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

@watts: Brilliant write up as usual.
I will have to try more expensive XLR cables and as 'Voicesinmyhead' said, he has found a better power cable and fuse to make a difference, but I've spent so much money in the last few months and in the last few days I've taken delivery of new speakers (Boenicke W8) which have been jaw dropping but am now thinking of getting their top model in the range.............

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VoicesInMyHead said:
I would call that a great review, very nicely written!

As you are already suggesting I think the Nords is an excellent amp to experiment with other things in the chain as it will not try to hide or disguise anything from you. Trying a preamp (or another DAC) that add's some midrange warmth or different flavour might be a priceless combo. I also had great positive effect by upping the power cable, money wise it was almost like a joke what kind of cables I had attached to the Nord, but it really shined when being served better power and signals. The 10% rule seems outdated to me, I believe cables can do so much more as it's not just about the cable itself, but how it actually enables the amp or equipment to perform better.
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Listening impressions; not review :thumbsup:

VoicesInMyHead said:
Oh btw, a friend actually blew some fuses with his Maggies... I would never dare to bypass it as I know is common with Maggie owners, but changing the fuse in the Nord was also a great improvement to me.
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The best part of maggies is the tweakability of them. They recommend owners to remove the crossover box and replace it with aftermarket adjustable ones. I haven't had the fuses in them for over 10 years, and I have had the Macintosh amps FULL BLAST into them; over 500 watts a side. No problems (other than my ears, but it was just for several seconds; just an experiment to see if I could blow the ribbons: they survived). Distortion is what blows speakers; not volume. As long as clean power is used they will take a beating. I suspect your friend had a mid-range amp or he clipped it? I will investigate the fuse in the Nord.
 
Showroom Dummies said:
@watts: Brilliant write up as usual.
I will have to try more expensive XLR cables and as 'Voicesinmyhead' said, he has found a better power cable and fuse to make a difference, but I've spent so much money in the last few months and in the last few days I've taken delivery of new speakers (Boenicke W8) which have been jaw dropping but am now thinking of getting their top model in the range.............

Sent from my Swift 2 Plus using Tapatalk
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I hear you; it's a sickness. Pretty soon we will all be like Joe :P

I have barely broken in my amps and I am already thinking of what to do next. Here is what has been blowing my mind today: I listened to Liquid Tension Experiment last night, the entire album, and I was thinking how could it get any better than this? it was a complete instrumental start to finish; no vocals, and it was recorded rather well. Some of that bass was rumbling the walls, but it did not resonate; it was still tight and stopped when Tony Levin's note stopped. I am well aware I don't have state of the art anything, I know the many areas I could upgrade and get a better SQ, yet I was still wanting for nothing. I mean, there are guys out there with speaker cables that cost more than my entire system! So while there must be many systems sounding better than mine, I don't think it's possible that anyone, anywhere was enjoying their music more than me last night. No-one can take that away from me, and it is not up for argument.
 
Ha! Phew.... I'm glad I'm not the only one. My credit card is still hot from a transaction and I'm already eyeing something new. :P

watts said:
I hear you; it's a sickness. Pretty soon we will all be like Joe :P

I have barely broken in my amps and I am already thinking of what to do next. Edit...
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Showroom Dummies said:
@watts: Brilliant write up as usual.
I will have to try more expensive XLR cables and as 'Voicesinmyhead' said, he has found a better power cable and fuse to make a difference, but I've spent so much money in the last few months and in the last few days I've taken delivery of new speakers (Boenicke W8) which have been jaw dropping but am now thinking of getting their top model in the range.............

Sent from my Swift 2 Plus using Tapatalk
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If you're interested in W11's then give Alto a shout on here or PM me and I'll pass you his contact details, he's not that far from you really and is a dealer for Boenicke and Lumin and has even had W11s running on Nord. So speaking to him might help?
(I've heard a good few of his system changes while driving W11's)
 
@Watts What a great write up appreciate you taking the time to right such a detailed and precise account really enjoyable. Incidentally I listen to 95% female vocals with Angaleena Presley – American Middle Class being my record of the moment. Enjoy, look forward to your Sparkos thoughts. (We are also working with a new Op Amp at present which combines the best of both worlds but have some tech issue to overcome before release, but please don't ask, until we iron these out wont be releasing them.)
 
mfin said:
If you're interested in W11's then give Alto a shout on here or PM me and I'll pass you his contact details, he's not that far from you really and is a dealer for Boenicke and Lumin and has even had W11s running on Nord. So speaking to him might help?
(I've heard a good few of his system changes while driving W11's)
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The W11s will be too big for my room so I've decided to stick with the W8s.
It would be nice to have a listen to the W11 and (if possible) W13 speakers though.
 
boggit said:
@Watts What a great write up appreciate you taking the time to right such a detailed and precise account really enjoyable. Incidentally I listen to 95% female vocals with Angaleena Presley – American Middle Class being my record of the moment. Enjoy, look forward to your Sparkos thoughts. (We are also working with a new Op Amp at present which combines the best of both worlds but have some tech issue to overcome before release, but please don't ask, until we iron these out wont be releasing them.)
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Awesome news Colin. It is so rewarding to buy products from companies like yours, exaSound, and Wyred for that matter where the products continue to evolve, but previous owners of their equipment are not forgotten and have the ability to pay small amounts to upgrade their units to the latest specifications.

V for victory :vistory2: (oh sorry, that one was already used...my bad)
 
Hello Everyone,

I have just finished reading this thread (all of it) and wow is there a lot to take in...:)

I am curious and will soon try one out.

I was wondering whether it is worthwhile to get the monoblocks over the stereo (I read that the internals are identical).

Specifically, whether having a shorter speaker cable (and long interconnect) will make a sound quality difference vs a longer speaker cable and shorter interconect.

Thanks in advance...
T
 
You're probably not going to get a consensus either way but I have tried it both ways and didn't hear any difference. The mono's were sitting side by side though so there was no cable length difference for either setup. The stereo amp is truly two mono amps in one case with the difference being one power cord instead of two. If anyone else has heard it both ways in the same setup chime in.
 
Hi guys!
This is my first post

First of all thank you for this great thread ! I have read it all from first post

One question : is there already any coparisons NCore 500 with dexa New Class D Opam?

Thank you in advance,
Val
 
So the new module from B&O Ice Power has arrived, the 1200AS/2 with the brand new ICE Edge ASIC based chipset 2 x 600W into 8Ohms

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boggit said:
So the new module from B&O Ice Power has arrived, the 1200AS/2 with the brand new ICE Edge ASIC based chipset 2 x 600W into 8Ohms

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So how does it sound ? Have you compared it with the NC500s ? Mike (Mivera audio) is selling them like hot cakes over at AC and claims its the best he has heard in Class D tech. Hopefully mine arrives before Christmas :)
 
Devg said:
So how does it sound ? Have you compared it with the NC500s ? Mike (Mivera audio) is selling them like hot cakes over at AC and claims its the best he has heard in Class D tech. Hopefully mine arrives before Christmas :)
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They are very good. However we prefer the NC500 in our One UP with Rev C buffers which now include the superb Sparkos V regulators.
There is more space around instruments and a thicker richer sound. The mid range resolution is also better. I was very careful in my bias, I invited a friend around who is heavily into HiFi, he played a track he produced with some ex members of ELO playing, so he new the track well and heard the original on big studio ATC speakers. I did a blind test, his reaction was instant and confirmed my thoughts.
The top end though is excellent though.

I have the engineer of Steve Winwoods latest album coming over next week after hearing one of our MP amps he was amazed and better than his Bryston. Steve himself took the amp home he thought it so good.

So yes they are very good and we will sell them we have the modules on order, but will sit under the NC500 UP/SE in our range but for around the £900 price they are superb. And Mike's price is amazing.
 
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