Better Than Class A amp?

dallasjustice

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Apr 12, 2011
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If you heard an amp that exceeded the performance of your favorite class A or A/B amp, would you buy it? What if the amp gave you more of the music than you've ever heard from class A without throwing off any of the heat and using up a fortunate in electricity costs? Class D is there, IMO. I borrowed a pair of the Atsah. There's no need to say they are the best EVA! That's stupid talk.

For those of you that don't know me. I fall squarely into the accurate reproduction camp. For those of you that are after very accurate music performance reproduction, you ought drop your common wisdom and former experiences concerning class D and take a listen to an ncore amp. The new hypex ncore technology is AS GOOD AS anything I've heard and I've owned some of the very best in a very accurate room/system. Eg. Soulution, Krell, BMC, Luxman and Dartzeel. I would say the new ncore amps are totally on par with any of the aforementioned.

Michael.
 

DaveyF

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Jul 31, 2010
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La Jolla, Calif USA
I've heard the mola mola amps on a couple of occasions. IMO, these are amps that upon first listen impress, BUT I noticed the longer I listened, the more I noticed the amps just were cool and a little bright. Not something I could live with.
 

ddk

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May 18, 2013
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Utah
If you heard an amp that exceeded the performance of your favorite class A or A/B amp, would you buy it? What if the amp gave you more of the music than you've ever heard from class A without throwing off any of the heat and using up a fortunate in electricity costs? Class D is there, IMO. I borrowed a pair of the Atsah. There's no need to say they are the best EVA! That's stupid talk.

For those of you that don't know me. I fall squarely into the accurate reproduction camp. For those of you that are after very accurate music performance reproduction, you ought drop your common wisdom and former experiences concerning class D and take a listen to an ncore amp. The new hypex ncore technology is AS GOOD AS anything I've heard and I've owned some of the very best in a very accurate room/system. Eg. Soulution, Krell, BMC, Luxman and Dartzeel. I would say the new ncore amps are totally on par with any of the aforementioned.

Michael.

Hi Michael, do you mind expanding on your definition of accurate? Given the flawed and variable nature of playback we probably all have different criteria for accuracy.
david
 

dallasjustice

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Apr 12, 2011
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I've heard the mola mola amps on a couple of occasions. IMO, these are amps that upon first listen impress, BUT I noticed the longer I listened, the more I noticed the amps just were cool and a little bright. Not something I could live with.
Where did you hear mola mola?
 

MadFloyd

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May 30, 2010
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If you heard an amp that exceeded the performance of your favorite class A or A/B amp, would you buy it? What if the amp gave you more of the music than you've ever heard from class A without throwing off any of the heat and using up a fortunate in electricity costs? Class D is there, IMO. I borrowed a pair of the Atsah. There's no need to say they are the best EVA! That's stupid talk.

For those of you that don't know me. I fall squarely into the accurate reproduction camp. For those of you that are after very accurate music performance reproduction, you ought drop your common wisdom and former experiences concerning class D and take a listen to an ncore amp. The new hypex ncore technology is AS GOOD AS anything I've heard and I've owned some of the very best in a very accurate room/system. Eg. Soulution, Krell, BMC, Luxman and Dartzeel. I would say the new ncore amps are totally on par with any of the aforementioned.

Michael.

How new are you talking? I used to own NCore amps a couple years ago - they did not hold up to Class A in my opinion.
 

mep

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Apr 20, 2010
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I could be wrong, but there may just be a division between people who like/love the new NCore amps and people who don't based on which one listens exclusively to digital and which one listens to analog and digital.
 

dallasjustice

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Apr 12, 2011
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Dallas, Texas
How new are you talking? I used to own NCore amps a couple years ago - they did not hold up to Class A in my opinion.
The ncore 1200 and SMPS are said to be much superior sounding to the DIY version. I do not know about that. I have owned all of the amps listed and listened with same speakers in same room. I am confident in my evaluation. Ncore is a contender. Maybe it's not best in all systems but it's performance competitive with anything at any price.

I have the Atsah which is assembled by Acoustic Imagery. However, it's the same OEM ncore 1200 module and SMPS found in other ncore amps. I would expect all ncore 1200 amps sound very similar but I have not heard them all. However, the mola mola will have a discrete input stage and different output filter. The mola mola hasn't shipped to US.
 

FrantzM

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Apr 20, 2010
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Price?
 

c1ferrari

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May 15, 2010
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Michael,

Have you ever auditioned Spectron?
 

flez007

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Aug 31, 2010
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My only experience with class D has been the Merrill amps, they are fricking good!
 

PeterA

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2011
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USA
If you heard an amp that exceeded the performance of your favorite class A or A/B amp, would you buy it? What if the amp gave you more of the music than you've ever heard from class A without throwing off any of the heat and using up a fortunate in electricity costs? Class D is there, IMO. I borrowed a pair of the Atsah. There's no need to say they are the best EVA! That's stupid talk.

For those of you that don't know me. I fall squarely into the accurate reproduction camp. For those of you that are after very accurate music performance reproduction, you ought drop your common wisdom and former experiences concerning class D and take a listen to an ncore amp. The new hypex ncore technology is AS GOOD AS anything I've heard and I've owned some of the very best in a very accurate room/system. Eg. Soulution, Krell, BMC, Luxman and Dartzeel. I would say the new ncore amps are totally on par with any of the aforementioned.

Michael.


What do you mean by accurate and are you referring to tube or SS Class A and single ended or push pull? Have you compared your ncore amps to Pass Labs Class A in the same system? That might be very interesting.

Perhaps you could elaborate about the sound of your ncore amps and why you prefer them.
 

dallasjustice

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Apr 12, 2011
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Dallas, Texas
Hi Michael, do you mind expanding on your definition of accurate?
More music, less gear. The best amps are the the amps that bring the speaker to its best performance and deliver music most closely to the playback material.
 

dallasjustice

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Apr 12, 2011
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Dallas, Texas
The last time I heard mola mola was at a demo that was put on by Philip O'Hanlon with Vivid Giya's. The mola mola's were as I stated, initially impressive and yet after a little more listening were clearly NOT up to the rest of system. YMMV.
How did you attribute your disappointment to the amps?
 

DaveyF

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2010
6,129
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La Jolla, Calif USA
How did you attribute your disappointment to the amps?

A hard grain and like I said before, a somewhat cool and bright sound that permeated everything ( similar IME to every Class D based amp I have ever heard, BUT less initially so obvious). It was pretty evident once the amps were replaced. Have you actually heard these amps?
 

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