Just in case here you have a nice review of the Spectron:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue44/spectron.htm

Juan

Talking again about speakers cables I´d like to know your opinion on this kind of Remote Sense cables, used mostly, but not only, with the Spectron class D amps. Have you ever hear about it  and the way this speaker cables are integrated as a system with the amps in order to minimize the distortion and noise?.

http://www.spectronaudio.com/remotesense.htm

and here for the most technically prepared among you:

http://www.tubecad.com/2010/03/blog0184.htm

As always I´m more interested in the audio part than in the scientific part of the issue, but just in case I give you all the information I could got about it.
Juan

Mani,

What about Spectron class D amplifiers to drive your Quad?. I used it with big SoundLab A-1 electrostatics and worked fantastically well.
Now I´m using the Spectron as monoblocks to drive my Von Schweikert VR-9SE and I´m very satisfied with the smooth and detailed sound, terrific bass and huge soundstage. The Spectron works in perfect combination with the NOS1.

You can get the Spectron Musician III MK2 for around $3.500 (at today currency rates that means less than 2.500€ or around 2.125 UK Pounds) and you can buy two and get them as monoblocks.

Here you have some technical information:

http://www.spectronaudio.com/tech1.htm

here as well:

http://www.spectronaudio.com/musicianIII.htm

and here as monoblocks:

http://www.spectronaudio.com/monoblocks.htm

I hope it helps, Juan

Hi Paul and Peter, I can´t help technically about the advantages of bear cables over the insolated ones, all I can say is that the Anti-Cables are a bargain considering the quality of sound vs the price which is ridiculously cheap. BUT, although they´re good cables even without considering the price, they are not better cables, at least in my system, than the Clear Day or the Grover Huffman, the other two cables that I recommended. The sound is less refined, detailed and less dimensional compared with these latter cables.

Anyway Paul, using absolutely bare cables can be a good investigation idea but in real life it doesn't seem of much utility, unless you want to see how looks a fried cat. As you know, the Anti-Cables are insolated by a very thin red lacquer coat. I used the Anti-Cables as interconnection and speaker cables and both ways, twisted and spaced, as you can read here: http://www.anticables.com/technical.html. I couldn´t tell any difference in sound.

Another consideration about cables. I think, unlike other opinions, that there is a difference in between different power cords using them with the NOS1. I´m going to confirm it using also some Grover Huffman cables that I´ll order next week, but so far, with some power cords that I used it seems to me that yes, there are differences.

Best always, Juan

Hi Scroobius,

I´m not a GainClone user but I would recommend a few of high quality speaker cables at a good price.

Copper:

-  Anti-Cables from Paul Speltz. The cheapest ones:http://www.anticables.com/products.html
Good cables at an extraordinary price. The Anti-Cables may be returned up to 30 days after purchase.

Silver:

- Clear Day cables: http://www.cleardaycables.com/
Detailed and smooth, great cables. These are the speaker cables I´m using now in combination with the Grover interconnection cables. You have 30 days to test the cables.

Hybrids

- Grover Huffman cables: made of copper, silver and aluminun http://www.groverhuffman.com/home
The best interconnection cables I´ve tried. Detailed, natural, big soundstage. Great in my opinion to use with the NOS1. I have to try their speaker cables yet. Gover offers 60 days to test the cables and if you don´t like it you can return it. I bet you won´t.

As you see I´m using a combination of copper and silver. I´ve tried also silver for the bass part of the speakers and copper for the mid/highs with good results. At the end all depends on the rest of the system to balance it well.

I hope it helps, Juan

Fortunately it´s still intact and sounds great, it seems that NOS1 doesn´t care much about English


Very often I was looking for that lack of distortion but it was mostly when the sound was already distorted. With the NOS1 I wasn´t looking explicitly for intensity or lack of distortion, I was just listening in an enjoyable way and it was because of that that I realized that there wasn´t any distortion and that it was sounding very natural. That´s the gift the NOS1 gave me, relax and the pleasure of music.

I appreciate your words!

Hi Peter, thanks for your advise on the disks placement. Do you think that the sound is affected by the disks position?, I´ve took a look at google to see what could I find on this issue and there´s a general concern about the heat problem in the vertical position but not if the disck could be affected in the way they work. If I understand you well the problem will arise after some years of work.
The case I use is designed to work with the disks in vertical position and the optimun ventilation is made in that position. Anyway now I´ve tried the other position and it works fine also, no differences in sound at first glance, for sure it´s not worse though. I´m checking the heat to see if they go up and so far I see the same temperatures except the motherboard that´s 3ºC or 4ºC higher.

Thank you Paul. I agree with your description on how the NOS1 illuminates even the worst quality recordings and on the intensity and perfection it reproduces the best ones.

About the HDCD it seems that there´s more than one opinion about some problem with the way XX play it.

Cheers, Juan

Thank you Mani for your kind words!

Juan

1000 HOURS ON THE PHASURE NOS1


After 1000 hours on the Phasure NOS1, I´d  like to share my impressions with you all.

I wouldn´t like to compare the NOS1 to my previous dac, the EMM Labs CDSD SE/DCC2 SE, for various reasons, some even sentimental reasons, I have a special affection for the EMM Labs for all the satisfactions it has given me over the last years . The experience as a music lover, or in this case as an audiophile, tells me that reached a certain level I shouldn´t use the comparative expression "better than".  I know that all I can say is that something makes me more or less satisfied or that I get more or less pleasure in listening.

Suffice it to say in this regard that for the moment I have not returned to listen again the EMM Labs, simply, and although I find strange to say it, because I don´t miss it.

These opinions are not intended to be a technical examination, for which I am not the most capable,  there are others in the forum doing an excellent job on this regard fighting against one or another parameter to get a little better sound every time. We take advantage of all their efforts. Rather to give you the point of view of someone who likes to make everything sound well, even till the exasperation, I´d like to give you this time the view of someone who feel the need of being touched by the music to be moved, to be accompanied, to live with it.

I have to say that the first word that comes to my mind when I´m listening the NOS1 is SUFFICIENT, it isn´t a technical word, nor a poetic one, it´s a word that expresses in a simple way two things at once, limitation and conformity (that´s not exactly the same as resignation). Nothing is perfect, we know it, but there is a point where you can "be" quietly  enjoying it. By that I mean what others say with " I could live with it",  even more, I have not the concerns, the need, of changing urgently this or that to reach the last grade of excellence that never ends to achieve. That happened to me too many times in the past.

Of course throughout this time I realized that changing some parameter, (Juli @ latency, clock resolution or SFS, to name just a few) the sound changes, but I have to say that the changes occur within an environment of excellence that no longer provokes anxiety. In my opinion, with the NOS1 you're there, not in the absolute perfection, but in the emotional state where simply you enjoy the music.

 
NOS1 PROS

I wouldn´t like to repeat what others have said so I will list the features that impressed me most of NOS1, perhaps, as I mentioned earlier, in a more emotional than a technical way:

- There is more music than in any other source that I have tried before, including turntables. When I say more music I mean not only more information, more sounds, but more information in the form of music. More wealth of music. At the end more emotion.

- This information is an information with quality. Each sound has the right personality at the frequency at which it plays. The highs are musical highs, like the bass or the mids. I find no lack of intensity or distortion at any frequency.

- It's a natural sound, a sound that sounds like "true", the instruments and voices seem to sound like in reality.

- The sounds are interrelated in a coherent way, interlinked with each other in a higher unity but showing their individual personalities.

- The soundstage is superb in all dimensions, height, width and depth and the instruments and the performers are well delineated. The scene has no empty spaces, it´s “full” of music. It seems like there is a feeling of material relief.


In summary, as I said before, the sound is so good, so SUFFICIENTLY good that the body asks for listening, not to change this or that to improve it. At least with the current parameters and hardware I´m using now.
I have to say that I have not used too many variations on the parameters that have been used by others (Peter and someone else) and that this time with the NOS1 has been used mostly to breaking it. Yet I can say that the sound reached at the present is of a quality, of a level, unknown to this day for me.

Another thing I would like to emphasize is that the NOS1 is a unity with the XXHighEnd but also with the PC, in this sense I think that the quality of both, the dac and the software, deserve a "transport" (PC) fully optimized to work together with them and with an exclusive dedication.


NOS1 CONS

The cons I can find in the NOS1 are mainly physical and do not refer to the sound it produces.

- The i/o cables have a rare configuration  and could even have some interference problems between the power cable, the interconnects and the DVI cable. If that happens or not I really don´t know. In this sense we can avoid interferences using an L-shaped adapter for the power cord and moving it away from the other cables as much as possible. Nevertheless it is a strange and uncomfortable configuration.

- The case does not have any antivibration treatment. I personally use weights and spikes to minimize vibrations.

- It´s still unknown for me if the quality of the DVI cable has any sound influence.


To conclude, I want to make some reference to XXHighEnd.

- Reaching this stage of XXHighEnd evolution the sound quality is first class, especially if combined with NOS1. Using a high resolution system the variation of volume shows a great influence in the quality of sound. I think it should be possible to vary the volume in steps of 0.5 db or at a maximum of 1db.  To achieve the optimum volume requires smaller steps than the current 1.5dB.

- Using an HDCD (eg Mike Garsons Jazz-Hat, HDTracks ) requires a volume increase of at least 1.5dB and even  to 3dB to reach the level of sound of the same track without enabling the HDCD. Furthermore, the HDCD sound seems lacking vitality and is more opaque and compressed than the same track without HDCD. For all of this I think that HDCD has not yet achieved the quality in XXHighEnd that have the HDCD disks. On the other hand I don´t care very much about it due to the shortage of this kind of format (relatively speaking).

- The superior quality of sound  at 384 bits is evident compared to other resolutions (eg. Ron Carter HDTracks, 96/384 bits).

- I´ve noted an improvement in the bass with the last 0,9-z5-2 version (eg. Inch Worm, Patricia Barber´s Café Blue), it´s more sharp and deep, and in some way I noted also what looks as a light improvement in the soundstage and in the general sound. That makes me emphasize that the word SUFFICIENT doesn´t mean in any sense that I don´t enjoy or look for light improvements.


At  the end I can only add that I am proud to be one of the owners of a NOS1 and that I am grateful to Peter and all who collaborate here for giving me the opportunity to enjoy music like never before.

Thanks, Juan

You're welcome!

For those interested in learning about hardware and how to build a PC I'd recommend a couple of books that are probably very familiar to most of you, but just in case. These books, although easy to read and written even for the less experienced in this area among us, can give you enough knowledge to build your own PC:

- Upgrading and Repairing PCs, Scott Mueller http://www.quepublishing.com/imprint/series_detail.aspx?st=87406
This is a great book and has it all on the hardware. You can find versions in different languages and can be bought directly from the Scott´s Forum at a cheaper price. Amazon UK price is around 20GBP (19 Edition)


- Build it. Fix it. Own it: A Beginner's Guide to Building and Upgrading a PC, Paul McFedries http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Fix-Own-Beginners-Upgrading/dp/0789738279/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307181878&sr=8-3
Teaches you about the components and how to built different types of PCs.

Another interesting article, this time about SSD used as a cache: Intel Smart Response Technology Explained

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Intel-Smart-Response-Technology-Explained/1292/1

I think that could be a good idea if I add some more information once in a while on the subjects covered by the "How I´ve build a PC for XXHighEnd..." post in the form of articles that I´ve found in the web or the new components that could be more up to date to maintain it helpful. I invite all of you to post here whatever you find interesting.

Today I´d like to post information about Memory because, as you know, it´s an important issue for XXHighEnd. It´s from Hardware Secrets and is titled "Understanding Ram timing" http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Understanding-RAM-Timings/26

I hope it helps

Juan

Thanks Peter, now I´ve put some more pictures in the previous post including one with spikes that I forgot before (thanks Eric, you´re right it gives more room for the cables)