Nuforce

Just borrowed the Nuforce SE's for the 30 day trial. Currently comparing them to my McIntosh mc501 mono's(500 watts/channel). The first thing I noticed, and I have only run them for about 1 hour is that I get about a 3db volume increase above the Macs at the same volume setting. The second thing I noticed is that if there are many instruments in the recording I can more easily hear them individually. The soundstage depth is startling. I keep looking at these little guys at a third of the power of my macs and wondering how could this be. The walls are easily shaken with bass as, same as the Macs, but the purity and clarity of the Nuforce SE's is like I have never heard before. I am currently using a Pass Labs X2.5 preamp and today will run the Nuforce's through my McIntosh c2200 tube preamp. They are driving Von Schweikert VR$ SR's. I was watching the woofers displacement and I can see more fine and rapid oscillations using the Nuforce compared to the Macs. The Macs are 110lbs each so at this point my only reservation in selling them is that I have to lift them!

Huge advantage of Nuforce is the controlled lower end and size. Someone once told me that these amps sounded lean to them. Yes, they are built that way for a reason. Very nuetral and natural sounding having great depth and openess. It is up to the individual to taylor these to there liking. Every change you make you will notice. The only thing you wont find with these is a muddy lower end. My hunch is with the tubed pre you will find the richness in the mids and not lose the highs.
Rukavina,
do you know how many hours are on the SE's?

I only have about 1 hour on them currently. Will leave them on until Wednesday, about 100hrs.

It's always nice when a reviewer backs up one's own thoughts. Here is a just released review from 6moons.com
on the Nuforce SEs.

http://6moons.com/audioreviews/nuforce3/9se.html

Note the concluding paragraphs.

-John

Looking at the bank of capacitors on the SE's the sonics are going to flucuate until they fully break-in.
I would give them a solid 300 hours or more without turning them off and play them hard at times. It would not hurt to run a burn-in disc while breaking them in. The 9.02's progressively got better up to the 150 hour mark then really leveled off. The SE's will have step changes and when you get there it will be like someone flipped a switch and added another level. Just read the review and saw the capacitors up close. They are bigger than I thought. There is absolutely no way you can tell how good these are going to sound at the 80 hour mark. I would never turn these off and let those capacitors drain. Short periods yes, long periods no way! Only review that I am going to consider is from someone who has done there homework on these. It is believe it or not a complete makeover from the 9.02's and I think the results between the two are going to be staggering which will put the SE's very near the top. Vibration control with these will be more critical than ever. Especially where all those caps are located. I could be wrong here but $1500 for an upgrade from the 9.02's to the SE's could be an absolute steal if indeed nuforce makes the 9.02's exactly the same as the SE's. I am going to find out if they do.