I´d like some recommendations for a good monitor of around 22/23" with USB ports to connect the mouse and keyboard to the monitor and this way have the PC with the less possible connections.

Would be a good idea a multi-touch monitor?.

What would be the best way to connect the monitor to the PC looking for the less interaction possible with XXHighEnd and the new NOS1 USB?

Juan

Impressive!!, ok I understand your tears

Juan

After installing W7 vanilla these are my first impressions:

In general I agree with other people here about the richer upper bass but

- Not as big differences as some other see with the previous W7 SP1

- Less smoothness and as a result less charm. Now it´s slightly less darker contrary to what it could seems. It´s just a feeling that I couldn´t affirm categorically because the highs are really smooth.

- Soundstage a little less wide

- More presence of the voice that seems more real with better dimensionality in the soundstage, that could explain the light, very light indeed if any, shrink in the width and the apparent lose of smoothness

 -It looks like the recorded sound is reproduced with more fidelity. Maybe the better upperbass gives more presence to the voice and more body in general and that without darkening the sound.

-Obviously the differences are more evident in music with more large spectrum where the notes around the bass region are emphasized (Baremboin-Mi Buenos Aires querido). The piano is really well reproduced.


At the end, as you can see, not big differences but the one with the voice looks of enough importance for me to stay with the vanilla version, mostly thinking that it seems that the differences will be more noticeable in the XX next version.


Music tested:

The Tony Rich Project. WORDS. Tony Rich (LaFace Records)

Mi Buenos Aires querido. Baremboin (Teldec)

Tarres/Serrat, Cansiones. Joan Manuel Serrat (BMG)


Just one more thing: I already asked about it and even I think that there was some post on the issue, but again: Wouldn´t be possible to make the volume increments in 0,5db steps?. In a high resolution system there is a noticeable difference.

PS: Peter, last night I went to bed very late trying to finish the W7 installation, you sent me the activation code at 04:00 AM and I later kept thinking, man this guy goes to bed as late as me or HE WOKE UP ALREADY?. 

Juan

That´s ok Russ, I will...Thanks!

Juan

Does anyone know how to uninstall SP1 when it came originally with the system?. I mean without having to uninstall and reinstall the whole system. It looks that´s impossible...

Non of this works: http://www.ghacks.net/2011/02/23/how-to-uninstall-windows-7-service-pack-1/

Juan

I had two days ago the expiration message in a little laptop with W7 premier with SP1, I asked to a technician here and he told me that forget it, nothing is going to happen. The only way to know it is wait and see, that´s what I´m going to do.

Juan

Thanks Peter, yes we were talking about the Y cables but in that case they were to be used with my Spectron amps in the monoblock configuration (this is basically a stereo amp  that can be bridged inside to be used as monoblock).

I understand that different reactance/feedback problems could appear using a combination of different amps. I don´t have more amps so I can´t test it, maybe someone else in the forum could do it and let us know if the use of two different pairs of monoblocks affect the sound.

I guess that if I want to test the Gainclone I´ll have to buy it or build it  and see if they work in combination with the Specton. Anyway, I´m very happy with Spectron and I feel quite lazy to start with this new path. The only temptation I have is the Gainclone price (if I could build it by myself).

Juan

Hi Peter,

I´d like to know if would be possible to put on the upgraded NOS1 four RCA/XLR outputs (total 8 outputs). I ask it because in case I take the route of the Gainclone I´d like to amplify the speakers with the Spectron monoblocks on the bass part and with a pair of Gainclone monoblocks on the mid/treble part of the speakers. That means four amps.

Thanks, Juan

Thank you Chris, Paul, Per, Nick and any other of you that are helping us, the ones with less technical abilities, to build the Gainclon amps. In my personal case I have to confess that although I´m going to read carefully the documents I have serious doubts that I´ll be able to build it by myself. To begin with I can´t read electrical diagrams and never soldered any electrical thing. I´ll do my best though, and if I can´t do it I´ll look for someone to do it for me (unless any of you kindly want to make me one that I´ll happily pay for, of course).

The configuration I´d use would be a pair of monoblocks to drive the upper (mids/treble/supertweeter) separated part of my speakers. The impedance of this M/T part is 8 ohm, sensitivity is 94 dB 1w/1m using 2.83 V.

The other part of the speakers, upper bass/bass, would be driven by my Spectron class D monoblocks.

I really don´t know if this configuration could have any inconvenience.

To make this configuration possible will need that the NOS1 have another pair of RCA/XLR outputs with the same signal than the ones already there.

Would it be possible when you upgrade my NOS1, Peter?

Thanks again, Juan

Please let me tell you (to all of you, techi-guys ) that we, the poor of us that don´t have enough technical knowledge nor the ability to build such a great amps would like also to have the opportunity to enjoy it. Wouldn´t be anyone of you that write a "Gainclone for Dummies" to make it possible to build it ourselves or even to pass it to someone who could build it for us?. Same thing about the cables and more of the same about almost everything related to the technical stuff so often present here in the forum. Please make a little effort and spread it in an easy and understanding way.

Best always, Juan

Hi Paul,

You´re very welcome and congratulations for your cables and Gainclone amps. I´m eager to see the final pictures.

Juan

I don´t have that W7 problem, maybe just because I use my computer only for the NOS1 and it´s not connected to internet, so no updates either.

Juan

Hi Mike,

I recommend you to take the route of computer music with the new NOS1, that is supposed to sound better even than the current NOS1.
Just build a computer with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bits as silent as possible and with as much memory as possible. Connect it to the NOS1 and forget your preamp and cd player (sorry) or use them, at least the preamp, in your other system. That´s the best I can suggest  from my experience. I have an EMM Labs player resting without use and some time ago I sold also my Supratek Dual tube preamp. And I don´t miss it. 
You won´t regret.

Juan

Well, all that I can say on this regard is that I lived for around four years with the big electrostatics SoundLab A-1. Of course the sound was very clear and big but in my experience it was a little diffuse and a little too big. I had them in a room of 70 square meters.
When I changed to a smaller apartment in downtown I couldn´t take with me the A-1 and then I looked for the same clarity and soundstage but in a more appropriate size. What I found was the Von Schweikert VR-9SE and what I can say is that they have at least the same clarity than the A-1 but with much more precision in the delimitation of the sound images which in my opinion contributes to give a sensation of even more clarity. The soundstage is also huge and I can see here some similarities with an electrostatic speaker because of the way this VR-9SE are built with a rear ribbon following the principle of what Von Schweikert calls ACOUSTIC INVERSE REPLICATION: 
Additional research led to my further discovery that recording microphones encode the musical signal with their overlaying pickup response patterns. After making a series of recordings, using several different microphones, it was obvious during playback that the mics not only had tonal differences related to frequency response errors, but also created different types of imaging patterns. The perception of depth and space was not only dependent on the recording environment and mic placement, but also on the mic's off-axis polar response. For this reason, I decided to engineer an adjustable ambience retrieval system radiating from the rear of the VR speakers, in able to recreate the space and depth heard in the concert hall when the spaced omni method of recording is used.
 Thus, a correctly designed speaker system should project the inverse of the mic signal, acting as a decoder to translate the original sound field. I have termed my design for this decoding as Inverse Acoustic Replication, and the Virtual Reality series of designs was developed from several important concepts related to microphone pick-up patterns. These concepts are based on the consistent phase/frequency relationships in the polar response pattern of the mics, which was later reverse engineered into the VR speaker systems.

For the ones interested I recommend to read the complete article:Speaker Design Theory by Albert Von Schweikert (see beneath the VR-9SE Specifications): http://www.vonschweikert.com/techspecs/5.php

At the end, and in my humble experience, the electrostatics are not the last word in clarity, not always at least, of course it depends also of the rest of the system. Sound is also a personal thing and you can perceive it in a different way than me. If the Quads, or any other speakers, give you what you like, then they are the perfect speakers for you, and that´s what counts.

Juan

And except the Von Schweikert VR-9SE  :

http://www.stereotimes.com/showreport05cespage6.shtml