nuforce 9.02se/belles ref./ moscode 401hr?


nuforce 9.02se/belles ref/moscode 401hr/McIntosh 402 or 602/parasound jc-1's (concerned about the heat) as amp for my piega c-8ltd ribbon hybrid speakers. Other recommendations welcome. My budget is up to 5k used or new but prefer used and less than my upper range. My goal is to extract as much performance from the piega's as possible at this price point (top to bottom). My musical tastes are ecletic but I listen to acoustic (bluegrass and folk) nearly half the time. My room is medium sized and dedicated. Current amp is an aloia 15.01 and it sounds very, very good but I feel like there is much room for improvement. Amp has a low level hum that I can hear during quiet passages. Preamp is lector zoe with premium genelex tubes. Source is aloia cdp as transport partnered with the scott-nixon tube dac. I have used odyssey extreme monoblocs and liked them also but not as much as the aloia. In what way? I don't have the audio vocabulary to say but it just sounds better to me. All suggestions are appreciated and don't hold back. Thanks in advance.
twc

Showing 1 response by rhyno

oddly, i owned the 350 reference, the mc501s and have extensive experience w/ the JC1s.

in terms of absolute accuracy, the JC1s are the pick of the 3. in terms of what i'd own, i own the macs.

and i thought the belles sounded the best of them all.

now, if that doesn't confuse you, nothing will!

(i'll be brief. JC1s: awesome power and clarity, but heat and system matching w/ a hot treble in my WP6s precluded it. 501s: see my review on dagogo.com for IMO the most accurate representation of mac SS amps---they're NOT perfect, but they are good enough! and the 350 ref: great sound & quite a bargain, but build quality concerned me (bias on both channels wasn't equal, and i was told by the mfg it was unimportant?!?), and i hated the fact that it didn't have a soft start circuit, leading it to trip my circuit breaker (dedicated 20a) each time i turned it on. talk about user unfriendly!).

rhyno