Do I want an NC502MP or NCx252MP from audiophonics?

[girtab]

Y’all are killing me lmao (literally)

 

[staticV3]

@girtab when you receive the Amp and get curious how much Peak power you're actually using, feel free to tag me here and I'll walk you through the process with a multimeter.

 

[girtab]

@girtab when you receive the Amp and get curious how much Peak power you're actually using, feel free to tag me here and I'll walk you through the process with a multimeter.

That’d be great, or just to make sure the amp actually outputs the 250w it advertises because I’m awfully paranoid from my past experiences buying amps

 

[Ropeburn]

That’d be great, or just to make sure the amp actually outputs the 250w it advertises because I’m awfully paranoid from my past experiences buying amps

Don't worry, Hypex performs up to spec, many times tested. The Audiophonics implementation is well executed, clean layout and good ventilation. You'll get what you pay for (they're terrific value btw).

 

[girtab]

Don't worry, Hypex performs up to spec, many times tested. The Audiophonics implementation is well executed, clean layout and good ventilation. You'll get what you pay for (they're terrific value btw).

That’s great to hear. I hope it’ll last a long time

 

[Matias]

That’s great to hear. I hope it’ll last a long time

Just turn it off when not in use and the lifespan will increase.

 

[girtab]

Just turn it off when not in use and the lifespan will increase.

The thing is, I’ve seen someone here complain that the power on/off button on one of their audiophonics amps died on them

 

[Ropeburn]

@girtab when you receive the Amp and get curious how much Peak power you're actually using, feel free to tag me here and I'll walk you through the process with a multimeter.

Would be interesting to look at power consumption too, for getting an additional average power estimate. Simple mains powermeter at its socket, determine idle power, substract that from power drawn while playing to get actual power used, 80-90% of that will be output power. Most of the time it's virtually nothing even though the room is already filled with sound.

 

[Ultrasonic]

But isn’t that assuming the music always reaches 0dBFS? What if dynamic range is super high

Not reaching 0 dBFS (common) would affect the GAIN of the amplifier you might need, not the maximum power available. Are the gain options different for the amps you are considering?

Also, what would you be connecting to the power amp? This will affect what the input level to the power amp is as well as the recording's dynamic range and peak level....

I'd be surprised if you wouldn't be fine with the lower power amp though.

 

[Redacted]

"I tried replay gain and it might’ve been set up wrong or something because it made bass cancel out other frequencies so I just never touched it again"

You did something unusual or your media player is set up oddly. It's good to apply ReplayGain to your music files - it's basically just 4 tags (album peak, album average, track peak, track average) which are non-destructive to the actual PCM music data in the files. Most media players have controls that let you set whether the tags are used, and if used, by how much to change gain. ReplayGain can be ignored if you only play one album at a time, or several albums in a row that you know have similar "loudness". If albums vary a lot (I have albums that are 14dB different in average loudness) you can set media players to use 'album gain' and you can say how much. If you have playlists of mixed tracks they will likely vary in volume, and setting apply 'track gain' will stop you reaching for the volume knob as often.. One good way to set the RG tags is to load the files into Foobar2000, and it's sorted with a couple of clicks - for your entire collection if needed.

 

[Ropeburn]

Not reaching 0 dBFS (common) would affect the GAIN of the amplifier you might need, not the maximum power available. Are the gain options different for the amps you are considering?

Also, what would you be connecting to the power amp? This will affect what the input level to the power amp is as well as the recording's dynamic range and peak level....

I'll be surprised if you're not fine with the lower power amp though.

Its input sensitivity is actually well chosen. 1.6V for XLR, 0.8V for RCA. That's good because you don't need the full 4V or 2V for getting to full power - some sources (software) don't put out full volume, for example YouTube Android app which does -6dB by standard. That sensitivity means you can use a DAC with nominal 2/4V output and still get near full volume without additional gain anywhere. Nicely practical.

 

[girtab]

Also, what would you be connecting to the power amp?

At the moment Im not sure if I should get Minidsp flex 4 (balanced) or flex 8 (unbalanced)

What’s a better fit for the NCx252MP? Single ended or balanced?

 

[Ropeburn]

At the moment Im not sure if I should get Minidsp flex 4 (balanced) or flex 8 (unbalanced)

What’s a better fit for the NCx252MP? Single ended or balanced?

Any because the one you're eyeing got both for inputs. Really doesn't matter.

 

[girtab]

"I tried replay gain and it might’ve been set up wrong or something because it made bass cancel out other frequencies so I just never touched it again"

You did something unusual or your media player is set up oddly. It's good to apply ReplayGain to your music files - it's basically just 4 tags (album peak, album average, track peak, track average) which are non-destructive to the actual PCM music data in the files. Most media players have controls that let you set whether the tags are used, and if used, by how much to change gain. ReplayGain can be ignored if you only play one album at a time, or several albums in a row that you know have similar "loudness". If albums vary a lot (I have albums that are 14dB different in average loudness) you can set media players to use 'album gain' and you can say how much. If you have playlists of mixed tracks they will likely vary in volume, and setting apply 'track gain' will stop you reaching for the volume knob as often.. One good way to set the RG tags is to load the files into Foobar2000, and it's sorted with a couple of clicks - for your entire collection if needed.

I used foobar2000, I scanned a couple tracks for their replay gain info and on some tracks it added 14db or something (granted, very quiet tracks) and that created this weird effect where portions with loud bass would completely cancel out mids and highs. I used “apply to track” setting

 

[Ultrasonic]

Its input sensitivity is actually well chosen. 1.6V for XLR, 0.8V for RCA. That's good because you don't need the full 4V or 2V for getting to full power - some sources (software) don't put out full volume, for example YouTube Android app which does -6dB by standard. That sensitivity means you can use a DAC with nominal 2/4V output and still get near full volume without additional gain anywhere. Nicely practical.

Whether that's good or bad would depend on what is connected. If a DAC without output adjustment was connected directly it could be unusable for a lot of content...

 

[Ropeburn]

Whether that's good or bad would depend on what is connected. If a DAC without output adjustment was connected directly it could be unusable for a lot of content...

Well you can easily turn down the volume on any source if it's too loud, but you can't turn it up past maximum. In practice I'd always prefer higher sensitivity over having to add a preamp or something. Of course you need to know what you're doing. Full output DAC directly to poweramp, nah lol better not

 

[Ultrasonic]

Well you can easily turn down the volume on any source if it's too loud, but you can't turn it up past maximum. In practice I'd always prefer higher sensitivity over having to add a preamp or something. Of course you need to know what you're doing. Full output DAC directly to poweramp, nah lol better not

I've owned DACs with no volume adjustment. Feed such a DAC from a typical CD transport and there would be no means of adjusting level at all. No idea what the OP's setup is but just giving an example that would be a problem. I agree that for most setups there would be ways round this being an issue though.

Personally I'd be happier with a power amp that could accept my DAC's full output signal but I agree this isn't essential.

 

[Redacted]

I used foobar2000, I scanned a couple tracks for their replay gain info and on some tracks it added 14db or something (granted, very quiet tracks) and that created this weird effect where portions with loud bass would completely cancel out mids and highs. I used “apply to track” setting

Is that using the default ITU-R BS.1770 setting?
Have you tried toggling RG on & off in your media player when playing an RG tagged file?

 

[girtab]

Is that using the default ITU-R BS.1770 setting?
Have you tried toggling RG on & off in your media player when playing an RG tagged file?

I don’t think I’ve seen such an option in foobars integrated RG component

And I’ve switched RG on and off to confirm that the artifacts I was hearing were actually caused by it

 

[Redacted]