Hi,
Turn my back for a day and wow this has gone a bit mad
, so many posts. So to catch up on a few points....
Overall, it was a great day with Nick and Paul. My feeling is that Nick is definitely onto something here. But translating it into something feasible for most computer audio users is going to present a LOT of challenges. I mean, there's always the distinct possibility of screwing up the mobo, and even if everything works as planned, shipping mobos around with sensitive clock parts attached to then doesn't seem very practical to me.
Mani,
Thanks for having the faith to commit to trying this out blind. It certainly works and takes transparency and musicality to a new level IMHO. I am very pleased that you are so happy with the outcome but to be honest knew that it could work it is in the no-brainer camp I think.
The point above is not one to be to be overly concerned about I took my time with your PC. This would always have to be the case but if you understand what your doing these changes can be applied reliably and shipped safely without problem.
I like the idea that you may play digital music to your vinyl dealer when he comes round I can see how that would go unnoticed ! To your vinyl loving friend, the sound of your changed system could be as tempting as a bacon sandwich is to a vegetarian haha.
Let's see what is practicable for us non-electricians. (mobo + a kit + manual?)
Joachim
Joachim hi,
This is not quite the way that it might work but having given this some serious thought for significant period and doing work that has not been mentioned in these posts geared to this. There are a number of options that might be offered. Given my thinking I did smile when I saw this you will find out why in a later post.
So guys, I wasn't telling that my system can do what these MoBo mods do. Not at all. Only that it is clear to me that when descriptions are like that from Paul, it most clearly shows an improvement which is for very real. We all will have "this" better than you, while you have "that" better than he. If this is all brought together we might get there. Whether 10 years is enough ? probably not. But let's continue and try. Our goal ? when something sounds nasty, there's more behind it and it has to be dug out. I'm telling you !
Peter hi,
I actually think you absolutely right, your system does somehow do some of what my PC modifications do. It's funny you should mention this, my visit to yours some time ago got me thinking afterwards about a number of things, and the low hash quality of your system was one of them. How come your system had less of a hash problem than the others I had listened to ? Why did the USB clocks I bought along not work as expected, and bloody hell ,I never wanted to listen to those Patty Grffith tracks again
Thinking about the possible reasons there was less hash in your system, solving the USB clocks performance and focusing for long time on what the common characteristics of my previously rather large library of “problem tracks” all helped point the way to think about the PC.
I honestly don’t really have many “problem tracks left now and since changing the PC for some time have been actively selecting really difficult stuff to reproduce. The reason is because often its these performances that are seat of your pants raw and complex and on the edge in some way and this makes them riveting if they can be reproduced well.
Everything now matters here (again?). Small changes in XX are reflected in the sound. If I change SFS by just 0.2, I hear it. If I change the 'Nervous Rate' in XTweaks, I hear it. I'm using an SSD for the OS and XX at the moment - changing 'copy to XX folder' on/off totally changes the sound. As before, USB cables change the sound. And of course, this is with a NOS1a 'B75'.
There's a lot of tuning to do here now... Argh!
Mani hi,
All setting matter again
but also
, I would say more so in some ways, even down to 0.1SFS and all of the other settings. This is consistent with the theory that is driving the modifications to the PC hardware. Now the good thing is that it is no longer a case of having to used the XX software settings to “match” with the PCs hash signature to give the least offensive overall sound. It is possible to find XX settings that just don’t have anything like to level of “compromise” . Previously I would be tweaking at XX settings almost every track in the hope of getting it right somehow, not now.
As we discussed I would really suggest that you start with Peter's BIOS settings and Peter's W8 software settings as a start point. I don’t think it is coincidence that in the comment above I mentioned that Peters system exhibited some of the qualities of the modified PC and that Peter settings hit a sweet spot with these XX Settings.
Happy tweaking this time, yes time to tweak again but this time I think you may get a satisfying sound at the end of it and not really need to adjust very often after this.
In fact I would say one of the most significant improvements to my system (but I suspect it would need all the previous mods i.e NOS1a and Blaxius to work as well as it does)
Paul,
I agree the match of the NOS1a and the modified PC is supper supper sweet however as I mentioned much earlier in the thread the modification to the PC should improve any system using Firewire, USB or PCIe interfaces to a DAC. On a case by case basis it is very likely that the relative change in sound quality the modified PC delivers with some DACs will be much greater than with the NOS1a. My view is that Peters 1a upgrade actually significantly reduced the susceptibility of the NOS to the PC's "sound signature". In the back of my mind the objective has been to address the "signature" of the PC that we have all been listening to for years. I honestly remember the same hash signature, and as Mani puts it metallic quality, in pc sound when I first started with PC audio and moding M-Audio Transit Cards. so its very nice to see it leaving the sound at last
Regards to all,
Nick.