Nuforce

Redkiwi, I agree with your assessment of the crummy sound of the original Ref 8 (70w), and suspect the pooor design is what has resulted in the three or four revisions to the Ref 9 in the past year.

I can't make sense of these conflicting statements, though.

Nuforce obviously had no idea of how to implement an audio design.

and...

I suspect Nuforce has been doing mainly what I have been doing - implementing the original, and obviously excellent, design properly.

Huh?

I was trying to say that Nuforce appeared to have no idea how to implement an audio design when they made the Ref8, but that since then (like me) they have been working on getting the implementation right. Using their customers as Beta-testers is not a good look by the way Nuforce. My use of the words 'no idea' were driven by my incredulity that they had used a Polyester cap in the signal path. Do that and you can destroy the sound of any stereo system with a single blow.

Using their customers as Beta-testers is not a good look by the way Nuforce.

This has been my pet peeve with NuForce. As a customer, I like to think I'm buying the company's best effort, and a product that has been thoroughly Beta tested. I don't care to pay for that privilege.

Thanks for the clarification.

Maybe, about the revisions, but if you listen to the current model Ref 9.02, it's an awesome sounding amp that clearly outperforms the bulk of amplifiers on todays market and competes with some VERY expensive units.

True, the many revisions are annoying, but the results of these revisions are giving us sensational performance for the dollar. So consider that too...

I expect to receive a set of the new Reference 9SE amps later this month, and I can't wait! Nuforce is upgrading the internal parts and I believe they are cryo-treating the processing module and a couple other enhancements.

It should be very interesting to compare to the current Reference 9.02.

Holy smokes, Frank, a NuForce 9SE?! You've just reaffirmed my point.

Seriously, can a NuForce owner who has just taken delivery of the latest 9.xx iteration EVER be certain a newer improved model or version won't be available the very next day, thereby requiring the owner to box up his beloved amps to send off to the factory for updating?

Wouldn't it be nice to have the NuForce amps in the system for nine months to a year without feeling the need to have them upgraded to a better version?

I cannot be the only one who sees this as a problem...