Anyone with experience of building Class D amps using Hypex Ncore NC400 DIY kits?

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aarmath

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Hi guys!

Is there a credible site or source from whom the Class D-based Hypex NC400 module DIY kits could be purchased from in Mumbai?

More importantly is anyone using this Class D module?
How is the sonic performance compared to conventional Class A & A/B amps?
What other Class D modules compare favourably with the NC400 in terms of Class D switching performance?

Last but not the least are there DIY enthusiasts who have had experience with the Hypex DIY kits?

Warm regards,
Aaron
 
Class D surpassed A/AB long back. The man behind Hypex modules is Bruno Putzey who has designed the excellent performance of class D technology available today.

Dont misunderstand me, good engineering is all about choosing the right compromises to achieve a specific target. As long as distortion products are much below threshold of audibility, we cant detect flaws. Class D surpassed it long time back. To me, the differences between these technologies remain of theoretical interest only.
 
diyaudio said:
Class D surpassed A/AB long back. The man behind Hypex modules is Bruno Putzey who has designed the excellent performance of class D technology available today.

Dont misunderstand me, good engineering is all about choosing the right compromises to achieve a specific target. As long as distortion products are much below threshold of audibility, we cant detect flaws. Class D surpassed it long time back. To me, the differences between these technologies remain of theoretical interest only.
Click to expand...
Thanks mate! I am a huge fan of Bruno Putzy's work right from his Phillips days back in the 2000s. He single-handedly got Class D amps to the degree of audiophile respect that this class is now receiving.
Which is why I am on the quest of checking out his Class D modules - Hypex Ncore NC400.
Would like to know if folks have dabbled with his DIY kits of said module.
 
Class D originated in the 50's in the UK. A British scientist Alec Reeves supposedly 'invented ' it. However the person who actually brought it to the consumers in low cost chip form was an Indian who worked in the US. Adya Tripathi brought out the chips branded Tripath. They did very well till the company filed for bankruptcy. Tripath chips still appear in the market after so many years. They appear to still have a faithful following !
I bought two kits several years ago from a company called 40Hz.com ( I think ) . That site is now for sale....just checked it out. It was very good. I built one stereo amp. The second one is still incomplete !
I should pull them out and refresh my memory about it's sound.

Just came across a dated article on the fairly well known T-Amp ! You might find it interesting . Compared against very high end amps too !

Ten years after the T-Amp

Ten years ago we discovered, reviewed and brought to worldwide fame the tiny T-Amp, an article by Lucio Cadeddu on TNT-Audio, Internet HiFi magazine, www.tnt-audio.com
www.tnt-audio.com
 
I am thinking of making a 4 ( 2.2) channel Hypex based lets see how it sound 100x2 and 400x2 confused a lot in Hypex what module and power supply chassis will make diy locally also besides the modules will need anything more
 
aarmath said:
Last but not the least are there DIY enthusiasts who have had experience with the Hypex DIY kits?
Click to expand...

Building an amp from NC400 modules shouldn't be too tough because both amp module and SMPS come fully assembled, so there's no need to worry about gathering boards & components and actually soldering them together. Get the Hypex PSU module too (an alternative is to build your own linear power supply), buy a nice aluminium cabinet from aliexpress (there are plenty in various shapes and sizes). From assembly point of view, you could think of it as being consisting of two parts - namely, power supply and signal wiring.

Power: you will need to wire up the IEC power socket in the cabinet and wire it up further to front panel power switch, chassis ground, ground loop breaker (optional, but desirable), then eventually to the SMPS.

Signal: line level input (I believe NC400 supports both balanced and unbalanced) from rear panel input sockets (RCAs/XLRs) to NC400 boards. Speaker output to be wired to binding posts.

Of course you'll need a preamp as the Hypex amps are power amps.

Do read up on Pascal amps too if they are available to buy in retail quantities. Lots of audio OEMs (including very high end brands like Jeff Rowland Research) are adopting the Pascal modules to build their amps.
 
Fantastic said:
I bought two kits several years ago from a company called 40Hz.com ( I think ) . That site is now for sale....just checked it out. It was very good. I built one stereo amp. The second one is still incomplete !
I should pull them out and refresh my memory about it's sound.
Click to expand...
That would be 41Hz.com. I always wanted to build a Tripath kit from 41Hz but kept dithering till they went out of business.
They had various kits - which ones do you have?
They had a high powered and highly regarded "Purepath" (I think!) kit too.
 
keith_correa said:
That would be 41Hz.com. I always wanted to build a Tripath kit from 41Hz but kept dithering till they went out of business.
They had various kits - which ones do you have?
They had a high powered and highly regarded "Purepath" (I think!) kit too.
Click to expand...

I'll check it out. I can't remember just now. Need to look at the board. The second amp got stalled as it required the base of the chip to be soldered to the pcb ( heat sink !). They did it by using a toaster oven. I was not confident doing it that way and so dilly-dallied about how to get it done and so eventually due to various reasons it went into a box......well, out of sight ...out of mind ! A while ago I remembered about it and wanted to finish the amp but couldn't locate it. I found one bag of parts but not the pcb. It will be around ! Mine was not the Purepath.

Good class D's have lovely bass , tight and deep and good imaging. Mids and highs are very clean but some regular amps sound nicer on the ears . Not sure why. But newer designs are very good.
 
yogibear said:
I have a well researched DIY Class D, 1KW per channel, weighs a hefty 13kg awaiting low pass filters for bass duty. Will update on sonic impressions compared to AB amps with built in crossovers, currently playing.
Click to expand...
Please do let us know mate!
Is it based on Hypex or IcePower?
Any information on how the parts were sourced and assembled would be totally appreciated.

keith_correa said:
That would be 41Hz.com. I always wanted to build a Tripath kit from 41Hz but kept dithering till they went out of business.
They had various kits - which ones do you have?
They had a high powered and highly regarded "Purepath" (I think!) kit too.
Click to expand...
By the way, guys, have any of you folks had experience with Ghent Audio?
They have a powerful ICEPower-based Class D amp - https://www.ghentaudio.com/amp/ga-s500p.html.
 
I built a Hypex hg400 based amp with a linear psu back in 2010. Used it for many years. Then upgraded to Nord dual mono hyoex ncores with discrete opamps from sparkos and sonic imagery. Very nice amp. Used it with my PMCs for three years and then moved on to Luxman Class AB.

Colin from Nord UK is a very nice guy.
 
Surrealistix said:
I built a Hypex hg400 based amp with a linear psu back in 2010. Used it for many years. Then upgraded to Nord dual mono hyoex ncores with discrete opamps from sparkos and sonic imagery. Very nice amp. Used it with my PMCs for three years and then moved on to Luxman Class AB.

Colin from Nord UK is a very nice guy.
Click to expand...
Awesome to hear about your first build being a Hypex NC400 amp. How was the performance in the upper highs?
If I may be so blunt to ask - Could I replace my existing system (Yamaha A-S2000 as pre, mated to a Yamaha B2 power amp) with a Class D amp based on Hypex NC400 modules?
The reason I ask is because I consistently keep on hearing how Class D amps are anemic sounding in the upper high frequency range as well as in managing the transients.
And since you have gone back to Class AB (no less a Luxman), your experience in terms of general sonic signatures if any between Class AB & D would be a great start for knowledge building about all things Class D.
 
captrajesh said:
Whoa!! Sweeping statement. It's one thing to say that they're comparable but surpass!!!
Click to expand...

The data says so. Lets see distortion of AB vs D. AB has crossover distortion, after which the amp has virtually no distortion before clipping near the rail voltage. AB's crossover distortion is higher order in nature. This is very reason of biasing amps with higher currents like First watt and similar amps.
Yes, class D's distortion seems higher in graphs, but look closer and we see it increases around 5.5Khz, its second harmonic is at 11KHz, and we know second order is quite benign. In fact some love distortion, ask valve amp guys;;). The second order has already hit the treble region, which is outside the critical region of human ear. Its one thing to talk about distortion in electronic terms in percentages, its another to talk about it acoustically.
There is almost no consensus on distortion because keeping it that way suits the marketing dept of big companies.
We often have paradoxes like higher order distortion (valve) sounding better than lower order distortion(class AB), this is because its the order that matters more than absolute number. The correct way to interpret distortion is to accept more of lower order and reject more of higher order. It will correlate better with human perception of sound. https://www.audiomasterclass.com/newsletter/the-gedlee-metric-a-new-way-to-measure-distortion

Pls see the NCore graph here https://6moons.com/audioreviews/acousticimagery/3.html
and two paras below it
 
aarmath said:
And since you have gone back to Class AB (no less a Luxman), your experience in terms of general sonic signatures if any between Class AB & D would be a great start for knowledge building about all things Class D.
Click to expand...

I bought the Nord Ncore amp with Sparkos and Sonic Imagery discrete opamps for the input buffer board. These opamps can be easily switched.

The difference in the sonic signature of the Ncore amp with these two opamps is pretty dramatic. The Sonic imagery has an extended top end and as a result perhaps sounds more resolving. The Sparkos has a denser sound with slightly rolled highs.

I prefer the Sonic Imagery, but I can see how many would prefer the Sparkos sound.

So, its difficult to generalize the sonic characteristic of a Class D amp.

While I liked the Nord amp a lot with the Sonic imagery opamps. I found that when paired with my speakers, it was a bit too revealing and was causing listening fatigue on lesser recordings. Which got me looking for a new amp.

I ultimately bought the Luxman m900u amp to replace the Nord. It just does everything better, but at a significantly higher price point. So perhaps its not right to compare.

Nord recently came out with an improved version of their amp NC 500 amp with Rev D board which a friend of mine bought and is very happy with it. They also have an NC1200 based amp and the latest Purifi 1ET400A based amp.

I think Class D amps sound great and I don't think its a good idea to generalize the sonic characteristics of Class D versus Class A/B. I bet the Mola Mola amps sound fantastic and could very well work better than the Luxman amp I am using in my setup.

I decided to buy the Luxman amp, cause I was able to get a home demo and it worked really well in my setup.
 
Why it is hard to find any Hypex / Purifi based Amp in India ?

Is there anyone who builds Class D Hypex NCXXXMP module based Stereo Amps ?
 
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