Nord One Up Ncore NC500 amps, Class D ready for prime time .....
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Is this within limits and will not cause any damage to internals over a long period?
Each line above 100 is not 10; it is 100...
Yes, but 0.008 vs 0.001; bragging rights for sure, but can we hear that? And the AHB-2 stops dead at 100W.
The very top of the plot corresponds to 1% distortion and the NC500 line crosses it as far as I can tell at 400W.
Right. So how do you explain this results ?
400W RMS it's very different from 100W stated by Hypex.
Alex where do you find this shot ?
My Nord has been running 24/7 for over a year now with no problems, the temperature changes by a degree or two between summer and winter but remains fairly constant otherwise.
I think the 100W spec is for running the naked NC500 module without additional cooling and I bet Hypex added it to protect themselves from any numpty engineer who tries run the module on the bench.
I found the comparison plot early last year when I was looking into the Hypex Ncore modules, don't remember exactly where I found it.
Originally considered building a DIY NC400 kit but a friend pointed me in the direction of Nord thankfully.
I don't get too caught up with the numbers anymore. I did the mistake of that in my late teens quoting Julian Hirsch "a watt is a watt; buy the most for the least amount of money". What a load of crap. There are many tube 5 watt amps that will sound much louder than 30 watt solid state amps. And sound much better as it gets there, which of course is the important factor here.
I appreciate a company that humbly understates its numbers. The Mcintosh 501's are factory stated at 500 watts a channel. They distort slightly at well over 650 watts, and going off memory are upwards of 800+ watts with 1% THD. Awesome, but really who drives them at anymore than 100 watts continuous for lengthy periods? (Ok, I am sure they are some... huh?)
I don't know much about electronics. But perhaps class D are akin to valve amps in that you can't compare a class D watt to a solid state watt?
I have some rather demanding speakers; sure I can make noise through them with my Onkyo HT receiver, but for the bass panels to replicate quality music they need power; not just cheap watts but high current watts. I will let you know how they Nords stack up.
I appreciate a company that humbly understates its numbers. The Mcintosh 501's are factory stated at 500 watts a channel. They distort slightly at well over 650 watts, and going off memory are upwards of 800+ watts with 1% THD. Awesome, but really who drives them at anymore than 100 watts continuous for lengthy periods? (Ok, I am sure they are some... huh?)
I don't know much about electronics. But perhaps class D are akin to valve amps in that you can't compare a class D watt to a solid state watt?
I have some rather demanding speakers; sure I can make noise through them with my Onkyo HT receiver, but for the bass panels to replicate quality music they need power; not just cheap watts but high current watts. I will let you know how they Nords stack up.
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@watts: I look forward to your thoughts.
Will this be your first class D amplifier, as it was mine?
Will this be your first class D amplifier, as it was mine?
Yes. Had 1200 watts of Mcintosh for 10 years.
Do you try ProAc with NORD or not yet ???
Was it Studio 125 or Response D25 ????
Byebye
I really haven't thought much on the spec on watts with RMS or Peak power at the time I bought it, though I agree its concern to some and should be correctly spelled out. All I can say, my 89db speakers doesn't lack any power from the Nords playing at reasonable loud level.
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Wow that's a lot of power.
What made you decide to try a class d with less power?
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The Nord produces its peak power when the ambient temperature is 25 degrees C, so if the idle temp is already above that, then logic tells me that it will never produce peak power?
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Sorry, my reply should have been more specific. The ambient temperature they refer to is the temperature of the surrounding air which affects the amplifiers ability to disperse heat into the atmosphere. The NC500 has built-in thermal protection and it will happily operate up to 85 degrees C where it will automatically shut down then wait for the temperature to drop below 75 degrees before switching on again.
When idling the Nord dissipates about 15W per channel so that's 30W for the stereo version and this results in the case temperature of 38 degrees C. Since the NC500 has an efficiency of 93% for every 100W of output power it delivers the amplifier will need to dissipate another 7W of heat so you would need to be pumping out just over 400W to double the power required to be dissipated as heat. My speakers are not particularly efficient at 89dB but I've never managed to get the Nord more than mildly warm to the touch, certainly runs cooler than the Linn class A/B amplifiers I used to have.
No I'm afraid that is way out of my budget; and if I had one MC1.2KW I would have had to have 4 =4800 watts!. I need 2 stereo amps (or 4 monos) as I use an electronic crossover into my maggies. One amp is used for the mid panels and ribbon tweeters and one amp is used for the bass panels. I had two MC7300's in stereo mode.
It just felt like time for a change. Looking at the equipment list under Joe's name he understands. I have had chocolate for 10 years and now I feel like trying some vanilla. Part of the reason also is while I loved the mc's, they were built in the early 90's and eventually, not next year, maybe not in the next 5 years, maybe not until 10 years, but eventually, they will need to get recapped, and in a smaller city it is hard to find a good repair shop.
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