Nuforce

Plato, these amps rock! I am glad I took the advice given to me. The other advice given to me is to get there p-8 pre/amp or wait for the p-9. The p-8 could be more of a bargain than the 9.02's. They are possibly way over built for there price range. I think you will start to see reviews on those p-8's soon.
The 9.02's sound better plugged into my dedicated circuit than they do into the panamax. The panamax slows them down and they sound a little on the dark side. If you like the sound a little dark then there you go. I had a Proceed hpa-3 which is 250w and these little amps kill it in every aspect. The bass that these produce is not typical of a ss 160w amp. The slam is amazing and accurate. If there was a problem with the first run of these amps I would have to say they are fixed. I will be dealing with the vibration control later but for now I dont want to touch em. I am probably going to get the p-8 and run it into my Arcam AV-8 if it is compatible. The p-8 has a HT passthrough so I will investigate that option. By the way my 9.02's have the extended bass version. Maybe the best sound to value ratio out there!

Jp1208, I just ordered a pair of the ref 9s with the extended bass option. Last night I had an opportunity to compare a Dartzeel NHB-108 with a pair of Ref. 9s. It was set up in my system, playing through a pair of Von Schweikert Audio VR-4jrs and I'll tell you, the Nuforce amps were not embarrassed by the Dartzeel by any stretch. The Nuforce amps are the real deal IMO. The Dartzeel definitely had a more refined, analog-like sound, but the Nuforce were pretty darn close. There were 3 of us listening, and I think we all came to the same conclusion. With some tweaking and system-tuning, I would bet you can get 80-90% of the performance of the Dartzeels with the ref 9s. From that listening session, I decided to order a pair. The pair I heard did not have the extended bass option, so it will be interesting to hear the differences between the two versions (extended bass vs standard).

I find these amps really interesting and promising, but feel like they are still early in their development. I think I'll check back in with them down the road.

I spent quite a bit of time recently comparing the Nuforce 9.02s to a McCormack DNA-500. Let's just say that the difference sonically is a lot less than the difference in price. The Nuforce truely are exceptional bang-for-the-buck amps that compete very well with the big boys.

My only caveat is that if you are big into FM or have a TV/tuner nearby, you may have some difficulties with RF interference (I did). That said, there are ways to isolate/shield your tuner/antenna and I'm sure Nuforce will ultimately address this.

With all that said, I bought a used McCormack DNA-500 -- an amazing amp!

Ggil, from what I understand the extended bass has more bandwidth and there is no need to bi-amp these. Did you heare the 9's or 9.02's? I have not done this yet, but I was also told single ended rather bi-wiring was better. That can change from system to system though. We will see.