Acoustic Reality, NuForce, Rotel digital amps - your thoughts

pearsall001

I see Rotel just came out w/ 2 new digital amps, NuForce seems to be getting popular w/ great reviews, Acoustic Reality has been doing dig amps for some time now & get fabulous reviews. They are out of Denmark & they make everything in house. They all use the technology called ICEpower developed by Bang & Olefson. Do you think they will put a hurting on tubes & SS amps or merely co-exist w/ their own following. I guess time will tell. I for one am interested in them. They are extremely powerful, very small, lightweight & run no hotter than our body temp. I'll definetely give it more time to see how well they're received & wait for some more reviews. What do you think?

Gaara

I know this is a older thread but any opinions on this? I am looking into a new surround amp that runs cool so Icepower has piqued my interest. I know Bel Canto and PS Audio use it, and some smaller brands as well like Red Dragon and EVS. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with these units yet.

Jared

Ferres

I have the rotel Rmb-1077 and am very happy with it. Very detailed and powerful for it's size and wattage.

My old parasound HCA-1200 200watts had trouble tightening the bass with my Tannoy sensys DC2 tower. The 1077 had no trouble taming the Tannoys. Sound is very tight and crisp.

Midnite Mick

The Channel Island amps seem very highly thought of. Bel Canto seems pretty pricey for surrounds unless you are looking at the Gon. I am interested in the Ucd modules that DIY cable sells and will probably eventually get a 5 channel for Ht purposes. I had Nuforce ref 9 monoblocks (still have ref 8's) but they don't make a multichannel. They also seem very speaker dependant for some reason. I think that is why some people love them and some people hate them. The dealer I purchased them from had them on some Ushers and they sounded very good, definate synergy there. He now has some Dynaudio's and says it isn't great.

They are currently doing another Digital shootout that is being posted on the GR Research circle over at the AC. Those kind of shootouts have there problems and are by no means the final answer but something you may want to check out.

Pesonally I would prefer these types of amps for HT if nothing else than for their speed. I also like neutrality for HT as well. Anyway, not much info but thought I would give my thoughts.

edit: sorry after rereading your post I realized you were specifically asking about the Ice modules.

Good luck,
Mike

Gaara

Ferres,

Thanks for the info on the 1077, if I recall correctly this amp uses the same ice power modules as the PS-Audio Trio I am looking at. I have read a few places that these units sound more powerful then they are with great bass control, yet still run cool.

Mike,

When I first started looking there were lots of bel canto S300s for around for $700 on Agon but not anymore. They use Icepower as well and these amps are what first really brought my attention over to switching amps. The S300 was reviewed favorably by Srajan at 6moons who has the same speakers and at the time pre as me (Gallo Ref 3.1s and Modwright SWL 9.0SE). John POtis also reviewed the 1000s and gave them a blue moon award, he also has Gallos.

The nuforce seem to mate well with the Gallos but are to expensive for my taste. I can't recall what technology they use, but I thought it was propreitary. The Channel Islands also use a different type, I believe it is UcD?

The reason I asked the question was I have seen lots of reviews on the Channel Island and NuForce type amps, but very little on the Icepower units. Very little from consumers that is, a few reviews here and there.

As for the shootout, I can't wait! They are supposed to have a the canto S300 and PS-Audio either GCA100 or Trio, as well as another amp I was interested in, the little dot which is a 100wpc tripath with a tube buffer input all for $300...with remote. Their last shootout was very informative, can't wait for this one.

Jared

RuSsMaN

I'll be there for the amp shootout next Saturday, I always have fun at these things. I couldn't make the one this past week.

Cheers,
Russ

Midnite Mick

That is kind of funny in that I just recently sold my ref 9's to a guy that I have continued to correspond with via email. He has the Gallo 3's and just recently acquired the Modwright se pre as well. He totally loves it. It has replaced a Wyetech Coral and Wyetech Set amplifier combo. He wanted something with more power on his Gallos for when he wants to turn it up. He has also upgraded the power cord on the Nuforce as well as snipped out that cap at the speaker binding posts.

Mike

Gaara

Russ,

Enjoy yourself, should be quite a blast with all those amps. Be sure to post your impressions for us on the forum.

Mike,

Sounds like a winning combo, the Modwright seems to be quite popular. Sadly mine is in the basement waiting to be sold. I was originally interested in the nuforce amps but read that they don't mate well with the Gallo SA amp, none of the digital amps do. If you are unfamiliar the SA amp powers the second voice coil on the ref 3.1s woofer, to extend the frequency response down to 22hz, and has high and line level connections. I use mine with the high level out from the Cinenova, and prefer it this way, but apparently this is a no no with the digital amps because the dc on the line can destroy the amp. Now that I am looking for something to power my surrounds I need not worry about it so I am interested in people's impressions of all the new techs.

Jared

Midnite Mick

How come you are selling the Modwright if it makes you sad?

Mike

Gaara

Long story short it just doesn't work for me. The main issues I have with it are:

It gets pretty warm
It takes a while to sound its best, and I generally don't have much to listen
It has way to much gain
Volume is to sensitive.

The big things were the warm up time and gain. I would have to leave it on half an hour to an hour for it to sound best, and usually if I am listening I only have an hour or so to do so. The gain was an issue because I was listening at around 8:30, and 9:00 was to loud for my taste. One hit of the volume up and I went from good, to to loud. It was difficult to find the perfect volume level, so I eventually started using attenuators. I realized I had a problem when I was using a $2500 pre-amp with $80 20db attenuators. Even so I still wasn't getting past the halfway point...even with negative gain (SWL has 15db gain - 20db attenuators) I wasn't getting to the halfway point.

So in the end I went with a passive, a Promitheus Audio Dual Mono Ref3 TVC. I prefer the Modwright to this unit but only on certain recordings, most of my cds are not recorded very well...I think I only own 1 jazz cd and 2 classical. On the plus side the TVC has a completly black background, cuts back on the noise while listening to my HT, and I have more control over the volume as it goes from 0db to -48db, I generally listen at -40db.

I am going to need the money soon for grad school so it helps that the TVC was just over $500. I should be able to sell the SWL and have enough for books...without making a big compromise in sound.

Jared