Hypex Announces New and Improved NCOREx Class-D Amplifier Technology

[Matias]

Nice.

"The first new module with NCOREx implemented is the NCx500 OEM, and can be used as a drop-in replacement for the existing NC500 OEM module."

Hypex Announces New and Improved NCOREx Class-D Amplifier Technology

Hypex Electronics announced a new and improved iteration of its popular NCORE Class-D amplifier technology and unveiled the NCx500 OEM, the first of a new NCOREx family of modules to be launched. According to the Dutch company, the new technology will afford at least 2x better performance...

audioxpress.com

 

[Matias]

I read THD+N of 0.00017% at our standard 5W and 4 ohms, which translates to SINAD 115, just shy of the best ever measured, the Benchmark AHB2, but the NCx500 does 700W in both 4 and 2 ohms!! (THD+N 1%).

 

[sq225917]

Love SY's comment, " from inaudible to really, really inaudible" I bet that wasn't written with a straight face..

 

[pma]

The show must go on!

 

[Vacceo]

If I have to trust the fellow forum members (and there is no reason not to), I wonder how McIntosh will manage to squander those improvements.

 

[Ricardus]

Sign me up.

 

[charleski]

If I have to trust the fellow forum members (and there is no reason not to), I wonder how McIntosh will manage to squander those improvements.

Let's not forget that the new hotness in audiophile amps is to pair a Purifi or Ncore module with a poorly-designed tube front-end buffer ...

 

[Vacceo]

Let's not forget that the new hotness in audiophile amps is to pair a Purifi or Ncore module with a poorly-designed tube front-end buffer ...

Mac seems to have archived a degree of excellence that is capable of reducing the SINAD of Hypex without the use of tubes.

 

[usersky]

Why would this matter even a bit?

 

[Matias]

There may be less difference between the NCOREx model and the Purifi? Looks promising.

The low noise until 5-10W of NCOREx is better, but Purifi continues with lowering THD+N until the knee shoots up.
Powerwise the NCx500 falls between both Purifi modules, 1ET400A and 1ET7040SA.

We need Dylan at Buckeye amps to provide an upgrade path where we buy the new NCOREx 500 modules from him with directions on how to easily drop them into our existing NC502MP stereo model.

The NC500OEM is a module with no power supply and no buffer, so it is not a direct replacement of NC502MP.

But I bet there will be an NCxMP line coming out sometime maybe later this year or next year?

It's just that NC500OEM modules probably slowed sales a lot (because of MP line and Purifi modules) and they needed to refresh it sooner. MP line is selling a lot so no hurries there... Until Purifi comes with an all-in-one module too, then it is war all over.

 

[boXem]

If I am reading the release correctly the new NCOREx 500 will drop idle power from 23W to approx. 19W. Closer to the Purifi 16W and provide improved SINAD. There may be less difference between the NCOREx model and the Purifi? Looks promising.

NC500 OEM idle losses are 6.3W. dropping 20% means 5W.
1ET400A idle losses are 1.7W.

 

[boXem]

As a reference, the NC500 OEM has a 5W 4 Ohm SINAD of 110.5 dB. So we have an improvement of about 3 to 4 dB.
I am wondering if this improvement is not mainly linked to a more stringent dead time, itself degrading idle losses. Then enters the "differential idle current" to compensate this inconvenient.

 

[Matias]

THD+N in 4 ohms.

The original NC500OEM. All 3 frequencies went along together with a mid peak in 20W at 0.001%.

The new NCx500OEM. Only 2 frequencies shown, and assuming the better one is 1kHz and the worst one is 6kHz, and assuming 100Hz is the same as 1kHz. It is all gone better, it's just that 1kHz improved more than 6kHz.

 

[Matias]

As a reference, the NC500 OEM has a 5W 4 Ohm SINAD of 110.5 dB. So we have an improvement of about 3 to 4 dB.
I am wondering if this improvement is not mainly linked to a more stringent dead time, itself degrading idle losses. Then enters the "differential idle current" to compensate this inconvenient.

From what I read, it improved from 0.0005% (SINAD 106) to 0.00017% (SINAD 115), no?
As to how, no idea.

 

[boXem]

From what I read, it improved from 0.0005% (SINAD 106) to 0.00017% (SINAD 115), no?
As to how, no idea.

I took 0.0002% and 0.0003%. Opti-pessimistic rounding .
I was wondering if Hypex would buy some IP from Purifi for their next gen products, doesn't seem so.
Anyhow, using % gives a bit of perspective on SINAD values: at these levels of performance, 9 points SINAD improvement is very difficult to achieve but it is indeed a difference of a few ten-thousandths of percent...

 

[Keened]

I was wondering if Hypex would buy some IP from Purifi for their next gen products, doesn't seem so.

I mean it's kind of sink or swim time for them isn't it? Purifi is rapidly diversifying from not just a SOTA amp module but also SOTA speakers, and developing a SMPS should be fairly trivial for them so...

If they bought IP from Purifi they might be able to poke around and learn some things, but they wouldn't be able to use them (if the 'cleanroom reverse engineering' I read on here earlier was right). And having a few hints here and there isn't as advantageous as understanding the whole thing. So they have to make a go for it on their own, learn what they can along the way, and see if they can understand the whole well enough to beat Purifi (or at least remain competitive).

 

[JSmith]

How soon is soon? My wallet is anxious...

Hypex Electronics your OEM audio industry partner

We design and manufacture Class D power amplifiers, power supplies, DSP solutions and plate amplifiers for the HiFi, High End and Pro Audio industries.

www.hypex.nl

https://www.linkedin.com/company/hypex-electronics-bv

JSmith

 

[TimF]

I could be wrong but it seems to me that such power as delivered in this announced product was available only at high cost ten or more years ago, and often if not always the power was not as cleanly delivered. Products offering levels of high and clean power performance were the rarified and expensive boutique corner of home audio products. Assuming these new Hypex amps are reasonably priced (competitive with Purifi), then is this not the golden age? I have lived long enough for the promised land to come to me, albeit, long enough for substantial hearing loss. So be it, and bully for the younger of you.

 

[boXem]

I mean it's kind of sink or swim time for them isn't it? Purifi is rapidly diversifying from not just a SOTA amp module but also SOTA speakers, and developing a SMPS should be fairly trivial for them so...

If they bought IP from Purifi they might be able to poke around and learn some things, but they wouldn't be able to use them (if the 'cleanroom reverse engineering' I read on here earlier was right). And having a few hints here and there isn't as advantageous as understanding the whole thing. So they have to make a go for it on their own, learn what they can along the way, and see if they can understand the whole well enough to beat Purifi (or at least remain competitive).

For the moment, the advantage of Hypex over Purifi is pricing power. Something tells me that this will not change anytime soon and that is making a huge difference when talking to the big boys.

The Purifi IP I was talking about is the ability to have a complete mathematical model of the amplifier. This allows to be less conservative on the feedback loop parameters ensuring the ultra high performance we all know about while running extremely cold.

Hypex do not have this ability, the math they use has been published by Bruno P. long time ago.

 

[daniboun]

Very interesting but on a marketing level, Hypex was smart in proposing a new module packaged as a Purifi Module.
It will be necessary to add an additional power supply (probably an SMPS1200AXXX) seems the Buffers are included inside the module )

However, I hope that they will remain competitive in terms of price... that's the whole point of the old NC500MP and other NCXXXMP modules.

The real question being, how much will we pay to gain in performance?

In the end we can almost understand that this module will work a bit like the Hypex NC400 and NC500, an integrated Buffer and an external power supply for "imaging")