Well if what I experienced into the early hours of the morning was a curse, then sign me up for eternal damnation.

The sound was like nothing I'd ever experienced from ANY replay system ever. Once you've gotten yours upgraded, and running 0.9z-6, you'll understand.

Unfortunately, I can't find the words to do justice to what I've been hearing. It's just utterly, utterly sweet, musical and soooo believable. A BIG step up from the v1 NOS1 and 0.9z-5-2.

Mani

Firstly, sorry it's taken me a while to continue with this thread.


Quite honestly, I was a little disappointed with the asyn-USB NOS1, which kind of made me refrain from posting my initial thoughts. Oh don't get me wrong, when I first got it all working, it sounded very good. But it didn't give me that 'wow' feeling like I had the first time I listened to the original NOS1.

And I'm really glad I waited. I've spent most of the day (and yesterday? - I can't remember) exchanging emails with Peter to figure out a couple of problems. But what transpired was the discovery of a major, major problem - my computer was not allowing XXHE to take full control of the OS and 'do its thing'. I thought it was, but with Peter's help discovered that it wasn't. Anyway, after a whole day of trying things, I decided to try loading XXHE onto my other dedicated music PC. This time everything worked out fine. The 'Minimise OS' in the new version of XXHE worked fine.

I've moved the PC that works into my main room and am listening to the NOS1 right now. And what can I say? I think the best way of describing the sound of the new async-USB NOS1 to the original is that this one is so much more musical. It still has all the detail, but you just forget listening to this because you get so pulled into the music.

I could sit here and write about how amazing Vaya Con Dios sounds right now... blah, blah, blah... but I won't. Actually, I'm finding it hard to write anything constructive. The sound I'm getting from the async-USB NOS1 is utterly, utterly amazing. What else can I say?

There are a couple of points that I think are worth mentioning though.

Firstly, I'm not sure how much of this amazing performance is down to the new NOS1 interface or actually the 'Minimise OS' function in XXHE. All I can say is that before I managed to get this function to work, the NOS1 sounded good, but not particularly much better than the original.

The second point is that I'm 'only' using 8x Arc Prediction. Peter needs to do a little more work on the USB driver to allow for 16x AP (i.e. 705.6/786KHz). I'm not sure if this will provide much more of an improvement - I can't imagine how - but we'll see.

On a final note, I just want to thank Peter for all the time he's taken to help me get things sorted over the weekend. I've never experienced this level of collaboration/help from any supplier/manufacturer of, well, anything before. I feel totally privileged to be member of the 'Phasure club'.

I'll post more thoughts/experiences when I've got anything new to say. For now, listening has become a totally new experience... again!

Mani.

NO... 'Minimise OS' has been activate all the time (you can probably see this from the log files I sent you last night).

YES... the 'LAN On' button works even so.

OK, prio to the Qs in your PM.

Mani.

I don't understand this. With 'Copy to XX Drive' checked, it takes 11 seconds to load a 730MB album from the NAS drive. On my machine, it then takes another 40 seconds or so for the music to start playing in Unattended mode. OK, so maybe I can save a few seconds if I had the music on a local SATA drive, but really is this such a big deal?

Mani.

Hey Peter, I thought that the 'LAN On' button wasn't working in my beta release. I tried it last night and it didn't seem work, but there must have be an issue on my side because it works fine now.

A working 'LAN On' button is all I need actually - the process doesn't have to be automatic.

Sorry for any confusion. Feel free to delete this thread...

Mani.

I've been playing around and trying a few things this morning. And it's pretty obvious to me that stopping LAN services (unchecking the 'Keep LAN Services' box) improves the sound quite a bit. BUT... I have all my music sitting on a NAS drive in the basement, and need my LAN working to access it. Right now, I'm manually copying all the music that I think I'm going to listen to in a session to a folder on my computer hard-drive, and then allowing LAN services to stop. If I change my mind about what I want to listen to, I have to reboot the system as the LAN services do NOT resume once the XX GUI is back up in Attended - once they're off, they're off.

My procedure isn't actually as arduous as it may sound, and is definitely worth it for the increased SQ. However, it would be great if LAN services automatically resumed as soon as the XX GUI is back up. I would then just use 'Copy to XX drive' and allow the LAN services to stop during replay knowing that I'll have access to my NAS drive once the music stops playing.

Peter, an easy thing to do? Obviously low priority but would be really nice, as I have no intention of storing my music locally - I love having access to it all over the house from a single source.

Mani.

Hey, even though it got it completely the wrong way around, I'll take this as a small victory. My system back then obviously needed the extra sizzle...

But it's an important point. I'm sure like many others here, I find hearing small differences and nuances quite easy (my wife is always amazed). BUT... I find it really difficult to decide which sounds best or most accurate. And as I've said sooooooo many times in the past, this is where some sort of 'control' (we might call this a 'reference', but it's not meant to imply 'the best' or anything) is important.

Mani.

Initials thoughts on SQ to come, but just wanted to give you all a heads up first.

Later...

Mani.

Hey Bert, I don't really know. Maybe there's a lot more to all this than meets the eye. In case you didn't know, the chief designer at Spectral is Keith Johnson, who is very well respected... oh and happened to be one of the designers of my PM2 ADC/DAC.

Mani.

Hey Peter, you must be working (too) hard on something?

I read your posts before you deleted them, and tend towards your way of thinking. However, I think we've got be careful not to alienate anyone who doesn't.

I wonder if your comments would be more suitable in a thread/area dedicated to the optimisation of a whole system that uses a NOS1 specifically as its source? But then again, we don't want the forum to become one for just NOS1 users... although, quite frankly, I have no idea why anyone who can afford one hasn't yet bought one...

Mani.

Continuing with my 'super-fast amplifier' saga, something has occurred to me.

Some of the highest bandwidth amps around are from Spectral. Now, Spectral are totally adamant that you need to use a Spectral preamp and Spectral/MIT interconnects with their power amps. The warranty is void if you do not do this.

The reasoning here is that the power amp has a bandwidth of DC-3MHz. It will amplify any ultra-high-frequency signal/noise that enters it. The Spectral preamp and the Spectral/MIT cables ensure that all ultra-high-frequency signals are filtering out before reaching the power amp.

You may ask why Spectral don't just lower the bandwidth of their amps then. Well, this would reduce their speed/slew-rate. So by having a high bandwidth, but filtering the signal, they manage to have ultra-fast amps that don't expend all their energy on amplifying HF signals and blow up as a result. Apparently, Spectral amps really do blow up if not used with the 'correct' preamps and cables.

Now... Arc Prediction actually creates ultra-high-frequency signals/noise. The NOS1 will pass these on perfectly to the power amp (if no preamp/vol-pot is used, as recommended by its Maker). Wouldn't this be a really bad idea with an ultra-high-bandwidth power amp???

Thoughts please...

Mani.

Yes I tend to agree. That's why I have two NOS1s 

Of course, getting the best value for money is a big consideration (again why I have two NOS1s). But for me, like many other people here I'm sure, time is a big consideration also. It takes me an inordinate amount of time to think these sorts of things through. Luckily, it's been summer and I've had a lot more downtime than normal. But that all changes in a week or so, and I'm kind of keen to have at least made a decision on the way forward before then.

Mani.

Joachim, my Berning 300B is not used to drive my speakers - it's used purely as a headphone amp. I hardly ever use it and have decided to put it up for sale.

Your question should address my motivation/reason to replace my Sanders Magtech amp, which I've said I really, really like drving my Quads. Well, I am NOT getting rid of the Magtech - it's a phenomenal amp.

What I am looking to do is replace the Rotel Michi amp in my study (where I also have a NOS1 and the smaller Quad speakers). I could take 'the path well trodden' and buy another Magtech. Or I could take 'the path less worn', put my current Magtech in the office and buy an even 'better' amp for my main room.

So in a way, you could say that it's the highend drug/virus at work. Although maybe the 'highend' label is not accurate. If I can get bridged gainclones to work well, I'll happily go with them over a Soulution or DartZeel... hardly a 'highend' solution.

Mani.

We've finally got 100Mb in the UK!

I'd be interested in knowing how other countries fare...

Mani.

EDIT: Just changed the image to be inline with others on this thread.

Yes, ultimately me too.

However, right here, right now, I want to hear the specific character of the NOS1, with as little changed as possible. Once I've got this done, if the sound doesn't suit me, then I'll 'tune' it to something that does.


I'm taking the red pill - I want to hear how deep the NOS1 rabbit-hole goes...

Mani.