Buckeye NC502MP 8-Ch Amplifier Teardown

[Rottmannash]

Nah. The electric code and therefore the house wiring are designed with all these taken into consideration.

unfortunately my house was built in 1936. Fortunately the wiring to the AV system is repurposed from a 220V service that was run to my now-gone hot tub so is new. I hope fervently for success when I crank up a movie to 11...

Many years ago I pulled the old wiring out of an outlet that had stopped working and to my shock the wire was insulated (I use that term loosely) in cloth? Not good.

 

[NTK]

unfortunately my house was built in 1936. Fortunately the wiring to the AV system is repurposed from a 220V service that was run to my now-gone hot tub so is new. I hope fervently for success when I crank up a movie to 11...

Many years ago I pulled the old wiring out of an outlet that had stopped working and to my shock the wire was insulated (I use that term loosely) in cloth? Not good.

Sorry to hear that. They didn't foresee people wanting 4 kW subwoofers in their houses in 1936

 

[thecheapseats]

unfortunately my house was built in 1936. Fortunately the wiring to the AV system is repurposed from a 220V service that was run to my now-gone hot tub so is new. I hope fervently for success when I crank up a movie to 11...

Many years ago I pulled the old wiring out of an outlet that had stopped working and to my shock the wire was insulated (I use that term loosely) in cloth? Not good.

cloth was used for years - don't know when the (?required?) switch-over occurred in the u.s.... from what little I've seen tearing things apart - I would guess post wwII... anybody know for sure?...

 

[Krobar]

Purifi based vs Hypex based vs Icepower based Apollon amp, which one do you prefer?

Not tried the others. I have a Nord 252MP based amp too and can say the Apollon has somewhat nicer build quality although the Nord is perfectly good and I doubt this affects performance.

 

[Rick Sykora]

While some good discussion on house wiring is here, it is off topic so felt it was worthy of its own home.

Please post any further residential wiring to this new thread.

Thanks!

Rick

 

[AdamG]

While some good discussion on house wiring is here, it is off topic so felt it was worthy of its own home.

Please post any further residential wiring to this new thread.

Thanks!

Rick

@thecheapseats gets the last word about household wiring and safety in this thread. Please follow @Rick Sykora ’s excellent advice and take this interesting but off topic conversation to a separate dedicated thread.

Please and thank you for your cooperation and support.

FYI: A note about keeping the conversation on topic for review threads.

1st Ten pages (1-10), request strict adherence to topic/subject.
2nd Ten pages (11-20), relaxed adherence is requested.
20+ pages, if the technical stuff has been exhausted, we move on…

 

[AdamG]

I moved a bunch of posts to the new thread created by @Rick Sykora above. Some of you may have received post deletion notifications. However, these posts were moved and not deleted in an attempt to maintain conversation flow in the new Power thread. My apologies for the inconvenience and confusion. Multitasking is my nemesis.

 

[EJ3]

I moved a bunch of posts to the new thread created by @Rick Sykora above. Some of you may have received post deletion notifications. However, these posts were moved and not deleted in an attempt to maintain conversation flow in the new Power thread. My apologies for the inconvenience and confusion. Multitasking is my nemesis.

@thecheapseats gets the last word about household wiring and safety in this thread. Please follow @Rick Sykora ’s excellent advice and take this interesting but off topic conversation to a separate dedicated thread.

Please and thank you for your cooperation and support.

FYI: A note about keeping the conversation on topic for review threads.

1st Ten pages (1-10), request strict adherence to topic/subject.
2nd Ten pages (11-20), relaxed adherence is requested.
20+ pages, if the technical stuff has been exhausted, we move on…

Great idea!

 

[Johnplayerson]

It's more than ok to take more care than necessarry for safety like this:

View attachment 277531

But some go into extremes... :


View attachment 277532

Common sense,nothing more.

Now that is a power amplifier. Anything else is just another low level device

 

[thepiecesfit]

I’ve got one of the original NC502MP 4 channel amps that didn’t have the heat sink design where the modules lay flat. Am I missing anything? I did find it ran hot so put an AC Infinity on top of it and is now cool to the touch. I guess with active cooling should not matter too much?

 

[EJ3]

High power amps usually use this type of IEC:


View attachment 277445

It's 20A rated but I guess the normal one is fine too as nothing failed in Amir's testing.

Thanks Amir!

In my home (in James Island, SC) all outlets read around 120 V. All wall outlets are 20 amp, are is all breakers in the breaker box. The utility room has 240 available, as does the stove. On each side of the stereo cabinet is a duplex 20 amp outlet tied to it's own breaker.

 

[windycitycy]

If only 1 of the power cables is plugged in, does that mean that 4 channels are not drawing any power. So only 4 channels can be used under this condition?

 

[Buckeye Amps]

If only 1 of the power cables is plugged in, does that mean that 4 channels are not drawing any power. So only 4 channels can be used under this condition?

Correct

 

[SharinganUser]

I’ve got one of the original NC502MP 4 channel amps that didn’t have the heat sink design where the modules lay flat. Am I missing anything? I did find it ran hot so put an AC Infinity on top of it and is now cool to the touch. I guess with active cooling should not matter too much?

Wondering if I should buy one as well..

 

[charlielaub]

I’ve got one of the original NC502MP 4 channel amps that didn’t have the heat sink design where the modules lay flat. Am I missing anything? I did find it ran hot so put an AC Infinity on top of it and is now cool to the touch. I guess with active cooling should not matter too much?

I use one of these amps myself and found that it was getting pretty warm (120F) at idle due to quiescent dissipation of the amp modules. I came up with a simple and inexpensive solution to increase airflow around the chassis, and this has solved the problem: instead of a cabinet or hard shelf I use wire shelving as an equipment rack for my amps. Works great. Not "audiophile" looking but I really don't care about that. Otherwise you might try a 120mm "silent" computer fan pulling air across the amp and out the other side.

 

[Sal1950]

Wondering if I should buy one as well..

I don't see how you can go wrong with one.
We haven't heard a bunch of failure complains here.
And people do tend to scream when something breaks down.

 

[Rick Sykora]

If you want to experiment with fan cooling, try a notebook stand with fans or there are some inexpensive portable ones that take less space. They usually run on USB power.

 

[SharinganUser]

I don't see how you can go wrong with one.
We haven't heard a bunch of failure complains here.
And people do tend to scream when something breaks down.

True. Im just waiting hoping and praying they eventually incorporate a trigger cable jack ..

 

[Buckeye Amps]

True. Im just waiting hoping and praying they eventually incorporate a trigger cable jack ..

For our amplifiers? If so, we do.

 

[SharinganUser]

If you want to experiment with fan cooling, try a notebook stand with fans or there are some inexpensive portable ones that take less space. They usually run on USB power.

Ooo good idea. Its not going in a cabinet and my basement is cold AF so it should be ok.