Hypex Nilai 500 DIY Stereo Amp Kit Review

[Sokel]

It's a nice amp, no doubt.
But not state of the art in my book. State of the art for a power amp is maintaining its power ability where is needed most, down low.
(actually all over the spectrum for true state of the art)

This one does 276W/1kHz/4 Ohm and only 185W/40Hz/4 Ohm according to the review.
We also don't have data for lower loads so to call it excellent.

And I don't know if its inspired by Putzeys or if he left a backlog of designs for Hypex to keep going and refreshing its line from time to time but he's certainly not a part of this company for a long, long time.

As short of DIY though certainly has a different appeal to some and the components that its made of seem nice.

 

[testp]

Just curious as a non-engineer normie, do these class D amps ever get as warm as class A amps that people had for decades?

Like someone already mentioned, but will add, it's definetly cooler, bc it's more efficient, low efficiency means more power draw for the same power, bi-product is heat mostly

 

[Scrivs]

That case is from Ghent in Hong Kong. I used the same case to build my Purifi Eigentact Eval 1. When I bought it, I originally intended to use it to assemble the Hypex SMPS and a pair of their NC 400 modules to make a Stereo Hypex amp, but the Eval 1 came out at that time to exemplary reviews so I installed an Eval 1 module in it instead after having a metalworking/laser cutting fabricator make a custom back for me. My Putifi Amp has been trouble free in that case for five years. It's on around 14 hours a day and not a single hiccup, nor does it run excessively hot. I think the case's heat sink properties are OK.

It's a very nice case: It goes together very well, the parts fit together smoothly, all the screw holes are in the proper place, making it a breeze to put together. And it has plenty of room for the components. It stands in marked contrast to the Nord NC-252 build Amir reviewed last week which looked like everything was shoehorned into a tiny box. So it should be a very easy DIY with Hypex on call if trouble occurs.

As for the Nilai-500, it very closely resembles the performance of the Eigentacts and should provide years of trouble free performance. If you want an amp you can keep for a very long while which will just drive everything and not call attention to itself ever, this looks like a great choice. And the price is fair for what you're getting (internal power supply, nice case, quality modules, a single company for customer service). Great review, Amir. Thank you.

I wonder if this case has the same dimensions as Ghent’s stereo NC500 oem/SMPS1200 case? Looks a bit larger? Bought myself an SMPS1200A700 to finally put in a box with a pair of NC500 oem modules I’ve had sitting around for years. Ant Ghent alternatives you could point me towards?
Cheers

 

[daniboun]

I wonder if this case has the same dimensions as Ghent’s stereo NC500 oem/SMPS1200 case? Looks a bit larger? Bought myself an SMPS1200A700 to finally put in a box with a pair of NC500 oem modules I’ve had sitting around for years. Ant Ghent alternatives you could point me towards?
Cheers

I Diyed lots of Purifi / Hypex Ncore modules with some Hifi2000 cases. They are nice at fair price.
The GX388 fits well

Search - Audiophonics

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www.audiophonics.fr

 

[Scrivs]

I Diyed lots of Purifi / Hypex Ncore modules with some Hifi2000 cases. They are nice at fair price.
The GX388 fits well

Search - Audiophonics

Search page

www.audiophonics.fr

Thanks dude, you have your helpful finger on the pulse once again. I’ll check ‘em out.
Thanks dude

 

[Scrivs]

I Diyed lots of Purifi / Hypex Ncore modules with some Hifi2000 cases. They are nice at fair price.
The GX388 fits well

Search - Audiophonics

Search page

www.audiophonics.fr

Nice job routing all the cables with EMI in mind. Any reason you didn’t spin the PS 180 degrees—heat sink facing/shielding the modules?

 

[SCPB1967]

Looks like distortion around -85dB at 15kHz seems to be a limit in what is achievable in top D Class amplifiers and it looks like even with increased bandwidths rise of distortion vs frequency is not really going away. Interestingly distortion at 10kHz is pushed lower than on Purifi 1ET6525, but 15kHz is worse. Purifi distortion seems to increasing more gradually with increasing frequencies.

I would really love to see smth like this for high power D Class amp someday.

Still hoping that we are going to see 1et9040 measurements. Probably we’ll see similar picture, maybe distortion pushed couple of dB on highest frequencies.

View attachment 496940

Admittedly not Class D & also fairly low power but excellent non the less

 

[SCPB1967]

The chosen presentation of the 19+20k is unfortunate - we can assume that also a difference tone is created, i.e. 1k, but the scale used totally obfuscates that range of the output - as the last x-axis scale says 5k and what the leftmost part of the scart really represent isn't readable, it's really "unlucky".

I see perhaps -105 dB 1k there to the absolute left and that aint 18.3bits - more like 17,5. Not that it matters much but in "science" we need to be correct.

//

Apologies if I'm mistaken but I think the 1K value is about -112dB...?

 

[leManu]

I bought this amp and then loose all my belief in measurements. The timing is so off that it felt like that the musicians weren't playing together. Very strange. Probably OK for movies, but certainly not for music. It leads me to read about how negative feedback kills the musicality. Maybe it's not something that can be measured, but it sure can be heard. I know it won't be a popular opinion here, but it's just what it is.
Here's the opinion of SOULNOTE Chief Designer about this:

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

www.soulnote.co.jp

 

[DavidM1]

I bought this amp and then loose all my belief in measurements. The timing is so off that it felt like that the musicians weren't playing together. Very strange.

What do you mean? I think of audio signals in fairly simple terms. Do you mean that there is audible delay between L and R channels. Are you talking phase issues between the channels? How does timing become off?

 

[Ropeburn]

I bought this amp and then loose all my belief in measurements. The timing is so off that it felt like that the musicians weren't playing together. Very strange. Probably OK for movies, but certainly not for music. It leads me to read about how negative feedback kills the musicality. Maybe it's not something that can be measured, but it sure can be heard. I know it won't be a popular opinion here, but it's just what it is.
Here's the opinion of SOULNOTE Chief Designer about this:

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

www.soulnote.co.jp

Musicality comes from the music, not from an amplifier. "Timing is off". What does that even mean?

 

[DSJR]

On some recordings, the musicians AREN'T playing together due to overdubs and so on and judicious editing...

I'll get me coat

 

[Ropeburn]

On some recortdings, the musicians AREN'T playimng together due to overdubs and so on and judicious editing...

I'll get me coat

Laughs in electronic music

What musicians? Oh, you mean the robot enslaver master programming it all, with impeccable machine timing?

 

[terryforsythe]

The timing is so off that it felt like that the musicians weren't playing together. Very strange.

As with @Ropeburn, I'm confused as to what "timing is so off" means for an amplifier. Are you talking about left or right channel delay? If so, maybe there is something wrong with your system, or your particular amplifier. But, I still can't think of what would cause the right and left channels to be out of sync due to the amplifier itself. Perhaps the gain of the left and right channels are not matched, or you have a bad cable? You may need to troubleshoot your system to find the culprit. I have a Nilai, and don't have any timing issues whatsoever. Indeed, I haven't had timing issues with any amplifier I have owned, but I have had RCA cables go bad - the outer shield coming loose from the connector, probably from being moved around too much over the years. Still, that resulted in noise in one case, and loss of music in one channel in another case, not timing issues.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

I bought this amp and then loose all my belief in measurements. The timing is so off that it felt like that the musicians weren't playing together. Very strange. Probably OK for movies, but certainly not for music. It leads me to read about how negative feedback kills the musicality. Maybe it's not something that can be measured, but it sure can be heard. I know it won't be a popular opinion here, but it's just what it is.
Here's the opinion of SOULNOTE Chief Designer about this:

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

www.soulnote.co.jp

amps can't do this

Soulnote's chief designer is not credible:

anyone who likes audio knows that sound changes depending on cables and racks.

lol

 

[amirm]

Here's the opinion of SOULNOTE Chief Designer about this:

Good grief. That is a book of nonsense! Even his analogies are wrong. Take this:

" Sushi can only be evaluated by eating it."

Then why do sushi chefs always try to make the plate so pretty?

Because of the old saying that "you eat with your eyes!" He needs to learn to evaluate audio with his ears alone. Until he learns this simple aspect of human body, he will continue to produce sub-performing audio gear costing a fortune.

Same lesson to you. Spend less time reading nonsense like that, and more time experimenting blind to confirm what you think you heard.

 

[BeeKay]

Timing off between musicians in 2 channel audio?? That’s beyond words.

 

[Fletcher Munson]

I think perhaps some people like the harmonics (distortion) of lower feedback designs compared to this lovely new breed of Class D

 

[testp]

yes, blind testing is the way to go, even if you can't switch amplifiers blindly, there are other blind test that anyone can do, it's about not knowing and fooling your brain, testing in that state, results can be suprising, it's brain chemistry after all..

 

[RogerSmith]

Did you measure an amp or a DAC?