Hypex NCx500 Class D Amplifier Review

[ex audiophile]

Seriously, those 'preamps' are hardly anything more than obscure products. Their sales would be insignificant and their installed base, even less significant. They are not, nor ever will be mainstream HiFi preamplifiers. Probably sold 10 thousand between all of them.

Let's get real. The standard input sensitivity for domestic HiFi power amplifiers has been 1.0-2.0V for 50 years. Even with balanced, you can double that on a bad day. So 2.0-4.0V. Anything else it utterly stupid.

Yes, I have preamps that will output 30V RMS, but they are outliers and their rated output is 1.5V.

12dB is a joke. Nobody takes that seriously. Power amplifiers are ~26-29dB. Even Amir tweaks his integrated levels to be somewhere near that.

Don't be shy, tell us what you really think John!

 

[delta76]

Wow Given that I am terrible at DIY, where can I buy this in EU assembled and does not cost a limb and leg?

 

[GXAlan]

Q: Is there a current Hypex-based fully-assembled & US-available unit that gives about 100 wpc for 8 ohm speakers?

Buckeye Amps

Buckeye Amps utilizes the most advanced audio amplifier technologies available. Authorized seller for Hypex and Purifi Class D amplifiers. Based in the US. Free shipping and worldwide service!

www.buckeyeamp.com

 

[Billy Budapest]

Great to see these test results challenging Purifi in the high power Class-D space.

What about testing ICEedge amplifier modules? Did those ever come to market?

ICEedge - Any amplifier designer’s dream

The best class D amplifier technology platform in the market. The ICEedge comes with a cutting-edge chipset to enable better audio quality and functionality

icepoweraudio.com

 

[Eyexlr8]

Load invariant - so what would happen if use this on a Apogee Scintilla 1 ohm version ?
does it go into any protect mode or actually keep on trucking ?

 

[DanielT]

Thanks Amir for the review and measurement!
What was the bandwidth when you measured? A bit curious about that.

Let's say 50-60 watts in 4 Ohm regarding distortion in the higher frequency registers, 10-15 kHz, (where we are most sensitive to distortion) there this NAD C 320BEE is as good, or better than Hypex NCx500?

Review and Measurements of NAD C 320BEE PWR Amplifier

This is a review and detailed measurements of the NAD C 320BEE power (speaker) amplifier. It is on kind loan. The C 320BEE is a vintage product, dating back to 2003 I think. The BEE designation is apparently a reference to Bjorn Erik Edvardsen who was one of their designers. Can't tell if he...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Sokel]

Great to see these test results challenging Purifi in the high power Class-D space.

What about testing ICEedge amplifier modules? Did those ever come to market?

ICEedge - Any amplifier designer’s dream

The best class D amplifier technology platform in the market. The ICEedge comes with a cutting-edge chipset to enable better audio quality and functionality

icepoweraudio.com

It includes Peachtree's buffer but it's close to specs in some areas:

Peachtree amp500 Amplifier Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Peachtree amp500 stereo amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1,499. The amp500 comes in the same packaging of many previous Peachtree products. I wish company would innovate here as the design looks kind of dated. Then again...

www.audiosciencereview.com

And there's plenty of them on market,some even assembled.
(you can find both here)

 

[Rick Sykora]

One interesting aspect of the NCx500 is how much light it gives off. The reason for this is twofold:

1. The vertical regulator boards have sets of red LED arrays that light up as an H.
2. A bright white LED (seen below on the middle right edge of the board).

Do these serve any function? The data sheet does not indicate. The NC1200 has comparable regulator LEDs. The white one is close to a thermal sensor, so my best guess is it may indicate thermal overload.

 

[Purité Audio]

Does anyone make a ‘preamp’ the ADI ‘pro’ is a contemporary preamp , connect everything to it digital/analogue it is a terrific bit of kit.
Keith

 

[GXAlan]

One interesting aspect of the NCx500 is how much light it gives off. The reason for this is twofold:

1. The vertical regulator boards have sets of red LED arrays that light up as an H.
2. A bright white LED (seen below on the middle right edge of the board).

View attachment 257309

Do these serve any function? The data sheet does not indicate. The NC1200 has comparable regulator LEDs. The white one is close to a thermal sensor, so my best guess is it may indicate thermal overload.

In an PM-10 interview, Marantz talked about using LEDs as plain audio diodes because they could find more consistent/higher quality diodes by buying LEDs. There are a ton of lights in the PM-10 which serve no purpose.

Could that also be the case for the NCx500?

 

[BR52]

I don't see a link to this topic, it would be fun to read.

It’s here in the forum it has a search Funktion )

 

[BR52]

In an PM-10 interview, Marantz talked about using LEDs as plain audio diodes because they could find more consistent/higher quality diodes by buying LEDs. There are a ton of lights in the PM-10 which serve no purpose.

Could that also be the case for the NCx500?

It is

 

[BR52]

They’re low noise stabilysators used like zeners in a cicuit see post #57

Edit: the LED's used like Zenerdiodes with better noise performance in seperate a build cicuit boards to substitue the 7812 and 7912 linear voltage regulators.

 

[AndreaT]

One interesting aspect of the NCx500 is how much light it gives off. The reason for this is twofold:

1. The vertical regulator boards have sets of red LED arrays that light up as an H.
2. A bright white LED (seen below on the middle right edge of the board).

View attachment 257309

Do these serve any function? The data sheet does not indicate. The NC1200 has comparable regulator LEDs. The white one is close to a thermal sensor, so my best guess is it may indicate thermal overload.

105 Centigrade Caps!

 

[USER]

Hypex amps are consistently superb! Can't wait until you test one of these:

View attachment 257304

View attachment 257306

I see they are now really pushing to cut out the middleman.

To think that someone considering something like this would not also consider a Benchmark or RME for max performance is a bit naïve. Slowly but surely, the times are a changin'.

 

[GXAlan]

12dB is a joke. Nobody takes that seriously. Power amplifiers are ~26-29dB. Even Amir tweaks his integrated levels to be somewhere near that.

Agree. In real world conditions, I have found a >20 year old Sony TA-9000ES to beat Hypex NC252MP handily when matching real world output due to the higher gain of the TA9000ES.

It makes it hard to really compare 5W SINAD.

Would make more sense to compare a fixed output voltage from the APx555 IMHO.

It’s OK to have multiple tests, but for AVRs as preamp, which represent a big part of the market, we really need 29 dB unbalanced gain testing too.

 

[Vacceo]

There is no free lunch. Somewhere the gain to drive the speakers has to come from. You need to look at the SINAD over output voltage performance of both preamp and power amp to determine the “sweetspot” (best overall SINAD) - Amir provides those graphs.

But yes often this is with high preamp output voltage and minimum power amp gain. Eg with the RME and the AHB2 you can set the gain of each device to the best combination. (But let’s keep in mind we are talking transparency either way). If however you take one of the Denon AVRs in preamp mode, they exhibit an increase in SINAD past a certain output voltage, so here you would set the AHB2 to a higher gain to keep the Denon in it’s best performance range.

Is there an inherent advantage at matching both gains or it does not matter?

 

[delta76]

No, LA90 has better SINAD but also much less power.

If the assembled unit is at same price range as LA90 (800-1000$) I would find it extremely strange for anyone to buy LA90.

 

[Toni Mas]

I also see Hypex has this coming

If the assembled unit is at same price range as LA90 (800-1000$) I would find it extremely strange for anyone to buy LA90.

Not me. LA90 is stereo, though bidgeable. These Ncores mono. Nothing comparable.
But i would not buy LA90 though, too expensive and need more than 2 channels.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Is there an inherent advantage at matching both gains or it does not matter?

Beyond certain (inaudible) SINAD level it practically does not matter.

Being who I am, I personally would optimize it for my peace of mind
(I mean the RME and the AHB2 provide you all the tools so why not do it. And I would expect this amp will also come in different configurable gain settings. Let’s see what Amir says about the buffer board ).