passive attenuator. I have started with the Khzomo and it works really well. In fact so well I have given it a very positive review. It works well with the Nord and offers an inexpensive way to get everything working well ($300 for the basic model).

My colleague who just bought the Nord and Colin's active preamp is letting it all burn in. He is impressed so far and is putting the McIntosh on e-bay soon. I have reassured him it can only get better as things settle down. He is hearing a lot more detail than before.
 
Ok folks this is my first post to these forums. Although I frequent some other forums around the net.
First I would like to say hello. My username says it all. First name and I like to tweak things.

With that out of the way I would like to say the tweaker in me is what has me so interested in these Nord One Up amps.
I have a couple questions for you Nords. First I now own a Theta Dreadnaught D 7 channel amp now. It has the nc1200 modules with two huge linear supplies. It uses the standard input buffer stage however. I have a dedicated dual purpose theater. It is well treated. I have an Emotiva xmc1 as a prepro. Used to own the Krell Foundation. Actually like the Emo with Dirac better. My questions are how do you think these Nords with the upgraded buffers would sound compared to that amp? My amp is the best sounding amp overall that I have ever heard. But if I could sell that and get these nords for all channels I would make out with a few dollars in my pocket. Other questions are is there any warranty? And if I find that they just don't stack up to the big heavy brute Dreadnaught D can they be returned? And if not how much would I loose?
The Theta is a beautiful amp. How do these look in person?
The Theta floats music in mid air. The sound very rarely sounds like it is coming from my diy Scanspeak tweeter,Usher mid two way diy monitors.
So what do you folks think? Is it worth it? Should I just leave it as is?

And thank you for all the help.

Thanks,
Ron

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Hello everyone. I trust this finds all of you and those you all love and care for healthy and as happy as can be.

I have read with great interest everything everyone has written on this post. I must say the civility is quite impressive. And its the ONLY reason I decided to join. And its the ONLY forum I have ever joined.

So here I go.

I stumbled upon this forum by total accident. If you go to version3audio you will see a few pics of my system. Mind you, I am not and 'audiophile'. I am a craftsman contractor. I can build you a highly customized home from the ground up without the use of plans. Put an iphone 6 in my hands, or even the most rudimentary Texas Instruments calculator and, well, I will prolly screw it up without constant assistance in how to use it. I shit you not. The Good Lord simply did not see fit to place the 'techy' gene in me. But what the Good Lord did place in me is an immense love of music.

The amps in my system are the Emerald Physics amps. They look nice and sound good. Sound waaay better after my IT guy tweaked them in a few ways. But they are unreliable and lack power. I have had to have 3 of them replaced. Thus, my hunt for replacement amps and my discovery of The Nord. I have been in contact with Colin by email. Nice enough fellow. Reminds me of Alex from Uptone Audio. I am just about to push the button on 6 of Colins amps. Sorry, I am tri-amping my speakers.

The preamp in the pics is a Tortuga LDR passive. Morten from Tortuga made it specific to my needs to have just one source XLR input and three XLR outs. Pure, simple, clean and balanced. Shortly after purchase I was invited out to the home of a very wealthy individual who's rather large sound room was built by me. He asked me to bring my Tortuga. Upon arrival I quickly discovered that a 'shoot out' of sorts was going down. He invited five of his friends over as well and they each brought their preamps. After some amazing food and even better wine, his home is in Napa, the 'guns' came out. His most recent purchase of the D'Angostino preamp was a source of pride for himself. The other 'guns' consisted of a Constellation, Conrad Johnson, MacIntosh two piece tube set and an Ayre. Then there was me. The humble builder and obviously the only blue collar guy in the crowed. Anyway, at the end of the long shoot out it was painfully clear which of the six preamps was the "best". The Tortuga began to be put back into rotation more and more until I had to leave. As I left and noticed the Audi, Bently and Benz' park around me I began to smile within myself. As I drove away in my 1 tone Dodge dually crew cab 4X4 turbo diesel with a massive lumber rack that has not been bathed in over a month, I began to laugh out loud in a way I have not done since I lost my virginity.

A few days later as my client and I spoke of the event by phone he said the Tortuga bested the others because it had no discernible sound or signature. So much so that one simply cannot place it visually in the audio chain. I asked him if he is going to get one. He said maybe for his office system. We laughed. When we hung up I sat remembered sitting and listening to his system and the image of a hot stripper(eye candy) coming to my mind. It was then I was able to close my eyes and actually hear and feel the music.

Thank you all for taking then time to read this. I look forward to being a member here. But please do not ask tech questions cuz I will prolly not have a clue as to what you are saying.

Peace out and keep being your music loving and groovy cool selves.
 
Hi Ron,

You need to hear the Nord amps, preferably in your own system, to appreciate how good they are. Maybe a Nord owner living near to you can help on this front. I think the upgraded Nord input buffer enhances performance significantly and being able to fine tune this with choice of op amp an added bonus. The name Dreadnaught implies it is built like the proverbial "battleship", the Nord's may not be in that league but they are well built. Having separate mono blocks would enable you to position the amps close to the speakers and do away with a lot of speaker cables provided you drive them balanced. I looked at the specs for the Theta amp and noticed the output power was somewhat down on the level the NC1200 modules are capable of delivering, maybe a limitation of the power supply.

Alex
 
Hello

COMPARISON WITH BRYSTON 4B SST

A few pages back someone asked for comparisons with other amplifiers. I’m new here but thought I would share my experience. I currently use my Nords with a Benchmark DAC2 and PMC OB1i speakers.

I have had my pair of Nord One UP NC500MBs since December 2015 (7 months) so they are thoroughly run in. They have the Rev. B board but I have some Rev. C boards on order and will try to update this if anyone is interested.

It is almost irrelevant now but I ordered them initially with the Burson op amps and found the Nords pretty ordinary compared with my Bryston 4B SST. Less dynamic, less realism, less subtlety, less ‘air’, less imaging, no 3D information …. I could go on. The only thing that was better than the Bryston was the control of the bass driver. This, my second foray into Class D, seemed to be another failure; my last try was Nuforce Ref 9s which I found irretrievably dull.

I spoke to Colin about sending them back and he persuaded me to try the Sparkos op amps. If you do it slowly and carefully changing them over takes about 5 minutes each.

Instantly, without any burning in or warming up, the Nords became superior to the Bryston 4B SST in every area except dynamics and imaging. The much maligned Bryston amp is very capable, especially with PMC speakers, but only at the expense of a bit of hardness. With the Nords there is no hardness but virtually all of the subtlety, texture and realism. The tonal balance is perfect to my ears and they create an excellent illusion of live music – especially when you hear them from another room. Perhaps that is because of the imaging shortcomings that I perceive. I am told that the Rev. C boards and 994s address that problem.

I truly don’t miss the better Bryston dynamics at all; the Nords have ample for me and certainly don’t sound artificially flat. You only notice the difference on something like a close mic’d rim-shot which I don’t really want in my living room at realistic volume! What I do miss however is the better imaging and 3D portrayal of the Bryston. My hope is that the Rev. C board will address that deficiency.
 
Thank you for that. So you don't think it would be an improvement? Or for other reasons?

This was my thinking. Right now my Dreadnaught has 30 feet of Kimber Kable quick 12 running to my fronts and center. Since my room was purpose built I have a single 50 amp breaker running to a Furman sequencer. Out of that I have three 20 amp runs going to the front of the room with 15/20 amp receptacles. These were put there for my subs and my hope was some day using mono block amps up there and using much shorter spkr wire. I thought that this would help the class D be more stable. Which in turn would negate the advantages of the big linear supplies in the Theta.

Don't get me wrong. It sounds like their is no ill effects from those long spkr runs. But thought what if I could run XLR's up there and make the speaker wires say 4 or even 3 feet. At the same time put some money in my pocket?

How about now? Still stand pat?

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Welcome to the forum to the 3 new members above, thank you so much for joining.
 
Ron

With the Theta being based on the NC1200 module I would suspect that the difference between it and the Nord sound wise would just a difference in flavor more than a difference in technology. The basic differences in the two modules is the 1200s ability to deal with more difficult loads. As to the cosmetics the difference is pretty dramatic and for the cost difference should be. In the end if you want to change the placement and wiring situation the only real thing to do is try them.
 
Welcome guys.

If you want to show the Bryston a clear pair of heels then you MUST get the Rev C board and the Sonic Imagery 994 chips. They will give you the 3D sound and better dynamics. They are like the Bryston in being clean and clear. They worked their magic against my Naim Supernait, a friend's Mcintosh and another colleagues Linn Akurate amp. They also stopped me wanting to keep my Krell 600s. I am not saying the sound quality was better but for the heat generation issues etc. I did not want to keep them.

No problems with blue collar guys.....in fact audio should be a broad subject that appeals to everyone. The main problem has been that audio has become very male jewellery orientated. And as you have found there are some 'crackers' out there. Passive preamplifers are one and the Nord is another. Some mighty (and mighty expensive) amps have fallen before them. For example the UK reviewer Martin Colloms who has access to the best of the best owns and uses a passive preamplifier that sells for $2000. If you were impressed with LDRs then wait till you hear what the Nords do. I have tried a fair few amps including a reasonable selection of Class D including a $12,000 one. The Nord was better.

If you hate Class D then Nord won't change your mind.......but......give it a go....
 
Hello again everyone. Since I am new at this and find it difficult to navigate anything 'computer' oriented, I hope you visit version3mods.com and view a few pics of my life support system. They are under Products and Legacy Audio Custom Crossovers. My system consists of a PS Audio P10 power plant/regenerator, 432evo music server, AudioQuest jitterbugs, Schitt Wyrd, W4S Reclocker, Uptone Audio Regen, 3 Uptone Audio JS-2 power supplies, PS Audio Direct Stream DAC, Tortuga Audio LDR preamp made specific to my needs, 6 Emerald Physics SE amps, Version3Mods custom external crossovers, Legacy Focus SE speakers, all cables, power and XLR provided by the amazing Marcus Tunis and Audio Magic bees wax fuses throughout.

My amps have proven themselves to be unreliable and thus my hunt for new ones. Given everything I am reading about 'The Nord' amps I think I am going to go ahead and order 6 of them some time next week. Thank you sooo much everyone for all that you share. I feel this to be a very sound purchase decision based on damn good information. But I do have one question: how close to the crossovers and speakers should I get
 
Does anyone else have any thoughts, suggestions on my post above^

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cellardoorguy,

version3mods.com does not open a website.

Are you saying the Emerald Physics SE amps are not reliable.?
 
Hey Joe since you love these amps so much, what do you think of my situation? I posted a question on here just scroll back a few days.

Thanks,
Ron

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Hi Ron,

I do love these amps. As I put more time on them, I am leaning more towards the 994 op amps.

As far as your question, longer interconnects with shorter speaker cables? And Nord vs Theta? Is that what you are asking?

I may be biased but my vote goes to the Nords and yes, I'd use shorter speakers cables with good/great XLR cables. My amps are wonderful and sound great. I am not getting rid of them, plus Colin has been awesome to work with answering questions and providing the updates when I purchased early in the build cycle. I'm a happy camper. I know you will be too.


RonDiy said:
Hey Joe since you love these amps so much, what do you think of my situation? I posted a question on here just scroll back a few days.

Thanks,
Ron

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