Hypex Ncore NC1200 Amps at NY Audio Show in April

The two rooms with the Merrill Audio Veritas and the one room with the Mola-Mola sounded different from each other. But they all had something troublesome in the sound: there was a noise embedded with the sound that made the sound very artificial. The noise was similar to pink noise with the difference that it was present with the sound and no with the silences.

When there is noise present in a piece of equipment, it can be heard constantly when there is sound and when there is silence in the song. In all three rooms, the sound (not the silences) was accompanied by this noise. This made the sound come out as if it was being processed in software, and not by a piece of hardware.

I have a little recording studio that includes the Millennia STT-1 Recording System and the Neumann TLM 49 mic. For what I need it, this is overkill as this setup is used by well stablished recording studios, not so much by individuals. Prior to having the Millennia STT-1, I tried feeding the signal from the TLM 49 directly to Apple's Logic Pro. The software translated everything into sounding like a high frequency mechanical apparatus as making the sound, not like a human voice was making the sound. Adding the Millennia STT-1 and skipping Logic Pro allowed for the human voice to be recorded and played back like a human voice, nothing more, nothing less.

I felt like all three rooms sounded as if the sound as being overly processed by a piece of software, as if the signal was amplifying some noise along the way. This is a phenomenon that I heard before while listening to the first generation Bel Canto class-D monoblocks. Apparently, other first generation ICE powered class-D amps also exhibited this noise, which was particularly noticeable in the higher frequencies.

Since all three rooms had this noise embedded in the sound, it makes me wonder if the nc1200 module is really ready for prime time or this is simply an out-of-spec batch of modules that slipped through quality control.

Isanchez

Very interesting. Lets assume it was not a bad batch of modules.
Then if the "noise" was not present during the silence parts then it can not be the equipment. If the noise was inherent in the equipment you would hear it all of the time, even during the moments of silence.

The one aspect that the NCore tech that is in the NC1200 OEM and the NC400 DIY modules that everyone who has had a chance to hear one or the other in their own systems is the total lack of noise or Class D sound.

I have to say it had to be the software or perhaps the venue as over the weekend I heard most of the rooms go from bad to good, good to bad sometimes in the same day.

A Club member who is very critical and has the knowledge told me that many of the room were being greatly affected by the AC and the electric in the rooms.

I can tell you I am very sensitive to that type of noise and could never live with it in my system.

HiFiAl

Then if the "noise" was not present during the silence parts then it can not be the equipment. If the noise was inherent in the equipment you would hear it all of the time, even during the moments of silence.

That's not necessarily the case in all designs. Let us assume for a moment that the signal has to pass through some filter before leaving the amp. This filter will only work on the signal, therefore it will do nothing when there is no signal passing through the amp. Therefore, this is a scenario where the noise will be added only to the music (signal), not the silences.

Many OEM class D designs have had noise issues in the past and the latest generation seems to have corrected that. The NC1200 is in in first iteration, so I'm confident that this is an issue that will be dealt with in future generations.

This is a quote from Positive Feedback reporting on the NYAS 2013:

Sanders Sound & Merrill Audio
Right across the hallway was another electrostatic speaker, the Sanders Model 10c, and another variation in sound quality. Power was provided by the Merrill VERITAS Mono Blocks, which use the latest Hypex Ncore NC1200.

Radically different than the Martin Logans, the expected transparency usually associated with 'stats wasn't in evidence. The midrange on down was heavy and the top lacked a bit of sparkle.

As you see, I'm not the only one to have perceived this odd behavior in the context of the Merrill Audio Veritas amps.

Isanchez
I quote you below.

"Many OEM class D designs have had noise issues in the past and the latest generation seems to have corrected that. The NC1200 is in in first iteration, so I'm confident that this is an issue that will be dealt with in future generations."

Well the NC1200 is the LATEST "ITERATION" so...

And his take on the sound is no were near what you describe, just the opposite. Though still not good. But was it the room, the source or something else.

You mention the one quote from PF but what about this one from the same poster.

"Merrill Audio, Raidho Acoustics

The Raidho D-1 Monitors were stunning on their custom stands. (The integrated speaker package has an MSRP of $28,000.) It was quite surprising how they are able to fill the room. For a smallish profile, they were amazingly full range and dynamic. This was another room with Merrill Audio amplification."

It would seem they were fine sounding in this room with the Raidho Speakers.

Also this is just a report of the show not a full fledged review.

Look, you heard what you heard. I am not saying otherwise. Just that it was not an ideal way to judge ANY equipment that was at the show.

What I am saying is I know the NC1200 (and the NC400) very well and in many different systems with many types of speakers and it is in another league when it comes to Class D. It is equal to other types of amp Classes.

If you keep an open mind and you have a chance to hear the Veritas or the Mola-Mola or the DIY NC400 assembled properly (I can not vouch for ones I have not heard) in your system properly set up you will be surprised at how well it sounds. That does not mean it is for you. Your taste might be tubes or whatever. If we all liked the exact same sound it would be a very boring world for Audiophiles and the companies that build the equipment would be few.

The Raidho D-1 Monitors were stunning on their custom stands. (The integrated speaker package has an MSRP of $28,000.) It was quite surprising how they are able to fill the room. For a smallish profile, they were amazingly full range and dynamic. This was another room with Merrill Audio amplification.

This just means that they filled the room and sounded dynamic. Plenty of other stand mounted speakers can do that. You can check many other reports on these rooms and you'll find that they either just mentioned the gear in the room or used generic terms to describe the sound.

On the other hand, a lot of audio gear can produce a very clean, taught, fast, controlled, articulate, high contrast sound. But this doesn't necessarily mean that it sounds real. If one listens to a lot of live music, it then becomes more difficult for the brain to associate reproduced sound with live music. What I heard from all three rooms was a sound that was going the opposite direction of trying to reproduce a live performance. I can extrapolate and say that all three systems will certainly sound better in a more controlled environment, but I'm not that optimistic and think they'll sound like live music.

Designing amps can be very, very difficult. It took John Ulrick from Spectron a few decades to produce their excellent live-sounding amps. There are a couple of other legacy companies that also took a few decades of research and customer feedback to arrive at the great products they produce today. Many of these engineers happen to also be musicians. Their products simply aim at recreating a live performance in your room and that, IMO, should be the ultimate goal. An engineer can produce the most desirable measurements from an amp and not sound real at all. On the other end, some high-distortion tube gear can sound so real.

Now, let's not confuse noise with distortion. I've heard a lot of high-distortion tube gear that sounded very pleasing and real. I have not heard a system with some electrical noise in the signal sound pleasing and real.

Musical instruments have all kinds of sound. My wife and I went on a cello auditioning tour a while back. We encountered cellos with fat lower frequencies and clean upper frequencies, cellos that were very quick to recover from excess reverberance, cellos that sounded lean and forward, but the one thing that they all had in common is that they sounded real. And this is the experience I want to dive in at home when listening to music.