This is a review and detailed measurements of the Vera Audio P400/1000 Hypex NC500 based amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs 26 000 NOK ex VAT (US $2934).
The case is milled from solid aluminum and has a nice quality and look to it. It is also quite heavy for a class D amp. Back panel shows some of the value add:
I like the nice switch selectors for gain. And 12 volt trigger. All the connectors look very high quality.
Company makes specific case for thermal management which you can see from the included, variable speed fan:
There is a hole on the other side. In use, I could not hear the fan come on despite stress testing amplifier. They even have heat sinking for the output coil which from past measurements, it gets quite hot.
Finally, there is a nice clipping indicator which I really appreciate. Recovery from overload was instantaneous as well. No shut down. No need for power cycle.
Vera Audio P400/1000 Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard of 1 kHz tone at 5 watts into 4 ohm load:
Company advertises 0.1 dB gain matching and we nicely see that met. SINAD is dominated by distortion and lands the unit at #8 in all amplifiers ever tested (nearly 170):
Where the unit really shines is in its low noise floor:
Combined with lots of power, we get the incredible dynamic range on the right. This is almost matching best in class DACs!
Multitone test shows low levels of distortion:
Crosstalk is above average:
Typical of Hypex designs, there is no load (speaker) dependency which is great:
Unit is stable as soon as powered on:
NC500 module is known for its high power capability which we can confirm:
Letting 1% THD gives us incredible amount of power in such a compact package:
Switching to 8 ohm load, we still get tons of power:
There is some non-linearity though above 10 watts which we can see getting worse as frequencies increase:
Company touts excellent rejection of common mode noise on its input and asked me to measure it:
Given that the test is at 1 kHz, this is very good performance.
Conclusions
Nice to see a true value-added design around the high power Hypex NC500 modules. From case to cooling and impeccable noise level, there is great effort has been made to produce a performant product. Yes, there is a cost to that especially with a product designed and manufactured in Europe. You have to decide if the value is there for you. It is for me.
I am happy to recommend the Vera Audio P400/1000 stereo amplifier. Great to see a high power amplifier in our top 10 best amplifiers ever tested.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The case is milled from solid aluminum and has a nice quality and look to it. It is also quite heavy for a class D amp. Back panel shows some of the value add:
I like the nice switch selectors for gain. And 12 volt trigger. All the connectors look very high quality.
Company makes specific case for thermal management which you can see from the included, variable speed fan:
There is a hole on the other side. In use, I could not hear the fan come on despite stress testing amplifier. They even have heat sinking for the output coil which from past measurements, it gets quite hot.
Finally, there is a nice clipping indicator which I really appreciate. Recovery from overload was instantaneous as well. No shut down. No need for power cycle.
Vera Audio P400/1000 Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard of 1 kHz tone at 5 watts into 4 ohm load:
Company advertises 0.1 dB gain matching and we nicely see that met. SINAD is dominated by distortion and lands the unit at #8 in all amplifiers ever tested (nearly 170):
Where the unit really shines is in its low noise floor:
Combined with lots of power, we get the incredible dynamic range on the right. This is almost matching best in class DACs!
Multitone test shows low levels of distortion:
Crosstalk is above average:
Typical of Hypex designs, there is no load (speaker) dependency which is great:
Unit is stable as soon as powered on:
NC500 module is known for its high power capability which we can confirm:
Letting 1% THD gives us incredible amount of power in such a compact package:
Switching to 8 ohm load, we still get tons of power:
There is some non-linearity though above 10 watts which we can see getting worse as frequencies increase:
Company touts excellent rejection of common mode noise on its input and asked me to measure it:
Given that the test is at 1 kHz, this is very good performance.
Conclusions
Nice to see a true value-added design around the high power Hypex NC500 modules. From case to cooling and impeccable noise level, there is great effort has been made to produce a performant product. Yes, there is a cost to that especially with a product designed and manufactured in Europe. You have to decide if the value is there for you. It is for me.
I am happy to recommend the Vera Audio P400/1000 stereo amplifier. Great to see a high power amplifier in our top 10 best amplifiers ever tested.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/