Hypex Ncore NC1200 Amps at NY Audio Show in April

Comparing all three rooms on Friday was inconclusive. The Merrills and Mola-Molas are obviously serious contenders and clearly surpass expectations for Class D by a country mile. However both Raidho and Vivid set-ups demonstrated uncoordinated and shapeless LF unacceptable to me at these price points. The Raidhos fared better at CES. Sanders stats were nice and clean, but edged out by Martin Logan CLX with Krell amps.

I thought the Mola Mola's driving Vivid Giya's in Philip O'Hanlon's room had bass that seemed to slightly overpower the room. (One review of Vivid implied they didn't extend very low, which was not the case with this model.) Some room treatments and a smaller Vivid speaker might have worked better in the venue. All that said, I liked the sound quite a bit. The Mola Mola amp and preamp seemed to be very fast and transparent. In comparison, I thought the Merrill Veritas driving the Sanders electrostatics had a prettier sound that was boring, boring, boring. I guess I am not a fan of electrostats, as I didn't like the Martin Logan room either. At the end of the day, I thought the LessLoss room, with a mysterious prototype DAC built by LessLoss and a set of massive Pass monoblocs driving Kaiser Kawero speakers was the best room this year. The soundstage was incredible, with really good imaging behind the speakers, and very natural tone. Of course, these were in a larger room, so room acoustics probably played a big role.

OK, it might take a few days to put thoughts to paper as I have work commitments but I will do what I can when I can.
Just for full disclosure, Merrill Audio was nice enough to get passes for myself and a few others. However I DO NOT HAVE ANY AFFILIATION WITH MERRILL AUDIO other then knowing Merrill from the clubs we belong to and the fact that I own a pair of Veritas Amps. In the near future you will see posts from me praising two other manufactures, one being Stillpoints Ultra series. Also people who know me always hear me praise the PS Audio PW DAC MK II. I think it competes with DACs costing $15,000 and more.

1)I was there on Fri and Sat. I am not the only one (many from the audio clubs) to notice the sound in most of the rooms changed from day to day. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Some thought it did even on the same day.
) Dgarreston. I kind of agree with you but we part on a few spots.
Yes the Vivid and Raidho rooms on Friday left something to be desired. Both the Merrill and Mola-Mola amps not only "by a country mile" but I think compete head on with the big boys of Class A-A/B.
We part on the Martin Logan/Krell for a few reasons.
A)The ML/K room had two ML subs($12,000), top Nordost Cabing, and a price point with all the equipment from ML/Krell/Nordost of around $130,000-150,000.
The Merrill Audio room,besides the amps and speakers, had inexpensive cables and equipment. Price point $36,000 plus cables and DAC; Well you get the Power cables from Merrill audio as they come with the amps, the speaker cables come with the Sanders, so say $40,000. That is less the 1/3 the price and could be (most likely) 1/4 the price.
B)And this a BIG one. I had a front row center seat, the sweet spot, and as good as it sounded my ears started to hurt. It reminded me of Class D Amps. It became fatiguing.

Dob; Yes, that was a surprise ($9,000). I had a chance to hear them on Sat. You can tell they are part of the family as they have a very nice sound. However, "butt ugly" enclosure and color.

Now to comparing the rooms, OH NO MR BILL!. Yea that is impossible.

What I can do is give some of my impressions.

But that will have to wait. But I will say that You should demo the Merrill Audio and Mola-Mola amps as they are killers for the money.

More Later.

Hifial,

Sorry to take this thread temporarily off-track, but I wanted to make sure my earlier post was not offensive to you.

I certainly don't believe that any of your show reports will be 'a load of crap'. I was just trying to make a point. My intention was to, hopefully, help you relax and enjoy the show. Just wanted to make sure you knew this.

Thanks and enjoy the show,
Tim

Noble100, ha, ha, no, no offense. I took it in the spirit it was intended. Ha, who could relax with all that pressure!!!
With everyone waiting to hear my opinion, HA, HA.

Like I have said before, "music and the way we reproduce it is like food..."