XXHighEnd

Hello Peter and all NOS1 DAC fans.

I must admit, our expectations were high. Not to say: skyhigh.
So last night I found myself together with my wife driving in the snow, looking for the house number of Peter's residence. I was lucky to have my cellphone on board because the house number was invisible, covered by snow. How should I interpret this sign??
We spent the evening talking and listening and installing (HW+SW). And eating and drinking. Our expectation were fully met. The NOS1 DAC sounded absolutely great on Peter's system. Or rather: the system sounded excellent. Listening to an excellent system that I haven't heard before always makes me wonder: what makes it sounds so good? Is it really the NOS1 DAC, or the nice speakers, or what. I am fully aware that it is not my room and not my system. But in the end, what really matters: how does a new component fit into my existing system and room at home?
So today I found out. Right from the start (the DAC had a 1 week break-in period in Peter's house) the verdict is clear. My wife got tears in her eyes because it was so beautiful and so pure. This is better than a live concert (her words). There are really no words to describe this experience. 

THIS IS THE BEST DAC I HAVE EVER HEARD !!!!!     GEWELDIG!!

The "sound" is lush, open and natural. I guess Clean would be the right word, without becoming analytical. It is very close to my ultimate reference: a Live Performance. The soundstage is big and precise. The bass is fully controlled, and the highs were unlimited. And....and.....
I know that it will even get better after a decent break-in period.   

On behalf of all audiophiles who are hunting for the ultimate sound, we like to thank Peter and Ciska for their never lasting effort to follow their dream and create this wonderful contribution to our hobby.

Cheers,
Eric & Michaela.   

Hi Eric, thank you for your nice "report". If it could only show (in writing) how I experienced your "situation".

So yes, we all experienced a great evening, and to my surprise I was talking to a musician, or better : to someone who listened for things I didn't even know they exist. Someone who -maybe- listenes to music for other reasons. Something like do or die and as long as it is die, who cares. Can't explain this further and maybe I'm even on the wrong track, but this is how I perceived the "anxiously waiting" in this case. Here too we ended up with a getting more and more scared that -once at home- nothing would work out afterall. It is a relative thing, and it really scares. I mean it. It was in your eyes - but with trust, but it was all over in Michaela, who seemed to have her life depending on it all. To me it even looked like : we both will have a great future OR it will stay as it is.
We talked about a due speaker replacement and while Eric was a kind of sure he "needed to", Michaela wasn't sure at all and merely didn't see a solution in it. But how would it turn out really ?

I am trying to create some suspense with the above, but I'm sure it can't work. Not to the sense of two grown ups dedicating their "life" to music (playback) hoping to find some Walhalla - maybe just listening to it at that moment, and possibly awaitening a disappointment once back home.

Next came yesterday. For us this was a one long fight to get as much DACs out as we could, but of which we knew it should be two because of people who payed in time waiting. Maybe to play Christmas albums. The strategy of choices already is a job within itself, when it comes to how ship it, what airports are closed because of snow and what wouldn't go by road anyway. From 8am to 5pm this fight lasted, while in the mean time I couldn't use new soundcards because of the PC having enough of them all (see elsewhere). So, the deadline was 5pm to call the shipper, and while we had one DAC running at 4pm and it had to be finished off, just at 4:45 the second came to live. Of course at entering the shipping data (electronically) at 4:50 their system disn't work properly, and at calling them I knew it wouldn't work anymore. The lady coolish asked me "where does it go ?" and my response was that it would be after 5pm - hence too late if we were going to do it like that. ... 1 minute and 23 seconds later it was done, and the lady was laughing. *Now* the truck would be on its way, and we didn't know how long it would take to get here. In between then and when it would arrive, that last DAC had to be finished.
Well, when the first screws were going into the cover, the bell rang, and while the driver was filling out the papers it was packed, and gone with the other. :heat::heat:

Why this seemingly unrelated story ?
Well, after this we were completely dead. Not being able to move or anything. Happy that we succeeded, but no clue how to proceed further with this stupid PC of mine. I started rebooting and trying and everything, until ... until at 7pm the phone rang.
It was Michaela telling (can I say crying ?) how beautiful it sounds. She and Eric had been listening to Eva Cassidy and for her it was enough to call me. She told me that Eric should do it, but he persisted to wait a few albums more first. No way that was necessary according to Michaela and so she called herself.

THIS is what we are doing it for. And THIS is why that unrelated story was necessary I think. We were totally dead, but such a phone call makes forget the hard work immediately and instead of a "never like this anymore" we GO for it again.
The next batch will go differently though; First we will have DACs working, and next people can order/pay. Not the other way around.

To you both : thank you very much for a great evening (+ night :)) and I really learned from it. Hope to meet you again some time.
Peter


PS: Btw, this setup (on Eric's PC) I did myself, and it worked in one go. Just for the records ...