Let me add something to the previous post, when you change from one dac to the NOS1 you are not only changing dacs, you are also changing the whole way to reproduce music. You are changing from reproducing directly cds to reproducing music (with XXHighEnd) stored in hard drives. That´s the final idea and has to be have in consideration. On this regards reproducing music with a computer AND with the NOS1 is the best way to reproduce music I´ve found so far, including turntables.

Juan

PS. Of course some dacs in the list are also combined with computers, maybe others opinion can complement mine.

Hi Peter, I´m in the first place in the list with the EMM Labs CDSD SE/DCC2 SE and want to confirm that, although the EMM Labs is considered among the best ones in the world, I don´t regret at all to have replaced it with the NOS1. It is not a matter of price, the EMM Labs costed when I bought it 24.000€, it is a matter of sound quality. The NOS1 is far better than anything I´ve tried so far and I´ve tried some other first class cd players along the time.

Happy to be here and happy and proud to be a NOS1 owner.

Thanks,
Juan

Hey Paul, great sound in this album. Thanks a lot!

Juan

Mine is physically  similar but inside is a Seagate 7200rpm 230Gb, it is USB 2.0 and it is externally powered. I have it from around 5 years or more.

Sure! we all can make a testers gang and "buy" a different hdd each one of us, so no one will be the only baddie 


Uhmmm, then maybe mine is also awful...and I was thinking that my sound was terrific... I need to listen personally your system asap!, jeje

Alain, it doesn´t matter if you use it in a Raid configuration or not to preserve the 5 years warranty, it is not mandatory to use it in RAID. At least I haven´t read anything about it.

The Constellation seems similar to the WD but it has much less feedbacks than the WD and if you read the Western Digital WD RE4 WD5003ABYX feedbacks e.g. in Newegg you´ll see that this drive is considered a kind of Rolls Royce of the hdds among the users. Many of the people there, in Newegg, use it as an independent driver.
On the other hand now I use a Seagate Barracuda (LaCie) as Playback Drive and the sound is very good, but the same way I did with the other components in my music system I like to investigate further and, why don´t try this WD hdd if it is one of the best?. I mean considering the special facts like that it is built thinking on vibrations and the other things we were talking about.
Of course I´ll share my experience with it, I´ll get it here in a few more days.


I can return it in 7 days with no questions about it if I keep the hdd and the box in perfect condition. Here is where I bought it (but in Pixmanía Spain). In this site the Satisfait ou remboursé is for 15 days, so even better than where I bought it http://www.pixmania.com/fr/fr/8165562/art/western-digital/disque-dur-interne-re4-wd.html

Juan

Hi Peter, 24/7 is interesting just because it is a proof of reliability and roughness, also because I usually have the music Pc turned On 24/7 like the NOS1 and the rest of the system, of course I can turn Off the external drives.

Enterprise drives are more reliable and protected against vibrations which is always important.
Here are some extracts to save you the time to read the whole document (Intel Paper) that I put in the other post:

Enterprise-class drives generally incorporate internal mechanisms that allow faster data access and retrieval. These features include heavier actuator magnets, faster spindle speeds, denser magnetic media, and faster drive electronic components with more cache memory and faster hard drive micro-processor speeds.

-Vibrations
The source of vibration that can affect drive operation can come from moving components within a system, such as fans and neighboring hard drives. Vibration from fans can be transmitted through the system chassis to hard drives, and vibration from a drive can be transferred to another drive, or from the drive to the system and then reflected back to the originating drive. While data is read from or written to a disk, these vibrations can push the read/write head out of alignment with the data track. Failure to compensate for vibration induced misalignment can result in data that is written or read off track. This increases the possibility that an off-track write could corrupt data in an adjoining track, or that an off-track read could result in incorrect data or data that cannot be located or read. Some forms of misalignment compensation can have a dramatic impact on performance due to the time required to spin the data target location back under the read/write head. Performance loss of up to 90% has been observed in some tests. The amount of performance loss is dependent on the frequency and strength of the vibration.

- Misalignment detection
Most drives incorporate multiple “servo wedges” in the track. Most desktop drives do not have dedicated servo and data path processors or the firmware compensation algorithms that make them more susceptible to RV (Rotational Vibrations) errors, which results in poor performance due to vibration. Most enterprise class drives have dedicated servo and data path processors with servo algorithms in the drive firmware to enforce this compensation. Enterprise class drives are able to more effectively detect and compensate for vibration.

- Enterprise class drives use ECC for data passing through drive memory and may use additional error detection methods for data transmitted within the drive electronics. The form of this error detection and correction capability is usually proprietary to the drive vendor. Desktop drives do not have this data protection feature within drive memory, If a data error occurs in memory it will not be detected. The error will be transmitted to the next stage in the drive electronics, and the error will be propagated to the drive media or to the host device. This type of error becomes very difficult to detect and can affect operating system stability or client data reliability.



Thanks Alain, yes the hdd I´m thinking on is a SATA drive. The problem could come with the ERC (Error Recovery Control), for more information please read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_recovery_control.

I think that I´ll get the WD RE4 WD5003ABYX 500GB drive anyway to test it, I have 7 days to return it if I get problems with it. http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Cache-Enterprise-Drive/dp/B003SALVN4

Juan

Thanks Peter, too late because I´ve already ordered it. About using the USB 3.0 QuickDeck with the USB 3.0 hub I don´t see a reason to use it if you can connect the powered QuickDeck directly to an USB 3.0 port in the mb. Well, the only reason could be that I have already the USB 3.0 pen drive (Galleries) connected to the hub and if I want to use it I´ll have two USB 3.0 connected at the same time in the mb. If that matters I don´t know.
What worries me more is about the Enterprise drive I mentioned before, I´m not sure if that´s a good choice because if it has some bad sector at any time will be difficult to recover it due to the firmware which is prepared for RAID with a short time (8 seconds) to recover the drive making it unusable.
Other possibility is this hdds that is prepared for running 24/7 http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=150

Juan

I´m, once in a while looking how to update the hardware in my music Pc. Lately it is the turn of hdds and now I´m thinking if the Enterprise hdd could be a good choice. Although now I´m primarily thinking on using it for Playback Drive could it be also an interesting election for other uses in the music Pc.

In my music Pc there are four different kind of drives determined by the use I give them. As a general rule for a hdd the faster the better, but to be more specific this is what I have, well I better would say I should have because e.g. I use an USB 3.0 (30Gb) pendrive for Galleries instead an SSD:

- One hdd where the OS and XXHighEnd resides. This must be fast and not necessarily big (120-300Gb)

- One hdd where the Galleries resides. Must be fast. Can be a SSD drive, 60-120Gb can be enough.

- Several hdds where the music resides. Big (2Tb or more) and not necessarily as fast as the others.

- One Playback Drive hdd. This is the one that condition the SQ. How must it be?, I´m not sure besides that it must be fast and not necessarily big, that´s why I´m going to try different connections and hdds. There are different experiences here in the forum that I read. There are some people having good results with hdds with 5900rpm or 7200rpm, SATA II, SATA III, eSata, USB 2.0 or USB 3.0, with more or less cache size, etc. At the end not a final conclusion on what is best.
Of course you can use an external USB 3.0 hdd for Playback drive and forget about it but I want to be sure what is the best choice.

In order to try the different connections I´ve bought two external cases with USB 3.0 and eSATA, this way I can check the differences in SQ with different drives and connections :

http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/sata-quickdeck-pro

http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/sata-quickdeck

Why I´m thinking about Enterprise hdds?. Because they have some important qualities: they are fast, reliable, can be run 24/7 and have extra protection against vibrations. The problem is that they are primarily made for RAID and I don´t want to use it in RAID and I don´t know either if this kind of hdd can be used as an stand alone hdd. Some people say yes, others say not. Some help on this issue is welcome..
By the moment I´d use this Enterprise hdd as Playback Drive to see how it is going on, I´m thinking on this hdd:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136697.

Here it is an Intel Paper that explains the differences between Enterprise drives and Desktop drives. I think that can be important also for Sound Quality, please read mostly the parts about vibration and Data integrity (1.1.4.2, 1.1.4.3, 1.1.4.4, 1.1.4.5): http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/enterprise_class_versus_desktop_class_hard_drives_.pdf

Best regards,
Juan

Hi Maxi, I did not know you lived in Madrid, if you are interested in knowing the NOS1 and you want to share our experience I´ll be delighted. I do not know if anyone else is in Madrid or even in Spain, but if that´s the case I invite those interested to contact with my personal mail.

Btw, are you using a Playback Drive?. I´m not sure, but using it avoids many of the unwanted issues.

Cheers, Juan

I´m my case why not?. I don´t have still a tablet and the option of this keyboard could complement what I use now: the monitor and a PS2 mouse. I avoid at the same time the use of the USB. I´d only have to turn off the monitor and could have this bluetooth keyboard in my listening seat. A cheap solution while I buy a tablet, and, as you said, once I get the tablet I could use it also with this keyboard.

Juan

It remembers me the typical remotes we all use with our music systems, tv, etc. Even if you still need to use the monitor or tablet this remote is easy to have near you to raise or lower the volume etc. I wonder why we´d need a bigger one bothering around, as a plus it is cheap at 25€ (if it works). Well, just a personal taste.

Juan

What about this little device?, could be a good remote keyboard...
http://www.asiapads.com/product_info.php?cPath=183_196_257&products_id=2281&language=en

Juan

Yes, but I need the Bluetooth dongle in the PC. Can I use your dongles?

Juan

Thanks George, I think is easier to connect/disconnect the USB and turn on/off the monitor, that´s not a big deal anyway.

Peter, about the bluetooth keyboard/mouse casually I received yesterday some information from a dealer. Take a look at this: http://www.fentek-ind.com/kbsmtpub.htm#kbsmtpbtb

To tell you the truth I don´t think that I´d buy it, also because the shipment cost from USA increments substantially the price. Maybe that information can be of interest for others.
At the end I can live the way I´m doing so far with the usb keyboard/mouse/monitor and wait to see how the remote evolves and if others experience is satisfactory. As I said in other post I can´t tell a noticeable difference in SQ disconnecting the kb/m/m, and I rather to investigate further in the Playback Drive which is in my opinion much more decisive with respect to SQ.

Best regards and thanks to all of you for your opinions,
Juan