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Review and Measurements of Nord One NC500 Amp
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
maty
Major Contributor
"I zoomed in our NC800SL stereo unit"
I'd like Restorer John to post a few pictures of the insides of some of the statement amplifiers produced by Pioneer, Yamaha, Sony etc back in the days when the large Japanese audio outfits were properly serious about it all. Sadly I suspect we will not see such build standards again.
NielsMayer
Active Member
also regarding above chassis, although you can basically multiply the size of all those holes in the bottom by 4-10 x, and then use that to determine the wavelengths of the frequencies they will allow to pass through nearly unhindred. Certainly not an issue for the fundamental modulation frequenciy but not necessarily the harmonics. What does the FCC say about these units?
What does an FCC-compliant chassis using an NC-XXX module look like??
What does an FCC-compliant chassis using an NC-XXX module look like??
Hugo9000
Addicted to Fun and Learning
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
Yes, I remember that story of yours. Bob Carver already had a disclaimer on the back panel because they knew it was incapable of sustaining its 'rated' power...:
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
That's for another thread, but you are right, the build quality standards are unsurpassed. I saw it implode in 1990. It was like the tap was turned off in Japan. The massive R&D dollars simply stopped and HiFi never recovered. 'The lost decade' they call it in Japan. It killed the quality as by the time they crawled out of the carnage in 2001, battered and bruised, the world was full of cheapskates wanting the lowest price possible.
Now, when I see the plethora of of-the-shelf amplifier 'solutions' on modular PCBs, screwed into yet another multi-purpose Chinese extrusion, I feel sad for the state of HiFi.
Commoditized, Sanitized and Emulsified, these featureless, boring boxes sport a mere power switch as their entire design element. Wow, the case layout and the 'bespoke buffer stage' must have needed an entire team of engineers...not.
Last edited:
OP
- Thread Starter
- #148
What do you want me to name the thread title?
Hugo9000
Addicted to Fun and Learning
None of them are my posts, I just thought it was all starting to clutter the Nord thread. Perhaps the Apollon posters could suggest a title for a new thread? Thanks!
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
It should be in the desperate dealers section in any case don't you think?
OP
- Thread Starter
- #151
Moved Apollon posts to new thread: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...apollon-audio-class-d-amp-build-quality.7717/
OP
- Thread Starter
- #152
Not yet. That forum is for manufacturer initiated sales talk/details/discussions. When members ask technical questions then I think it can be in this forum. If it becomes commercial in nature, I will move it.
Bamyasi
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2019
- Messages
- 487
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- 354
Since it was my post that started the diversion from Nord to Apollon in this thread, I just wanted to let you know that my Apollon NC800SL has successfully arrived three days ago. The build quality is exactly as expected, that is, excellent. First thing I did I've opened the lid and traced the output wires (yes, red ones) by hand and needless to say they were wired correctly 
The amplifier has been churning my speakers at least four hours a day since. I did not want to give my landlord an excuse to evict me, so I had to restrict the burn-in intensity somewhat. Note, I have never believed in the whole burn-in business, except for the subwoofers where effect is easily measurable and real. However, I should admit it apparently works for class-D apmplifiers as well. My NC800SL was sounding rather muffled and lacking dynamics initially. After about 12 hours of burning in, the sound is now simply astounding. Lush, dynamic and with no noise or distortion of any kind at any playback level but yet with lots of detail. I do not want to sound like a salesman, so let's just say that at this point I am more than happy with my purchase. Reliability is of course a different story, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I am also quite surprised by how good contemporary inexpensive speakers can perform when driven by a quality amplifier. Mine is a pair of ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 which I got from Amazon with a nice deal, really cheap. I was going to upgrade them to a pair of Buchardt's S400 soon but Buchardt Audio ran out of stock and I had to preorder with delivery in June; now Mads is saying delivery date actually might end up more like in September. So I am stuck with the Debut's for now and boy, how good these speakers sound, it is unbelievable! Especially considering they are what, like eight times cheaper than the amplifier. I would kill and die for such a pair of speakers way back then, when I was a teenager and my older brothers were running house parties every other weekend or so. I was their resident DJ, most of the time. The gear we used was total crap of course since none of us had any money. I recall it was an old Victor RCA record player (upgraded by local DYI experts) and a pair of bulky labyrinth type speakers, likely picked up from the garbage and carefully restored. Fast forward a few years and I am in a graduate school and proud owner of a pair of Bang & Olufsen Beovox S120 speakers powered by the big Japanese boy Sansui AU-D9. It took me a lot of extra jobs to finally save enough money, those were not cheap. But that system sounded not nearly as good as the one I own now! Is it possible that the reason for this is that I am 40 years older today and my hearing is failing? I do not know, maybe, but I can still hear a lot of details when playing records, so my hearing should not be that bad. So I prefer a more optimistic view, that the new materials and manufacturing advances really can work miracles today. Trivial observation as it is, it still amazes me how far mass manufacturing has evolved in just last couple of decades.
By the way, that Sansui amp of mine (still collecting dust somewhere in a storage room in my old parents house) was using feed-forward in the output stages and was DC-coupled from input to output. Feed-forward was a popular design approach back in the 1980s already, especially with the Japanese brands. I remember Sony also had some FF models at that time. It's Interesting how hifi components design rotates around the same set of ideas but with implementations changing/improving at each round.
Sorry for long post.
The amplifier has been churning my speakers at least four hours a day since. I did not want to give my landlord an excuse to evict me, so I had to restrict the burn-in intensity somewhat. Note, I have never believed in the whole burn-in business, except for the subwoofers where effect is easily measurable and real. However, I should admit it apparently works for class-D apmplifiers as well. My NC800SL was sounding rather muffled and lacking dynamics initially. After about 12 hours of burning in, the sound is now simply astounding. Lush, dynamic and with no noise or distortion of any kind at any playback level but yet with lots of detail. I do not want to sound like a salesman, so let's just say that at this point I am more than happy with my purchase. Reliability is of course a different story, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I am also quite surprised by how good contemporary inexpensive speakers can perform when driven by a quality amplifier. Mine is a pair of ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 which I got from Amazon with a nice deal, really cheap. I was going to upgrade them to a pair of Buchardt's S400 soon but Buchardt Audio ran out of stock and I had to preorder with delivery in June; now Mads is saying delivery date actually might end up more like in September
. So I am stuck with the Debut's for now and boy, how good these speakers sound, it is unbelievable! Especially considering they are what, like eight times cheaper than the amplifier. I would kill and die for such a pair of speakers way back then, when I was a teenager and my older brothers were running house parties every other weekend or so. I was their resident DJ, most of the time. The gear we used was total crap of course since none of us had any money. I recall it was an old Victor RCA record player (upgraded by local DYI experts) and a pair of bulky labyrinth type speakers, likely picked up from the garbage and carefully restored. Fast forward a few years and I am in a graduate school and proud owner of a pair of Bang & Olufsen Beovox S120 speakers powered by the big Japanese boy Sansui AU-D9. It took me a lot of extra jobs to finally save enough money, those were not cheap. But that system sounded not nearly as good as the one I own now! Is it possible that the reason for this is that I am 40 years older today and my hearing is failing? I do not know, maybe, but I can still hear a lot of details when playing records, so my hearing should not be that bad. So I prefer a more optimistic view, that the new materials and manufacturing advances really can work miracles today. Trivial observation as it is, it still amazes me how far mass manufacturing has evolved in just last couple of decades.By the way, that Sansui amp of mine (still collecting dust somewhere in a storage room in my old parents house) was using feed-forward in the output stages and was DC-coupled from input to output. Feed-forward was a popular design approach back in the 1980s already, especially with the Japanese brands. I remember Sony also had some FF models at that time. It's Interesting how hifi components design rotates around the same set of ideas but with implementations changing/improving at each round.
Sorry for long post.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
OP
- Thread Starter
- #155
Most people underestimate the amount of power they need. Even bookshelf speakers benefit from ton of power. We once connected a pair of Paradigm bookshelf speakers to a 1000 watt amplifier and you should have heard the clean bass and dynamics they could then produce. Yes, I feared for them blowing up
, but they didn't and sounded wonderful.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
Most people underestimate the amount of power they need. Even bookshelf speakers benefit from ton of power. We once connected a pair of Paradigm bookshelf speakers to a 1000 watt amplifier and you should have heard the clean bass and dynamics they could then produce. Yes, I feared for them blowing up
My large collection of bookshelves are regularly driven by big power amps. They are always initially auditioned on at least a 200+200W/8ohms power amp. They love power and dynamics. (obviously not continuous- thermal compression becomes audibly obvious as the VCs heat up)
The best way to sell a 6.5" 2 way is with >150W on tap and a dynamic recording.
maty
Major Contributor
Which buffer?
maty
Major Contributor
Which kind of music do you listen to? I ask for the quality of the recording, the dynamic range and the use of acoustic instrumentation and voices without Autotune (vade retro satana).
It is not the same to play a small acoustic group, orchestral mass, electronic mass or the current crap (audio quality, I I do not mean musical tastes). Be trustworthy to the tonality of the physical instrument, and not only that the instruments sound defined and the music spectacular.
It is not the same to play a small acoustic group, orchestral mass, electronic mass or the current crap (audio quality, I I do not mean musical tastes). Be trustworthy to the tonality of the physical instrument, and not only that the instruments sound defined and the music spectacular.
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