Nuforce

Jason, thanks for your response. I already have a Panamax
5300. How will that work for me? In the next week or two these amps will be put to the test against Levinson 33's driving Grand Utopia BE's. Even if they are close and can drive these speakers especially in the low end then they probably will be regarded as a giant killer. I believe the ref 9 with the extended bass will be used without any internal mods.
Do you have any recomendations for vibration control for Nuforce amps? I am using black diamond racing pucks and cones for my cdp and they work great!

Plato, I have two of the ref 9's on order with the extended bass option. Do you know if these amps should run through a power conditioner? I have also heard that bi wiring with double shotgun runs of silver wire is excellent. These amps have outperformed tube amps in the 10k range. This is coming from audiophiles that spend a lot of money on gear and are not dealers and are not affiliated with Nuforce. If they felt that there amps outperformed these after extensive testing then they would not use the nuforce amps. After I heard this I ordered them right away. I feel you possibly had the same experience. I will be driving JM Labs 936's with these amps. If you have any other info to share regarding these amps I am all ears.

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.

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!

Ggil, sorry about that. Single ended wiring rather than a bi-wire configuration. I have double shotgun runs that are paired and running bi-wired. This weekend I will take one set off and see what happens.
These amps still have room for improvement and you will have the option to upgrade down the road. They can make these babies much better. Nuforce is still just scratching the surface. I can't wait to add one of there pre/amps. Let me know when you get them broken in.

Ggil, single ended silver wire did not work for me. It was too bright and lost the richness in my system. I will go back to the bi-wire configuration. I am going to look at some other options on wiring after I get a better pre/amp. I also have an upgraded cdp, actually two of them from the upgrade company. Modifiying units by the right people are the only way to go!

Ggil, How are you liking them?

Ggil, how does the mid bass sound on your system?
Regarding the HiFi+ review, the unit was taken out of the box with no break in period and reviewed. Would they do that with a 10k amp? I guess it depends on how much the mfg. pays the reviewer. What is funny is that Nuforce claims they do not pay reviewers to write about there findings.
Denf has the best idea, review it on your own system and give them 100 hrs or better break in time. I found that they even get better around the 150 hr mark. Nobody is saying they are the best in the world, it's just that they sound awesome for the price.

Everyone needs to realize that the Ref9 is way different than the 9.02's. If you still have the 9 get it upgraded to 9.02. Some people are saying the 9.02's with extended bass are too bright but I beg to differ because it is not happening in my system with all silver wire. They need over 150 hours run time to be sure. Also I would leave them on all the time. Also, I think Ggil has a great set up for these.

Pitdog75,
Any reviews out there? I tried to find complete specs but they were not on web. What associated equipment are you using with these? Did you have Nuforce before Audiomatus?
It would be absolutely amazing to me if there was another company with a better price and equal sound. I would not even consider the belcanto evo's. The bandwidth of the Nuforce and damping factor are far greater. Completely different type of power supply on the Nuforce and I dont think any other manufacturer can use it. I guess I would call them class AS for analog switching power.

Stehno, congrats on your SE's. Let me know at the 150 hour mark. By the way I am using 3' speaker cables, what a difference that made. Put some nice thick jumper wires between the amps and speakers would probably improve more.
Denf, Stehno had the 9.02's before and I think 8.02's.
Let us 9.02 owners know how much different they are in % better in your system.
Thanks again Stehno!

No need for me to listen to a 10k tube amp or any other 10k amp. Give me another $2500 set up that you think is better and I would auditon it. It would have to be considerably better for me to even think about it. I feel the tube guys are defending themselves here because they know that Nuforce is the real deal$$$$. Some people who heard the 9.02 at CES said they sounded lean or thin. It was not the amps they were hearing. Put the right cabling and a highly upgraded cdp on these and the richness comes out with imaging that I did not think I would ever achieve unless I put 50k into a system. The only piece I am missing is there p8 pre amp. Plugging the 9.02's into dedicated lines also helped.

How about price comparison between H2O and Nuforce 9SE? Maybe more apples to apples here. This would be a good fly wieght chmpionship battle. My money would go on the 9SE just because of his quickness and punch. Although we have to wait for the 9SE to mature a bit. Maybe we give the 9.02's the first title shot and see what happens before big brother arrives.

Mmakshak, I have 8.02's and 9.02's the 9's are more revealing through the full range. But, my 9's also have the wbt's and are the extended bass version. I am not sure if the two use the same power supply either. Both are really good though. I might upgrade to the 9se's. We will see when more reviews come out. Is your 3910 going to have all the bells and whistles?

Huge advantage of Nuforce is the controlled lower end and size. Someone once told me that these amps sounded lean to them. Yes, they are built that way for a reason. Very nuetral and natural sounding having great depth and openess. It is up to the individual to taylor these to there liking. Every change you make you will notice. The only thing you wont find with these is a muddy lower end. My hunch is with the tubed pre you will find the richness in the mids and not lose the highs.
Rukavina,
do you know how many hours are on the SE's?

Looking at the bank of capacitors on the SE's the sonics are going to flucuate until they fully break-in.
I would give them a solid 300 hours or more without turning them off and play them hard at times. It would not hurt to run a burn-in disc while breaking them in. The 9.02's progressively got better up to the 150 hour mark then really leveled off. The SE's will have step changes and when you get there it will be like someone flipped a switch and added another level. Just read the review and saw the capacitors up close. They are bigger than I thought. There is absolutely no way you can tell how good these are going to sound at the 80 hour mark. I would never turn these off and let those capacitors drain. Short periods yes, long periods no way! Only review that I am going to consider is from someone who has done there homework on these. It is believe it or not a complete makeover from the 9.02's and I think the results between the two are going to be staggering which will put the SE's very near the top. Vibration control with these will be more critical than ever. Especially where all those caps are located. I could be wrong here but $1500 for an upgrade from the 9.02's to the SE's could be an absolute steal if indeed nuforce makes the 9.02's exactly the same as the SE's. I am going to find out if they do.

Mmakshak, I am a bargain audiophilist and Nuforce for amps has got to be the most ridiculously best low priced reference amp ever! 8.05's? Now that is a smart shopper. Eventually you will have the SE's and can say you are done with amps. If the SE's are way better than the 9.02's then I would have to say they could possibly sound as good as amps ranging in the 15k category. Dartzeel comes to mind.

Can you upgrade from 8.5 to 9SE?

Yes, 9's with p8 sound excellent and work great with the Paul Speltz anti ic's. Very good combo.

It will take more than 75 hours if all the parts are new. More like 250. The highs should be there then and they probably sound a little compressed right now. 10 days 24/7 then let us know what you think. As far as comparing the Speltz anti ic's and the Signal Silver's on analog, it will never happen here at least in the near future. I can see where the Signal Silver's could sound better on analog though. Midrange on the Nuforce 9.02's were lean with most other cables on my cdp. The Speltz anti ic's really filled in the mids without compromising the highs and rolling them off. The micro detail and black background is more in line with reference ic's. The DIYer's are giving the big boys a run for there money on cables these days. Talk about a budget reference system, Nuforce and Speltz is where I would start at least on the digital side anyways. The money you save here will afford you a better cdp and I would also recommend not keeping that cdp stock for very long.