I have just tried the Custom filter again. I say again because I tried it some time ago before I got the Orelino's. My memory is hazy but it did not stay in use for very long, so I cannot have been very impressed with it at the time. But now it is a very different story. There are sounds coming from all over - the sound stage is just amazing. Bass seems even better. But the acid test is dense strings and what better test is there than to play the Lyndsay's as they deserve the very best sound quality. Strings are a big improvement smooth (but not "smoothed over") they just sound superbly silky smooth.

Obviously I cannot comment on "proper impedance" in relation to what I hear now but what I do know is what I hear and I honestly cannot imagine how this sound quality could be improved upon. But there again I would have said that last night!! and we have said it in the past and here we are!!

I have to say that listening at Mani's (B75) on Monday and listening here now (RCA) I am not convinced that B75 here would be any better. That is my honest appraisal. Otherwise I would have been blown away with what I heard at Mani's on material I know very well.

I really really would like to be wrong though - there again I do not know if I can take another big improvement in sound quality. After all I have now run out of superlatives!!

Now where is that Elvis Costello?

Cheers

Paul

So Mani is using AP and so indeed am I. As Mani mentioned in a previous post I was at his place on Monday. Unfortunately we were not able to try out my (attempt at) B75 cables or my other RCA interconnects which I had hoped to. That was because Mani has his "B75 NOS1a" in the cellar and it really was not reasonably possible to move it all upstairs.

Anyway we had an extensive listen to Mani's B75 set up as I wanted to assess whether it would be worth me pursuing B75 for my system. My impressions at the end of the listening session were that it would not be worth the effort. I just do not hear any difference compared with my RCA's. But of course it is not a rigorous test at all - but it does seem to me that if there was such a big difference I would have heard it.

So when I returned home I put the RCA sockets back in the Orelino's and NOS1a and returned to using my previous interconnects. I sat back and listened and I just cannot put into words just how good my system sounds now. It is crazy but I just do not remember it sounding this good before. There is nothing I can think of that I have done that would have improved the sound - I just removed the BNC sockets and put the RCA's back in.

Oh there is just one thing I had a short dalliance with Blackgates in the output board regulators etc. - and it was short lived because the Silmic's sound much much better. So the Silmics are back in and they will be staying. I have to say the BG's sounded better before in my old system but anyway I am not going to stray from the "true path" again.

Last night I sat listening to some excellently recorded Jazz. I can still hear the sound of the double bass it was just amazing. Piano well it just sounded real. Imaging is superb with proper 3D behind the speakers effects and it stretches outside the width of the speakers. But all of that is probably because I fire the Orelino's straight down the room now and for sure there are some reflections now that there were not before. But hey who cares it sounds amazing.

So B75's are on the back burner for me now - the sound quality I am getting is just sublime. I have to say (and Mani will not mind me saying this because he has heard my system) that the sound quality in my room is substantially better than Mani gets. I played some albums with deep bass at Mani's and at mine. I have to say the bass in my room is much better. I would have to say that the sound I get is better through the whole frequency range, more dynamic and smoother.

It has to be the room but the point is that I do not see B75 making any substantial difference (or would it? the thought of the sound being better than it is now is just crazy!). Anyway after all that I shall indeed play with the other filter tonight. It did not work for me last time but that was before Orelino's.

Cheers

Paul

 

Impatience is NOT a virtue I should have waited!!! Ah well.


I followed the manufacturers crimping notes very carefully - if I crimp exactly to their recommendations shouldn't it be OK? or is there more to be considered?

whoops  I shoulda realised it is parallel with the RCA wiring. Duuurgh.

I have toed the speakers out and in fact just now they are not toed in at all. They sound better - more even. I can easily move closer to the speakers maybe for critical listening but they sound just great listening from "too far away".

And if the Bybees have to come out well so be it!! But first I have to get the rest of it right 

Paul

Juan


Yes that's it!! but subtle

Peter - I guess its always possible that I could have done something wrong but I really don't know what. It is a pretty simple mod really. Great care was taken with crimping etc.

Just out of interested did you find that changing the output impedance of NOS1a made any significant difference? compared with the coax etc?

Maybe a trip to see Mani is in order - we can make comparisons!!

Paul

I was super impressed with the B75's when I first installed them. There was an incredible amount of detail and very impressive. Since then I increased the output impedance of the NOS1a to 75ohm (within approx. .1 to .2 ohm) and I do not think that has made much difference compared with the difference the B75's made.

However, over the last couple of weeks it has become clear that the B75's have a hard edge to the sound that really started to drive me crazy. So on Monday I ordered some BNC male to RCA female adapters and just now with the adapters in place I put my old RCA interconnects in.

How could I have got it so wrong? - these RCA's are far superior. They have a smooth and relaxing sound - very natural sounding. What it seems to me is that the B75's initially impress with what seems to be more detail - but from what I am hearing now that detail is hash added to the sound. So come the weekend I shall be putting back the RCA sockets in NOS1a and speakers and returning to my trusty interconnects that are so much better than everything I have tried them against.

Actually this is a huge relief because I was really starting to get worried about the sound of my system.

Also what this proves to me again (as has happened more than once over the last few years) is that interconnects are absolutely fundamental (Nick loves that word!!) to quality of sound in a system. My experiments with coax are over for the foreseeable future.

Cheers

Paul

Hi Joachim - good point and sounds great, that is what I had in mind to do with my "laser" but the problem in my room is the reflected sounds from the side walls are only 4-8ms behind the main incident sound. And what is worse is that it is different left / right. That means my poor brain is totally confused (not unusual that!) as to what it is listening to. So maybe when I go to the trouble of getting the speakers perfectly lined up (and get a head brace to keep my head in the perfect position ha ha) I need to treat the room for reflections - I will see how much enthusiasm I can muster.

Cheers

Paul

I used to get this with the previous interconnect but not quite so marked (more detail now!) anyway as you say I probably need to straighten the speakers somewhat but that brings other problems ..............

anyway it is not a significant problem but I will try is more beer!! that may help.

Another night on with the new "Blaxius" interconnects and wow are they good. They seem to be significantly better tonight than the first night. That may in part be down to some tweaks I made to get the PC noise back down to the minimum again. To be honest I have been preoccupied with my new Orelino's and had somewhat neglected the PC setup following a rebuild prior to the Orelino's arrival.

Listening now the very tiniest details are easily and effortlessly presented. The dynamic, tone and timbre of instruments is so lifelike it really is jaw dropping. Symbols are incredibly realistic. I have never heard anything like this from any system anywhere before.

The gap has grown significantly between my old interconnects and the "Blaxius" - good as they were my old i/c's cannot match up to this now.

And I have not received the resistors to increase the Zout of the NOS1a. Presumably they are in some postman's bag wondering around a country lane lost somewhere.

The only slightly odd thing is the sound sitting in the "sweet spot" between the speakers - there are some phase like effects just moving the head slightly. I just wonder if it is necessary to get the speakers exactly positioned now to get best effects - I will get the lasers out and see how accurately I can set them up. But hey that is a trivial observation this sound quality is simply stunning.

Cheers

Paul

MMmm interesting.

 

Just to point out that many of the Blackgate's will have been removed by Ciska during the upgrade to NOS1a. Particularly those around the DAC power supply have all been removed - and it is those that made the really big difference to the bass pre upgrade. So what is left I would not expect to make a huge difference to the bass really. Maybe there is only thing better than a BG and that is no BG. !!

Cheers

Paul

Hi Mani,

Glad to hear that you like your new "Blaxius" cables. But you while you were installing yours I was also doing the same to my system. So I now (as of yesterday) have "Blaxius" in my setup. Everything should be the same as yours and Peters except that I have not yet received the resistors to increase the output impedance of my NOS1a to 75ohm - that will happen later in the week (hopefully). Anyway not withstanding that "Blaxius" in my system is very very impressive indeed and hugely better than the other coax interconnects I tried recently. The sound is very detailed with excellent imaging and dynamics.

However. the interesting thing is that the difference between "Blaxius" and my previous specially made up interconnects (the ones that were installed here when you cam for a listen Mani - see my previous posts) is not as big as I was expecting. With Blaxius the sound is cleaner more dynamic and a bit less "fat" in the mid range. Of course increasing the output impedance of NOS1a may make another big change but somehow I doubt that (but I hope it does of course). If I was to put it on a scale of 1 to 10 I would say my interconnects were at 8.5 and Blaxius are at 10. Now for me that has to be surprising because the construction and materials of Blaxius and my i/c's is so totally different. So all in all it is a surprise that the quality of the sound really is quite similar between the two i/c's. The character of the two is very similar (i.e. neutral).

So could it be that the difference in sound between our systems was actually down to the interconnects? my previous interconnects are special I have heard them against many many others (mostly at the shop of a hi fi dealer friends) and nothing came close. So it really is saying something that "Blaxius" is better. But I am still really surprised at how close they are.

When I heard Peters system over in Holland I did feel that his interconnects at the time were holding it back I would love to hear it again with Blaxius - but maybe I know what it sounds like anyway!

Anyway at the end of the day I am sitting here listening to my system wondering how on earth would it be possible to improve on this quality of sound reproduction.

By the way it took a few hours for the sound to settle down with the new Blaxius as there was a slight rough edge to start with but it seems to have settled down beautifully and quickly within only a few hours use.

Anyway Kudos to Peter another stonking success!!!

Cheers

Paul
 

The problem is that the recording studio cannot do anything with a DSD file. In other words if you record live to a DSD file then you cannot do any mixing. So what the recording studios do is convert from DSD to PCM then they do mixing and whatever else they need to do and then convert back to DSD. So when "half the world" say they love the sound of DSD they are not actually listening to DSD they are listening to PCM/DSD. So it is doubtful that many people if any have actually listened to a pure unadulterated DSD file as such (it would have to be recorded direct to DSD with no mixing!!).

But half the world seems to think that DSD is the best thing ever - which begs the question why would it sound better?  One reason might be that when they listen to a DSD file they are not listening via the  oversampling filter that most CD players still use to play PCM files. So if it sounds better it is actually nothing to with the DSD file at all.

Of course we NOS owners are some of the few that can listen to PCM properly - not many out there are so privileged or lucky.

Cheers

Paul 

Maybe I should do some room sweeps to investigate what is going on. Certainly the picture is not straightforward. All the IPL's I have tried in this room (S5, S4 and S2) sounded fantastic - really those speakers are just amazing regardless of price (and the pain of building them) - they also sound amazing in other rooms I have tried them in. The Audio Note AN/E's sounded good but they had to be set up in an extreme way to achieve a half decent result  -in truth the bass was never right with the an/e's. Before there have been PMC (transmission line) they sounded beyond awful. Then there were Quad ELS they also were dreadful in this room (in our previous house they sounded good). And way back when there were a pair of transmission lines I built mmm not good - that was before the equations / modelling was around to get the design right and too much was down to trial and error.

So I would not say that this room is a panacea for all speakers - not at all but just now with these Orelino's I am a very happy bunny and I shall post separately about latest experiences.

Just to say last night I was listening to some Latin music I have not heard for some time and I was astonished to hear sounds coming from all over the place. Really I have not heard anything like it on any other speakers (I used to listen to this album regularly on the AN/E's and IPL's). Sounds were coming from way outside the normal listening area - I was beginning to wonder if I had fallen asleep and was imagining it. Or just woken up in the middle of a street Fiesta - just sensational sound. But really it had to be down to a particular frequency being reflected off the side walls and creating an odd effect. Very impressive though.

Cheers

Paul

Ha ha from what I have seen there is more chance the "sound guy" is more likely to do a better job after a few drinks than when sober - i.e. either way they do not seem to know what they are doing.

Cheers

Paul

Just possible that interconnects could be one of the more complex and least understood components in hifi. The i/c's I made up use thin high purity (.9999) silver wire that are cotton covered but really important (allegedly) is that they are drawn in a way that gives an extremely smooth exterior. All these factors (material type, purity, smooth exterior, plastics (i.e. absence of as much as possible) are alleged to make a big difference (but of course that could be marketing BS who knows?). Then add to that reflections and traditional electrical measurements (L,C&R). Things get complex. Previous listening I have done (and posted about) indicated that plastic coated conductors is a bad thing.

I tried 50 ohm coax (of dubious quality) with 50 ohm terminations and it did not sound good to my ears. So just out of interest I stripped the plastic coating from the exterior of the cable. That should not have affected the shunt capacitance in the calculation of 50 ohms impedance but I guess it is always possible it could. Anyway for what it is worth I thought it sounded a a bit smoother but the overall character of the sound was not much different. Well it was worth a try anyway.

Overall there seems to be a lot of "black art" out there in the hifi world of interconnects and not so much hard engineering fact.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses though.

Cheers

Paul