Thanks ! Good point. I read it somewhere during surfing around
The things that bothers me is that i ordered a nord value line nc502 amp and am still awaiting delivery
Have you verified that through measurements and/or double blind tests?
That sounds very dodgy, classic bait and switch. If you paid by credit card they will ensure a full refund if Nord don't.
Thanks ! If i bypass the bus this removes the option to use balanced connectons, is it worth it using unbalanced onlyThe late production Quad 606mk1, which was basically the mk2 without the styling change and onwards, were excellent amps which should all 'sound' the same!' Our first dem early production 606 needed a couple of hours from cold to remove some 'grain' from the sound, which was audible and predictable and something that didn't exist in all other samples I ever heard, the amps 'coming on song' pretty much from switch-on and staying that way thereafter, which is what any amp worth its salt should do.
There was one early batch of far eastern made 909's which for whatever reason, had less than idea electrolytic caps fitted, causing noise and audible distortion I gather. There's an entire tale as regards how these caps were produced over the computer industry and so on and once this was dealt with, I've heard of no reliability or sonic issues at all! It was only the electrolytics used I believe!
The current Artera version has I believe, a slightly wider bandwidth according to one review I read. No idea if this is audible at all (I very much doubt it with most speakers), but the only criticism I could remotely make of it is that it's not a *showy* looking thing. With matching preamp, it's lovely and can drive all manner of speakers without stress (the preamp is a luxury thing at a not 'luxury' domestic price and I'd have one like a shot). My local audio salon appears to have dropped the brand, as it sat in the cubic display unit with their HiFiMan and deluxe Grado headphones, deluxe catalogues and so on and seemed totally anonymous when acres of Naim, Chord and now Accuphase is set up nearby in racks costing many hundreds per tier, none of it really any 'better' at all, but sure as heck making a statement, financially as well as visually. My photography is terrible, but spot the Artera bits in this display rack - I wish Quad had adopted the 500 series pro amps stylee, which look naughty in the flesh even switched off
View attachment 390435The Quad bus enabled balanced connections, but I also read of bypassing the bus. Quad's service dept may be helpful as they do full refurbs on old gear now, not simple repairs (a pal sent back a 34/FM4/405-2 and they really went to town on all three items, even to the point of a new memory chip in the tuner adding extra presets apparently.
Some of that has now been removed from the nc502 page, but it remains on the rest of the Value line. I've captured the nc502, nc252 and nc52 pages at web.archive.org for reference. It looks like the product descriptions have been copy/pasted from the earlier higher end products as the new products have been added to the range, but the text hasn't been edited to remove the bits that don't apply to the lower end products. You'll see this if you look at something like the nc500 stereo model - most of the description is the same. The Value line has been through iterations of this, so still has a paragraph about the Nord One MP NCXXXMP range which is the next level up. Neither of these have a buffer board as the buffers are built into the NCxxxMP modules, as correctly stated in that paragraph. They don't have the 'Neotech OCC option' either, and I'm fairly sure the NCxxxMP line don't foil shield the output transistors.
That certainly isn't how I would wish to be treated. I wouldn't expect to be out of pocket if I cancelled an order because I found out the manufacturer's product description was misleading, especially when the cancellation is before it's even shipped. That is entirely on the manufacturer.
The design 'sounds' absolutely wonderful using not-long single ended connections. The current Artera model also 'sounds' absolutely wonderful using the balanced inputs, but I have no idea how different or similar the balanced-to-single-ended circuit on the input is I'm afraid in these two models.
It's not, and under UK law that is "not as described" which is considered breach of contract. For that you would be entitled to return for a full refund.
Forgive me here, but are the standard components *really* 'third tier'?
Yes, they use suscon caps which have a bad reputation, restorer john talks about them :
www.audiosciencereview.com
Caps and their quality have been a hot topic a while ago...Yes, they use suscon caps which have a bad reputation, restorer john talks about them :
Most and Least Reliable Electrolytic Capacitors
Sort of a branch off the madness in the Apollon NC2K teardown thread: Which brands of caps have you had the most and least trouble with? I've had nothing but trouble with Illinois/IC TTA and LBA/LBB series . They seem to consistently be a problem in every single amp I encounter them in. In...
www.audiosciencereview.com
I believe Colin actually posted here that the electronics were identical and that the only difference is the quality and materials of the casework.
The 252MP offers about 4x the power of both of those offerings.
