Hypex Nilai build, first impressions.

[AshleyC25]

They finally arrived last week, a pair of Hypex Nilai monos. I have the preamp too, but I haven't built it yet. Spent some time today putting the amps together, which was very easy. I have used NC400s for years. Compared to the NC400s the case construction is quite different but I actually prefer it, as you can remove the top without having to unscrew the front brackets. The module with its polished aluminium heatsink is a thing of beauty. The speaker cables are a screened pair and are now fitted with spade terminals to connect to the amp and pre-tinned ends for the speaker terminals.

The build is very easy, anyone can do it regardless of technical ability if you can follow instructions. There is no soldering, everything plugs together. We now have 12V triggering which is a welcome feature and works perfectly, triggered by a Topping A90D acting as a preamp. The LED brightness switch has moved to the back, and the front now hosts a power button which is rather small - a larger button, perhaps with an illuminated logo might have been nice. Shame there's no XLR loop output to chain units for a biamplified setup, as there's plenty of room on the back.

The amps sound great so far. It's way too early to say if there's a subjective difference between these and the NC400s. I did notice that there's less idle hiss - non at all, even with the tweeter pressed against my ear. I have the gain on its medium setting which seems to be about right for the Topping. There's an audible switching noise from the amp though, albeit again with my ear close to the casework. I'm not sure if it's coming from the power supply or amp module, but it's there and present on both units. THey've been playing for an hour or so and the amps are still cold, playing into relatively inefficient Acoustic Research AR28LS speakers

Overall great first impressions.

 

[sgshanaf]

I also received a pair of mono blocks last week. During assembly I discovered BOTH amp modules had broken pins on the expose caps. There was no damage to the box. They appear to have been shipped from the factory this way. I spoke with my retailer and they reported having other people report the same issue. Sounds like Hypex is having a manufacturing issue with the Nilai amp modules.

 

[AshleyC25]

I also received a pair of mono blocks last week. During assembly I discovered BOTH amp modules had broken pins on the expose caps. There was no damage to the box. They appear to have been shipped from the factory this way. I spoke with my retailer and they reported having other people report the same issue. Sounds like Hypex is having a manufacturing issue with the Nilai amp modules.

I didn't notice this on mine, which caps specifically?

 

[sgshanaf]

The two bent ones. I didn't think much of it but when I wiggled the outer cap I could feel the outer pin was broken free from the solder joint.

 

[jae]

Did you use any TIM between the chassis and the heatsink?

 

[sgshanaf]

Did you use any TIM between the chassis and the heatsink?

can't speak for OP but I didn't. I just followed the instructions, which do not call for anything except removing the protective film from the underside of the amp module before screwing it down to the base plate.

 

[gearnut]

I have the Nilai 500 stereo kit. I decided to take a look with a thermal camera. This is after several hours listening at low volume levels driving Acoustat Spectra 66's, which drop to less than 2 ohms at high freq. The electrolytic caps are rated to 105C(221F) so well within spec.

 

[MCH]

I have the Nilai 500 stereo kit. I decided to take a look with a thermal camera. This is after several hours listening at low volume levels driving Acoustat Spectra 66's, which drop to less than 2 ohms at high freq. The electrolytic caps are rated to 105C(221F) so well within spec.

View attachment 257499View attachment 257500View attachment 257502

Hi gearnut, i guess that is the assembled kit in its enclosure, right? I see a 184F reading in the second picture, that is pretty hot. How does the box feel from outside? Thanks.

 

[gearnut]

Correct, assembled in enclosure, lid removed just before taking the pics. I wouldn't say it's "pretty hot", just warm, should be well within the rating of all components. I put my hand on the bottom of the case, near the amp heatsinks and it was very slightly warm, you can see the aluminum baseplate (heatsink) in the pictures is dark purple, not sure of the temperature? maybe 100F? Room temp is around 66F. Maybe I should put my 98.6F hand in the picture for comparison?
The area of the PCB that is warm is not connected to the heatsink. I may think about adding a small fan inside the case, but I'm not really concerned at this point.
I may take some more images at some point during an enthusiastic listening session.
This is kind of a crappy thermal camera (un-calibrated chineesium), I think it does some auto-ranging on the color mapping, and is hard to tell the exact temps.
This amp rocks BTW.

 

[Vive la dissonance!]

My Hypex Nilai500 DIY typically even after long use and decently loud volumes feels just above room temperature on the top panel.

 

[sgshanaf]

I have the Nilai 500 stereo kit. I decided to take a look with a thermal camera. This is after several hours listening at low volume levels driving Acoustat Spectra 66's, which drop to less than 2 ohms at high freq. The electrolytic caps are rated to 105C(221F) so well within spec.

View attachment 257499View attachment 257500View attachment 257502

This is more heat than I anticipated. Now considering throwing a little thermal paste between the module and the base plate...

 

[antcollinet]

I also received a pair of mono blocks last week. During assembly I discovered BOTH amp modules had broken pins on the expose caps. There was no damage to the box. They appear to have been shipped from the factory this way. I spoke with my retailer and they reported having other people report the same issue. Sounds like Hypex is having a manufacturing issue with the Nilai amp modules.

That is almost certainly transport vibration. Those are tall narrow caps. They'll move side to side under vibration and fracture the legs.

It is really difficult to get larger 2 pin devices through vibration tests. The quick and dirty solution is to glue them all together - but that is not very manufacturing friendly.

 

[sgshanaf]

That is almost certainly transport vibration. Those are tall narrow caps. They'll move side to side under vibration and fracture the legs.

It is really difficult to get larger 2 pin devices through vibration tests. The quick and dirty solution is to glue them all together - but that is not very manufacturing friendly.

That's interesting. And also restores a bit of confidence in this endeavor. But regardless, the modules are on their way to Hypex (Netherlands) for repair.

 

[antcollinet]

That's interesting. And also restores a bit of confidence in this endeavor. But regardless, the modules are on their way to Hypex (Netherlands) for repair.

Not so much - they should be designed/manufactured to withstand vibration, and there are standards for the level of operating and transport vibration products should be capable of withstanding. If they are arriving at customers broken it doesn't really matter where it happened.

 

[Hypexsales]

I would like to comment on the broken cap issues reported here. We can confirm we have two similar cases from two different customers both in the US. both deliveries are from the same shipment from us (Netherlands) to our US reseller. Although we indeed don't see damages to the package we do believe this carton faced high levels of G forces. So, probably dropped from some height. Also the outer carton faced water damage. so all in all this shipment was not trieded nicely unfortunately. We will investigate how to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Everything has indeed be arranged already and we will repair them as soon as they arrive. So far these are the only two cases known to us with damages or broken modules.

 

[sgshanaf]

Not so much - they should be designed/manufactured to withstand vibration, and there are standards for the level of operating and transport vibration products should be capable of withstanding. If they are arriving at customers broken it doesn't really matter where it happened.

I don't want to deal with damaged gear as much as anyone, but I can understand shipping damage. I thought the amps were well packaged overall, though clearly the unsupported caps were an issue. Hypex (in addition to my retailer) have been easy to deal with and are solving the problem.

 

[sgshanaf]

I would like to comment on the broken cap issues reported here. We can confirm we have two similar cases from two different customers both in the US. both deliveries are from the same shipment from us (Netherlands) to our US reseller. Although we indeed don't see damages to the package we do believe this carton faced high levels of G forces. So, probably dropped from some height. Also the outer carton faced water damage. so all in all this shipment was not trieded nicely unfortunately. We will investigate how to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Everything has indeed be arranged already and we will repair them as soon as they arrive. So far these are the only two cases known to us with damages or broken modules.

Thanks for the feedback on this. The large caps on the power supplies seem to survived unscathed (though are not tested yet).

Not that you asked for my opinion, but I would encourage Hypex not to goop up the caps. That module is very attractive and I think that would spoil it. Maybe some kind of removable molded plastic to support the caps during shipment?

 

[Hypexsales]

Thanks for the feedback on this. The large caps on the power supplies seem to survived unscathed (though are not tested yet).

Not that you asked for my opinion, but I would encourage Hypex not to goop up the caps. That module is very attractive and I think that would spoil it. Maybe some kind of removable molded plastic to support the caps during shipment?

that is exactly our opinion as well. On our OEM modules we do glue all caps and all other bulky components to prevent damages during fibrations but the use of OEM modules is extremely wide, from big PA systems to High end systems and everything in between. DIY modules are mainly shipped once or twice if a reseller is in between. Then it is buils at home and used at home. No reason to prevent heavy fibration during use. Still we will look into preventing this kind of damage for these modules.

 

[antcollinet]

that is exactly our opinion as well. On our OEM modules we do glue all caps and all other bulky components to prevent damages during fibrations but the use of OEM modules is extremely wide, from big PA systems to High end systems and everything in between. DIY modules are mainly shipped once or twice if a reseller is in between. Then it is buils at home and used at home. No reason to prevent heavy fibration during use. Still we will look into preventing this kind of damage for these modules.

Vibration during use might not be an issue at home - but is always an issue in transport. It will occur on all forms of transport from (eg) engine vibration. Component legs can fracture in a few minutes if you manage to hit a resonant frequency with the mass of the component, and it's center of gravity from the pivot point (it's pins).

A couple of possible tips for your manufacturing team.

I'm recently retired from a blue chip international volume manufacturer of industrial electronics. As I've said above - getting large 2 pin components through vibration test can be tricky. A couple of solutions we used in the past:

a) 3 pin capacitors - we had to have them custom made with an additional pin - so may not suit your volume - but a tripod is much more stable than a two legged chair . It is by far the most secure solution if not wanting to glue the components together.

b) in one case we had a fixture which held down the components firmly to the PCB during soldering. We'd found that the density of the solder wave caused the components to "float up" during the soldering leaving a small gap between the bottom of the component and the PCB. The fixture prevented that from happening, and the components are much more stable when the base is in contact with the PCB on both sides of the pins, than when they are raised up - even by only 0.5mm


You'll note in both these solutions (and also the "glue" solution) what they are effectively doing is making sure there is more than 2 contact points with the PCB at all times. With only two pins holding the component in place, they can pivot 90degrees to the plane the pins are in - and under vibration they will, hundreds or thousands of times per second.

 

[Dmaumau]

The two bent ones. I didn't think much of it but when I wiggled the outer cap I could feel the outer pin was broken free from the solder joint.

Couldn´t you just heat the solder joints (with a soldering iron of course) ? It would save a lot of time away from the amps.