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Anyone compared high end Class D power amps?

Thumbs up from me for the Mytek Brooklyn Amp. I use two in mono mode (probably overkill). Very compact powerhouses.
 
I had some Si with and without the buffers, for whatever reason i found them a bit bland without the buffers. I think the buffers were Sparko's or Bursons? I can't remember now, but with the buffers thought they were very good, ultimately back to back listening i couldn't tell much difference between them and my normal monoblock so sold them on.

Hi SITP
Just out of interest what are normal blocks? It would give an idea of a comparison. Cheers...
 
You can bridge them via internal jumpers. Use left channel input and both red speaker outs, right speaker pos becomes the neg.
 
You don’t need to do that (internal jumpers). It’s just dip switches on the back panel. The Brooklyn Bridge and the Amp don’t need any messing about inside.
 
Perhaps there’s an early version I don’t know anything about. The Mytek website tells all. There are eight dipswitches I think. They are very tiny.You can set several things with them, including stereo/biamp /mono modes
 
thought this chaps thoughts on Nord dm500 were worth repeating

Because it has been tremendously busy lately, so I didn't have any time to share my impressions from listening to the warmed Nord. Meanwhile, it has over 600 hours in stock and I can't hear any further progressive changes in sound.


I can start with the fact that Nord stays. What impressed me the most was the amazing differentiation of the instruments. The differences are given in the palm of your hand, if I had to show kids differences in sound, flute, saxophone (and individual types of saxophones among themselves), oboe, classical guitar with nylon, metal strings etc. Nord would be an ideal tool. The difference in this aspect, in resolution, richness of micro information, sound purity, control over the sound in relation to Sim is huge. Listening to all jazz, rock and electronic music recordings with added inclusions played on classical instruments, I am still impressed with their sound compared to any other synthetic / electronic part (instruments, sounds). Nord differentiates these sounds remarkably, showing the differences at a glance, and these instruments come out extremely naturally / truly with all the richness of reverbs.


Many people focus on the bass, its descent and control when writing about Nord. Yes it is spectacular but it is not that Nord is just super bass and nothing more. The bass is well controlled, regardless of the speed and density of the instruments, be it 2 Cellos Celloverse (The Trooper - Overture) or Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven under Reiner from the Chicago Symphony. However, I was more impressed by the resolution, clarity and timbre differentiation, which is why all natural instruments and human voices sound so wildly. Thanks to this purity and excellent articulation, we get a huge amount of flavors, plankton and detail stitched on discs in the background, which greatly increases the impression of event realism. The vocals beautifully capture the emotional elements that the artist tried to depict as well as the specific character of the artist's voice. A nice example is, for example, the Toy album by the band Yellow, listen to the duo (Malia and Boris Blank) in Starlight Scene (or the voice of Fifi Rong in Kiss the Cloud). Thanks to this, the understanding of the sung text is simply improved.


Of course, electronic music is also great, I was happy to return to the albums of J.M.Jarre, my favorite Tangerine Dream or Vollenweider or Klaus Schulze. Here, juicy deep and well-controlled bass helps, but above all the indicator of listening pleasure is the quality of the recording. With such precision, unfortunately you can immediately hear something being kicked. It is enough, however, that it was medium decently recorded and it's ok, it applies to all kinds of music. For example, DeMono from the Golden Collection sounds very good, as well as the double album Maanam - Love Is Wonderful (Mental Cut - also listens with pleasure
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- some polish records).


There was a question whether listen to the Nord is not tired in the long run. After proper heating, nothing like that happens. The last element that changed was the opening of the treble and with it the final smoothing of the sound. generally, Nord is neutral, has a flesh, does not embellish or round anything, do not improve the sound of the system with it to make it nicer, warmer or more pleasant (like e.g. McIntosh tube preamps will work). Nord will show you how your system sounds, but it is not thin or dry by itself, it does not brighten the system. It is very sensitive to the power cable, which I wrote about earlier, and it can be a surprising experience how very much you can model its sound by choosing different power cords. I tested 4 and each clearly influenced the presentation, so much that it makes matter with which it is combined. It can also be a reason for which a given sound may simply not be approached by someone. I will only add that my Pre (ARC Ref.5) is not beautifying or rounding. ARc is rather cool, resolving and precise. The elements that soften my habits can be only columns for me and maybe IC XLO Limited. No less resultant of the system allows for long relaxed listening sessions, adorned with lots of detail in the background
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It seems to me that if you put this sound in a box with the logo of a recognized manufacturer, the price would go up at least several times. This sound at the price offered by Nord is absolutely an opportunity. The last thing I can think about is the lifetime of Ncore modules. Sim, like McIntosch, is built like a tank and rather guarantees longevity. I don't know what to expect from Ncors, although Nord itself looks solid, but I'll find out for myself. For my part, I can only recommend your own listening session.
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https://www.audioshark.org/amplifie...ps-class-d-ready-prime-time-9369-page206.html [ post 2052]
 
It seems to me that if you put this sound in a box with the logo of a recognized manufacturer, the price would go up at least several times. This sound at the price offered by Nord is absolutely an opportunity.
Hi,
Yes, the Nords are great value for money. The same units are used in other amplifiers at much higher prices.

I recall that one specific Hypex unit was meant to be sold at a specific cost and not less than that specified by Hypex - not sure if that requirement still remains.

Regards,
Shadders.
 
Yes the NC1200 module was mean to be sold at high prices (£9K). Nord negotiated a deal where they could sell amplifiers for a more reasonable price. The module deals with lower impedance speakers better.
 
I have this week been trying my cheapo asx50 ice power monoblocks with the horns with a bel canto pre. This pre is very organic and seems to match very very well with the ice power. With the horns it has a very lively sound that has good soundstage and makes your feet want to tap. I did think it might be clinical and sterile with these sensitive horns but seems not. Not as good with vocals as last week's magnificent hybrid valve amp from Silbatone though . But as 90 % of listening is with electronica that's not too much of a problem
 
Did you test the Nords on the horns too HFN? I’m finding that for some reason class d works well with my horns.
A lot of it I’m putting down to the very defined soundstage they tend to have. An overblown soundstage is an inherent problem with my big LV horns. Using valves I’ve found (9/10 times) the soundstage is silly large. Singers sound like there’s a 30ft giant singing to you whilst kneeling down in your living room.

The Class D’s I’ve tried pin point everything. The singer is life size in front of you..
 
Hi,
For information, when you are listening to a class D amplifier, this is the waveform you are listening to :
class_d-fig-07.jpg


The output of the class D amplifier is the GREEN waveform above. You are actually listening to a rectangular wave, which is then passed through one of these :
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.elektormagazine.com%2Fassets%2Fupload%2Fimg%2Fpartial%2Flandscape%2Fcore-and-finished-inductor.JPG

It is a ferrite core with a wire wrapped around it, to form an inductor.

There is also a capacitor to ground, and with the inductor forms a simple 2nd order filter.

I think it is amazing that the ear/brain can hear a rectangular wave as above, which is filtered, as a sound it recognises. We humans truly do have golden ears.....

Regards,
Shadders.
 
Hi,
For information, when you are listening to a class D amplifier, this is the waveform you are listening to :
class_d-fig-07.jpg


The output of the class D amplifier is the GREEN waveform above. You are actually listening to a rectangular wave, which is then passed through one of these :
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.elektormagazine.com%2Fassets%2Fupload%2Fimg%2Fpartial%2Flandscape%2Fcore-and-finished-inductor.JPG

It is a ferrite core with a wire wrapped around it, to form an inductor.

There is also a capacitor to ground, and with the inductor forms a simple 2nd order filter.

I think it is amazing that the ear/brain can hear a rectangular wave as above, which is filtered, as a sound it recognises. We humans truly do have golden ears.....

Regards,
Shadders.

you don’t listen to the rectangular waveform as it is well past the human hearing range, you listen to a waveform reconstructed from the filtered pulse width modulated waveform which is in the audio band.
 


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