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

I felt that there was more meat on the bone with Nord. The D400 seemed a little "thin", for lack of a better word. After a while, I was restless with the D400.
 
You may may have to experiment for your taste, but I love the Wyred STP-SE, for example. This is more of a passive preamp.

I also love Ayre too, I tried the KX5 twenty and loved it.

I've had other great preamps but they were obscenely expensive like Dartzeel, D'Agostino and Burmester. At this level, you would not be pairing them up with anything other then similar priced amps.


sstalker said:
Hi Joe,

Can you advise few names of sweet solid state pre ?
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joeinid said:
You may may have to experiment for your taste, but I love the Wyred STP-SE, for example. This is more of a passive preamp.
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Thank you Joe,
Do you have opportunity to listen Hattor ? Seems< here, is weel regarded unit. If so, can you compare both ?
 
I am sorry I haven't. I came VERY close to ordering one based one or two other owners here. They love them. I was very intrigued but ultimately will end up with an active preamp.

sstalker said:
Thank you Joe,
Do you have opportunity to listen Hattor ? Seems< here, is weel regarded unit. If so, can you compare both ?
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mfin said:
A quick return with my decision and purchase of XLR cables for my Pre-->Nord that I was posting about a few pages back. Ok, so I'd had great results with the Audience OHNO at £350 and even slightly better (and preferred) the Vovox Vocalis at £333 that was recommended by Alto. Both these cables were tried for a good week or so and had chance to settle.

The purchase decision was pretty much done, but, then Alto also encouraged me to try the more expensive Vovox Textura, which are available from £692. That's the price for 0.75m, it's nice that they offer this length as well as 1m , as 0.75m is enough for a lot of people (note the Vocalis is only in 1m upwards).

The Textura is pushing the budget in my own system, but it's clear my system can benefit from it and it will not be out of place even after some serious upgrades elsewhere. So, I have chosen the Textura. It is more extended at the low end, and marginally better all round. Note that the Textura I noted took a couple of days to settle, the extra touch of low end extension was apparent immediately but it took a couple of days to really open up (it was initially questionable until opening up after a couple of days, but I am finding XLRs do take a little while to settle in general).

If anyone is using a Nord with other relatively modest separates, the Vocalis is a great buy, and completely worth it over cheap cables. If you are one of the club that is using the Nord with much higher value sources, dacs, pre-amps, it could be worth going the extra mile.

I don't think anyone could go too far wrong with any of these 3 XLR Interconnects, but I will say there is zero doubt in my mind the bang for buck you are getting by using something good over something cheap. I thought it common to think XLR cables are XLR cables and only single ended RCA ones benefit from being higher end, I now do not think that is right at all.

Thanks Alto.

If anyone is interested in buying any of the Vovox, give Alto a shout, he's a genuinely helpful, a pleasure to meet and deal with. I should say he also supplies Lumin Streamers which I've had the pleasure to hear which could be of interest to Nord owners (I'm told Colin uses a Lumin now).
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Thanks for the kind words.

Vovox are nice cables and compare very favourably with other brands costing a lot more. I understand they are the preferred cable for Soulution.
 
Hello. I need a little bit of a boost to bought a North up nc500 stereo for my spatial m3 turbo s. I read all the tread but I hesitate between the north and the red dragon s500, they have the same price. Has anyone had the chance to compare?
My pream is a doge 8 lp gain 10v impedance 600 ohm. Do you think Is a good match ?
 
Red Dragon has a 45 day money back policy so give them a try. All you have to lose is the shipping. The Nord does work well with the Spatials and your Doge 8 should be fine with either.
 
I have not heard much about the Pascal S-Pro 2 class D module used in the Red Dragon S500 so it's an unknown quantity to me. The NC500 Ncore module used in the Nord is a proven unit and employed in a number of well respected amplifiers. The Nord also offers a custom input buffer with the additional benefit of op-amp rolling.
 
Hi all, this is my first post on audioshark. I wonder if you could help me. I'm looking for a power amp between my Linn DSi and Proac One SCs and I've narrowed the search down to either a new Nord One Up stereo, or a Naim Nap 250.2 second hand. Without being able to compare the two, I wondered if anyone has, and what sonic differences I might hear between them. Thanks in advance!
 
Wow what a stellar review on 6 moon , is it written in english ? For sure make me feel like I don't speak English lol
 
Joe one more question digital source means using coax cable from my source ? And is this same cable with rca connectors used for analog connection or its defferent cable only connector is rca ? Thanks
 
Yes, the digital coax has an RCA phono plug but I think the cable design is different and meant to carry a different frequency range. The back of the integrated has digital inputs for toslink, coax digital or USB. There is an analog input but like I said before, it converts to digital and back to analog. Not sure why this was done that way but when I use my Job INTegrated, I only use a digital source.


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A coaxial RCA digital input calls for a 75 ohm cable appropriately terminated with an RCA plug. This is what's typically sold as an RCA digital cable. Some RCA analog cables may also work if they have a rated 75 ohm impedance but many do not, so your usually best off using one that is designated for digital signals. Having a different impedance cable may still work, but leads to undesirable signal reflections which cause jitter and result in less favorable performance.
 
Not that long ago there were some discussions regarding using a pre-amp in front of the Nord or not... I have a volume control in my DAC which I think works great and it's a good match for sure. I didn't really miss anything with this combo and could easily live with it, it sounds great! Less is more and all that...

However, last week I added a passive transformer-based Music First Baby Classic "v2" pre-amp to the chain, curious as I am, and while still breaking in both the pre-amp and new cables, I think I'm ready to go stand in the other corner after all. The difference was not subtle and immediately heard, the soundstage grew a lot, the authority the whole system plays with is so much stronger, while all the transparency and fine details still being there.

I'm actually quite amazed by the impact it had in my system. I do acknowledge the price difference being more than the double compared to having the built in volume in my DAC, but I think it's still a testament of what a good high quality pre-amp can do, and maybe even more so together with these revealing Class D amps. Still, it of curse comes down to being system dependent and a matter of taste as always. Different doesn't always mean better to everyones ears.
 
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