NuForce Icon-1 arrived
Apr 8, 2008 at 10:51 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 5

Sasaki

500+ Head-Fier
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I bought a new desktop small amplifier NuForce Icon-1.

http://vaiopocket.up.seesaa.net/image/icon1c.jpghttp://vaiopocket.up.seesaa.net/imag...thumbnail2.jpg

NuForce is a high-end digital amp manufacture and they are known for its high performance proprietary Class D amp technology. it produce amazing damping factor of 4000. This means the amp has great driveability and control ability for speakers.

Here is their web page, follow the menu products -> Icon.
http://www.nuforce.com/

Icon-1 is their first consumer entry with a good price tag that is $250($199 for intro).

In addition to the high performance at a good price, Icon-1 has many features. USB DAC, Pre out and headphone amp.
Especially for HeadFier, Icon-1 has a decent discrete headphone amp. NuForce is also preparing their IEM for $79 estimated.
They also mentioned the Icon Mobile which is battery powered amp in the next year .. this could be similar to iQube??

One of unique aspects of the Icon-1 is the implementation of speaker cables. Icon employs CAT5 (100base-T) network cable for the speaker connection.

http://vaiopocket.up.seesaa.net/image/icon1f.jpghttp://vaiopocket.up.seesaa.net/imag...thumbnail2.jpg http://vaiopocket.up.seesaa.net/image/icon1g.jpghttp://vaiopocket.up.seesaa.net/imag...thumbnail2.jpg

NuForce will launch companion desktop speaker S-1. S-1 has a similar RJ45 port and when connected via the CAT5 cable with Icon-1, an equalization network will be activated. Normally the cross over network is implemented in the speaker but for this combo seems like the Icon-1(amp side) has a built-in cross-over like circuit and S-1 has not. I am not so sure about this approach but quite interesting.

For sonic impression, I wrote a user review on the amazon.com. Please refer to that.

This amazon.com is actually a pre-sale. I heard the regular sale will begin from the 25th of April.
 
Aug 2, 2008 at 4:21 PM Post #4 of 5
have you been able to try this with the k1000? although I'm under the impression it needs additional equipment...
 

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