As you can read elsewhere here, I started out with the NCore. I still stand by what I wrote about that little gem. And to be honest, I would have been totally happy with it for years to come. But then I got the opportunity to listen to a 500s. After that there was no going back for me. The NCore offers tremendous bang for your buck. With its clean power and insightful sound, it delivers, say, 90% of what the 500s delivers. The pedigree is obvious. They both offer a very detailed, very neutral sound, with solid bass and wide soundstage. So why pay almost twice the price for the bigger brother? In short: involvement. More music, less equipment. Let me elaborate: The sound stage of the NCore is very open and wide. So is the soundstage of the 500s, but this one is deeper. And even more: it adds hight to the soundstage. You have the feeling the ceiling went up 10 meters. it makes for a more 3D sound. Besides that, the sound is also slightly more forward, but at the same time there is more 'air'. So the 500s has a very holographic sound. There really is more sense of the recording venue, be it a small jazz venue or a big church. This conveys even more atmosphere and space, acoustics. The feeling of 'being there'. The musicians are also placed more accuratly, you can pinpoint them. Everything falls into place, it breathes. High frequencies are just a little more fluid on the 500s, and the sound is still very clean. There is more of an analogue feel to them, though, they shine. Mids offer just a bit richer and more nuanced sound. So the character of instruments is slightly more pronounced, there is a little more colour. Listening to a guitar you can hear just a little bit more wood besides the metal strings, with grand piano I can hear where the metal strings end, and the copper strings begin. You can hear the reed of the saxophone, the resin on the strings of the violin, cymbals have gorgeous decay... I wrote the NCore had phenomenal authority over the lower octaves. And it does. But with the 500s there turns out to be another abyss of low frequencies hidden underneath. I hear bass I did not know my speakers were capable of. It is also very well controlled. The combination of my speakers and the acoustics of my room give me a slight hump in the mid lows, which, with the NCore, resulted in an occasional booming sound. Not so with the 500s, the hump is under control, I have very clean tight bass now! As said very very deep, and also with more texture. Double bass has nice grunt! So between the NCore and the 500s, it is a matter of the best being the enemy of the (very) good. In the end, with the 500s amp, music becomes more warm-blooded, more moving, bringing
