class d

Hi MRT, Raptor appears to be made by Gilmore, see:
http://www.glacieraudio.com/new%20Glacier%20Audio%20Site/Products%20folder/Gilmore/Gilmore-amps.htm
At $5K it appears to be a direct competitor to the NuForce monos and the JRDG 501. May I ask what you particularly enjoied about the Raptor, and where you prefered other amps. Do you happen to know how many hrs of operation the Raptor monos had on them? ICEpower amps are notorious bears to break in. Finally, does anyone know if they will be shown at RMAF?

i generally prefer tube amps with planar speakers.

my friend auditioned the nuforce 9 and the raptor. he bought the raptor amps. i have heard the nuforce at ces.
based upon my friend's advice--he is a reviewewr, i decided to audition the raptor.

it was obvious the basss response was benefitting from a 500 watt class d amp. there was greater extension, clarity and weight, than i experienced with the vtl deluxe 120, my reference tube amp. as expected, there seemed to be a bit more treble extension with this amp, compared to my tube amp.

i have about 20 hours of playing time. the designer alleges that a cintinuous signal of two hours is all that is necessary to render a reasonable assessment of the amp's capabilities. my friend disagrees. he suggests, well over 100 hours. in any case, i am pleased with what i hear, except for a bit of forwardness in the upper mid/lower treble. it is not too objectionable. considering that i enjoy listening to the magnepans with a solid state amp, after 10 hours of playing time, i would say the amp is worthy of audition by anyone seeking to purchase a non-tube amp.

there is a cable caveat here. i started with my reference ear to ear silver plated copper power cords and speaker cable. i heard the sound of silver and replaced them with element cable signature power cords and speaker cable. in addition,i removed the audience adept response 6 and replaced it with a ps audio ultimate outlet.

i would suggest copper cable interfacing this amp, before trying silver cable.

i think this is a very competently constructed product that won't disappoint. the amplifier has already been reviewed. i have no intention of reviewing it myself.

i hope this helps.

Very nice MrT. Thank you.

That area of "fowardness" is where most of us hear the improvement with mucho burn-in.

Dave

Guidocorona -

nuforce offers auditions via mail so that seems an easy place to start. I have the monos coming along with thier p-9 pre amp. My current amp is a mcintosh integrated and there is a jumper on the back that connects the pre to the power so I can pull that out and insert either the nuforce pre or the nuforce power or just run the nuforce combo together. Should keep me busy for a couple of weeks. But they will get sent back no matter what. This is only my first audition and there area few other things that I want to hear before I settle in.

Thank you MRT, much appreciated. . . both Gilmore and your friend are likely real optimist on break in time. . . As posted elsewhere, I suggest that about 1,000 hrs are a must for ICEpower switching amps fore they truly sing. Jimmy, you will have a lot of fun with the excellent Nuforce monos. Try to find out how many hrs of playing time they already have. . . . if you can, connect a tuner to them or a CDp on repeat, and let them play no stop for those 2 weeks. . . and only toward the end do some critical listening. Many people have dismissed switching amps prematurely because of simple lack of patience. If you could keep them around for one entire month, it would be best. . . . considering that they are probably partially already broken in, by the end you should truly be able to tell what they are capable of doing. G.