2. amps-preamps
  3. 128601-90584

Fuse and Power Cable improvements 'how'? - Nuprime ID-8

Hi Everyone,

    Thank you ahead.  I recently bought a pair of Kudos C2 speakers through Audiogon and upgraded my amp to Nuprime ID-8.   Even with 100watt RMS I'm not able to power the C2 to satisfaction.  It'll be a long while before I can save up for the high quality 200+watt range amps.  I've been reading that others install better power cable and fuses into their amps and get sonic improvements.   I'm wonder how does that work and how much improvement would that really bring (considering that's $300+ extra parts for a $999 amp)?  Hoping to get educated on the subject.  Thanks.

Lincoln

hifineubee
hifineubee OP
56 posts
 
Thanks for the feedback so far.  I'm a little surprised by my experience too.  So far, I've had the amp running for 20+ days with at least 80+hrs if not already surpassed the 100hrs mark.  The Kudos C2 has 88db sensitivity and is known to be relatively fairly easy to drive as a two way speaker.  I'm running very good set of 8AWG silver plate cables handmade by another member here on Audiogon.

Coming previously from a B&W 805N paired with Yamaha amp, so far my listening with my Kudos C2 with Nuprime is that while female vocals play loud volume wise, singers like Adele and Whitney Houston sound like they ran out of lungs (lack big openness ex: during the song 'I will always love you').  When I play large orchestral music like Beethoven 5th or Dovrak New World Sym., sometimes they sound ok while other times I can't seem to get the speakers to play with enough speed, tempo and musicality.  I'm guessing these symptoms are attribute by not enough 'juice' from the amp.

Surprising, a good portion (60%) of my music collection do play very well like Lindsey Stirling's Crystallize (24bit) or Elvis Presley's Remastered Collection.  The 40% miss is kinda driving me crazy...

Love to hear others thoughts.
jl35
4,056 posts
 
could still be a break-in issue, though you may simply not like the synergy between your amp and speakers/room/source...or you may need more power.  I would do nothing until the amp has a few hundred hours on it...
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

The B&W 805N were very nice speakers, but they could be on the bright side - which may explain your loss of some "openness" in the vocals with the Kudus speakers. Do you still have the B&W or Yamaha? You could try swapping either/both of these items into your current setup to see. The older Yamaha might be built better than the very small Nuprime amp. Power supply is somewhat limited in the NuPrime. This generally affects how much current is available to drive the speakers. In your case, you indicated the Kudus are relatively easy to drive, so it is probably not a concern.

Based on your comments, you’re getting good volume, but not getting enough resolution and soundstage depth. I do think power cord and fuses can help tremendously here. In your situation, I would get some Furutech FI-15 Plus (R) Rhodium connectors for both IEC and Male ends and attach them to your stock power cord. These Furutech connectors are generally $56 each. The Rhodium plated copper elements will really improve resolution as well as bass punch. I have used these particular connectors in several situations and they are excellent for the money (same rhodium/copper elements as there more expensive connectors, so it makes them an excellent value). If you wanted, you could spend $20-40 on some DH Labs power cable wire if you wanted better than the stock cord.

Combining this with a rhodium Furutech fuse will really help smooth out the sound if the stock fuse on the Nuprime amp sounds too bright. This can happen sometimes with Rhodium power cord connectors as they are very fast and transparent.

Keep in mind that the Rhodium plated stuff will require 150-200+ hours break in before sounding best.

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,948 posts
 
Coming previously from a B&W 805N paired with Yamaha amp, so far my listening with my Kudos C2 with Nuprime is that while female vocals play loud volume wise, singers like Adele and Whitney Houston sound like they ran out of lungs (lack big openness ex: during the song 'I will always love you').  When I play large orchestral music like Beethoven 5th or Dovrak New World Sym., sometimes they sound ok while other times I can't seem to get the speakers to play with enough speed, tempo and musicality.  I'm guessing these symptoms are attribute by not enough 'juice' from the amp.
That does not sound like a power thing. If there was a lack of power, you would be describing distortion but this paragraph does not seem to do that.

So it is possible that 'tweaks' like a power cord and fuses might help. They both help in the same way: both devices can have a voltage drop across them which can result in a measurable loss of power. In addition (in particular with the power cord) if there is a loss of high frequency bandwidth in the AC power delivery, the power supply can't always charge up fully. This is because the rectifiers in the supply often only conduct for a very short time at the peaks of the 60Hz AC power waveform. Those short bursts of conduction are high frequency; if the power cord limits that the supply or supplies might not charge correctly. One consequence is that IMD can rise, which is quite audible.

IOW there really is physics behind why these things work.

You might also try different interconnect cables, shorter speaker cables, a different preamp or source! Its very hard to walk into a situation like this and simply point at one thing and definitively say that its actually the problem!!
hifineubee OP
56 posts
 
Thanks again for the inputs so far.  I guess I'll try giving the IDA-8 another 100hrs to see how it sounds with 200hrs of run time.  Then I'll give power cable a try.  Next significant level up USB digital music integrated amp will cost a lot more $$$, really hope don't have to dish out so much....
More to discover