NuForce: a new player in the high end market

[kloneman]

Not for serious listening, eh? It is a shame that FM was once the only place to do serious listening. There are still a handful of stations worth in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, listening to (UNT campus radio on most days, the local NPR/PBS stations, and the classical station), and a station or two in the New Orleans area as well. I considered these worth the effort to reconnect my terrestrial antenna to my tuner. Most of what I hear makes me wish for a "radio brick". I'd say there is a lot junk (content-wise) on Sat too, but the transmission quality is high.


On the subject of interference: I have not noticed it with FM and my Sunfire amplifiers, but I have noticed some strange patterns in the video of my Sony CRT TV when the Sunfires are turned up a tad. I am not sure if these are electro-magnetic or accoustically coupled into the set somehow, but I suspect accoustic - the sound level in there can get really high with those K-Horns.

Originally Posted by enrique

Well i actually was looking into the nuforce awhile back and the interference problem was what swayed me.We do listen to FM music sometimes the stations play pretty good music.It also it comes in great where i'm at.Dont get me wrong it's obviously not for serious listening.

[deacongreg]

kloneman,

Just to change the subject for a minute, You have Sunfire amplifiers and Klipschorns. To products that I have always been fond of. I used Phase Linear amps back in my deejay days. Unfortunately, Bob Carver is having some issues now. I believe someone bought Sunfire? However, what Sunfire amps do you use?
And, have do they sound with the Klipschorns?

[kloneman]

Originally Posted by deacongreg

kloneman,

Just to change the subject for a minute, You have Sunfire amplifiers and Klipschorns. To products that I have always been fond of. I used Phase Linear amps back in my deejay days. Unfortunately, Bob Carver is having some issues now. I believe someone bought Sunfire? However, what Sunfire amps do you use?

I have the 405w/channel (into 8 ohms) X 5 "Signature" model.

Originally Posted by deacongreg

And, have do they sound with the Klipschorns?

I love the sound. I have them biwired with the low impedance mode driving the bass bin and the higher impedance mode terminals driving the mid/high module.

[Telstar]

Originally Posted by JerryDelColliano

http://avrev.com/equip/nuforce_reference9se_amp/

Read this review and tell me what you think about the idea of digital amps.

Personally, I think they are the goods. We have the Bel Canto amp that I FLIPPED FOR at CES and Andrew Robinson LOVES (see pending review in March).

Less heat, liquid sound, HUGE volumes of power, quiet, small.

Vast improvements over analog amps of the past.

I haven't read the review yet, but I can tell you this.
The NuForces have a much better control of the bass, but are less refined in sound than the Bel Cantos (I havent heard the latest monoblocks, but a friend of mine is going to buy them).

I dont think SS or Valve amplifiers are a thing of the past. Class D amplifiers still lack some of the magic of Music for me. But they achieved a tremendous sound quality comparable to traditional amplifiers of 3-4 time their price.

[deacongreg]

Originally Posted by kloneman

I have the 405w/channel (into 8 ohms) X 5 "Signature" model.



I love the sound. I have them biwired with the low impedance mode driving the bass bin and the higher impedance mode terminals driving the mid/high module.

You must be rocking your music space. As Klipschs do not need much power to play loud, you must reach some decent levels of sound. Good for you.

[kloneman]

Originally Posted by deacongreg

You must be rocking your music space. As Klipschs do not need much power to play loud, you must reach some decent levels of sound. Good for you.

The K-horns do a great job in their passband, but I want to build a sub that is as efficient in the octave below to match them, and do something to extend the high end as well. I estimate the sub portion of the project will require a pair of 15 inch drivers and a folded horn enclosure that is about 4 ft tall by 4 foot deep and eight feet long. It is probably large enough to install a K-Horn mid/high range driver set , and possibly a 15 inch direct fire woofer into, and work double duty as a passible center channel if I cannot find a suitable Belle. (This will be a project to try for fun)

The rears currently in my system are copies of Dunlavy Black Knights - A horrible mismatch. These cannot keep up (They'e inaudible when driven 1 to 1 with the K-horns, so they need 10-12 dB boost) The dam$ed Dynaudio drivers destroy themselves due to foam surround literally turning to dust with age, and that's accelerated when they are trying their hardest to move as much air as K-Horns. I also believe the 1 inch Dynaudio D21/AF tweeters in these towers are improperly crossed over (too much low frequency energy applied in an attempt to balance 2 12's and a 6) which causes them to incur failures with the voice coil leads or in the coils themselves.

I thought about modifying the enclosures to accept a pair of D21's to divide the load, and adjusting the crossover design to either move the tweeter's point up a bit and/or cross it over faster, but I am so busy with other stuff that I don't see getting to that point. I am probably ending up just replacing the foam surrounds in all 4 woofers, and dropping a pair of D21-2's in them and then giving them to my brother to make room for what I really want. He'll never try to do what I was with them.