New Bel Canto REF600M using NCORE

No hiss or hum with my Bel Canto ref1000m or C5i. In fact noise floor is lowest I have heard.  

I’m using ICEPower units and have no such issue. The noise from the Parasound P7 is far worse, and still only detectable close to the speakers. If Bel Canto is using their own linear supplies however I could see this as an issue. Also, digital amps like ICEPower and nCore tend to have truly differential inputs that aren't very happy with single ended inputs and prefer transformer coupling in those cases. I wonder if this is what was experienced?

<< shrug >>

Erik

All this talk about noise/hum is a bit mute, without proper bench test results.

The way to "pseudo" see what is noisier than what without looking at them on the test bench, is to disconnect the preamps and put shorting input plugs on the power amp inputs, this is a better layman’s way of saying what noisier than what.

BTW some not all Class-D’s modules, don’t even switch their main section on, if there’s no signal present, they may appear to be on. And then there’s different amp gains to consider as well, as this also has a bearing on noise levels.

Cheers George

@blang11, every amp regardless of type produces an audible hiss (heard from tweeter) when it is powered on and connected to efficient speakers. For those who believe or state otherwise I'd venture to say they simply cannot hear it. That wouldn't be unusual because we all know that as we age we loose the ability to detect high frequency, dome more than others.

My ears are discerning enough that if I put them within an inch or so of the tweeter I can hear the difference between an amplifier that is powered on versus powered off. 

Please see this review on the Bel Canto Ref600 power amplifier:

http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/bel-canto-design-dac-27-dac-and-ref600m-power-amplifiers/