Hypex NCx500 Class D Amplifier Review

[boggit10]

NCx500 ship from Hypex on the 21-4-23

 

[Koeitje]

Am I the only one that finds it rather annoying that we have multiple manufacturers advertising their releases here in this thread? Sharing technical information is all cool, but shouldn't these posts about shipping dates or upcoming sales be in the desperate dealer section of the forum?

 

[Sokel]

Quick question:
Will the NCx line extend to the NCAS line of amps too?
(I know they are not often mentioned but they are interesting for those who go active)

 

[AdamG]

Am I the only one that finds it rather annoying that we have multiple manufacturers advertising their releases here in this thread? Sharing technical information is all cool, but shouldn't these posts about shipping dates or upcoming sales be in the desperate dealer section of the forum?

You have a point. So we’re going to give any Vendors in this thread a chance to take a second look at your posting in this thread and if you’re post is not relevant directly to the tested amp and build. Delete the post before we come back and issue warnings for posting advertisements in a Review Thread!

@boggit10 , @deercreekaudio , @Buckeye Amps , @Apollon Audio , @Bjorn

Go……

Waited one hour. Several posts deleted and Warnings issued. Please report any further incidents of blatant advertising in a Review Thread.

 

[deercreekaudio]

What pre amp were you using when you gave it a demo. I purchased a SHD from you a few years back. I was wondering how this would pair with it.

As far as listening goes, we are driving these with a miniDSP SHD, Dirac Live corrected, we are getting plenty of headroom and maximum power. (26.8 dB gain)

Currently our test equipment uses a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen as the ADC and DAC along with a precision non-inductive 8 ohm load. REW is our measurement engine. With this we're currently limited to 107 dB dynamic range. So these amplifiers are way better than our test equipment, we're looking to fix that in the future.

 

[deercreekaudio]

I put together this comparison of the NCx500 mono block vs. Nilai 500 mono block and Nilai 500 stereo amplifiers. These are typical (or published) results and may vary as we make more measurements.

	NCx500 mono block (SMPS1200A700)	Nilai 500 mono block (PS500DIY)	Nilai 500 stereo (PS500DIY)
Peak Output Power 1KHz THD=1% @ 8Ω	380 W	260 W	260 W
Peak Output Power 1KHz THD=1% @ 4Ω	700 W	525 W	300 W
Peak Output Power 1KHz THD=1% @ 2Ω	700 W	500 W	300 W
Distortion THD+ N 20 – 20.000 Hz Typical	0.0006% @ 350W / 4Ω	0.00015% @ 100W / 4Ω	0.00015% @ 100W / 4Ω
Signal to Noise	135 dB	140 dB	140 dB
Gain	11.5 and 26.8	11.8 dB, 21.8 dB and 27.8 dB	11.8 dB, 21.8 dB and 27.8 dB
Frequency response -3 dB	0-70 kHz	0-70 kHz	0-70 kHz
Idle power	17.5 W	7.8 W	11 W

 

[TimF]

The NCx500 goes beyond having substantial power, it has incredible power available. Ten or twenty years ago only the most exotic amplifiers could get close to this kind of power. I have Revel F208 speakers and rarely play music louder than at moderate levels, and I suppose I only drive my amplifier at a few watts except at the extreme peaks of full orchestral dynamics. Help me understand the power sweep charts in this thread. Is it true that the NCx500 is operating at its 'best' across a broad range of output from (say) a two watts through 50 watts; and that there is no appreciable/perceptible penalty driving it well beyond 100 watts output, nor is there a penalty driving it at one to (say) five watts of output? If I operate this amp at a low level of volume and low wattage I needn't be concerned that I am working against what it is designed to do best? I find myself stuck at times in old ways of thinking (ignorance).

 

[Matias]

If I operate this amp at a low level of volume and low wattage I needn't be concerned that I am working against what it is designed to do best? I find myself stuck at times in old ways of thinking (ignorance).

When using low power what is more important is the low noise floor, which is the declining slope of the THD+N x power graph. The lower the slope, the less hiss it has, the better you can hear low level details like reverb tails and ambience.

 

[deercreekaudio]

When using low power what is more important is the low noise floor, which is the deciding slope of the THD+N x power graph. The lower the slope, the less hiss it has, the better you can hear low level details like reverb tails and ambience.

100% agree with Matias, there is no substitute for ultra low noise and distortion especially with the incredible quality of today's digital recordings

Given that each 3dB of acoustic gain comes from a doubling in amplifier power, when you consider the crescendo of a full orchestra you can quickly go from a few watts to hundreds of watts, usually only for a brief moment

So the best of all worlds is high power with low noise and low distortion.

 

[Don Kuleone]

Hi Redwine
NCx500 My personnel opinion is I like the a lot.
You can listen louder without it being uncomfortable and the speakers protesting.
More bass
Better soundstage
More engaging and musical, I had to stay all afternoon in my listening room I have never done that with other products
Hope that helps.

More bass…better soundstage…compared to what?

 

[amirm]

Actually, it looks like these may have been mislabelled (@amirm), as peak power is higher than max power;

Is that what you mean?


JSmith

This occasionally happens as the measurements are not super exact here. But no, the are labeled correctly.

 

[boggit10]

More bass…better soundstage…compared to what?

The old NC500. And sorry I don't understand the shipping question.

 

[Julf]

You can listen louder without it being uncomfortable and the speakers protesting.
More bass
Better soundstage
More engaging and musical, I had to stay all afternoon in my listening room I have never done that with other products

Has Audio Science Review turned into yet another audiophile "I know what I hear" forum?

 

[withoutsuit]

The old NC500. And sorry I don't understand the shipping question.

And in comparison to purifi?

 

[boggit10]

Has Audio Science Review turned into yet another audiophile "I know what I hear" forum?

Hi Julf Good to see you again, hope you are well. Like the old days again, all we need now is Mike!

 

[GXAlan]

No matter how well a house may be built, the simple act of opening a door and admitting a visitor will inevitably allow some flies in. Then you must hunt the flies down and deal with them using a flyswatter.

We've got some pretty good flyswatters here at ASR.

Jim

Well you should be kind if you are offering your home to the public.

Sometimes we get reviews like Amir’s Wilson TuneTot review. It measured not so well, but what he heard was not so bad.

I agree that 99% of the time, it’s all sighted bias. But instead of swatting that fly, you should be constructive and help the person do some controlled experiments of their own.

 

[boggit10]

And in comparison to purifi?

I prefer the NCx500 that's what I choose to listen to ever day.

 

[GXAlan]

I prefer the NCx500 that's what I choose to listen to ever day.

Have you done any electrical measurements with a speaker to compare? Which speakers are you using?

@SIY’s comment about everything being trivially measurable is accurate. 1 kHz sinad into a resistor isn’t everything.

One thing that I saw with my PM-10 versus the PM-11s2 is that into a resistor, both measure similarly. The PM-11s2 is even a bit quieter and has no ultrasonics either.

But when I ran it into a speaker and measured electrically, you can see that the PM-11s2 was worse.

VS.

That ripple at 350 Hz does correlate with a 0.05 dB ripple in the frequency response as well.

Maybe there is something in the bass transducer with your speaker that works better with the NCx.

 

[ChrisB1224]

...Apollon won't ship to USA...

Sure they will

 

[juliangst]

Audiophonics now has a NCx500 amplifier for roughly the same price as the Purifi.

AUDIOPHONICS HPA-S600NCX Power Amplifier Class D NCore NCx500 2x600W 4 Ohm - Audiophonics

The Audiophonics HPA-S600NCX dual mono power amplifier, an updated and improved version of the HPA-S600NC, is now equipped with Hypex NCore NCx500 amplifier modules. These provide twice the performance in terms of distortion and output impedance

www.audiophonics.fr