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

nc42acc said:
Colin thanks for the message. Midrange has smoothed out and the bass keeps getting better. Image layering and placement is outstanding with a great 3D quality. Guys if the Sparkos soften things up they are not for me. The VR5s are brutally honest on upper midrange and treble and I am liking what I hear. This is using the passive Hattor exclusively so no tubey coloration with the REF5SE. Colin you have a winner winner chicken dinner.
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Hi Marty,

Glad to hear the new REVC boards are playing nicely for you. Please keep us updated as you put more hours on.
 
Boggit - Colin at Nord is a really great guy. I have followed his progress since he started his business and I know he is a very honest and very hard working guy doing everything he can to help his customers and build a business with the right foundations.
I was the first to buy the Nord NC500 monoblocks before the Rev B board and Burson / Sparkos were available, later I purchased the Rev B boards along with the Bursons and Sparkos.
When the Rev. C boards were available he asked if I would like to have them and did not ask for any payment.
Who else do you know who would do that.
He deserves to do well and anyone in doubt, in my opinion should not think twice.
 
Hi Colmon,

I totally agree. Colin has been super to work with and seems to go out of his way to make a great product and provide support.
 
Sirs, you are cads and bounders.....:rolleyes:

Why???

Well I have kept an eye on developments in the world of Class D. And earlier this year I heard the Merrill Veritas and Thors in a domestic room. I loved what they did with some things, liked what they do with some things and hated what they did with others. For me, what I did not like was they added a flat/undynamic layer to the sound. When the music should be going at 100 miles an hour they sorta dragged a little bit. Unfortunately, a dealer breaker. He ho keep an eye on things but No Cigar.


Well I find this thread and our cousins in the US of A are saying nice things about the Nord. A quick search show they are assembled in the UK (where I live) and lo and behold in the loverly city of Cheltenham; sorry Cheltinghamshire for our US chaps. :rolleyes:

A quick chat with Colin and a really nice drive in the olde jam jar in the sunshine to Cheltenham (it is always sunny there :-). What a thoroughly nice bloke he is. After about 30 mins devoted to audio we spent the rest of Saturday afternoon talking about music of all things. I leave with a Nord stereo amp fitted with the 994 op amps and it is burning in nicely.

I have plugged it into my system and its sounds sublime. It is very neutral, has a tremendous amount of real detail that is nicely presented, integrated into the music. The bass is deep and powerful and has great tonality where you can tell what strings are being used on the bass guitar as opposed to a boom, boom, thud, thud. It is very clear without the mid range boost done by other amps attempting to give detail, DETAIL, detail.

I have pitched it against my Naim Supernait2 and whilst the Naim is meaty, beaty and bouncy it sounds somewhat artificial compared to neutrality and the nord. The Naim has been sold :). Heresy from Salisbury.

So I am letting it burn in fully and Colin being a thoroughly nice bloke is sending me the Sparkos to see if I prefer the warmer sound. Hey I am coming from a great place so I am not overfussed if the Sparkos are not better......but if they are.....oooohhhh errrr missus.

As you were chaps....
 
Welcome to the forum George47, thank you so much for joining.

Please update when the Sparkos are installed and settled in. I keep going back and forth for what I like better and I am mostly a Sparkos guy. The 994's are amazing but I get a bit more sweetness for lack of a better term with the Sparkos.
 
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Sure Joe no problem. I am an SET/valve sort of guy so may like the Sparkos more. Only one to find out.

I suppose I should say that although I live but a few miles from Colin I have no axe to grind here and I have always (and I mean vehemently) been against Class D.
 
We all have our favorites and I am a tube guy at heart. But, my Nords are wonderful, maintenance free and sound awesome.

Class D still gets groans here, but I don't care. I know what I hear and I know what I like.

Glad you are loving Colin's amps. This is not my father's Class D.

Welcome again!

George47 said:
Sure Joe no problem. I am an SET/valve sort of guy so may like the Sparkos more. Only one to find out.

I suppose I should say that although I live but a few miles from Colin I have no axe to grind here and I have always (and I mean vehemently) been against Class D.
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George47 said:
Sure Joe nohadem. I am an SET/valBirds.rt of guy so may like the Sparkos more. Only one to find out.

I suppose I should say that although I live but a few miles from Colin I have no axe to grind here and I have always (and I mean vehemently) been against Class D.
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I also was against class D having had a one a couple of years ago and finding the treble to be very bright and thin but these NC 500s are a million miles away from that.
I just love the realistic sound of instruments with the Nords
 
I purchased the Nord One up NCore NC500 monos with the Rev.C boards and the 994 op amps back in April. Colin was great with communication and I received the amps in the beginning of May. Initially, I was not impressed as I had owned NC400's that I had built and tricked out with mil-spec silver wire so I knew the Hypex "house sound". These Nord amps were just not cutting the mustard. I could not achieve what I considered to be a focused sound. There was a sibilance to vocals in particular. I even PM'd a couple of members here at AS about my concerns including Marty.

I use a very high end PC that I built for my music server running Windows Server 2012 with Phil's Audio Optimizer. In randomly checking my PC's innards, I discovered that the tiny jumper on my JCAT USB Card was on Pin 2&3 when it should have been on Pins 1&2 (ain't computer audio great!). Anyway, after I switched the jumper, I sat back to listen and holy comoly Batman!!!!!!!!!!!! I was absolutely floored with the sound I was getting out of speakers.

Before this "little insignificant" change, after about 15-20 minutes of listening, I wanted to get up and do anything else. NOT ANYMORE! These amps are the real thing. I have a $6,800 Modwright amp that a buddy lent me and I am here to tell you that while the Modwright is pretty darned good, these Nord pygmy sized monos are more of a pleasure to listen to.

Congratulations Colin on providing a product that punches WAY WAY above it's price point!!!

Regards,

Randy
 
OK guys. Let's play a game.......

What amp have you compared to the Nord and preferred the Nord? Or which amps was different to the Nord but neither was better. Or which amp did you prefer to the Nord? Only people who have heard them can play....

It is purely for fun of course....

For me, the Naim Supernait 2 was seen off.

In the next few days it will take on an Audionote M6 and Audionote Conquests......that will be a huge challenge and a loss will be no shame....
 
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Hypex NC400, Rogue ST100, ARC REF75, Parasound A21

George47 said:
OK guys. Let's play a game.......

What amp have you compared to the Nord and preferred the Nord? Or which amps was different to the Nord but neither was better. Or which amp did you prefer to the Nord? Only people who have heard them can play....

It is purely for fun of course....

For me, the Naim Supernait 2 was seen off.

In the next few days it will take on an Audionote M6 and Audionote Conquests......that will be a huge challenge and a loss will be no shame....
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George47 said:
OK guys. Let's play a game.......

What amp have you compared to the Nord and preferred the Nord? Or which amps was different to the Nord but neither was better. Or which amp did you prefer to the Nord? Only people who have heard them can play....

It is purely for fun of course....

For me, the Naim Supernait 2 was seen off.

In the next few days it will take on an Audionote M6 and Audionote Conquests......that will be a huge challenge and a loss will be no shame....
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Audio Research D130
Similar detail and tone and noise floor but the NORD's have more drive.

Audio Research 100.2
100.2 had more detail but became a bit of a problem to my ears at louder volumes. NORD's with Sparkos op amps are equally sweet in the midrange as the 100.2 which is saying something. NORD's blow away the 100.2 with lower noise floor.

Proceed HPA-2
HPA-2 and NORDS equal in drive reserves and dynamics and noise floor but the HPA-2 was a little too cold/neutral. NORD's + Sparkos op amps bring the right sweetness to the mids.

These are the most recent amps I've had to compare.
 
nc42acc said:
Hypex NC400, Rogue ST100, ARC REF75, Parasound A21
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Marty, how would you compare the ARC REF75 to the Nords ? The REF75 has been on Stereophile class A recommendation and at some point I was very interested in getting one.
 
Without firing up the fire breathing tubes I can say from memory the bass is far better and the detail resolution on the Nords is also better. I will hook the REF75 back up tomorrow evening for a listen.

Devg said:
Marty, how would you compare the ARC REF75 to the Nords ? The REF75 has been on Stereophile class A recommendation and at some point I was very interested in getting one.
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Over the last couple of days I've been working my way through this thread, and must say, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading up on the Nords - this has got to be one of the most civil and friendly sites on the internet these days!

Since the conversation has now moved to direct comparisons to other amps (great idea, George47), has anyone had a chance to listen to the Merrill Audio Taranis amps as well as the Nords?

-Scott
 
The Nords are actually the most expensive amplifiers that I have purchased, so when I compare them to what I have had before they should be better and are better.
I just love the realism that I get with instruments that was not there before.
 
Great data guys.

Scott: I had the Merrill Veritas and Thors here and heard them into my then speakers, Wilson Audio 6s, and then the Audionotes. As I have said they had a very neutral and detailed sound with extremely low noise but the sound had this dynamically flatter sound. They were not dynamically flat, they just had a slightly sat on quality that the Nords do not have. I had a couple of studio engineers I know around and they made the same observations with the Thors and Wilson 6s and they thought it had a smaller soundstage. This was not so prominent when I used the Audionote Es. This may be due to the very low impedance of the 6s. So I did not mention it as the Wilsons are known for their punishing bass impedances.

I will really be interested in the Ref 75 outcome as I have had the 75SEs here but with completely different speakers, the Wilson 6s and never did a real comparison as they were 6 months apart and audio memory is fickle. I would put them in the different but not better category or with a small nod to the ARCs but......
 
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