Hypex Nilai500DIY Amplifier Review

[ommadusk]

Hello, I'm wondering if this amp would be suitable for me. I'm currently using a Topping DX7 Pro+ DAC as my source and as the preamp. I've read that I need a 'professional' DAC so I'm not sure if this is alright. Would the Topping D90 be more suitable?

 

[antcollinet]

Hello, I'm wondering if this amp would be suitable for me. I'm currently using a Topping DX7 Pro+ DAC as my source and as the preamp. I've read that I need a 'professional' DAC so I'm not sure if this is alright. Would the Topping D90 be more suitable?

Your DX7 is fine. There is no such thing as "professional", only build and performance.

This amp will be fine with the DX7

 

[Julf]

Your DX7 is fine. There is no such thing as "professional", only build and performance.

"Professional" might have been referring to signal levels.

 

[AndreaT]

Hello, I'm wondering if this amp would be suitable for me. I'm currently using a Topping DX7 Pro+ DAC as my source and as the preamp. I've read that I need a 'professional' DAC so I'm not sure if this is alright. Would the Topping D90 be more suitable?

Look at the voltage output of the preamp section. 4 Volt output allows you to use the medium gain in the Nilai 500. Amirm reviewed it, and the analog output is indeed slightly above 4 V.

 

[FabienM]

Using the Nilai Stereo since 10 days now, AMAZING !
Thank you ASR for the review and a special thanks to Dunlavyphile.
I am using Medium gain with the SMSL SU-9-PRO DAC and that just Rock !
I won't get into a subjective review ( ASR it's not the place ), but I will try to help other's.

FRONT PANEL LED ISSUE : this might help
I bought mine to KJF Audio, I took the "kit build service" so that I could use it directly
I remarked that the power Led was not working as expected... So I looked at the documentation and the assembly video
Discovered that the "CB-4" connected on J6 and J5 ( cf nilai doc page 16 ) was not looking has it was in the video.
so I needed to exchange the side of this cable so that the red side would be as described here :

Plugging a cable in one direction or the other, should not change anything.
However the red drawings on the cable would normally help to identify each signal usage and they were not on the "good side".
Now I works fine
Maybe the cable had moved during the transport and changing the side would just help to secure the good connection ???
However the led works perfectly now.
I use the trigger input to power-on and off the nilai with the Node130 trigger outb function , that also very efficient

This is a picture of the "Wrong side" connection :

 

[ommadusk]

I'm very impressed by the technical knowledge of people on this forum. I'm deciding whether to buy the stereo amp or two mono amps. I can't return the amplifier(s) kits unless they're faulty. I'm sure they'll compare well to my last amp the Topping PA5 which gave up and I really loved. At my frontend I've got a DX7 Pro+ DAC which ouputs in 4.2V so @AndreaT helpfully advises me to use the amp's medium gain. My speakers are the Polk R200:

Recommended Amplifier Power	30 - 200W
Amplifier Output Compatibility	8Ω / 6Ω / 4Ω
Minimum Impedance (ohms)	3.8Ω
Sensitivity (2.83V/1m)	86dB

I listen to music for long periods of time in a medium sized room and I'm about 3 - 4 meters from the speakers. The speakers are currently 1.6m apart though I might increase that to 2m and I've got 10 gauge speaker wire which I hope to use, and I know it's OTT so might it be too thick for this amp's connections (it was for the PA5). I did a brief test with my mobile phone a while back, using the PA5, and the music hit a peak of about 88dB, but I might be wrong about that so it's probably best to ignore that.

Would my speakers be classed as quite inefficient in which case should I get the 2 mono amps, or not and I should get the stereo amp? Am I likely to hear a difference? Is that a hard question?

 

[AndreaT]

I'm very impressed by the technical knowledge of people on this forum. I'm deciding whether to buy the stereo amp or two mono amps. I can't return the amplifier(s) kits unless they're faulty. I'm sure they'll compare well to my last amp the Topping PA5 which gave up and I really loved. At my frontend I've got a DX7 Pro+ DAC which ouputs in 4.2V so @AndreaT helpfully advises me to use the amp's medium gain. My speakers are the Polk R200:

Recommended Amplifier Power	30 - 200W
Amplifier Output Compatibility	8Ω / 6Ω / 4Ω
Minimum Impedance (ohms)	3.8Ω
Sensitivity (2.83V/1m)	86dB

I listen to music for long periods of time in a medium sized room and I'm about 3 - 4 meters from the speakers. The speakers are currently 1.6m apart though I might increase that to 2m and I've got 10 gauge speaker wire which I hope to use, and I know it's OTT so might it be too thick for this amp's connections (it was for the PA5). I did a brief test with my mobile phone a while back, using the PA5, and the music hit a peak of about 88dB, but I might be wrong about that so it's probably best to ignore that.

Would my speakers be classed as quite inefficient in which case should I get the 2 mono amps, or not and I should get the stereo amp? Am I likely to hear a difference? Is that a hard question?

Considering the low efficiency of your speakers and the opportunity to have 105+ dB peaks in your listening room, I would seriously consider the mono Nilai amps. At 4 m distance from your listening chair, you need the extra power, IMO.

 

[ommadusk]

I've just looked at the phone app I was using to measure sound levels. The result is probably meaningless. It's called Sound Meter and the description says 'The maximum values are limited by the device. Very loud sounds (over ~90dB) may not be recognised in most devices...If you need more accurate dB values, we recommend a actual sound meter for that.'. I might be listening louder than 88dB.

I was using the Topping PA5. It's rated at 140WPC and I used to have the volume at about 2 o'clock so would that be a useful reference? I didn't notice any sound defect with that amp (until it failed) and it sounded great. The speakers I'm using are rated at 200w maximum. Amirm measures the maximum power of the Nilai500DIY at low gain as 342 watts at 4 ohm for the mono amp and a similar number for medium and high gain. Does that mean it's about 170WPC for the stereo amp at 4 ohm? It's still higher than the PA5 though so am I likely to notice the extra power if I got the monos over the stereo?

 

[AndreaT]

I've just looked at the phone app I was using to measure sound levels. The result is probably meaningless. It's called Sound Meter and the description says 'The maximum values are limited by the device. Very loud sounds (over ~90dB) may not be recognised in most devices...If you need more accurate dB values, we recommend a actual sound meter for that.'. I might be listening louder than 88dB.

I was using the Topping PA5. It's rated at 140WPC and I used to have the volume at about 2 o'clock so would that be a useful reference? I didn't notice any sound defect with that amp (until it failed) and it sounded great. The speakers I'm using are rated at 200w maximum. Amirm measures the maximum power of the Nilai500DIY at low gain as 342 watts at 4 ohm for the mono amp and a similar number for medium and high gain. Does that mean it's about 170WPC for the stereo amp at 4 ohm? It's still higher than the PA5 though so am I likely to notice the extra power if I got the monos over the stereo?

In my experience you need to at least double, if not treble, the amplifier power in watts to hear a meaningful difference of the new vs old, if all other specs (like freq response, output impedance, etc…) are similar.

 

[ommadusk]

Thank you. I decided to get two monos, I think they're the last in stock in the UK.

 

[HoweSound]

i have the stereo version paired with a Schiit Freya S. I'm listening to cd's and sacd's from an older Denon 2910 universal player with inboard dac connected via rca to the Freya. Balanced connection from Freya to Nilai. Amp set to medium gain. Single ended cables from preamp to powered subwoofer. Using the Freya 1:1 active gain setting requires 2/3 volume setting to reach adequate listening level. Sounds fine. Nothing objectionable going on. Can't say it's an improvement on my old amp. I'm waiting for my Eversolo DMP A6 to arrive so I can try it direct to the Nilai.

(I'm sure the Deer Creek polished face plate will improve the aesthetic harmony with the silver Schiit and immeasurably improve my listening experience!)

 

[akosinskiy]

i have the stereo version paired with a Schiit Freya S. I'm listening to cd's and sacd's from an older Denon 2910 universal player with inboard dac connected via rca to the Freya. Balanced connection from Freya to Nilai. Amp set to medium gain. Single ended cables from preamp to powered subwoofer. Using the Freya 1:1 active gain setting requires 2/3 volume setting to reach adequate listening level. Sounds fine. Nothing objectionable going on. Can't say it's an improvement on my old amp. I'm waiting for my Eversolo DMP A6 to arrive so I can try it direct to the Nilai.

(I'm sure the Deer Creek polished face plate will improve the aesthetic harmony with the silver Schiit and immeasurably improve my listening experience!)

What was your previous amp?

I have the same preamp and it made a large difference to upgrade from my old Cary Audio SA200 to 2xmono Nilai. I tried different combinations and so far medium gain on NIlai with 4x output on Freya sounds the best. It still doesn't sound as good as the reference amp I had opportunity to audition at my setup but it is much closer than Cary. I want to try to introduce tube pre to see if I can get closer.

 

[HoweSound]

What was your previous amp?

I am reluctant to say for fear of the derision I will receive on this forum - Okay, it's a PS Audio GCC 100. I found this amp to be an excellent performer, very well built, dead quiet with every connection option I could want. My perception is that PS Audio lost its way sometime after building these. Of course they have always sold snake oilish power conditioner products. Another factor; my hearing is not what it used to be and there may be improvements beyond my capacity to observe.

 

[akosinskiy]

I am reluctant to say for fear of the derision I will receive on this forum - Okay, it's a PS Audio GCC 100. I found this amp to be an excellent performer, very well built, dead quiet with every connection option I could want. My perception is that PS Audio lost its way sometime after building these. Of course they have always sold snake oilish power conditioner products. Another factor; my hearing is not what it used to be and there may be improvements beyond my capacity to observe.

I also found that the difference in the amps could be more easily observed if your speakers/room treatment and rest of the chain allow to do so. Me and my buddy have the same speakers but his room and the rest of the chain is so much different that I wasn't able to pick the difference between Nilai and his old Bryston BSST. Having said that - I couldn't get at his place to the level of what I have with Nilai at mine now.

 

[bikenutty]

Plugging a cable in one direction or the other, should not change anything.

LEDs have directional flow to operate, if connected backward they will not light.

 

[AngryZeus]

Are the monoblocks a “Fully Differential” amp?
I was thinking about pairing this with Polk L800 but those speakers need a single ended Amp

 

[Julf]

Are the monoblocks a “Fully Differential” amp?
I was thinking about pairing this with Polk L800 but those speakers need a single ended Amp

All the Hypex modules have a differential input, and that is what matters - but not for speakers. Speakers have no way of knowing if an amp is differential or not.

BTW, "differential" is a term that mainly applies to inputs, what you might be thinking about is balanced, but everything I wrote above applies to balanced amps too - doesn't make any difference from the point of speakers.

 

[AngryZeus]

All the Hypex modules have a differential input, and that is what matters - but not for speakers. Speakers have no way of knowing if an amp is differential or not.

BTW, "differential" is a term that mainly applies to inputs, what you might be thinking about is balanced, but everything I wrote above applies to balanced amps too - doesn't make any difference from the point of speakers.

Much appreciated ty!

 

[restorer-john]

Are the monoblocks a “Fully Differential” amp?
I was thinking about pairing this with Polk L800 but those speakers need a single ended Amp

The Polk L800s require an amplifier that is NOT bridged (BTL). This is for the crosstalk cancellation function to work without amplifier destruction.

The Nilai amplifiers may NOT be suitable as they also may take feedback from both the hot AND the cold in the PFFB network. Where colds are tied, performance degradation can occur. I would definitely be consulting with Hypex with the specific question in relation to those particular speakers before committing to a pair of those amplifiers.

 

[AngryZeus]

The Polk L800s require an amplifier that is NOT bridged (BTL). This is for the crosstalk cancellation function to work without amplifier destruction.

The Nilai amplifiers may NOT be suitable as they also may take feedback from both the hot AND the cold in the PFFB network. Where colds are tied, performance degradation can occur. I would definitely be consulting with Hypex with the specific question in relation to those particular speakers before committing to a pair of those amplifiers.

Ah back to ground zero
Very confused how a passive speaker can destroy an amp - yes the L800 SDA is unique but destroy an amp is very confusing