Hypex Ncore NC1200 Amps at NY Audio Show in April

Hi Dob, please post here any tech info or listening impressions of the Tube Audio Design amps... I will add them to my list of extant NC1200 implementations to track.

G.

What is the current home page for Tube Audio Design? The link on Audiogon's industry directory appears to be invalid.

G.

I thought the Mola Mola/Vivid Giya setup was stunningly good. Amazing how it could go from intimate to orchestral and sound equally great.

Comparing all three rooms on Friday was inconclusive. The Merrills and Mola-Molas are obviously serious contenders and clearly surpass expectations for Class D by a country mile. However both Raidho and Vivid set-ups demonstrated uncoordinated and shapeless LF unacceptable to me at these price points. The Raidhos fared better at CES. Sanders stats were nice and clean, but edged out by Martin Logan CLX with Krell amps.

I thought the Mola Mola's driving Vivid Giya's in Philip O'Hanlon's room had bass that seemed to slightly overpower the room. (One review of Vivid implied they didn't extend very low, which was not the case with this model.) Some room treatments and a smaller Vivid speaker might have worked better in the venue. All that said, I liked the sound quite a bit. The Mola Mola amp and preamp seemed to be very fast and transparent. In comparison, I thought the Merrill Veritas driving the Sanders electrostatics had a prettier sound that was boring, boring, boring. I guess I am not a fan of electrostats, as I didn't like the Martin Logan room either. At the end of the day, I thought the LessLoss room, with a mysterious prototype DAC built by LessLoss and a set of massive Pass monoblocs driving Kaiser Kawero speakers was the best room this year. The soundstage was incredible, with really good imaging behind the speakers, and very natural tone. Of course, these were in a larger room, so room acoustics probably played a big role.