This is a review and detailed measurements of the Nord One NC1200DM Signature Stereo Amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member. With the options as tested, the cost is US $4,212. As the name indicates, the amp is based on Hypex NC1200 class D amplifiers plus some value add in the form of Sonic Imagery 990Enh buffers, very fancy speaker terminals and even directional fuse from Synergistic Research!
The enclosure is the same elegant design I have tested before with Purifi modules:
And here is the back panel connectivity:
The massive speaker terminals had no trouble handling my heavy speaker wires.
The trigger input is unusual in that it is supposed to fully shut of the unit, consuming no power (?).
The amps are mounted to the bottom of the case as is typically down. So the top got slightly warm in testing. The bottom though was rather toasty after stress testing. I will post a teardown later.
In use, the NC1200DM never complained, shut down, or go into protection. Even during my intensive power versus frequency that causes weaker designs to bail out, the NC1200DM cruised right on.
Amplifier Audio Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard at 5 watts into 4 Ohms:
Channel matching is quite good.
Highest distortion is third harmonic at around -108 dB which mostly responsible for 105 dB of SINAD (signal relative to sum of distortions and noise). This puts the NC1200DM near the top of our rankings:
Signal to noise ratio was quite good especially near max power:
32-tone signal resembling "music" shows exceptionally low intermodulation distortion in audible band:
Most meaningful test is power versus distortion and noise so let's get into that with 4 ohm load:
We clock nearly 500 watts before the clipping onset. Hypex rates the module at 700 watts which is likely at higher distortion levels (see later). Distortion rises fairly early relative to our reference.
I was surprised to once again see how quiet the NC1200DM was when testing at 8 ohms and comparing to Purifi 1ET400A reference design:
Power output leaves 1ET400A behind at 270+ watts. The cost is higher distortion.
Keeping THD+N at 0.1% and sweeping the frequency we get:
Now we peak at 600 watts. Drop at low frequencies where we need power is slight (10% or so). The sudden drop at 20 kHz is usually due to ultrasonic noise shaping and wide bandwidth of this test (90 kHz). In real use, we don't need much power at 20 kHz and at any rate, a lot more would be produced than this chart indicates.
Here is the intermodulation distortion for 19+20 kHz tones for those of you who love this graph:
Remember that the threshold of hearing is quite high at 19 and 20 khz even for people with healthy response up to these levels. And at any rate, music never has full amplitude signals at these levels.
Crosstalk performance was very good, stopping just short of our reference:
Conclusions
The Nord One NC1200M Signature Edition produces tons and tons of clean power with very low noise floor. While other amps have tested with lower distortion, none come to its power output. Audiophiles routinely underestimate how much power they need. As such, it is great to see an amplifier produce so much power while keeping distortion and noise at bay. I see no performance flaws anywhere.
Yes, the "signature" components are of dubious value but they are not hurting things either.
The enclosure is attractive. And the whole package light and efficient. My kind of design.
I am happy to give a strong recommendation to the Nord One NC1200DM Signature Stereo Amp.
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As always, questions, comments, corrections, etc. are welcome.
The panther without the head took my car for a joy ride. The police caught him before he had an accident. Never mind that he has no way of seeing where he was going. He doesn't have a driver's license! So they impounded my car until I pay his huge fines. Just what I needed on top of all the holiday shopping/expenses. Please donate some money so I don't get too depressed over this incident using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The enclosure is the same elegant design I have tested before with Purifi modules:
And here is the back panel connectivity:
The massive speaker terminals had no trouble handling my heavy speaker wires.
The trigger input is unusual in that it is supposed to fully shut of the unit, consuming no power (?).
The amps are mounted to the bottom of the case as is typically down. So the top got slightly warm in testing. The bottom though was rather toasty after stress testing. I will post a teardown later.
In use, the NC1200DM never complained, shut down, or go into protection. Even during my intensive power versus frequency that causes weaker designs to bail out, the NC1200DM cruised right on.
Amplifier Audio Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard at 5 watts into 4 Ohms:
Channel matching is quite good.
Highest distortion is third harmonic at around -108 dB which mostly responsible for 105 dB of SINAD (signal relative to sum of distortions and noise). This puts the NC1200DM near the top of our rankings:
Signal to noise ratio was quite good especially near max power:
32-tone signal resembling "music" shows exceptionally low intermodulation distortion in audible band:
Most meaningful test is power versus distortion and noise so let's get into that with 4 ohm load:
We clock nearly 500 watts before the clipping onset. Hypex rates the module at 700 watts which is likely at higher distortion levels (see later). Distortion rises fairly early relative to our reference.
I was surprised to once again see how quiet the NC1200DM was when testing at 8 ohms and comparing to Purifi 1ET400A reference design:
Power output leaves 1ET400A behind at 270+ watts. The cost is higher distortion.
Keeping THD+N at 0.1% and sweeping the frequency we get:
Now we peak at 600 watts. Drop at low frequencies where we need power is slight (10% or so). The sudden drop at 20 kHz is usually due to ultrasonic noise shaping and wide bandwidth of this test (90 kHz). In real use, we don't need much power at 20 kHz and at any rate, a lot more would be produced than this chart indicates.
Here is the intermodulation distortion for 19+20 kHz tones for those of you who love this graph:
Remember that the threshold of hearing is quite high at 19 and 20 khz even for people with healthy response up to these levels. And at any rate, music never has full amplitude signals at these levels.
Crosstalk performance was very good, stopping just short of our reference:
Conclusions
The Nord One NC1200M Signature Edition produces tons and tons of clean power with very low noise floor. While other amps have tested with lower distortion, none come to its power output. Audiophiles routinely underestimate how much power they need. As such, it is great to see an amplifier produce so much power while keeping distortion and noise at bay. I see no performance flaws anywhere.
Yes, the "signature" components are of dubious value but they are not hurting things either.
The enclosure is attractive. And the whole package light and efficient. My kind of design.
I am happy to give a strong recommendation to the Nord One NC1200DM Signature Stereo Amp.
--------
As always, questions, comments, corrections, etc. are welcome.
The panther without the head took my car for a joy ride. The police caught him before he had an accident. Never mind that he has no way of seeing where he was going. He doesn't have a driver's license! So they impounded my car until I pay his huge fines. Just what I needed on top of all the holiday shopping/expenses. Please donate some money so I don't get too depressed over this incident using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/