I found a minor bug. If a mp3 file is played, it can happen, that the track ends suddenly and the next track starts. I used SFS 12. After increasing to SFS 120 the errer didn't occure anymore.

Greetigns

What I appreciate most is the stable and fast operation of XXHE. It was stable wtih 9z83 already but the clicks in between the SFS-package was disturbing. This is gone now and XX has not crashed or stoped working for about the last two days I was using it "again". Stability was the biggest problem for me. I never got it running smoothly. Now it is quick in response and does what it should do. I hope I can keep up this good state of operating.

PS.: And I can surf while playing unattended! Thanks for that!

The sound is very good. New for me is the use of 4x ArcPred (I could only use 1x since my old usb interface only supported 44 48 96 192 khz), which in my opinion gives the most important improvement in sound quality. In compination with peak extension there is a further improvement in naturalness and sound texture. This is not new for you but I want to tell this, because I look from an outside perspektive, beeing not involved to the "process" anymore.
I am not familar with the new tweaks and maybe will have a closer look later. At the moment it really sounds good enough for me

Greetings
Adrian

My 2 cents: I compared my desktop system (i7, 16gb ram, gigabyte MB, Seasonic power supply) to a cheap (500€) samsung i5 laptop. The laptop doesn't sound as good as the desktop but by a very small margine. I can very well imagine a higher quality notebook like a lenovo can sound equally good as a desktop. That is what I am planing to buy at least.

Hi all,

a short report from HE 2013:
I was listening to a lot of systems yesterday. And it was a lot because I didn't listened very long to each system. I was looking for a system which sounds good to me at once, without adjusting to the sound. So doing, I left the most show rooms after a few minutes. I am aware that in that way, I was surely doing wrong to a lot of systems but I was willing to make that sacrifice to find something I realy can enjoy. I will not write what systems were disappointing, that would be not justified considering my approach but there were a hand full of systems that were special and worth mentioning.

One of them was the MBL radial speakers. I entered the crowded presentation room and couldn't see the speakers because of the people. My first thought was, where are the musicians playing this music? Well, after a "closer" listening I could hear it was a reproduction but it really had something of a live concert (classik music was playing). Not a "true to the record" system but I can understand why people would like to buy a system like this, if they can afford it.
The Trio from Avantgarde sounded better than the last time I heard them at the "HE on tour" in Darmstadt. This time there was a bigger room and that is what they need. Interesting new small speakers are available from Avantgarde Acoustics but I couldn't made it to a presentation of them.
The speakers I would buy if I hade to choose from the speakers I have heard at the HE yesterday, independent of the price, would be the Manger Reference Active. They have a very natural sound and you can easily follow the sound of the instruments. Also they are not oversized and over engineered like a lot of the top speakers that were presented.
A set of speakers I would buy my girlfriend are the Manufaktur Kierschke L1 speakers. Small, good quality parts and a nice sound. From their appearence (and I only mean their look),  they would match a tube amp nicely. Electrically probably a transistor would be better for them.
The new HV series from T+A in combination with the T+A solitaire speakers had the most accurate sound I heard. This systems was clean and musical too.

A discovery was the music label "MA Recordings". They have interesting artists and a one point recording system. This CD was played at the Manger presentation:
http://www.marecordings.com/main/product_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=144

Greetings
Adrian

PM send.

Hi,
I will be on the High End in Munich tomorrow. Is there a possibility to listen to the NOS1 by some chance?
Do you guys have some suggestions for me whats worth/interesting looking for?
Greetings
Adrian

I will send the ifi back. I listened to some difficult records (very subtile room informations) which I have listened this afternoon with the ifi. Without it, there is all the resolution and air I know from my system. With ifi drums sounds hard and wooden. My abolute admission Peter, that you got it right away, just from my description of the sound! At least I saved 200$ and my systems sounds better than before (All that air and information I can enjoy now)

I have listened to the ifi USBPower for several hours now and just took it out again. The same impression as before: less bright, a little more three dimensional and a more accented bass BUT I am not sure anymore if this is better. With the ifi it sounds also more grainy and there is some air and midrange detail missing. I do not know if this is the same effect that made the sound of xx without "peak extension" sounds more fresh (which turned out to be distortions)? At least I have more doubts now that there is a real improvement. I will listen without ifi now for a while and see...

Here is some merchandise blabla from ifi about the USBPower:


According to this you can break the ground conntection to reduce noise. Further you can transmit the data in a different cable than the power supply. This maybe could do some good, even if there is no power supply needed by the connected device.

If the hard drive is usb 3.0 you will lose perfomance. In how far that influences sound quality I can not say. I guess it will not be better. Usb 2.0 devices "should" normally work on usb 3.0 outputs but that is not always the case. If the ifi USBPower works the other way around and filters noise that is coming from the connected device, then maybe yes. But I can much more imagine that if the ifi USBPower works for Alain and his NOS1, than that is the place where it should be placed first.

Yes. If not, something is wrong.


A good and save way to find out if there is an improvement is to just live with the new device for a while. It takes more time than instant A-B testing but after some days of listening to only one setup you will immediately recognise the difference if you go back to the old set up. I would suggest use the motherboard usb-out and the ifi USBPower for a while and then remove it from your audio chain.
Another good indicator is the very first impression. So the first subtle feeling you get, right after installing and hearing the new device for the first seconds. This feeling most of the time turns out to be true for me. After an hour of listening and maybe A-B-ing one might to tend to mistakes, like thinking the bass has more punch as I did.

Sorry, I didn't want to push you into opening the NOS1 and disconnect the power supply... I meant just use it with the NOS1 as it is and see what happens. No problem if you do not like to do so. Thanks for your sharing!

I use a North Star Extremo DAC with a North Star USB->I2S Interface. The interface draws its power from USB, hence a recognizable effect (good or bad) of the ifi USBPower is plausible.


Thanks for moving the post to a new thread. It is more appropriate that way.
The bass thing could be because of the record I was hearing. I didn't heard it for a while. Maybe my new amplification was contributing here. Later I heard a record where I was expecting this new kind of bass but the bass was normal. I would take back this statement until I have done further listening tests. Whats clear is, the highs are less sharp and there is a better "order" in the soundstage. But I do not want to fool myself. I am still suspicous if everything is better or only some parts of the sound are different.
This kind of sound I am hearing, reminds me on my old usb-spdif interface, which had an own power supply. It was less sharp and had a more threedimensional sound (but other thechnical flaws and that was why I replaced it)

It still makes sense to me. A negative effect on the signal itself should be isolated that way. If you like Alain to make the experiment, I am looking foreward for your findings!

I have just receifed an ifi micro iUSBPower supply. It is 200$ and it can be connected between the PC and the DAC. It has a ultra low noise power supply for the USB input of the DAC and isolates the PC from the DAC.
The effect is clearly hearable and far from subtile. Digital brightness is removed, it sounds more threedimensional and the bass hits like a hammer. A further advatage is, one can connect a notebook and hopefully will get the same sound from it as from a PC. I will try this in the next days and see, if there is still a sound difference between PC and notebook as a source.

The biggest problem of the room is, it is too small (17qm) but it has a good proportion to have the resonances distributet over some frequencies (and I can use it for audio only!) Your opinion ist most welcome peter. No offence taken
Lets say changing the room is no option.

With tweak you mean tweak in the electric domain?