Nuforce

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

Hi, Drubin. Yes, I've stated that my experience concludes that the amplifier is the key to a system's performance whether good or bad.

However, I do not recall ever qualifying that statement with the 'low listening volume' you mentioned above.

My opinion of the amp being the single greatest factor to a system's sonics has not changed. In fact, the Nuforce Ref 9s and now the SEs have only further substantiated that opinion.

Of course if the Nuforce amps were a bad experience, I don't think I would have thought any less about the significance of the amplifier's role. I most likely would have only thought I simply made a bad choice for an inferior product.

Where I have changed my opinion a bit is that my experience also tells me that proper line conditioning and then proper vibration control are right behind the amplifier respectively and are far more critical than I previously thought.

It's probably no coincidence that I also think these three ingredients are also by far the most misunderstood with the most mis-applied methodologies in the industry. That is probably why I prioritize them as 1,2,3. (I think there are a total of 7 ingredients).

But for me these first 3 ingredients are foundational to building a superior system and it is simply impossible to do so without carefully scrutinizing these three.

And the amount of money spent on a component or the number of people adhering to a certain methodology has nothing to do with rectifying a products' shortcomings. Nuforce and Foundation Research product prove that.

Sorry if I sound like an infomercial, but I do have my own experience and convictions and I freely stated these same convictions before I ever thought I'd become a retailer.

-IMO

My thoughts are very close to yours Stehno. To add to them.

IMO the peak performance limit of a system is usually defined by the quality of the AC power available.

IMO noone knows what components can really sound like till they have heard them without the effects of vibration removed, and that is a near impossibility. Some components are far more susceptible to having their sound ruined by vibration than others. While the manufacturer ought to do as much as possible to address that in the design, equally end-users experiences may differ markedly according to how well they address vibration issues.