Nuforce

I don't know what nuforce is doing in the Future,
Sure would be nice if they'd improve their now
current model amps, by using thicker gauge alloy
and some damping of any kind? to chassis! I mean
they could of stuck the anolog technology in a
card board box! enough said. As for 500 WATTs,
we may be waiting on the wrong company, The Amps
That quite possiblly can Beat Nuforce soniclly
are found at www.gilmoreaudio.com The MegaRapture
will make 500 watts, and the Gilmore Amps use a
"Really Good Chassis" This company understands
that to have a good digital swithing amp, for
crying out loud! you have to put it in a good,
thick, heavy chassis, well damped, ect. My guess
is that the nuforce amps ring, like tuning forks?
Very depressing to say the least. In ending, I'd
like nuforce to go back to the drawing board and
get their chassis beefed up before I buy mine?

We are all patiently awaiting for Jason's next "creation." I hear big things are coming at CES!!

Perhaps we're comparing apples to oranges here. Those heavy chassis drive the cost up considerably. I have to believe there is a less costly way to make an appropriate case.

Guy's,

I think the chassis issue is being way overdone here. Obviously the NuForce amps wouldn't sound nearly as good as they do if the chassis affected the sound that much. And the chassis is more substantial on the Reference 9s than it is on the Reference 8 series.

I used to know a highly acclaimed audio designer who told me he could put his circuits in a cardboard box and they would sound about the same -- and maybe better, because there wouldn't be ferrous metal next to the circuitry. He'd say, "Sure, give me another $500 to $1000 and I'll put it in a real pretty box for you -- but it will still sound the same."

Beyond that, I have to say that I don't know of a single piece of audio gear (no matter how stout the chassis) that doesn't respond to chassis tuning tweaks.

Unsound, the Ref 9s will provide 300 watts rms at 4 ohms and almost 700 watts in short term peak power. If that's not enough for you Jason intimated that NuForce will be coming out with an even more powerful amp in the future.

Nice assessment, Plato.

As one who dabbles with performance-oriented racking systems utilizing the resonance energy transfer (aka coupling) methodology, my limited experience tells me that as you said any product's performance can be influenced(sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse) via chassis tweaks.

My take on the chassis tweaks would be to eliminate or minimize the dampening within the chassis and instead tightly couple all internal components to the chassis which in turn should be tightly coupled to the racking system which in turn should be tightly coupled to the sub-flooring system.

Thus providing an expedited exit path for the air-borne vibrations captured instantaneously but which can only dissipate over a period of time (like a reverb).

The more tightly coupled everything is, the more instantaneous the mechanical transfer occurs.

I find it frustrating when mfg’ers of otherwise good performance-oriented equipment make half-assed attempts at internal vibration control and internal line conditioning. First, the consumer is forced to select that mfg’ers choice of methodology (which is often times an inferior methodology) and second, it’s usually through some cheap $5 part like a tiny AC filter or a certain silicon glue or dampening plate and third, there’s usually nothing the consumer can do to rectify the mfg’ers poor choice or futile attempts since the methodolgy is often times so embedded into the product.

So in my opinion that otherwise well-crafted product is now deemed worthless or worth less in my book.

Anyway, that’s my take.

-IMO