Nuforce

I'm not a fan of digital amps, and they shure must evolve in order to obtain the same level of sound quality of a classic design. So, wait for the next iteraction, it will sound better.
But this is no excuse for lousy engeneering, bad design, weak parts or experimentations.
Customers like to have a definitive design. This policy only leeds to insatisfacton.

I think the sound quality for the money is unmatched by conventional designs. But that no doubt depends on what you want your amps to do. I prefer the analogue switching amps and find conventional amps sound broken by comparison - unacceptable levels of grain, coloration and an unnatural sound stage. I am talking dollar for dollar here. But I think you will find Nuforce will gradually introduce new 'models' to get their retail price up amongst the big guys over the next few years - now that they have done the hard yards of gaining a brand position.

While I have criticised Nuforce, I believe that with their particular amp modules they have made a real breakthrough. It is not a surprise that a newcomer to the audiophile world is finding the commercial design part of the task difficult to come to grips with. As I said earlier it is rare in the electronic world to find an organisation that can lead in fundamental design and be competent in commercial design of a new product. Intel can't manage it, or more accurately, don't even try.

Most of our admired audiophile brands are only capable of commercial design and perhaps we should be criticising them for failing to deliver any fundamental design breakthroughs - endlessly refining circuit ideas generated decades ago is limiting the whole art.

It is frustrating as a customer for sure. So wait a couple of years if that bothers you. But the bang for the buck is unmatched right now, and the rate at which Nuforce is improving its commercial designs is pretty impressive. Sure they have a bit to learn - and it is laudable that they are doing that in forums such as Audiocircle, and obviously learning some things the hard way.

>Jp1208 more specs should be on their polish language site, or just write them.
im not interested in digital amps but a friend of mine reviewed a couple of them and this Audiomatus was in the same league as the others, except its price. see, its made in poland and its priced for he local market. in this case one pays for the sound, and not for famous name or sth. and the build quality is great, especially with their wooden front version.
from what i heard, Belcanto (evo4 bridged or sth) sounded worse than Audiomatus... if im not mistaken, Belcanto uses Tripath chip, and Audiomatus ICE-power modules.
i heard some more opinions which all seemed to support what i found out from my friend.

Hey Pitdog. I agree the Tripath has been surpassed, and I found the Nuforce capable of beating the IcePower, so that kind of gels for me. Any particular reason you are not interested in digital amps? If a digital amp sounded better than your current amp would you still rule it out on some grounds? The only one that I can imagine is that with the rate of development then resale price could be problemmatic, but I suspect that is not it..

Please! The NuForce Reference 9 Special Edition is NOT a replacement of the standard Ref 9. It cost a whopping $2100 per unit versus $1250 for the Ref 9 :).
Please read the Nuforce website for the differences between standard and SE.