Thanks. They are, aren't they?


Yep, no carpets. This is totally 'by design'. I find any carpets or soft furnishing deaden the sound. Without these things, the room has just the right amount of 'life'.

Mani.

Well, mine are now up and running. But I will not say a word about the sound until:
a) I get my NOS1a from Peter (probably early next week)
b) the speakers have had a good time to burn-in

But here's a pic...

Mani.

Yep, that's my understanding. I currently have a pair of BD-Design bridged amps which I believe are similar, if not identical, to those in the Orelo speakers' bass section. They are extremely good full-range amps in themselves.

Mani.

Haha... I love it!

Mani.

Hey Peter, greetings from the UK... finally back at home! Unlike Nick, I have no comment on what you've done internally - I'm sure it's all been well thought through. But I love the external change. Now just because my NOS1 is white, I totally expect to see this on mine too.

Mani.

Hey VJ, you beat me to it! I won't have mine until I get back home from my current work trip (hopefully it'll be sometime next week, unless I hear otherwise from Bert). I'll post my thoughts here also once I've had a chance to listen to them for a few weeks.

Quick question: are you using a NOS1a? I should receive my upgraded NOS1a at just about the same time that the speakers arrive... assuming Peter can fix his cable supplier woes.

Thanks for the 'mini review'. My mouth is watering more than Pavlov's dogs'.

Cheers, Mani.

Haha...

Mani.

Alain, all of Peter's above post is exactly what I meant with my analogy 

Mani.

Since I switched to a low SFS (0.5), a low clock res (min for system) and a lowish buffer in the NOS1 control panel (4ms I think, but I can't check right now) I've had a burst of white noise coming through my speakers on two separate occasions.

On each occasion, this happened immediately after a certain sequence of events. Firstly, I loaded and started playing some tracks. Within the first couple of seconds of playback, I pressed Alt-X and stopped the playback for some reason (wrong album, etc). When I then pressed play again, I received the burst of white noise through the speakers. On both occasions, the internal fuses of my mono amps blew.

The speakers I'm currently using are very low efficiency, so I usually have XX's vol set to between -12 and 0. So the white noise might have potentially been at full scale.

In all the time of using XX without a preamp, something like this has NEVER happened before. I'm convinced it has something to do with my changed settings. In any event, when I get my NOS1 back from its NOS1a upgrade, I will definitely not be using these settings.

Any ideas?

Mani.

Another quick question:

Will XX remain a true 'memory player'? I suppose with the NOS1a, it simply makes no difference, right? (Though for other DACs, of course it's still totally significant.)

Mani.

Peter, I have a quick question:

Is the NOS1a now galvanically isolated from the PC? In an ideal world, I would want to power the PC from a totally different AC circuit. Not necessarily for the sake of the NOS1a (with its superb voltage regulation), but for the sake of the amps at least.

Mani.

I'm talking about things like digital crossovers and DSP built into XX. This would potentially take some serious CPU power if done in real time.

Ultimately, what I like about this approach (i.e. making DAC immune to noise, vs. reducing and/or filtering the noise) is that it allows the PC to be a PC - the wonderful, flexible machine that it is - rather than a high-end transport.

Mani.

I think ultimately Peter has shifted his approach from one of manipulating the USB noise inevitably getting into the DAC (via all the XX dials and settings) to one of making the DAC totally immune to this noise (without affecting the sound). The noise is still there. But now it just doesn't matter, even if there is more actually a lot more noise. The DAC remains totally immune.

From a psychological perspective it'll probably take a few of us (including me) a while to accept that the computer no longer makes a difference. But I'm all for it, as it opens the way to do some interesting (potentially CPU-intensive) stuff in software before sending to the DAC.

Mani.

Hey Alain, for what it's worth, here's my analogy for what is going on...

Consider that I have an ultra-sensitive measuring instrument (interferometer, or whatever) placed on a suspended wooden floor [usb link]. I notice there is too much vibration [usb noise] coming through the wooden floors [usb link]. So, I spend a fortune on isolation stands [usb filters, etc]. [Edit: I spend a fortune trying different floors (USB cables).] I also minimize all the vibrations by re-routing all the traffic outside [minimize PC noise]. But only then a genius [Peter] comes and tells me to place the instrument onto a wall bracket [total isolation]. Let the floor vibrate as much as it wants and let the traffic flow - it won't affect, it can't affect my instrument anymore.

OK, not a great analogy. But I hope you know what I mean.

Mani.

That's interesting Joachim. I've heard great things about the Dartzeel preamp. But at €30K, I guess it should be pretty good.

I wonder though if your preference for having the NOS1 at -3dB hasn't got more to do with the 1704s working more in their 'sweet spot' than anything else. I've always found -9dB to be the sweet spot with the NOS1 here. But even so, the sound is better with a direct connection and without the Pass Labs X1 (obviously not in the same league as your Dartzeel).

Mani.