NuPrime MCX-800AD

IMMERSIVE AUDIO PROCESSOR

- KALMAN RUBINSON

The NuPrime brand may not be familiar to many readers of Stereophile, though a quick search reveals coverage in a 10-year-old report,¹ a side reference in a 2022 review of a different product,² and most recently, a brief mention of the product I'm reviewing—the NuPrime MCX-800AD—at High End Munich 2025.³ In the early years of this century, Stereophile reviewed several NuForce products as well; Jason Lim founded NuPrime after NuForce was sold.

NuPrime calls the MCX-800AD ($3995) an “Immersive Audio Processor,” but that’s not really what it is, so I don’t know why they call it that. NuPrime lists it on its website under both “Amplifiers” and “Multi-Channel DACs.” So what is it, a floor wax or a dessert topping?

The MCX-800AD is an eight-channel D/A converter with source selection and volume control plus eight channels of builtin power amplification. It does no decoding, DSP, or EQ.

What it is then is a digitally enabled integrated amplifier. Eight-channel integrated amplifiers are rare, but this is an ideal combination for anyone who wants to play multichannel files on a computer with Roon, JRiver, Audirvana, etc., because a computer has a USB output and the MCX-800 has a USB input. It is just as useful for anyone with a disc player with multichannel analog outputs, since it also comes equipped with eight channels of analog inputs.

I was led to this NuPrime DAC-amplifier by my curiosity about Dolby Atmos. The MCX-800 is ideal for Atmos because a single unit can support the minimal 5.1.2 Atmos configuration, and you can combine it with another MCX-800AD to support up to 16 channels. For now, I just want to hear music in 5.1 Atmos.