Lets Talk About Digital or Switching Amps

[Joker]

I tend to shy away from the digital amps as I'm very sensitive to harshness/cool sound but I am extremely curious about the Spectron MIII SE. I would love to audition that baby. Anyone have any experience with the Spectron?

John

[shep]

M. Mardis is sending me one of his "Octopus" amps, the last one in fact. It's based on the 20watt Tripath chip. This is to keep me sane until he finally gets my "big" T-amp done. Strictly speaking the Tripath chip does not qualify as a digital amp. No need to tell you guys that

[Rocket]

Hi,

I compared my ps audio hca 2 (and n.e.w. p3 preamp)  to a red wine sig 30 and thought my combination sounded better.  I didn't have the opportunity to use my preamp with the sig 30 and think it would have sounded a lot better.  For the price it was very good and digital technology has provided a lot of audiophiles with an opportunity to obtain decent equipment at lower prices.

I also have a Spread Spectrum Technologies 'SOA' and an n.e.w. dc-66 amplifier.  All these amps have their strengths and weaknesses.

Regards

Rod

[richidoo]

News from Hypex today, they are finally releasing their long awaited switching power supply, designed for the UcD180 amp module. They also announced UcD2k, a 2500 watt>4ohm amp module. And check out the Firewire soundcard with built in amp on their website.

They said there would be more PSs coming for other amps. Bruno Putzey is a talented engineer, I would imagine this PS will be very quiet EMI.

http://www.hypex.nl/
http://www.hypex.nl/docs/smps180.pdf
http://www.hypex.nl/docs/UcD2kW.pdf

Rich

[mca]

The latest Nuforce amps (V2 SE) have been getting reviews that seem to hint that they could be some of the best amps ever. Tons of detail, massive bass, but none of that cold, sterile sound that had plagued the earlier designs. Has anyone had a chance to hear these?

I'm in the market for a new amp and keep being drawn to these because of their small size {easy to move and place, less shipping costs) and "green" design (low power consumption, low heat).   

[bpape]

I'm always leary when I hear 'tons of detail'.  Sorry - real life doesn't have tons of detail. If it does, it's adding something artificial and I personally usually don't care for it.

Not picking on you personally but just expressing an opinion

Bryan

[Bigfish8]

There is a banner add on the Nuforce Website that they have a $1.00 charge plus freight to allow you to demo for a weekend.  If you are fortunate enough to have a dealer close by you might want to investigate this offer. 

Ken

[bpape]

Absolutely.  If you can check them out for a buck, why not.

Bryan

[miklorsmith]

I'm with Bryan on the "detail" thing.  When that's mentioned in a review, there's usually a reason and the reason is usually irritating to me.

Of course I'm tainted by my experience with the earlier models which also had the "Best Amp Ever" statements draped all over them.

One of these days you should borrow my Siggies - you won't get any greener than that.

[Carlman]

Sweet, more Nuforce puffery... I think every time Nuforce comes out with a new amp, or revision, they are the best someone has ever heard.  Nuforce has a long way to go to win me over... I'm not saying the new ones won't but it'd certainly need to be a significant improvement in every area for me to even like them, much less tout them as a 'best' of any kind. 
BTW, how can you even have a 'best amp ever'?  Is that possible?  That's like a best car ever... you mean street legal, under 100,k, etc.?

[Mike L]

I too am leary whenever I hear the term detail to describe a product.  I would rather hear things like excellent microdynamics and very revealing of textures.  I think a lot of people that find something detailed I would think of as digital, harsh, and edgy.

I was once an owner of the Nuforce ref 9.02's.  I did find them to be very powerful and clear.  However, the negative aspects of them started leave me wanting.  I don't know if I would consider them harsh up top (of course associated gear comes into play as well) but I find their highs to be smeared and they just did not convey any emotion to me.  However, I think they are excellent home theater amps due to their speed and dynamics.

I have since moved on to tubes.....Consonance Cyber 800's.  They are more work, however I just can't see myself going back to ss when it comes to music.  I have heard much more expensive ss amps that just do not have the body and convey the emotion that these amps do.

Regards,
Mike

[Phil]

I have only heard the Nuforce 9.02 in a friend's system.  In his system, they sounded neutral to me, but the bass, which was BIG, seemed a bit out of balance with the rest of the range. 

I'm wondering if others have heard the same imbalance (it might have been system specific). 

[richidoo]

When I auditioned 9.02SE the bass was fabulous. Mids and highs were a little edgy, but only a little to my ears. I might have gotten used to it in time, but my wife hated the sound.

[Phil]

That's interesting Rich.  I believe that switching amps need as clean power as possible for the HF to sound right.  Were you running them from your equitech?

My wife has great ears for noise in the system.  I was playing with power cords the other day and she immediately heard the difference and asked me to put the old power cord back in the system.  Oh, and she heard this while casually walking by the speakers.  I certainly believe women hear differently from men.

[richidoo]

No equitech back then, but after reading the hype on their website about the switching power supply I was under the firm impression that it made unlimted perfect power for the amp. Good point though, switchers can ruin sound if not carefully engineered.  Hypex has a new switcher PS available.

I think a lot of the yuk we don't like about Hypex is the IC input opamps. Maybe others are affected by this too?