Home > Consumer Reviews > NuForce Icon (Integrated Desktop Audio Amplifier, Black Color)

Decided to upgrade my computer sound to some Paradigm mini monitors & a NuForce Icon. Received the Paradigms first and hooked them up to my father's old Sony receiver. I was disappointed in my Paradigms. Then my NuForce arrived the next day. Wow - clean full sound from this little thing! Now the Paradigms sound like they should. This little box is perfect - small, simple, yet feels and sounds expensive. I'm using the DAC (USB) connector to Vista. It sounds good, but there's a few weird behaviors on the computer using this connector - may switch back to the standard audio connector. There is a definite pop when it's powered on, but it's bearable. Buy one of these, but not until you can also afford some high-end speakers to go with it.

If you're looking for "headbanging" thunder bass out of a small bookshelf system, this ain't it. I already own audiofile gear (Channel Islands, Arcam, Tyler Acoustics...) and didn't want to drop another $10K for a computer stereo. Caught this while surfing for music purchases here at Amazon. I was very aware of Nuforce and immediately went to research mode. In the end, this and the matching speakers got me out-the-door for $500. I'll spare you the audio speak- This little system rocks, very nice highs and mids, adequate bass, it's portable w/an I-Touch as the source, and the footprint is economical (no small deal with my desk). This little dude is my computer audio for life.

The Icon has worked exactly as promised from day one. It has been confidently powering my Energy bookshelf speakers and Creative earbuds. I can hear the details in my music clearly and at a reasonable volume. This is a great product I would recommend to anyone looking for a starter music system to consider it. The small footprint works great on my desk next to my laptop. Loads of clean power from this little guy!

I purchased the Icon along with the paired S-1 speakers to replace an aging but very good pairing of Celestion speakers and Denon receiver for use with my high end gaming/entertainment PC. I was happy with the older setup sonically, but the space it took up was prohibitive.

My main attraction, initially, to the Icon/S-1 was the small form factor. The fact that it got high ratings for sound quality was a big bonus as well. I'm not an audiophile, but I do own a fair amount of older near-audiophile audio components including Hafler preamp/tuner, Hafler amplifier and some SAE components so I'm not unfamiliar with "higher end" audio components.

That being said, the audio quality of the Icon/S-1 pairing has really impressed me. The clarity of the sound is excellent, FAR better than I could achieve previously even with a high end sound card (Creative X-Fi) paired with a solid receiver and quite good speakers. The fit and finish of the Icon is very impressive and the matte black looks perfectly in place with my other PC components.

So far, for me, the Icon has more than lived up to its reputation as a low (ish) cost near audiophile desktop sound solution. Well worth the money I paid for it and far, far better than any sound card/powered speaker combination I've ever seen for the PC.

Added note: my Icon and S-1 arrived the day after I placed my order via FedEx though I selected standard shipping. Nice!

This is a very high quality product at a low price. Check the web for more reviews, but it lives up to them -- clean beautiful sound in a tiny package, competes with amps that cost much much more. The build quality is great too -- nice solid feel to the knobs, sturdy but smooth aluminum case. No cheap plasticky stuff.

BUT ... a big caveat is that it needs to be coupled with efficient (low-wattage) speakers. I connected mine to the small and very highly-rated bookshelf speakers from Era (D4s) and the Icon simply couldn't drive them to a room-filling volume. So I ended up returning the Icon. The amp I replaced it with was quite a bit more expensive, though, so if I hadn't had the Eras already it might have made sense to buy the Icon and pick speakers for it.