Nuforce

Plato, very well said.

Mdconnelly, I also own the 10Ts and after recently hearing the NuForce Reference 9 amps in my system, I sold my beloved McCormack DNA-2 Revision A amp. The NuForce weren't night and day better, but they are more refined, revealing, and musical. Surprisingly, they did an excellent job of competing head to head with the phenomenal bass of the 300 wpc into 8ohm DNA-2 Rev. A or should I say 600 wpc into my 10Ts at 4 ohm loads. (fwiw, my preferred listening levels are 92 to 97 db)

Phd, you said, "There may be more hype behind these switching mono blocks then they really deserve." To that I say, "then again, perhaps not." You issued a good caution to try before you buy. But that should go without saying regardless of the product or industry.

Unsound, these are analog switching amps. Not digital. To see how the NuForce amps rank among some of the better amps TAS is touting these days, I would suggest checking out this very recent review by Chris Martens of the Absolute Sound:

http://nuforce.com/reviews/TAS-Ref9.pdf

One comment Chris Martens made that I find intriguing was,

"The Ref 9s offer a truly extraordinary level of see-through transparency, and as an audiophile friend so aptly put it, “Their transparency is real, not a fake artifact
caused by brightness.”"

I think that comment said quite a bit and without any fluff. Especially when one considers the other amps he's comparing to.

I've not heard the latest and greatest TAS recommended amps as mentioned in the review but until now the DNA-2 Rev. A amp was the overall best I've heard. That includes the Halcros DM68s and DM58 which I've had the pleasure to hear on several occasions.

-IMO
Disclaimer, at the same time I sold my DNA-2 Rev A amp, I became a dealer for NuForce.

I would not buy these amps yet. Not because they aren't any good, they obviously are, but they are a work in progress.

The Ref 8's went through something like 6 iterations with improvements at every step. The Ref 9 is already up to 9.02 or something like that. The good thing about this though is the designers give the option to upgrade the internal modules to latest version for not much cost, but still... I would wait for them to get it perfected with such a new technology.

There is a guy who does level 1 mods on them as well at www.tweakaudio.com

""Some of the things done in the mod include:
1. Remove the LED for clearer sound.
2. Damp various parts for cleaner sound.
3. Install ERS material between power supply and output board.
4. Change input cap to super expensive V-Cap Teflon (maybe world's best cap). We burn in these caps for one week on custom burn-in machine before installing.
5. Change power supply caps to damped nude Blackgates.
6. Change filter cap to hand made copper foil and Teflon tape cap.
7. Change input op amp to better, faster type.
8. Change input jacks to OFC copper types (SoundConnections/Vampire).
9. Change input ground wire to Jena Labs wire.
10. Change output wire to high purity copper Litz Cardas wire.
11. Remove the sound of the binding posts by running the output wires through grommets in the chassis and wrapping the tinned ends of the wire around the outside of the binding posts (effectively giving a wire to spade clamp).
12. etc. ""

Hi PHD
The reason I ask where the halcro sits is My friend in Sydney has complete halcro system with Wilson7 all the
famous cables and tweeks shunyata Valhalla Indra AQ Sky
Linn Cd12, BC Pl1, shunmooks, harmonic dots,etc.very highly teeek system most people go around to his place thinks thats best system they ever heard or one of the very best.
Here comes real revalation Nuforce Ref 9 with latest
upgrade has dethrone the dm68 in his system so my question
Where does the NF 9 sits?
Hmmm very interesting
Pat

I'm the nuforce distributor for Australia

Now, now, PHD you were told the parts argument is weak already! To bad I agree with you.

Can someone explain to me why so many of you guys buy something and then send it to some "modder" to hack on it???? You realise that you end up paying more, but if all of the "improvements" came stock, and the price was raised accordingly, you would kvetch about it costing too much.