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

Hi Guys,
I did pull the trigger yesterday. Colin was nice enough to give me a 75£ discount. I ended up going with the SI 994 and the SE case with the 12v trigger and upgraded wiring but did not go for the binding posts. I don't know how many of you have had experience with Ohm speakers but they are not "bright" speakers. I've had mine for only a week so far and they are definitely in break-in phase but I can tell they are not bright or hot speakers (compared to something like Klipsch) thus, I thought the SI 994 would be a good match. I am sure I can pick up the Sparkos op-amps separately and try them out.
These Ohm speakers are amazing for the price. They are probably not for the super analytical listener that is looking for every minute detail in the song but If you just like to be able to move around in your room and enjoy the music without getting constrained to the "sweet spot" in the couch, these guys are amazing. Aesthetically they are not the best but I can certainty live with the looks. I'll provide more feedback to you guys once I get the beast. Thanks for all the feedback!
 
Congratulations, realizing that you have Ohm speakers, I think you absolutely made the right choice. Can't wait for your thoughts once setup and burning in. Just let them play for a week or two before any critical listening.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
 
Joe,
You have been of enormous help. your contribution on this thread has led to benefit a large number of audio enthusiasts that are on a tight budget like me.
 
Rod,

Thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate it. Colin has been great to the community at large and makes great gear at reasonable prices. I am glad to have found him. It's the music that we need and enjoy. Colin stands behind his gear and wants you to be happy too.
 
So has any one of you guys looked into the ATI NCore amps? ATI is rating them at 200 watts per channel (for the non-bridged version) and they are using linear (toroidal) power supply for the units. I am sure ATI is getting a custom version of the Hypex board but do you think it's based on the NC500 module? how is the output landing at 200 watts? why would ATI use linear power supplies and add weight and bulk to the equation when these units work so well with the SMPS units? I wonder how it would stack against the Nords. I am almost certain the ATI amps have to be a lot more expensive to match the Nords.
 
If indeed it's using the NC-500 modules, why is the power output at 200 watts RMS? The specs from Hypex website says 100 watts continuous. That is the only part that makes me scratch my head. it would be interesting to see if we can find someone that owns one of them and do a comparison.
 
Rod

Don't really see what else it could be. ATI is big enough and been around long enough they may be buying a spec'ed module made for them.
 
Hello guys, this is my first message in this beautyfull forum.
I am really interested in Class D amplifier. I did follow since NCore 400 came out for DIY.
Then I bought an integrated Rega Elicit-R, because of semplify setup. I have ProAc D15 speakers.
Now I read a lot of new class D amp, Hypex NC500, Pascal S-Pro2 (Red Dragon S-500), Nuprime ST-10 and Lyngdorf SDA2400.
For NC500 I found that someone use OPA1612. Does someone hear it compare to SI994 ??
What do you know about Nuprime and Lyngdorf amp ??

Bye bye, keep follow !!!
 
Hi folks,
My Nord One Up amp arrived at last! First thing I noticed was that it is missing the front logo :) Not a big deal, but I am going to ask Colin to mail one over.
I have included the 12(v) trigger option with the amp and unfortunately I could not get it work. Is anyone using the trigger mechanism with their amps? If you do please chime in on how you have it setup. I basically have the zone 1 trigger from my receiver connected to the IN trigger on the Nords but nothing happens when I turn the receiver on or off. I am going to use a meter to confirm that the receiver is pushing 12V to the tip of the 3.5mm jack but other than that I don't know how to trouble shoot this problem.
Moving on to my first impression of the amp sonically. I am using my Arcam SR-250 as the pre-amplifier and the only pre-amp output is RCA. I am using a couple of 1.5 ft long RCA to XLR cables from monoprice to connect the receiver to the Amp. When I turn the amplifier ON, I hear a subtle click in the speakers which I am assuming is completely normal and after that there is no noise at all. The system is completely silent until something is played. I was a little worried about noise and speaker hum but there is absolutely no noise or hum.
There is however, a down side to using RCA to XLR cables. I guess the output voltage of the RCA is low for the Nord input and thus I really have to crank the receiver volume up to get some sound out of the speakers. In general, for low volume, I find the volume set to about 45% and to really hear some dynamics the volume has to be around 70%. I have only put 2-3 hours on the amp so I am not going to judge the sonic capability of the amp yet but one characteristic stands out for me, transparency. I can tell these amps are extremely transparent. I am hoping to gain more dynamics as it's breaking-in but so far no complaints about what I am hearing.
 
Congrats to an amazing amp!

Regarding the volume level I have the completely opposite "problem", the first step on my preamp is almost too loud and I can maximum go a few steps up. I would say that's related to your source and/or cables and not the Nord....

During the first hours on my Nord I was almost a bit disappointed, it was OK but nothing special I thought, but it really came out of the closet after a while. I think Class D in general requires quite a lot of hours (several hundreds) to burn in and the Nord is no exception. After about thousand plus hours I also replaced the fuse to a Synergistic Research BLACK which made another great improvement, and again required additional hundreds of burn-in hours.... but totally worth it!

I "downgraded" from much more expensive amp to the Nord and it has delivered way above my expectations. For the money it costs it sure is an amazing buy and I couldn't recommend it enough. Now I'm personally thinking about maybe taking another direction though, but that has nothing to do with Nord, it's purely on me and my need and desire to try new things. I'm still not convinced that it's going to be the right decision though and I know for sure if I let go of the Nord I will always miss it and it will always have a special place in my heart... :)
 
Hi VoicesInMyHead,
Thanks for your input. I am sure the low volume issue is related to the low voltage on the pre-amp output. It's not a big deal though, I just crank the volume a little higher. I did notice that the amp gets pretty warm. I know a lot of people have mentioned that and even Colin has mentioned that it's completely normal but I still felt a little uneasy regarding how warm it felt to me :)
BTW, Colin did respond to me regarding the 12v trigger. if anyone is interested, the back switch needs to be off, the front power button on to activate trigger mode.
I have not tried it out yet but will do so once I get home today and report back.
 
Congrats! The Nords are a great amp. Very transparent, yet musical. They will easily show you what your upstream devices are capable of. At this price, I really can't see anything better.
 
Just to provide a quick update, The instructions provided by Colin for using the 12v trigger worked as expected. Basically, The main power switch in the back of the device has to be "OFF" and the front button set to"ON".
Another point I would like to make so people don't end up being in my predicament is that you really need to have XLR output on your preamp/processor or whatever device that you are trying to hookup to the Nord One Up amps in order to get the full potential out of this amp.
The input sensitivity of the Nord is set at about 2.5V and most pre-amp RCA outputs will hover around 1v RMS. I asked Colin if there is any way to adjust the input sensitivity on the Nord but he said no. I guess the first step in matching this amp with a compatible preamp is to make sure XLR outputs are there.
I guess, I am going to let the amp break-in and then re-assess the situation. ultimately, I may need to find another preamp with balanced outputs. although that would not happen anytime soon.
 
I have recently bought a Nord One SE UP NC500DM Stereo Silver but have another week to wait before it arrives.

I will be connecting it to a Roksan Caspian M-Series 1 preamp but a lot of owners are using passive preamps, and so I'm wondering if I should aswell.

Has anyone tried the PP10?

I can't post a link due to not having 10 posts.
 
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