This is a review and detailed measurements of the IOM NCore Pro, Hypex NC252MP class-d based stereo power amplifier. It was kindly purchased by a member and drop shipped to me. It costs €669 from the company website.
The IOM Ncore Pro comes in very compact and solid enclosure:
The on/off button feels very good but I find the fonts very cheesy. That same theme continues in the back:
I could not even read those fonts on the gain toggle switch until I took the above picture!
Great to see XLR balanced inputs in addition to RCA. Note the unusual, horizontal placement of the left and right speaker terminals. I am used to them being stacked vertically when they are so close to each other.
In use the top of the amp barely increased in temperature. The bottom was a bit more warm but nothing remotely of any concern. There were no shutdowns. However, I did not try to stress load it.
Amplifier Audio Measurements
As usual we start with our 5 watt into 4 ohm test. I chose the XLR input and low (XLR) gain for all of these tests:
The SINAD (signal over noise and distortion) of 94 dB places the OMI Ncore Pro in the upper tier of amplifiers/AVRs tested:
Which was a relief after testing a number of home theater amplifiers that stacked on the right of the graph.
Frequency response is dead flat but not super wide:
Signal to noise ratio at max power output before clipping into 4 ohm was quite respectable:
Here is the intermodulation distortion at very high frequencies (19 and 20 Khz tones):
You have well over 16 bits of distortion free at modest listening levels. Keep in mind that your music never has such high amplitudes at these frequencies. So in practice, the distortion will vanish into noise.
Crosstalk performance was excellent:
The meat of any amplifier review is power versus distortion and noise. Here it is at 4 ohm:
Shame to see the early rise in distortion starting at 20 watts. That aside, you have considerable amount of power clocking at 236 watts, both channels driven in this tiny enclosure.
Switching to 8 ohm load we get:
Now the early rise in distortion is more modest. We get 125 watts of power at a SINAD of 91 db. Interesting to compare it to Purifi 1E400A which produces similar power but a whopping 130 dB SINAD or 40 dB better!
Peak power is sadly not much more than steady state due likely to regulated power supplies:
Good thing the baseline level of power is quite good.
Conclusions
The IOM NCore Pro amp is a solid performer courtesy of competent hypex NC252MP class D amplifier modules. The packaging is nice and tidy and the price seems reasonable to me.
No, you are not getting state of the art performance. That is in another category altogether. But that level of performance will cost you more money and comes in a larger package.
Overall I am happy to recommend the IOM NCore Pro amplifier.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
The days are starting to get shorter here and rainy seasons is arriving. Translation: we are all going to get more grumpy and depressed. To counter that, need to throw some big parties to forget the dark skies and rain. And for that, I need money, lots of money. So please donate generously using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The IOM Ncore Pro comes in very compact and solid enclosure:
The on/off button feels very good but I find the fonts very cheesy. That same theme continues in the back:
I could not even read those fonts on the gain toggle switch until I took the above picture!
Great to see XLR balanced inputs in addition to RCA. Note the unusual, horizontal placement of the left and right speaker terminals. I am used to them being stacked vertically when they are so close to each other.
In use the top of the amp barely increased in temperature. The bottom was a bit more warm but nothing remotely of any concern. There were no shutdowns. However, I did not try to stress load it.
Amplifier Audio Measurements
As usual we start with our 5 watt into 4 ohm test. I chose the XLR input and low (XLR) gain for all of these tests:
The SINAD (signal over noise and distortion) of 94 dB places the OMI Ncore Pro in the upper tier of amplifiers/AVRs tested:
Which was a relief after testing a number of home theater amplifiers that stacked on the right of the graph.
Frequency response is dead flat but not super wide:
Signal to noise ratio at max power output before clipping into 4 ohm was quite respectable:
Here is the intermodulation distortion at very high frequencies (19 and 20 Khz tones):
You have well over 16 bits of distortion free at modest listening levels. Keep in mind that your music never has such high amplitudes at these frequencies. So in practice, the distortion will vanish into noise.
Crosstalk performance was excellent:
The meat of any amplifier review is power versus distortion and noise. Here it is at 4 ohm:
Shame to see the early rise in distortion starting at 20 watts. That aside, you have considerable amount of power clocking at 236 watts, both channels driven in this tiny enclosure.
Switching to 8 ohm load we get:
Now the early rise in distortion is more modest. We get 125 watts of power at a SINAD of 91 db. Interesting to compare it to Purifi 1E400A which produces similar power but a whopping 130 dB SINAD or 40 dB better!
Peak power is sadly not much more than steady state due likely to regulated power supplies:
Good thing the baseline level of power is quite good.
Conclusions
The IOM NCore Pro amp is a solid performer courtesy of competent hypex NC252MP class D amplifier modules. The packaging is nice and tidy and the price seems reasonable to me.
No, you are not getting state of the art performance. That is in another category altogether. But that level of performance will cost you more money and comes in a larger package.
Overall I am happy to recommend the IOM NCore Pro amplifier.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
The days are starting to get shorter here and rainy seasons is arriving. Translation: we are all going to get more grumpy and depressed. To counter that, need to throw some big parties to forget the dark skies and rain. And for that, I need money, lots of money. So please donate generously using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/