So after ‘Fringe it appears I’m not the only Rubyist with a deep love of music. I love music, listening to it, making it hmm not so much (I can’t) - thus thought I’d blog about further adventures in audio-listening-land. I needed some replacements for my desktop system after a minor technical glitch, and have been temporarily using some Def Tech Pro Monitor 800s with a NuForce Icon - see at end.

I’ve looked at Totem Mites, Def Tech Pro Cinema 1000’s, and been pouring over product reviews of everything under the sun, trying to find something in the sweet spot of sounding good, but not going to get strung up by..err.. yeah you can complete that one.

After an audition the Totems were honestly gorgeous, and sounded wonderful but just too expensive, and still quite big. Deciding losing my left nut wasn’t an option they were quickly ruled out. ProMonitor 1000’s were a step up from the 800’s but getting quite bulky for the desk and lost their appeal. Given that I don’t really like the 800’s for music they were off the list. Numerous product reviews and “my speaker choice is better than yours” leads you down a rabbit hole.

So Saturday I went to “go get the cat food” and ahem well we alll know what that means don’t we?, came back with a pair of these…

(note the bling gloss of the desk I made.. a year on it still looks hot)

So they’re Energy RC-Mini’s, I hadn’t seen many product reviews as they’re relatively new. However the Futureshop next to said pet food store had some in a listening room. Audiophiles will likely cringe with the slightest mention of going to FS, but well, tough!. One look and was all over them “ok, if they sound even half decent I’m getting them”. The sounded more than half decent, and while definitely not at Totem level, they also weren’t at Totem pricing.

Now, there’s something special about any toy that requires “100 hours of running in” (no shit). So it will be a few weeks before I really try to get them singing but at moderate listening levels they’re pretty hot. Teamed up with a powered sub and my work place has a whole new sound to it.

So what to drive them with ? Well I had previously reached out to the tubes and found this a few weeks ago….

Nestled between the speakers is a a NuForce Icon. This tiny little amp packs a little 12w punch which is MORE than enough to power any reasonably sensitive speaker in a desktop environment.

After reading many reviews I picked this up online (a $199 deal had something to do with that). I’m fence sitting. Honestly on one hand it has fantastic imaging, the DAC is brilliant, I’ve heard things I’ve never heard before. On the other the hiss. It’s a class D amp so by design it will hiss when no signal present. However I’ve also heard hiss during playback in quiet stretches - kinda weird but it’s like you need to get it warmed up playing reasonable volumes then the hiss disappears. I rma’d one board as it was all over the place and intrusive on songs. A second one and I’m still not entirely sold. BUT considering it’s also a DAC+Headphone amp it’s pretty much a no-brainer (compared to what you used to pay for decent sound cards) - note the Headphone amp circuit is dead clean so I’m assuming line out is as well. I’m going to look for some little valve amp or similar to put on the line out for it so I’ll treat it more like a preamp than a pure integrated amp. But for now she does the business.

To NuForce’s credit they are working to resolve my amp issue. It appears to be the speakers have some characteristics that means the amp ‘reacts’ with a higher noise level. They’re getting me an updated board to try out that should resolve it.

Updated 11th August It appears a lot of people are searching and hitting my blog for this little NuForce amp, I wasn’t expecting my post to feature quite so prominently in the search results. So here’s my impressions after probably a month with it ..

Noise issue aside (getting resolved shortly with a new amp board), which I’m assuming is only affecting a very low %age of icon owners. I am very happy with this little amp for the money involved. It’s an amplifier, headphone amplifier, and DAC (Digital audio converter) in one unit. For $249 it’s not a bad deal at all especially when you consider what some external USB solutions for DAC alone cost.

The DAC in it is way better than the Mac’s in built card. It’s picked up immediately via USB and just works. The headphone amp portion is great, through my Sennheisers it seems to make them pick up steam and really rock. Coupled with the Energy’s, again noise issue aside, it seems to have lots of headroom. In my 9ft sq office I have no volume troubles. My comfort level is below the amps output level (ie I’ll give up and not want to be in the room, before the amp runs out of oomph). The NuForce is now, I believe, released with some S1 speakers of NuForces’ own design. This sounds like it would make a great package for the ‘no hassle, I just want a good sounding desktop setup’. In my setup it kicks the pants off any ‘desktop setup in a box’ for obvious reasons.

The amp’s well thought out. Nice and small little unit (pictures don’t really do it justice about how small it is). Little things like a line out for an external sub are included. Basically plug it in, add some speakers, and a sub, and go. But beware. Audio equipment is a very slippery slope. There’s always the next upgrade down the line….. to go up from here you’re looking at tube amps, there’s a couple around for desktop usage, one of which I have my eye on! But you are looking a significant jump up in price tag. Or more traditional integrated amps which are way bulky and not really suited to a desktop environment.

If you want a small system for a den, cosy listening room, or desktop environment, highly recommended. Click here for NuForce Icon on Amazon.

Updated 26th August A number of amp boards later, some very helpful staff at NuForce, and suffice to say, the Icon (at this stage) won’t work well with Energy RC-Mini’s. So don’t buy my setup Something in the frequency response curve of these speakers really disagrees with this amp. I’m moving on to a different amp - using the NuForce as a preamp. I have a tasty little tube amp on it’s way up from the states at the moment, which should be quite something on the desktop. So if you’re contemplating different speakers other than the S1 for the Icon, I’d recommend posting on forums and seeing if anyone else has them. You may run a very small risk that they won’t work.

Now for the little treat…

So you get something out of reading this - people will pfaff on about audio gear forever. But it’s all about the music. So here’s one kiwi band that is truly amazing and tends to get rave reviews - if you’re into electronica and dub, try Pitch Black out for size - some free MP3’s from live performances, I recommend listening to the Tokyo mix http://www.pitchblack.co.nz/default.asp?s1=downloads. You can buy full mp3 downloads from here amplifier.co.nz (although for quality I obviously recommend CD Purchase)

Enjoy.

Amazon link for the speakers (for those in the US) Energy RC-Mini Bookshelf Speaker (Single, Black)