Hypex Ncore NC1200 Amps at NY Audio Show in April

The Mola Mola room had a clean sound, but the lower frequencies were bloated. The sound was fast, clean, articulate, but the pitch was off mark. The cymbals did not have the sure footed metallic sound. I could not confuse this sound with a life performance. I think probably the Mola Mola amps will fare better matched to a tube preamp. The soundstage was all fuzzy and I could not get a clear picture of the musicians location in space. This was a small room for the Vivid speakers, so my guess is that this system can sound fantastic in a larger room where the speakers can breath better.

The Veritas with the Sanders speakers sounded thick all over, which to me was a huge surprise. I had listened to the Sanders speakers some years back at the NY show and the sound was very fast and articulate. Pitch and definition were top notch. Back them, at least to me, the Sanders speakers were best in show driven by Innersound amps. I even consider buying them back then, but I ended up with Magnepans instead. A big note here: this room was small and narrow.

The Raidho D1 driven by the Veritas mono-blocks sounded better to me. The bass was still bloated and lacked definition, but I think this setup can sound fantastic in a proper environment. The soundstage was not well defined in terms of the performers location in reference to one another. There was better pitch definition and a more airy sound, probably because they were mated with a Kondo tube preamp. I still would not confuse the sound to live music or with the best at this show, but it certainly was promising.

Like others, I was impressed with the sound of the Martin Logans driven by Krell. When I walked into the room, they were playing Rickie Lee Jones' Show Biz Kids, which I have in vinyl. This piece sounded fantastic in this room and setup. The bass as a bit disconnected, but I didn't mind it much considering how good the rest was. I was able to pinpoint the exact location of the vocals and musicians in this room, which tricked my brain into thinking the performance could have been happening there. This was a much larger room than where the Mola Mola and the Merril Audio amps were playing, so this should be factor in when reaching conclusions regarding which amp sounded better.

Another surprise was the Audio Doctor room. They had the Waterfall Glass Speakers driven by the Aragon 8008 amp. This room sounded just fantastic. The sound had lots of composure and control. The bass was reaching out too much at times, but it was dead on on some of the music they were playing. If I had gone to the show to buy a system, this one is probably the one would put my money on. The sound was unbelievable for such a small speaker. The room was a bit larger than the Mola Mola room and the Merril Audio room, but smaller than the ML Krell room. The soundstage was not as well delineated as in the ML room, but it was very good.

My overall opinion is that if I were in the market for an amp now, I would seriously consider auditioning the Aragon 8008. I had listened many years back to the older Aragon amps in a controlled environment and I was not nearly as impressed as I am now with the new 8008.

Electroslacker,

I concur with your comments. I've never heard glass cabinet speakers before and this experience totally changes the misconception that glass is supposed to ring. I'm not a glass expert, but I know that glass as material can have many different levels is rigidity. I'm almost certain that the glass the use in the Waterfall speakers is more inert than the one we are used to see in home windows and table tops. The glass that is used in skyscrapers, for instance, is a totally different type of glass. This glass should be able to handle extreme wind forces and building vibrations without ringing or breaking. Based on the sound in this room, they for sure did their research before releasing their speakers to the market.

As for the Vivid speakers. I totally agree: that room was simply way to small for the potential of these speakers. Furthermore, all those rooms in that area were being swamped by what appeared to be a very loud transformer or an A/C compressor noise coming from outside. You could easily hear the outside rumble noise when music was not playing. This forced them to play louder than what they would normally do so to compensate for the outside noise.

BTW, all the rooms in that area were affected by this phenomenon and therefore did not sound any better either. The only rooms with great sound were the larger ones that were on the opposite side.

Let's keep in mind also, that as far as I know, the Mola Mola amps shown are still prototypes. I was told that the DAC and Phono modules for the preamp are supposed to be released in June. So perhaps then, we'll see the final versions of the Mola Mola system.

Rhapsody Music & Cinema is in NY, so I may listen to the Mola Mola amps in a more controlled environment in the future.

The two rooms with the Merrill Audio Veritas and the one room with the Mola-Mola sounded different from each other. But they all had something troublesome in the sound: there was a noise embedded with the sound that made the sound very artificial. The noise was similar to pink noise with the difference that it was present with the sound and no with the silences.

When there is noise present in a piece of equipment, it can be heard constantly when there is sound and when there is silence in the song. In all three rooms, the sound (not the silences) was accompanied by this noise. This made the sound come out as if it was being processed in software, and not by a piece of hardware.

I have a little recording studio that includes the Millennia STT-1 Recording System and the Neumann TLM 49 mic. For what I need it, this is overkill as this setup is used by well stablished recording studios, not so much by individuals. Prior to having the Millennia STT-1, I tried feeding the signal from the TLM 49 directly to Apple's Logic Pro. The software translated everything into sounding like a high frequency mechanical apparatus as making the sound, not like a human voice was making the sound. Adding the Millennia STT-1 and skipping Logic Pro allowed for the human voice to be recorded and played back like a human voice, nothing more, nothing less.

I felt like all three rooms sounded as if the sound as being overly processed by a piece of software, as if the signal was amplifying some noise along the way. This is a phenomenon that I heard before while listening to the first generation Bel Canto class-D monoblocks. Apparently, other first generation ICE powered class-D amps also exhibited this noise, which was particularly noticeable in the higher frequencies.

Since all three rooms had this noise embedded in the sound, it makes me wonder if the nc1200 module is really ready for prime time or this is simply an out-of-spec batch of modules that slipped through quality control.

HiFiAl

Then if the "noise" was not present during the silence parts then it can not be the equipment. If the noise was inherent in the equipment you would hear it all of the time, even during the moments of silence.

That's not necessarily the case in all designs. Let us assume for a moment that the signal has to pass through some filter before leaving the amp. This filter will only work on the signal, therefore it will do nothing when there is no signal passing through the amp. Therefore, this is a scenario where the noise will be added only to the music (signal), not the silences.

Many OEM class D designs have had noise issues in the past and the latest generation seems to have corrected that. The NC1200 is in in first iteration, so I'm confident that this is an issue that will be dealt with in future generations.

This is a quote from Positive Feedback reporting on the NYAS 2013:

Sanders Sound & Merrill Audio
Right across the hallway was another electrostatic speaker, the Sanders Model 10c, and another variation in sound quality. Power was provided by the Merrill VERITAS Mono Blocks, which use the latest Hypex Ncore NC1200.

Radically different than the Martin Logans, the expected transparency usually associated with 'stats wasn't in evidence. The midrange on down was heavy and the top lacked a bit of sparkle.

As you see, I'm not the only one to have perceived this odd behavior in the context of the Merrill Audio Veritas amps.

The Raidho D-1 Monitors were stunning on their custom stands. (The integrated speaker package has an MSRP of $28,000.) It was quite surprising how they are able to fill the room. For a smallish profile, they were amazingly full range and dynamic. This was another room with Merrill Audio amplification.

This just means that they filled the room and sounded dynamic. Plenty of other stand mounted speakers can do that. You can check many other reports on these rooms and you'll find that they either just mentioned the gear in the room or used generic terms to describe the sound.

On the other hand, a lot of audio gear can produce a very clean, taught, fast, controlled, articulate, high contrast sound. But this doesn't necessarily mean that it sounds real. If one listens to a lot of live music, it then becomes more difficult for the brain to associate reproduced sound with live music. What I heard from all three rooms was a sound that was going the opposite direction of trying to reproduce a live performance. I can extrapolate and say that all three systems will certainly sound better in a more controlled environment, but I'm not that optimistic and think they'll sound like live music.

Designing amps can be very, very difficult. It took John Ulrick from Spectron a few decades to produce their excellent live-sounding amps. There are a couple of other legacy companies that also took a few decades of research and customer feedback to arrive at the great products they produce today. Many of these engineers happen to also be musicians. Their products simply aim at recreating a live performance in your room and that, IMO, should be the ultimate goal. An engineer can produce the most desirable measurements from an amp and not sound real at all. On the other end, some high-distortion tube gear can sound so real.

Now, let's not confuse noise with distortion. I've heard a lot of high-distortion tube gear that sounded very pleasing and real. I have not heard a system with some electrical noise in the signal sound pleasing and real.

Musical instruments have all kinds of sound. My wife and I went on a cello auditioning tour a while back. We encountered cellos with fat lower frequencies and clean upper frequencies, cellos that were very quick to recover from excess reverberance, cellos that sounded lean and forward, but the one thing that they all had in common is that they sounded real. And this is the experience I want to dive in at home when listening to music.

I would like to clarify that my posts were strictly based on what I heard at the show and that I am not in any way questioning or generalizing the performance of the NC1200-based amps. Based on your posts, I'm sure you're happy with how they sound in your system. I also think that perhaps you would not trade the sound you're getting in your system with these amps with how they sounded at the show.

These amps are new in the market, so perhaps dealers have not had a chance to really explore what gear mates best with them to get the best possible sound. Every new company goes through this experience to some extent, so time may tell a different story as users start to narrow down what works best with these amps.

I did sit in the sweet spot in all rooms. I also happen to have speakers that sound best in the sweet spot. They also sound great from anywhere 20 - 30 feet away. Sure, the sweet spot magic brings everything into focus and all instruments take their space in the soundstage, etc., but the quality of the sound is always there, regardless of where you are.

We also have different tastes. What suits you and me, may not suit others. In the end, it's what makes us happy what counts:)

Cheers

Hello Dob, Yes, I have the Spectron mono-blocks with the Bybee purifiers and the Joule Electra 300ME. That combo still puts a smile on my face every time I listen to music.

I totally missed room 1019 because I wrote down the wrong # in my list of rooms to attend. The NYAS booklet indicates CARE Audio was in room 1019. They are supposed to be an audio dealer in NJ. This link has a photo of their room with two wooden boxes on the floor, but no description is given about them. Are these the amps?

And here is another one.

Merrill Audio: "Not For Tube Lovers"
By Ariel Bitran • Posted: Apr 16, 2013
Merrill Wettasingh of Merrill Audio says his class-D Veritas Monoblock amplifiers are "not for tube lovers." The crimson or black chassis is made of a solid 60lb billet of aluminum. Allowing only spade connection for the "best and biggest" sound, these 400 watt (8 ohms) power-houses seek "audio purity" rather than coloration, according to Wettasingh.

Very interesting posting by The Absolute Sound. These are the same people now being accused by Harry Pearson (the creator of The Absolute Sound) of writing favorable reviews in exchange for advertising in TAS. I wouldn't be surprise to see Merrill Audio placing an ad in TAS with that quote in it.

Audiogon members with no affiliation to the brand they own have a lot more credibility than many "professional" reviewers. My entire system was built based on information I gathered from this website and I'm absolutely happy with it. So I choose to believe no-brand-affiliation Audiogon members and their comments over "professional" reviewers recommendations.

Those are good points, Noble100.

I few days ago I was playing Janos Starker Bach Solo Cello Suits on vinyl. My wife walks into the room and we had this conversation:

W: why are you playing this particular record?
Me: because I wanted to know how it sounds with the new speaker cables.
W: oh.
Me: how does it sound?
W: it sounds like he's in the room!

Class D is here to stay. A well designed amp, and any other piece of audio gear in the chain, should just disappear and let the music through.

Judging from the success of companies using OEM class D modules, it seems that the ones that gained the most acceptance design their own input stage, along with other modifications to the amp architecture, perhaps to compensate or correct what they consider deficiencies in the OEM amp topology.