Nuforce

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.

Agisthos wrote:

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.

This nicely encapsulates my primary issue with the Nuforce amps. My secondary issue is with the sound of the amps, but that's a matter of personal taste.

Ar_t wrote:

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.

An excellent question, and one I'm certain drives designers of high end audio equipment absolutely crazy.

It took NuForce team 2 YEARS to complete the R&D and we have been granted 3 US patents and filed many more. The small team in California worked for long hours without pay for 2 freaking years! And attorney fees cost a fortune.
Do you think we're getting rich making a few hundred $ per unit? It is not like we're selling millions of these. Do you think traditional 50 lbs amp cost a lot? Come on, what you're paying for is the weight of the transformer, heavy metal case, R&D and marketing.
If you look around in the high end market, how many companies are actually doing original research?

With regards to revision, we could have stopped upgrading the current amp, come up with another model, raise the price and people will still line up to buy them. But instead, we stay true to our philosophy of providing better value to our customers. Sure, we're going against a very tranditional mindset here. But for those of you who "complains" about upgrade, don't you notice that your PC, laptop, routers, and many other high tech equipment all have different version numbers depending on when you buy them? Manufacturers like us add different version number so that we can differentiate between one production version versus another, even if there is minor changes.

Now about R&D etc. We're not done yet and don't forsee that we'll ever be done :). As we have said, we're constantly doing R&D and if we discover new enhancement, we will decide either to withhold it (for the next model) or release the upgade into the next production.
We are very grateful for those of you early adopters who recognized the tremendous value and performance (read the TAS and other reviews) of these amps and supported us. Those early customers will get a price break for more exciting products that we're coming out (such as preamp). Those who want to wait can buy the same great amp next year for perhaps higher price :).

Jason from NuForce

PHD,
The Ref 8 case is made of all aluminium, more expensive that other thick iron or steel case that some people preferred. In the early production, we use bright blue LED that is hard to control the brightness. The latest production has frosted blue LED.
Ref 8 is targetting people who appreciate good sound but are not willing to pay the extra. There are a lot of people who prefer that their audio equipment stay out of sight and to them, sound is what they care (may be not what you like). Ref 8 is also frequently used as surround and back channel amps and placed close to the speaker. It is meant to be light and small.
Jason from NuForce