By John Ransley, Totally Wired
Extract from the full review:
…..”However when playing within it’s performance envelope, the sound of the IA-9X is so similar to that of the Evolution STA, you’d be hard pressed to separate them. This tells us a lot about the preamplifier stage.”…..
…..NuPrime have always designed and built particularly nice analogue preamplifiers. Often these have flown under the radar, but I’ve greatly appreciated what they have done and the AMG PRA is one of the best preamps I’ve enjoyed regardless of cost. It would have been a tall order to expect the IA-9X to work at the same level, but despite including a phono stage among several other extras, the sonics are surprisingly close……
…..Fine tuning
The story doesn’t end there. With almost every other amplifier design, the sonic character you get is effectively set. Maybe you have old fashioned tone adjustment or switching for speaker impedance, but this doesn’t fundamentally change anything and often is a step backwards. The IA-9X has a second circuit which works in tandem with ODC – the Harmonic Generation Circuit utilising Class A transistors for a warmer, richer sound similar to that of a vacuum tube amplifier.
--> Link to full review: https://totallywired.nz/nuprime-2/nuprime-ia-9x-integrated-analogue-amplifier/
