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Post by Casey Leedom on Mar 23, 2017 10:54:38 GMT -5
Well I pulled the trigger and ordered two of the NC400 Monoblock kits from Hypex. They're currently out-of-stock but should be available in "Week 14" according to their web site ("April 2nd till April 8th" from personal communication). I'm looking forward to the [very simple] build out and trying them out. Casey |
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hemster
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Post by hemster on Mar 23, 2017 11:21:29 GMT -5
Well I pulled the trigger and ordered two of the NC400 Monoblock kits from Hypex. They're currently out-of-stock but should be available in "Week 14" according to their web site ("April 2nd till April 8th" from personal communication). I'm looking forward to the [very simple] build out and trying them out. Casey Congrats! I look forward to your review after you've built them and used them for a bit. |
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Post by leonski on Mar 31, 2017 21:32:17 GMT -5
Well I pulled the trigger and ordered two of the NC400 Monoblock kits from Hypex. They're currently out-of-stock but should be available in "Week 14" according to their web site ("April 2nd till April 8th" from personal communication). I'm looking forward to the [very simple] build out and trying them out. Casey Are you getting the Hypex Switcher or designing your own Linear PS? In concept the linear is fairly straightforward while the SMPS from Hypex is well thought out and complete. |
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Post by Casey Leedom on Apr 1, 2017 0:07:48 GMT -5
I just bought their complete kit. This is my first DYI project so I'm going Ultra Simple. Really, it's hardly even "assembly" with how little work you have to do. I'm going to give them to a friend who's poor and needs a pair of amplifiers after we finish the assembly.
Casey
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Post by leonski on Apr 1, 2017 2:29:01 GMT -5
I'd love own a pair of NCore stereo amps with built-in MiniDSP crossover. Use 'em for BiAmping appropriate speakers.
Post a picture when you get this rolling.
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Post by vneal on Apr 1, 2017 7:17:20 GMT -5
D Sonic
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Apr 1, 2017 7:41:12 GMT -5
I just bought their complete kit. This is my first DYI project so I'm going Ultra Simple. Really, it's hardly even "assembly" with how little work you have to do. I'm going to give them to a friend who's poor and needs a pair of amplifiers after we finish the assembly. Casey When I built mine there was one slightly confusing part in the instructions, but it was easily cleared up. I bet with them providing a full kit, the instructions are pretty good. Looking forward to what you think of the sound and power. Mark |
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Post by Casey Leedom on Apr 1, 2017 14:51:23 GMT -5
I doubt that I'll notice any difference in power. The MPS-1 I have is rated to nearly the same amount of power. And given that the MPS-1 Amplifier Blades are essentially Monoblocks, I doubt there'll be much difference in terms of channel separation, etc. So that leaves things like "control": Damping Factor, Slew Rate, etc.
As I said, my current plan is to give these away to a friend who can't afford to buy them himself — kind of an early birthday present. This is currently something of a lark for me.
Personally, I'm thinking that the RMC-1 and XPA-3DW Gen3 for my Left/Center/Right Legacies may be what I go for. I'm hoping that Audioholics will review the new Double-Wide modules and I can get them to comment on any differences with the MPS-1 which they reviewed back in 2005. But who knows, maybe the NCore's are in fact the way of the future ...
Casey
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Apr 1, 2017 18:31:42 GMT -5
The thing I noticed most vs. the XPA-2 I replaced with my Hypex is that the upper end sounded clearer, less harsh with the Hypex yet they were every bit as powerful. I felt the XPA-2 (Gen 1) was just a tad harsh in the high end for my tastes. It was not bad, but the Hypex were better.
Mark
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Post by Casey Leedom on Apr 5, 2017 22:45:45 GMT -5
Well, the two Hypex NC400 Monoblock Amplifier Kits arrived today. I decided to Work From Home in order to catch it and prevent the dreaded "we tried to deliver your package and we'll try two time more at unpredictable intervals before giving up" slip. Good thing I did. It showed up with a Collect On Delivery "Brokerage Customs Fee" of $61.54. Weird. I already paid $43.40 for the PayPal Transaction Costs and $43.20 for Shipping.
Casey
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Post by leonski on Apr 6, 2017 0:18:53 GMT -5
Any UNBoxing Photos?
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Post by Casey Leedom on Apr 6, 2017 0:35:05 GMT -5
I'll post the unboxing/build photos on Friday when my friend comes over to assemble them. The instructions are ... "thin" ... a single sheet with no clear indication on wiring the XLR or the Power on the sheet. Hopefully there are more complete instructions on the web site.
Casey
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Post by vneal on Apr 6, 2017 3:50:02 GMT -5
I too am waiting for the Emotiva mono amps gen 3. I also like blue meters. Maybe something like this:  |
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hemster
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Post by hemster on Apr 6, 2017 8:02:21 GMT -5
Well, the two Hypex NC400 Monoblock Amplifier Kits arrived today. I decided to Work From Home in order to catch it and prevent the dreaded "we tried to deliver your package and we'll try two time more at unpredictable intervals before giving up" slip. Good thing I did. It showed up with a Collect On Delivery "Brokerage Customs Fee" of $61.54. Weird. I already paid $43.40 for the PayPal Transaction Costs and $43.20 for Shipping. Casey Ah the dreaded Brokerage Customs Fee. I remember when I purchased my anamorphic lens from Sweden, it came as a shock to have to pay the fee but there's no getting around it. Unless I happened to be in Sweden and brought it with me. Even then, the immigration landing card (that one has to fill out upon return to the USA) has limitations on the amount of merchandise being brought in. So either way, the fee has to be paid.  |
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Post by leonski on Apr 6, 2017 12:30:59 GMT -5
I'll post the unboxing/build photos on Friday when my friend comes over to assemble them. The instructions are ... "thin" ... a single sheet with no clear indication on wiring the XLR or the Power on the sheet. Hopefully there are more complete instructions on the web site. Casey Warm up the printer so you can have hard-copy at your work station. |
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Post by Casey Leedom on Apr 6, 2017 12:37:38 GMT -5
Ah the dreaded Brokerage Customs Fee. I remember when I purchased my anamorphic lens from Sweden, it came as a shock to have to pay the fee but there's no getting around it. Unless I happened to be in Sweden and brought it with me. Even then, the immigration landing card (that one has to fill out upon return to the USA) has limitations on the amount of merchandise being brought in. So either way, the fee has to be paid. To be honest, the only really annoying thing was the unexpectedness of it and the lack of an easy way to pay it. If I had known that it was going to happen and had been given clear instructions for how to deal with it I would have been fine. As it was, I wondered if it was some kind of scam because there was so little transparency in the system. Casey |
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Apr 6, 2017 15:58:50 GMT -5
Ah the dreaded Brokerage Customs Fee. I remember when I purchased my anamorphic lens from Sweden, it came as a shock to have to pay the fee but there's no getting around it. Unless I happened to be in Sweden and brought it with me. Even then, the immigration landing card (that one has to fill out upon return to the USA) has limitations on the amount of merchandise being brought in. So either way, the fee has to be paid. To be honest, the only really annoying thing was the unexpectedness of it and the lack of an easy way to pay it. If I had known that it was going to happen and had been given clear instructions for how to deal with it I would have been fine. As it was, I wondered if it was some kind of scam because there was so little transparency in the system. Casey When I ordered mine, there was mention of that fee would be coming. I can't recall where I saw it, but it was there. Also, somewhere around here I have the detailed directions I was given. It was more than 1 page. If you can't find anything on their site, ping me by PM and I will search for what I have. Mark |
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Post by Casey Leedom on Apr 6, 2017 16:33:42 GMT -5
Hey Mark [ klinemj ], I did send you a private message, but I also found the NC400 Data Sheet. This is currently a "404 Error" on the Hypex web site but the Internet WayBack Machine grabbed a copy back on April 28, 2016. Is this what you have? Casey |
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Apr 6, 2017 17:58:35 GMT -5
It looks like what I have. When I read it, I got confused about the wiring from J9 as shown in page 10's figure 11.2 vs. what I saw in page 12's figure 2. I have a hard copy of Jos Wolthuis' answers to my questions. PM me you email address and I will scan that in and email it to you.
Mark
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Post by Casey Leedom on Apr 8, 2017 10:38:35 GMT -5
Well my friend Bill and I sat down to assemble the two Hypex NCore NC400 Monoblock Kits I bought. I had my Soldering Iron and Silver Solder out, Wire Strippers, Crimpers, etc., etc., as all laid out in the rather enthusiastic build out video they linked off their web page. All not needed. Everything in already terminated,pre-stripped, etc. Basically it's just a relatively simple assembly process (though there were a couple of left over screws common in both the kits). So that leaves the NC400 Monoblock amplifiers themselves. (I'll try to add a picture here later after I get coffee ... priorities!) The vast majority of their weight is in the very nice case that comes with the kit. I had been afraid that what we were going to end up with is a pair of very cheap looking black boxes. But the cases are very nice with a milled aluminum front panel with a nice logo, etc. The speaker and XLR connections were nice as well. When assembled the preassembled Amplifier and Switched Mode Power Supply modules looked diminutive in the case but that left lots of room for the simple internal wiring harness. All very cool. We hooked the amplifiers up to my DMC-1 to feed them stereo Left/Right signals and, because I was a bit nervous about hooking up brand new self-assembled electronics to my very expensive Legacy Focus SE Speakers, we instead hooked them up to a pair of cheap sacrificial speakers. No problems, so we moved on to the Legacies. The NC400 have a slightly lower gain than the MPS-1 so I had to turn the volume up a bit to achieve the same SPL. But once that was done, it was amazing to hear the amount of power coming out of those tiny amplifier modules. We played through a selection of various bass-heavy tracks, piano, horn, rock, voice, etc. Very tight bass, good sound stage, clear definition, etc. Switching back to the MPS-1 we were both amazed to realize that there was a difference. Any difference. We've both been thinking that there really shouldn't be much if any difference between two well-executed solid state amplifiers. But there was some. We only did the switch over once with an hour between listening sessions[1], so getting a clear description is hard. That said, we both thought that the NC400 had a "punchier bass" and more "detailed/analytic sound". Again, you shouldn't read much into this with regard to detailed notes because we were only able to do the comparison once with an hour layover[1], but we were both pretty clear that there was a difference. I wish I had a setup where I could much more rapidly switch back and forth in order to perform more detailed comparisons. Sound memory is notoriously error prone. But I can say that the Hypex NC400 Monoblock Kits are real, fun, and very good. I don't think anyone would be unhappy picking up a pair. Heck, you could get 7 and stack them up for a multichannel system since they dissipate so little heat!  Two caveats with these amplifiers: 1. They only have XLR Inputs. 2. They don't have a 12V Trigger input. (But they also only dissipate ~5W at idle so you can just leave them on.) Casey [1] Switching back to the MPS-1 was a pain because it's not been happy powering up since I accidentally briefly shorted a pair of output posts several months ago. It took more than an hour to get it powered back up. (sigh) As a result, we didn't have a clean back-to-back comparison and I didn't feel like doing the switch again. |
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