Nuforce

Stehno - thanks for updating this thread. Maybe we can catch the "Preamp deal of the century" thread!

I've had my 9.02's for about three months now and continue to be amazed and impressed. I will be sending mine in for the SE upgrade, though I frankly don't see how they could be much improved. Guess it will be one of theose "don't know it til you hear it" things.

BTW - are the SE's your first NuForce? If you upgraded, I would love to hear what areas you heard the most improvements in.

Also, while I have totally seperate, dedicated lines (20 amp) for the NuForces, I have been wondering lately if a power conditioner might further improve the sound. Anyone out there experiment with p. conditioners on the NuForces??

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!

Denf, after purchasing my first pair of Nuforce amps last September, I immediately sold my beloved McCormack DNA-2 Revision A (an excellent amp), I purchased the Nuforce amps and became a dealer for them. So please take that into consideration as I respond.

Regarding your question about line conditioning benefiting the Nuforce amps? Absolutely! As would any edge-of-the-art component.

In fact, I have 3 Foundation Research LC-100s installed right now. These line conditioners cost $3k each, are worth every penny, and are dedicated (1 per component) and are the best I am aware of (just like the Nuforce amps) and I also recently became a Foundation Research dealer as well. But I've owned Foundation Research line conditioners since 2001 simply because every decent or better system will benefit tremendouly from 'proper' line conditioning.

The Nuforce amps benefit even more than less revealing amps because they are so darn revealing of every tiny nuance where the music really lives. And a tremendously revealing component is indiscriminent about what it reveals, whether it's a musical note or AC noise, or a fault within another component.

So yes, the Nuforce amps will benefit tremendously from proper line conditioning because they offer so much musical information. Proper being the key word here because not amps are created equal nor are all line-conditioners. Most of my customers also own several Foundation Research line conditioners.

I'll be happy to share more detail of the SEs as they burn-in later. They only have about 35 hours on them and I don't expect them to fully come into their own until perhaps after 140 hours. However, I just sold this pair this morning and I only have another day to burn them in further, so I may not realize their full potential for a few more weeks until they are replaced and I start the whole burn-in process all over again.

I am a new dealer but I'm a tweaking enthusiast first and foremost. For these SEs to be better than the Ref 9s right out of the box to me says a lot because the Ref 9s were simply the best amps I've heard to date.

-IMO

Stehno: Over the years, in discussions about getting good system performance at low listening volume, you have voiced a particular point of view, which is that the amplfier is the key factor. How do you feel the Nuforce amps perform in this respect?

I have a question about the NuForce that is probably a bit off topic. NuForce amps are known for transmitting high frequency noise into the environment. This high frequency noise could be the reason for interference when one is trying to receive FM radio broadcast by antenna. What happens if my neighbour has a NuForce and I want to get FM radio broadcast by using an indoor antenna? Is it likely that such a procedure would be "sabotaged" by the amp? If that is the case, that would be a very serious topic. The manufacturer should be warned: it could result in some kind of sewing.

Chris