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An (almost) Comprehensive NuPrime IDA-8 Amplifier Review


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Appreciate the cuntiness.

 

Sorry for the delayed reply, all - finally tried streaming Syro by Aphex Twin FLAC from Fidelia via Apple TV connected by an optical cable to the Supreme with disappointing results. And you know THAT recording is top quality. The same album sounds better streaming AAC from my iPhone via the Nuprime's BlueTooth adapter. All in all, I still think for $1k it's a brilliant machine, but not quite perfect.

 

Perhaps it's time to rebuild my CD collection :-)

 

Interesting. Have you tried the same recording via USB?

Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math!

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  • 1 month later...

Coming back to this thread. After multiple careful listening sessions, nothing sounds as good as it did before I sent the unit to be fixed to link up with my old ATV - not CDs nor MP3s from my iPhone via BT. The highs are not as crisp, the bass is less punchy, the overall sound is more muddled and the sound stage smaller.

 

I talked to NuPrime and they refuse to do any further fixes or replace the unit. It's a shame.The funny thing is they are now saying that they did not change the DAC, even though they originally said they did. I am waiting for further reply, but here is the original support ticket.

 

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----------Please reply above this line----------Hello Eugene.

You have a new message from Jason Lim.

Re: TosLink Input Not Working

Message: We have received the amp and here's the problem (there is still a solution we can try) - we can only change the impedance of the coaxial input and not the optical inputs (the engineer didn't tell me this until we asked for parts). So he suggested that we replace the DAC board on IDA-8 just to give it a try hoping that it will work with the noisy Apple TV. Apparently we are not the only one with connection issue with Apple TV or Airport Express.
Airport Express optical digital output | Naim Audio Forums
Audiolab M DAC and Airport Express problems
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1837487
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6853159https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4276807
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4104819?start=60&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20314917#20314917
Actually it is the Apple TV that should be replaced with luck that you get a new one that has less jitter. We have tested some Airport Express that work and others that don't. Regardless, we are getting a replacement DAC board as spare parts just in case you want to give it a try - i.e. wait another week for us to replace the board. There is no guarantee that it will work. Have you tried Apple TV with all the optical inputs of IDA-8?

 

You can view your ticket here:

 

 

 

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----------Please reply above this line----------Hello Eugene.

You have a new message from Jason Lim.

Re: TosLink Input Not Working

Message: I found a better way: We can update the coaxial input with different impedance to handle more jitters and then you can purchase this Optical to Digital converter to work with the Apple TV:
http://www.amazon.com/C2G-40019-Optical-Coaxial-Converter/dp/B0002GV876/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1454276102&sr=8-3&keywords=optical+to+coaxial+converter
What do you think? We can still replace the DAC board anyway so if the digital input works with Apple TV, you can return the converter to Amazon. It is a pretty cheap and good gadget to have around anyway.

 

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Hi Jason,

I say let's go ahead with both solutions just in case. Let's replace the DAC board and update the coaxial input. I will try the optical input first. I worry whether the converter from digital to coaxial will compromise sound quality.

Thank you,

Eugene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 10 months later...

Unfortunately, I am back to resurrect this. I purchased a record player, Rega P1. I eagerly plugged its RCA out into the A5 input, instead of where I usually plug in my CD player, but no sound came out. I made sure the input is set to A5 and the volume turned well up. Nothing. Just to make sure it's not the Rega, I plugged it into my Yamaha receiver, and it worked perfectly fine. Plugged the CD RCAs into the A5 and it works fine. The only thing I can think of is that the inputs on the Nuprime are set in too deep, so the RCA plugs from the Rega do not go all the way into the A5 input. Could I be missing something else?

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4 hours ago, nokitsch said:

I poked around and perhaps I just need a phono pre-amp. #noob

Yep, that'll do it.

(1) holo audio red (hqp naa) > chord dave > luxman cl-38uc/mq-88uc > kef reference 1
(2) simaudio moon mind 2 > chord qutest > luxman sq-n150 > monitor audio gold gx100
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Sorry the IDA-8 isn't working out for you. I use it as my office system (upgraded from Wadia 151 PowerDac) with a microrendu as the main source (USB) and a sonos connect for Sirius radio (coax), and I think it is pretty great for the money (maybe not even just for the money). I highly recommend the USB input. Perhaps you can find a streamer of some sort for this functionality (e.g. Microrendu, SoTM STM-200, Aurelic Aries Mini), which appear on audiogon from time to time. 

- Mark

 

Synology DS916+ > SoTM dCBL-CAT7 > Netgear switch > SoTM dCBL-CAT7 > dCS Vivaldi Upsampler (Nordost Valhalla 2 power cord) > Nordost Valhalla 2 Dual 110 Ohm AES/EBU > dCS Vivaldi DAC (David Elrod Statement Gold power cord) > Nordost Valhalla 2 xlr > Absolare Passion preamp (Nordost Valhalla 2 power cord) > Nordost Valhalla 2 xlr > VTL MB-450 III (Shunyata King Cobra CX power cords) > Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker > Kaiser Kaewero Classic /JL Audio F110 (Wireworld Platinum power cord).

 

Power Conditioning: Entreq Olympus Tellus grounding (AC, preamp and dac) / Shunyata Hydra Triton + Typhoon (Shunyata Anaconda ZiTron umbilical/Shunyata King Cobra CX power cord) > Furutec GTX D-Rhodium AC outlet.

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1 hour ago, MarkS said:

Sorry the IDA-8 isn't working out for you. I use it as my office system (upgraded from Wadia 151 PowerDac) with a microrendu as the main source (USB) and a sonos connect for Sirius radio (coax), and I think it is pretty great for the money (maybe not even just for the money). I highly recommend the USB input. Perhaps you can find a streamer of some sort for this functionality (e.g. Microrendu, SoTM STM-200, Aurelic Aries Mini), which appear on audiogon from time to time. 

 

+1 After much research I advised my nephew to purchase the IDA-8 about 8 months ago and he is very happy with it playing into KEF LS50 speakers. Source is ATV and also bluetooth from his phone. Admittedly he lives in a small terrace and is only sitting 8 feet from the speakers across the short side of the room.

LOUNGE: Mac Mini - Audirvana - Devialet 200 - ATOHM GT1 Speakers

OFFICE : Mac Mini - Audirvana - Benchmark DAC1HDR - ADAM A7 Active Monitors

TRAVEL : MacBook Air - Dragonfly V1.2 DAC - Sennheiser HD 650

BEACH : iPhone 6 - HRT iStreamer DAC - Akimate Micro + powered speakers

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Actually, Jason from NuPrime has been really patient with me and after I received a new unit, I am very happy with it. I could not agree any more that it's the best value for money proposition. It's been working just splendidly. Setting up a music server is my next step. 

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I again suggest you try to find a cost effective way to get to the dac's USB input to try some hires. Good luck!

- Mark

 

Synology DS916+ > SoTM dCBL-CAT7 > Netgear switch > SoTM dCBL-CAT7 > dCS Vivaldi Upsampler (Nordost Valhalla 2 power cord) > Nordost Valhalla 2 Dual 110 Ohm AES/EBU > dCS Vivaldi DAC (David Elrod Statement Gold power cord) > Nordost Valhalla 2 xlr > Absolare Passion preamp (Nordost Valhalla 2 power cord) > Nordost Valhalla 2 xlr > VTL MB-450 III (Shunyata King Cobra CX power cords) > Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker > Kaiser Kaewero Classic /JL Audio F110 (Wireworld Platinum power cord).

 

Power Conditioning: Entreq Olympus Tellus grounding (AC, preamp and dac) / Shunyata Hydra Triton + Typhoon (Shunyata Anaconda ZiTron umbilical/Shunyata King Cobra CX power cord) > Furutec GTX D-Rhodium AC outlet.

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That's strange that the IDA-8 didn't work with the AppleTV.  There's at least one review on-line of the IDA-8 where they said it worked just fine with their AppleTV.

 

With regards to getting audio from your iMac to the USB input on the IDA-8, in addition to the µRendu, Sonore also has a less expensive alternative in the Sonic Orbiter SE.  It runs the same software and has all the same streaming options.

 

http://www.sonore.us/Sonicorbiter.html

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So, I bought a Cambridge Audio CP1 phono preamp, hooked everything up, AND... it doesn't work :/ It's not the preamp, as it works totally fine when I pipe it through my Yamaha AVR (I use the CD input to bypass the receiver's built in phono stage).

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/7/2016 at 10:56 AM, nokitsch said:

 

This was their reply "IDA-8 is designed for high precision devices and we think that some Apple TV devices (this has been discovered with Airport Express) send lower level SPDIF signals then IDA-8 can sync up with. But we have a fix by simply changing a resistor on the toslink input."

 

Thanks for your input, everyone.

  Here's a real problem..

 

You may have inadvertently destroyed a perfectly excellent audio component by trying to back adapt ..

Here is how such  a problem was addressed by Schiit Audio concerning their excellent Yggdrasil DAC..    Its  found in the manual.

 

 
Quote

 

Hey, the “buy better gear” light came on.  What does that mean?
That means you have a crap source. Yggdrasil analyzes the incoming
center frequency and jitter to determine if it can use VCXO reclocking,
which requires a precise center frequency and reasonably low jitter.
If it cannot use VCXO regeneration, it switches to VCO regeneration,
which still provides orders of magnitude improvement in the
reconstructed clock. However, the source is still crap. Yes, even
if it’s a $10000 CD player you purchased 15 years ago. Those go
off-frequency all the time.
 
What else will trigger the buy better gear light?
Only spectacularly bad sources. Old CD players are one. Apple Airport
Express and satellite receivers are two others.

 

https://schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/yggdrasil_manual_1_1.pdf

 

 

 

Dang!   The NuPrime IDA-8 amplifier is an excellent component!   That is... As long as you do not try to back adapt it to an inferior world it was not designed for.

 

Sorry... But the source needs to be adapted,  not the other way around.

It all depends upon in what dimension of life one finds themselves living in.  For, one man's music is another man's noise. 

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This review makes me ponder the question: is there a definition boundary someplace between an audiophile and non-audiophile-who-still-values-sound? For example, the OP may not have a lot of experience with high-end sound. Is lack of experience a barrier to audiophile-hood? I wouldn't think so. Is being an audiophile about dedication to the journey as opposed to the destination? Is anyone who puts any value on sound automatically an audiophile?

 

Or is the label itself just meaningless? Some people put a lot of value in sound, others put less value in sound. OP places a lot less value in sound than I do. I may place less value in sound compered to someone who makes it a job to care for a high end vinyl system. Yet other people find happiness in vintage gear they paid a few bucks for.

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  • 5 years later...

Coming back to this thread after a few years of silence. 

 

I have two of these that I use in two small systems. I love the sound quality, but there is a USB input flaw that NuPrime, dealers, and reviewers haven't mentioned: unless you use an ASIO driver, you can't play Native DSD. 

 

That means you probably are okay playing from a computer, but won't be if you use a Linux-based end point for JRiver, MinimServer, Logitech Media Server, or HQPlayer.  In any of those common use cases, you are limited to DoP.  

 

That isn't a huge downside with the first three of the mentioned servers, but it is a disaster with the costly HQPlayer. A typical use case for HQPlayer is to upsample everything to DSD, but, not only can you not do that with this amp, HQPlayer will convert your DSD files to PCM.

 

Had I known this before I bought the IDA-8, I would have passed on it.  Other integrateds in this price range almost certainly can play Native DSD from Linux. 

 

If you play from your computer and don't plan to stream over the network to a Linux endpoint or if you don't have .dsf files, this is a fine amp. It especially mates well with the KEF LSF50's. 

Living room:  Synology 218+ NAS > NUC 10 i7 > HQP Embedded > xfinity Xfi Router > Netgear GS348 Switch > Sonore Optical Module Deluxe > Sonore Signature Rendu SE Optical Tier 2 > Okto DAC 8 Stereo > Topping Pre90 Preamp > Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini > Revel F32 Concertas

 

Computer Desk System: Synology DS-218+ NAS > Dell XPS 8930/NUC 10 i7  > HQP Desktop > xfinity Xfi Router > EtherRegen > ultraRendu > Topping D90 DAC > Audioengine A5+'s

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