Looking for advice on a 3 channel Hypex Ncore Amplifier - ATI vs Nord/Apollon

[HammerSandwich]

Very tactful, Alan. I can't imagine buying that after seeing Apollon's multi-channel prices & nudies.

 

[Zoomer]

AFAIK Apollon doesn't offer mch-amps with NC500's as Krobar is looking for. They use NCxxxMP's throughout.
This is probably a on-off custom build. Please enlighten us what's so terrible about it. We might learn something from it.

 

[somebodyelse]

It has the feel of a DIY project, or a rush job to hit a deadline when some parts hadn't turned up on time, and wasn't intended for public consumption. The rats nest wiring doesn't inspire confidence that the layout has been thought about. Leaving it all flapping in the breeze probably won't cause failures in a domestic situation, but can in transit, as well as performance variability if wires move relative to each other. The uninsulated, soldered connection of the mains cables to the power switch on the front panel is ... unusual. I hope the mains inlet is fused and the earth correctly terminated to the case - that's not clear from the photos. The Hypex recommendation to tightly twist the speaker leads has been ignored - IIRC Bruno has said this can cause measurably reduced performance on the nc400. One of the ribbon cables is too short - it looks like it's under tension in one photo, but it could just be the camera angle. I don't know what the loose choc bloc screw terminal is doing, or the coiled black lead by each amp, but it's not reassuring.

 

[mocenigo]

6-channel NC500 for sale used, 3158 Euro, with Nord input buffer though.

View attachment 41124

Chaotic

 

[boggit10]

This is not one of our amps. We sold buffers to other OEM's

 

[WhiteCoatGeek]

This is a picture of my 3 channel Nord NC500 that I received couple of weeks ago for the reference.

 

[A.West]

Have you looked at KJFAudio. They use the Hypex Ncore MP modules. You can spec four different modules of your choice. Their enclosure has fans, which I think is good, but your use case might be different. I also like the Neutrik sockets, which are the same as March Audio use, and look to be better than most other Ncore implementations with XLR and RCA with a switch in the signal path.

From reading various threads across the net, the MP modules are not quite as good as the NC500, but I‘ve never found any measurements to quantify this. From the Spec sheet the MP modules look good. The other bonus is the integrated Power Supply means there is one less thing for the installer to get wrong.

I’m thinking of replacing my Denon AVR-3808 for 5 channels of Ncore amplification.

I configured 5 channels from KJF using 2 NC502MP and one NC500MP in one box. Fed by a Marantz 6014 AVR switched to eco mode. Plenty of power, no noise. The 12v power trigger conveniently turns the amp on and off. Could I hear a difference double blind? I'm not sure at the moderate levels I tend to play. I'm pretty sure my speakers would distort before this amp would.