NCore Amp

[AcidJazz]

So Martin let me understand this.  You'll be strapping the NCore to your chest and the Hansen's to your back and running them over to Charles' home?

Seriously, what is the plan?

                                                  Jim

Plan?
Plan is to hear how the Ncore sounds in my system vs. what I got and what has been through here.
Never been to Charles home...dunno where that came from.

Wes is in Munich, so that part is moot.

[rollo]

  I was going to have a Mini Rave May 12the and thought if possible the N-Cores could make a visit.
  No response to that so I guess no mini Rave. It was my Idea too possibly coordinate a listen for a bunch of us but again no response from Martin. Thought I could help out all who desired to hear it. Oh well.


charles

[Barry (NJ)]

The N-Cores are on a very strict, tightly run, tour. Jason is pretty adamant about them staying in one place for no more than 3 days, before being sent to the next participant. I was lucky that I was able to squeeze myself into a night with them by playing courier.

I heard them at Dan's (Letitroll98 on AC) home in South Jersey on Saturday afternoon, and liked what I'd heard of them there. That evening, I had Al (hifial on AC), his buddy Kevin (both of whom had traveled south to Dan's for a listen), and Raver Gary (he happened to call out of the blue asking about some DIY speaker cables), over to my place for a listen. We listened to some various tracks from Fiona Apple "Tidal", Norah Jones "Come Away With Me", Johnny Cash "American 4: The Man Comes Around", some music that Al had brought, and a classical disc that Gary had brought. Initially the N-Cores were plugged into my Belkin PF60 power conditioner, and Though Al preferred the N-Cores by a smidgen, I was not swayed. I felt there was more bloom, space, and air, with my Alchemy amp in the system, Gary agreed with me, said he'd heard enough, and he decided it was time for him to go. After Gary left, Al suggested we not use the Belkin with the N-Cores, as Bruno (the designer) really recommends against using a conditioner. This is difficult for me as I only have one outlet available for my system, so I grabbed a short, but fairly heavy gauge, extension cord and plugged the N-Cores into it. Lo-And-Behold they opened up nicely. My impression is that they are the epitome of neutral, not sterile, but neutral, I feel my Alchemy still offers more Bloom but that Bloom is very likely an artifact of that amplifier.

Sunday morning was hectic for me, but after my son's soccer game I packed the amps up and headed into Brooklyn to deliver them to Paul. Al and his friend Kevin were also in headed over there, so I car-pooled with them. I went into Paul's to deliver the amps while Al and Kevin parked the car, so I had a chance to listen to Paul's system with his AKSA amp in place, to help give me a base line there. We tried the N-Cores with and with out power conditioning at Paul's as well, and again they preformed better right into the wall. Paul is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to power conditioning, I don't claim to fully understand the explination he gave that afternoon, but he said he was not totally surprised by this as he believes that there is enough conditioning and isolation built into the SMPS600, so that more conditioning hurts rather than helps. My thoughts after listening at Paul's reinforced what I'd concluded at my home. So again, the AKSA was not blown out of the water by the N-Core, but the N-Core seemed to have a more neutral presentation.

I don't feel the need to dump my Alchemy, but these would be top contenders for me, if/when the time comes, that I need a replacement amplifier, especially considering the price performance. As I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on my audio hobby, and for what I've seen/heard, these are a very very good value that I could be happy with.
Regarding the Power Supply: At my home I have tried several different amps of a Class-D switching amp topology, and ALL of them, from several of the Class-D Audio kits, to the Ghent ICE Modules, to the DAC Cherry amplifiers, to the Bel Canto e.One S125 I recently won in a raffle, produce an audible 60Hz hum at the listening position. With my Alchemy, the transformers hum, and there is a slight hum through the speakers as well, but is isn't audible from the listening position. The N-Cores were DEAD QUIET. Not a thing was heard from my speakers when the CD was not playing. This is a first for me in my home, and is another reason the N-Core is very high on my list when I decide I have some money to put into my system.

[jbtrio]

Thanks for your thoughts Barry. Did you like them better then Mike's cherry amp in your setup?

[Barry (NJ)]

I think they handle the upper frequencies better than the Cherry amps, but I think the Cherry amps have more dynamics and slam.

[StereoNut]

Has anyone compared the Ghent ICE amp to the NCore?  If you're not familiar with the Ghent amp, here's a link:

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/icepower-125asx2-a200b-mono-550w-x-2-ch-se-amp--2

I've owned the Ghent amp for a few months.  I think it's very good and far better than the Class D amps or the earlier ICE generations.  I'm using it as two mono blocs in one chasis.  The output is claimed to be 550W/channel.  It's one of the few amps that doessn't clip, when playing the Japanese Kodo drummers at high volume on my ATC SCM11's.   I paid $670 incl shipping for this amp fully-assembled.

I'm hoping the two amps can be compared, when the NCore is with Martin Joseph or Paul Kaplan.

                                                       Jim

Has this comparison been made yet?  I'd especially be interested in seeing (hearing) whether the extra $$$ for the NCore amps vs. the Ghent amps is worth it or not.

Thanks!
SN

[Triode Pete]

Has anyone compared the Ghent ICE amp to the NCore?  If you're not familiar with the Ghent amp, here's a link:

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/icepower-125asx2-a200b-mono-550w-x-2-ch-se-amp--2

I've owned the Ghent amp for a few months.  I think it's very good and far better than the Class D amps or the earlier ICE generations.  I'm using it as two mono blocs in one chasis.  The output is claimed to be 550W/channel.  It's one of the few amps that doessn't clip, when playing the Japanese Kodo drummers at high volume on my ATC SCM11's.   I paid $670 incl shipping for this amp fully-assembled.

I'm hoping the two amps can be compared, when the NCore is with Martin Joseph or Paul Kaplan.

                                                       Jim

Has this comparison been made yet?  I'd especially be interested in seeing (hearing) whether the extra $$$ for the NCore amps vs. the Ghent amps is worth it or not.

Thanks!
SN

StereoNut -
It will be a truly unfair comparison now since Round 2 of the NCore tour includes a 6 ft. pair of Triode Wire Labs "Seven Plus" cords with the amps... 

Jason (jtwrace) requested them & I obliged... should be a nice synergy since my cords seem to gel nicely with Class D amps... 

Cheers,
Pete

[bhobba]

Hi Guys

An acquaintance out here in Aus lent me some Ncores and a few hours ago popped them in my system with a NAD M51 as source and ML3 Reference as speakers. Here are some of my initial impressions.

Well how do they sound - clear, clean, pure and neutral - very neutral.  With the NAD 51 as source I heard the exact same setup with Mac 501's yesterday and know the sound of my NAKSA 100 very well.  First how do they compare to the Mac's - very well thank you very much.  Bass grip not quite as good - still pretty good mind you - but those Mac's have simply amazing bass grip.  They have a slightly harder sound with maybe a trace of glare - maybe - than the Mac's but the Mac's to me have a slighly tubey midrange and a slight veil - this doesn't have the veil - but have a slight hardness and etched character the Mac's lack and the midrange isn't quite as enjoyable.  The Mac's are better to listen to for long periods IMHO.  The Trafomatic totally clobers it for midrange divineness - but then again no amp I have heard touches it in that department - although the Arions come close.  It's not like the NAKSA which Hugh has voiced to sound really good for long periods - but is not the last word in neutrality - and is more the type of amp you go - ahh - that's nice when you hear it - this amp isn't.  Its more the type of amp you go - hmmm - exactly what character does it have and you have to listen to it for a while to lock onto it and notice a few things like the slight hardness etc.  How does it compare to the Arions?  I will see if I can do a direct comparison at some future date but most certainly a comparison with my aquantances that have heard the Arion's is on the cards.  My view is the Arions simply sound real - this amp sounds slighly hard, etched and contrived in comparison.  How does it compare to the NAD C4390DD - the NAD has greater slam but sort of sounds a bit thicker for want of a better word.  But overall fed with the NAD M51 I would say they are about equal - just slightly different.

I hope to, when I have someone to give me a hand, be able to rig it up through my QOL Completion stage so we can check it out against my Bybeed up PDX.  I will be taking it over to an acquaintance here in Aus, Rob's place, tomorrow for comparison against his Spectron on his Ambiance Ribbons.

I will also give it a go with my Playback Designs a bit later - it is extremely good with DSD having a very realistic natural sound.

Overall this is a very very good amp - up there with some of the better amps I have heard.  If you prefer a highly neutral and accurate sound and are not worried it may not be relaxing to listen to for long periods then it could be just your ticket.

Thanks
Bill

[richidoo]

Good description Bill, similar to my experience with NCore.

[Bunky]

I am hoping to get a chance to hear some N Core's at the Capitol Audiofest.i have not had a chance to hear any yet.

[Barry (NJ)]

I wonder if Mola-Mola, or one of the other OEMs, will have their NCore amps ready and on display, all the discussion so far has been about the DIY modules(?)

[bhobba]

Hi Guys

Just returned from Robs place where we did a few comparisons with his Ambiance Ribbons.  First was a WFS DAC2 into a Modright valve pre amp and a bybeed Spectron digital amp.  Thought I heard the Saber signature of a slight dryness and sibilance but as many have noted is was much more palatable feeding it into valves - although not totally eliminated.  Next we put in the NAD M51.  A wetter more honeyed sound with the M51 but interestingly the sibilance control was not as good as the WFS which was interesting.  It was thought that overall they were pretty equal.  OK we popped in the NCores.  Unfortunately the sound immediately dropped away - voices became very recessed and everything was closed in.  Detail not as good.Treble was not as clean.  Next we put the M51 direct into the Ncores.  Immediate improvement - better detail, voices not closed in and a bit cleaner - but at the cost of a slight hardness to the sound.  It looks like the Ncores may not like valve pre-amp's but of course more experimentation would be required to form any firm conclusions.  We then put the WFS direct into the Spectron.  Yea the dryness and sibilance was now there in full force - but the detail was improved.  I personally preferred the valve pre-amp.  Then the M51 was tried direct to the Spectron.  I preferred the M51 that way over the pre-amp.  The Spectron revealed more detail, the slight hardness of the Ncores were gone and the imaging was more refined but compared to the WFS it was a bit dull and not as transparent - I preferred the WFS.

The bottom line here is yes the Ncores are excellent value for money and sounds very good, but when compared to the MUCH more expensive Spectron the Spectron was clearly better.

Thanks
Bill

[cab]

Ncores replaced Spectron in my system....so I wouldn't make any absolute statements.

[topround]

Forgive my ignorance as chip amps are not my cup of tea, so I really have not been paying attention, but aren't the Ncores kits? And can these kits be built(implimented ) differently, with different results?
Just wondering.


mike

[cab]

They are modules available to end users for diy and to oem's. There isn't a whole lot to do but connect some wiring and put them in a case.