Paul,
You mention the NuForce. Srajan at 6moons has made some comments in comparison of the Nuforce as well as other ICE based amps, and the only ICE based amp he thought standed above the rest of the crowd was the pair of H20 Signature Monos he reviewed. I don't know if you have auditioned these yet, however would recommend audition as they are $5500 new and have an in home trial/audition and/or money back guarantee.
With any new amp, I can not emphasize the point of trying the amp in your room, with your speakers, and your system.
With that being said, I am not certain any amps today will be making the cut in 20 years...
Here is an excerpt from Srajan's review of the Nuforce Ref 9
"From where I'm sitting, NuForce is in exactly the same boat as Tripath, ICEpower and Hypex. Class D has clear advantages - operational efficiencies, cool operation, small possible packaging and lower costs than equivalent power ratings in traditional linear implementation. Good amps can clearly be authored using the Class D concept with its various proprietary wrinkles. Statement amps, too. My first samples thereof were Henry Ho's H2O Audio monos which use an ICEpower module sans SMPS and instead rely on an absolutely massive traditional linear power supply. Those amps were full-bore no-compromise compete-with-the-best beasts priced a lot higher than the NuForce minis.
The Reference 9s very much fit the mold of the Class D amps I've heard thus far - ultra-transparent, fast, very resolved and revealing of extremely low-level information but not as harmonically developed and tonally full as their older (first-rate) competition. Over the ICEpower amps I'm familiar with (H2O excluded), the Ref 9s go an important steps further in how they handle bass. In short, they avoid the unnaturally chiseled, overdamped, monster LF-transient mien that struck me as out of proportion and texturally discontinuous in those ICE sessions. They also exceed the Tripath amps I've heard in body though they still fall short of Class A amps, especially and undoubtedly tubes."
You mention the NuForce. Srajan at 6moons has made some comments in comparison of the Nuforce as well as other ICE based amps, and the only ICE based amp he thought standed above the rest of the crowd was the pair of H20 Signature Monos he reviewed. I don't know if you have auditioned these yet, however would recommend audition as they are $5500 new and have an in home trial/audition and/or money back guarantee.
With any new amp, I can not emphasize the point of trying the amp in your room, with your speakers, and your system.
With that being said, I am not certain any amps today will be making the cut in 20 years...
Here is an excerpt from Srajan's review of the Nuforce Ref 9
"From where I'm sitting, NuForce is in exactly the same boat as Tripath, ICEpower and Hypex. Class D has clear advantages - operational efficiencies, cool operation, small possible packaging and lower costs than equivalent power ratings in traditional linear implementation. Good amps can clearly be authored using the Class D concept with its various proprietary wrinkles. Statement amps, too. My first samples thereof were Henry Ho's H2O Audio monos which use an ICEpower module sans SMPS and instead rely on an absolutely massive traditional linear power supply. Those amps were full-bore no-compromise compete-with-the-best beasts priced a lot higher than the NuForce minis.
The Reference 9s very much fit the mold of the Class D amps I've heard thus far - ultra-transparent, fast, very resolved and revealing of extremely low-level information but not as harmonically developed and tonally full as their older (first-rate) competition. Over the ICEpower amps I'm familiar with (H2O excluded), the Ref 9s go an important steps further in how they handle bass. In short, they avoid the unnaturally chiseled, overdamped, monster LF-transient mien that struck me as out of proportion and texturally discontinuous in those ICE sessions. They also exceed the Tripath amps I've heard in body though they still fall short of Class A amps, especially and undoubtedly tubes."