The instruments in the back of the hall sounded more distant while the instruments near you will be very presence but can be sometime fatigue with extended listening. This is particularly true for NOS1 USB playing back “You Look Good to Me” by the Oscar Peterson Trio. NOS1 USB produced a much greater sense of ride cymbal and hi-hat’s presence before you than the Alpha + Lynx. I have to lower the volume by one notch to avoid tendency of fatigue.
I have listened to this remastered track (You Look Good to Me- Oscar Peterson Trio) over and over and can only say that Winston Ma of FIM must have applied certain unique remastering techniques to improve dynamic range aiming at recreating excitement of this fine jazz music. I have an impression that Winston was trying to replicate "analog sound" to present transparency, detailed timbre and transience. During the last part of this track, the reproduction of cymbal sound can turn into distortion if the playback system is not resolving enough. I have high respect on Winston Ma and his FIM label and do not think that "You Look Good to Me" can be his remastering flaw. One needs a comparatively more resolving system to get this remastered track played back right. So it became my reference track. I feel that if I get this track right and move me, then I have the right system.
So, all summarized in one little phrase : I 200% agree with all you said. I know the albums too, and indeed this is what happens.
But our fun is : You NOS1-USB does nothing ...
Ok, it transfers digital to analogue, but will show THD figures which are real, IOW really representative for what it is fed with.
And so we must be at the outside of it ...
Ok, what would you say if I add some 20K of value to it ? Still not that half a million of your undervalued poor system (I wonder haha), but at some stage you will get there. Just from the music it will produce ... Just watch it ...
I will send you an email about something to try out. It may work, it may not. For me it works because I was disturbed about the exact same one thing which disturbed you. Yea, blame that recording. But I have been skipping too many of them lately.
If you go through the roof (in the positive sense) because of it, just let it know in here, but don't tell what it is you applied. When you don't go through the roof, also let it know as honest as you were and are. But again, don't tell what it is you applied.
I have applied what Peter suggested on a PM. After a serious listening, I can reaffirm that the application works perfectly fine for me. It should work for other as well but only Peter can make the official announcement. As promised, I am not in the position to reveal what I did. So stay tuned.
The only hint that I can give is that it has nothing to do with NOS1 USB. After the application to fix the “high” frequency syndrome that disturbed me on “You Look Good to Me”, I can feel the music with less analytical presentation. Music in front of me comes with more body with round texture and liquidity. There is some trade off. The image and staging are slightly diminished. However, this can be subjective and only be my personal view. To take sound stage out of the equation, I and Peter coincidentally conducted the same listening technique – “around the corner listening”. I stepped out of the listening room, left the door wide open and stood by the door around the corner as if I was about to approach the entrance but stop right there. So what you will hear from that position is the music around the corner where sound stage, image and other dual effects are out of the picture. What counted are tonal balance, rhythm, dynamic range, transience and sound texture. I wanted to hear how interesting and involving the music sounded. Did my body move and gradually pull myself into the room and swing with the music ? Did I feel like the live performance is happening in the room ?
The result is a rewarding one. I have a very beautiful playback for this unique track of Winston Ma and I am very happy with it. As I said, if I get this track right, all the rest in my HDDs should be fine.
I can say that I am a happy man now.
Kind regards,
Praphan
Show Posts
