Viktigheten av lytteinntrykk er overdrevet ;D, men her er en for de som ikke har fått med seg denne:
"I have been a die-hard Class A amp guy SS and tubes including OTLs - for decades. I tried a Halcro when they first came out. It may have boasted ultra-low distortion figures, but it was too sterile and thin sounding for my tastes. If this meant I liked an amp with coloration then so be it. Bring on the color.
A few months ago I bought a Class D Audio SDS kit just for kicks based on a friends recommendation. Compared to my Class A OTLs they had better bass articulation, similar midrange, better macro/micro detail, but overall the tonal and energy balance wasnt right. They sounded over-caffeinated and had a glassy, un-natural sounding high frequency, which quickly led to listener fatigue. The amp over exaggerated leading edge transients and truncated the decay. Despite these negatives, I found myself enjoying the SDS for periods of time, but ultimately preferring my Class A OTLs for their better tonal balance and natural sound.
Within just a few seconds of listening to the nCore I knew they were a game changer. This is the most accurate, resolving yet musical amplifier Ive heard with perhaps the exception of the Clayton M300s. I cant be definitive on the Claytons as I heard those at a friends place who has a system very similar to mine and its been too long to rely on aural memory. I will be sending him my nCores so he can weigh in with his own impressions.
I have listened to probably over 4 hours of various recordings from classical to rock, unamplified to heavily synthesized and poor to excellent recordings.
First, the nCores get the tonal and energy balance right. Gone is the over-emphasis of the attack. Attack and decay sound like live music. There is a harmonic richness of instruments and vocalists, which grabs you. I listen to a lot of live unamplified music, especially piano and the nCores sound much more true to live. Second, the resolving power is phenomenal. Truly. The nCores expose details that I have never heard before on very familiar recordings and it does it with complete and utter effortlessness. One really notices this on complex passages. The size and location of performers and instruments as well as the recording venue are much more accurately rendered. Bass is the best I have ever heard. Lastly, the nCore sounds great at low volume and at even very high volume there is not even a hint of distortion.
Bottom line, Id have to say the nCores live up the Hype(x). My friend gave that to me so I cant take credit for it
. A BIG congratulations to Bruno, Jan-Peter and the entire Hypex team as well as a thank you for making this new world class technology available to the DIY market.
Will the nCores be everyones cup of tea. Im sure not. You will hear, for perhaps the first time, what the rest of your system and room really sound like and it might not be what floats your boat. If your source is a bit bright and thin you will hear it in all of its glory. For me I have worked very hard to build an accurate end to end playback chain and the nCores are the perfect fit. They are staying.
Lastly, just to put the information in one place a few words about my system. My speakers are Geddes Abbeys a two way, controlled directivity monitor with 12 compression driver loaded waveguide with foam insert and 12 pro woofer. They are 95 db efficient, have extremely flat polar response and are super dynamic. My source is a Metric Halo LIO8 DAC/PRE fed via FireWire from a Mac Mini both powered by custom linear power supplies fed from a PurePower 2000 battery-based regenerator."