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March Audio Hypex Ncore Power Amplifiers

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Sal1950

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Any colour you like as long as its black ;)

Amphenol connectors. Although available in various colours, I have settled on the silver ones for the RCA/TRS and black for the XLR.

Cable will be Belden/Canare/Mogami, actually still musing over the best options but either way you wont see any audiophile solid silver cryogenically treated nonsense, just technically correct high quality parts.

.........and of course if you really want braid that can be added as an option (it will of course improve sound quality by at least 206.3% ;) ).

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I like the sound of that! Hope to see you follow thru on that promise. ;)
 

Chrise36

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Some Rhodium plated connectors would be nice too. I also liked some Nacamichi i saw on Ebay.
 
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...The Nc500 OEM module is better performance again,( wow).
The Nc122, 252 and 502 are little behind in terms of some parameters, but still very much top teir. I will get together some comparison data and plots.

Hi Alan, That's a really nice looking case on your new amplifier line, and the capacitive power button on the front panel is a nice "touch", it definitely differentiates you from your competition.

I'm wondering if you plan on offering a NC500-based amp as well? Not that I am interested in buying one, as I think your NCore MP-based line of amps are more in line price-wise with what I would be willing to pay, but just curious if you are thinking of augmenting your amp lineup with an NC500-based option.
 
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March Audio

March Audio

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Hi

Yes that's the P701 monoblocks. Due in a month or so. I need to make some modifications to the casework before release, but the headphone amp is the current priority hence a bit of a delay.
 
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Hi

Yes that's the P701 monoblocks. Due in a month or so. I need to make some modifications to the casework before release, but the headphone amp is the current priority hence a bit of a delay.

Got it, thanks! Looking forward to Amir's review of your P252 amp!
 

snip3r77

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you still need a pre-amp for this right?
It's annoying that the Web shop can only currently accept one currency type although can choose what, hence being international its best set to USD.

This can be a pain with potential credit card fees and exchange rates. However if you are AU based we can do direct bank transfer to avoid this hassle.

So
  • P122 - Stereo 125 watts into 4 ohms - $650. $900 aud
  • P252 - Stereo 250 watts into 4 ohms - $800. $1100 aud
  • P502 - Stereo 500 watts into 4 ohms - $1000. $1380 aud
  • P701 - Mono Block 700 watts into 4 ohm - $900 ea. $1245 aud
 

typericey

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ahofer

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(cross-posted from another thread)

OK, I've had the March Audio p252 in the system for two days.

I had a bit of a long strange trip comparing it to my old amp (Adcom 5802). When I first connected the March, I was sure I could hear a difference. A bit tighter in the bass, not as smooth in the highs. Was the image not as wide? The soloist seemed a little further back?

This evening I had a chance to A/B them, albeit under less than ideal conditions. Since I had to power them off before reconnecting, there was a bit of a lag between listens, and, of course, I'm getting up from the couch to do it. Just to complicate things, the March reverses the channels, so I had to be careful to connect right channel on my DAC to left channel on the March. I put in a pair of cables with bananas instead of spades, to make it easier. After trying to volume equalize on the music, I started doing it on a 1k test tone. As it happens, the two amps have the same gain, so I realized I didn't have to change the volume at all. Eventually I got the switch down to less than 30 seconds.

The better I got at making the swap, the less I could hear a difference. When I started I was almost sure I could, to my distress. Ninety minutes later I'm pretty sure I would fail a blind test between the two.

On the one hand this is oh-so-predictable. I am pretty convinced, in my head, by the volume of tests that suggest this would be the case. On the other hand, on first blush I started hearing some of the things subjectivists and kilobuck amp designers like to say about Class D. I guess my doubts rule my biases even more than my reasoning!

It's nice to have a cool amp here in the living room, so I can leave the A/C off and enjoy the music. Also, with only the DAC/Streamer and the little p252, I could get rid of the rack and de-clutter.
 
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March Audio

March Audio

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Hi, do you plan on making an nc500 version of your amps at some point?
Hi @Totoro Since the Nc1200 module has become available I made the decision to not offer an Nc500 unit. This decision has been re-inforced by the arrival of the Purifi 1ET400 which with its improved performance, to my mind, in effect makes the Nc500 obsolete. If you want/need more power and drive capability then the nc1200 is a better option than the nc500.

The next product will be the P451 Purifi based monoblock. A stereo unit would require different casework so is further down the track.
 

Totoro

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Hi @Totoro Since the Nc1200 module has become available I made the decision to not offer an Nc500 unit. This decision has been re-inforced by the arrival of the Purifi 1ET400 which with its improved performance, to my mind, in effect makes the Nc500 obsolete. If you want/need more power and drive capability then the nc1200 is a better option than the nc500.

The next product will be the P451 Purifi based monoblock. A stereo unit would require different casework so is further down the track.
Makes sense, but entails a massive price jump. I guess I’ll have to save my pennies for a while :p
 

typericey

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The next product will be the P451 Purifi based monoblock.

I would suggest creating a development thread, similar to this thread (whenever you're ready), so that interested folks can "watch" and be updated. Cheers.
 

DonH56

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@March Audio -- FYI, the direct links to the amplifier pages in your sig are broken. Link to main site and DAC etc. are OK.
 

ahofer

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Hi @Totoro Since the Nc1200 module has become available I made the decision to not offer an Nc500 unit. This decision has been re-inforced by the arrival of the Purifi 1ET400 which with its improved performance, to my mind, in effect makes the Nc500 obsolete. If you want/need more power and drive capability then the nc1200 is a better option than the nc500.

The next product will be the P451 Purifi based monoblock. A stereo unit would require different casework so is further down the track.

Maybe if I upgrade to the Harbeth M40.2 from my SHL5+ :p . I don't think I have a need for the extra power now.
 
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