Hypex Ncore NC400

Hello Dan,

Yes, we do claim distortion cancelation when our stereo amp, Musician III is used in fully balanced monoblock configuration.

There is no any proprietary design. None what so ever. Any (transistor) stereo amp can be configured the same into fully balanced monoblock and on paper will have distortion cancelation too and Distortion-free sound is glorious...as you noted.

In real life if you want distortions cancelation then these from right channel must be equial to these from left channel and subctracting you have zero. Simple? In order to have it your parts tolerance (on right and left channels) MUST (M-U-S-T) be very high - otherwise one can create even more distortion.

Also, amplifier in such configuration has double slew rate (same raise time...but one channel go to +Signal and another to -Signal is distance of 2x Signal), double bandwidth, entire power supply dedicated to one speaker instead of two as was in stereo etc.

NCore has good specs on the paper, so one can try...

Simon

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=106827.0

Finally had a chance to hear the nCores in my system. My current amps are the Joule Electra VZN100's.

The nCores were very difficult to assess. At first, I thought they sounded good but something was missing. Trying to get a description, all I could think of was polished. We listened for days but found ourselves not so into our music collection. I just couldn't stay connected to the music. My audio buddy stopped by as he was very interested in these nCores but thought they sounded compressed. When we returned the Joules into action it was an immediate reminder just how amazing these tube amps are. We are both disappointed with the nCores but given the number of folks who love these things, we want to try another pair. I do have 97db sensitivity on the speakers. Maybe that has something to do with it?

I don't want to like the Joules, too hot, too weird. But I can't find anything even close that connects us with the music.

Maybe there was something wrong with these nCores?

Maybe there was something wrong with these nCores?

Desalvo55,

The Ncores sound best plugged directly into the wall. I'm not sure of your set up, but that is the way that most users found them to sound best. There are many threads about the Ncore over on the Audio Circle forum. Perhaps there may have been a deviation in this particular build? Dunno?

Your Joule Electra amps are a superior sounding tube amp, no doubt about it. They offer a true 3D bloom that can be found in only the best of tube amplification. The Ncore is SS Class D, and as DIY can be put together for about 15% of the JE VZN 100's. Your high sensitivity speakers are pretty much a non issue for the Ncores. Many are using them with high sensitivity with great results.

Hey lets face it, you already have a fantastic sounding amp and the Ncore didn't float your boat. No biggie!
Beauty is in the ear of the listener :-).

Enjoy

I'm pretty happy with the Ncore amp I built, but I'm more of a solid state person anyway.