Dear Peter,

After reading this thread I definately need to buy the Clarixia!

Pls advise delivery terms for (approximately) 3m length.

-Are you guys still using the Silverstone soundcard? It lasted only 5 songs in my system back in 2014. I found it too colored and edgy in the treble. (Yes, I isolated it in both ends).

Hi guys!
Its great to be back on the forum after a 15 month long break from Hi-Fi. 15 months without my stereo working! Surviving only with my DAB radio in the kitchen...

Re-starting my music PC seemed like a nightmare when it  accidentally upgraded from W8 to W10.

However I am happy to report that installation went swift and I now once again  have beautiful music filling the house.

Installation was easy:
Downloaded and installed W10 Pro (free - license to be paid later on)
Downloaded and installed XX 2.02 (free - activation can be paid later)
Installed NOS1 drivers.
Hooked up the NOS1 DAC.
Chose "KS" as sound device.
Started XX, loaded an album and EUREKA! perfect glitch-free music appears:-)
All settings are standard (no tweaking) except Upsampling = Max (768kHz).

About the OS and PC, I committed all the sins possible: It is controlled through Remote Desktop (iPad app "RD Client), it is connected to internet, and the W10 is busy telling me the weather forecast, news feed and all kind of cr*p which the pre-installed apps force feed you.

NEVERTHELESS, the sound quality is very, very good: Detailed in a pleasant way, tight, dynamic, balanced, no hardness or fatigue. I mean, here is nothing wrong. It just sounds GREAT by all aspects.

-Reading the resent posts on this forum can be frightening for newcomers, but the route I describe here was troublefree and costs you nothing. You can get your system up and running, and assure yourself that everything is working, before you pull your credit card.

Tomorrow, of course, I will pay for my activation code for XX. Later on I guess Microsoft will catch up with me in order to pay for the W10 license.

I can easily live happily with the present XX sound quality, while waiting for Peter to complete the XX W10 version.

:-)

IMHO,

DSD is a waste of time, simply because PCM already *is* transparent at 24bit and >192Hz sampling frequency.

-In the studio, the recording engineers are not able to differ between the live feed coming from the musicians on the other side of the window, and the same signal running through ADA conversion at 24/192 or higher.

The whole DSD thing was created by Sony because of:
-Trying to get a new cash cow after the CD-Red book legal rights expires.
-Trying to have the music copy protected (which they forgot to apply on CD/Red Book).

---------

DSD certainly IS a good medium, and probably on pair with PCM. The point is however that as long as one format (PCM) already is transparent, we don't need the other.
-You cannot get more transparent than transparent. For this reason I feel very sorry for the high-end community unnecessarily wasting so much resources on a second format which only doubles up.

Besides, PCM technology (hardware/software) has a market share of "1000:1" compared with DSD.

Here is a worthwhile tip, for those who's stereo share the mains with certain household electronics:

Several specialist companies feature Schaffner mains line filters inside their equipment.

SCHAFFNER filters can be bought separately too, for a modest price. You should go for a multi stage kind for maximum noise attenuation.

Now comes the funny part: Switch the direction of the filter (swap the male/female plug) so the filter works outbound (in "reverse" direction). Then you put it in line, prior to your coffee brewer, refrigerator and other possible noise sources. The point is that such components leaks noise back into the mains circuit.

-This tweak is not commonly known. I learnt it from my old friend, who used to design and manufacture high end amplifiers and electronics.

(Electronics, like a coffee brewer, featuring a thyristor can generate terrible high amounts of mains distortion).

THYRISTOR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyristor

 

Oops, I foresee an upcoming fight in the house over the hotspot seat...

Eventually, they can buy a Loveseat :-)

Ahhh, I love prog rock of the 70s. I spend my childhood listening to it, and still does. Not a day without classic prog rock!

Sound quality is usually average only, though. This is in fact the "dark age" of recorded sound quality.

In terms of sound *production* it was the best, combining the artistic freedom and expressiveness of the early 70s, with the newly developed LP format and multi track studio recorders.

However, while A Night At The Opera and Dark Side of The Moon are artistic masterpieces, they will NEVER sound good because of too much use of over-dubs. The artists had more ideas than available studio tracks. When finalizing those albums, the tapes were so worn out, that you could almost see through it! Adding Dolby NR in an attempt to reduce the noise, just worsened it.

The early generations of analogue mixing consoles where very bad too, sound wise, the music signals passing through numerous cheap potentiometers and early generation Philips op-amps.

This is why REMASTERS can't improve much. The damage is already done on the original 2-track master tape.

To put this in perspective, we have stellar recordings from as early as the late 50s. (Except for some audible wow and flutter) the legendary productions of people such as Rudy Van Gelder, carries astounding SQ. But it was more or less recorded "live in the studio", without post production.
In other words: Microphones and tape recorders have been up to the task for a long time, given a minimalistic production. With complex multi track productions, the recording/production chain didn't become transparent until resent days of high quality digital technology.

Personally, I have solved above problem by simply not listening to 70s prog rock on my living room Hi-Fi. I have a dual music life: At home I mostly listen to well recorded music (mainly jazz and folk). But in my car, when jogging or when traveling, I always carry my two iPod Classic 160GB. They are synchronized with my iTunes library where I have stored thousands of classic prog rock albums in lossy AAC, (256 kbps). (I keep this "Low-Fi" setup on a separate PC, not connected with my main XX/High end PC-rig where all music is stored in native uncompressed formats).

-----

Visiting 2L studio here in Norway and listening to their 5.1 monitoring system some years ago, changed my whole perspective on SQ of "old" music favorites. Listening to Yellow Brick Road, Gaucho and some others, was a revelation: It was a total knock-out. The usual 2.0 remasters were outclassed by the remixed 5.1 versions. (On that very day I swore to get me a full blown surround system in a large enough living room. If Peter can make a 6-channel version of XX, it will feature a trio of NOS-1 DACs).

Paradoxically, 5.1 releases of 70s prog rock often sounds better than 2.0 stereo versions. Creating a 5.1 mix from the old multi track tapes can be done by an outsider, because there is no reference. But when remixing in stereo, you must be extremely accurate, otherwise the final song will sound "wrong" compared with the original stereo version owned by millions of fans. For this reason ( and probably many more) we seldom see stereo remixes of old favorite albums.

But super-pro's like Steve Wilson are changing the game, thankfully.

Any way, to get my response back on topic, I have to say that a proper REMIX of old favorites, is such an improvement that they qualify for listening through my main system.
 
I bought all the hi-Rez available from the beginning (DVD-A, DualDisc, etc). Today the hi-Rez market is blossoming with an increasing number of both remasters and remixes of classic albums. I still buy a lot, but its  becoming hard to keep track on all the titles available.
The first example of successful remix was the DVD-A of ELP/Brain Salad Surgery. The original album stereo tracks was "only" remastered, but the remixed bonus track Lucky Man is a stunner, sounding like it was recorded today. Also the King Crimson DVD-A's are a revelation in stereo remix. I haven't purchased the YES titles yet, but I guess they will satisfy, too.

Hopefully, more titles will follow in the purist spirit of Steve Wilson, (but not in the way of Nick Davies/Genesis 2007 re-mixes with too much compression and deviation from the original mixes).

My apologies for writing too long an answer. Too my defense, it was written under the influence of a bottle of Remy Martin Cognac and In The Court Of The Crimson King heard through my trusty iPod/Tivoli mono radio in our mountain lodge.

Just for my curiosity:

Regarding the Orelo MkII speakers, how is the DSP in the bass working? Are the active amplifiers "class D" or something?

Great quote, thank you! WHEN did he post it?

SUGGESTION: Make it switchable. For the sake of convenience.

My guess: With your new set up, there is a narrow cancellation somewhere between 60 and 100 Hz.

Buy a UMIK-1 and do some measurements of the bass region. You might have to work a little with the coordinates of your loudspeakers/listening spot.

At least, that was the cure for my system. -I have giant subwoofers with very correct and deep bass, but they didn't boogie enough when expected to. But after measuring and adding a little EQ at 60 Hz, it is sooo funky you wouldn't believe it!

Thanks, Peter.

If not birthday present, there is the chance for x-mas present shortly after! 

And, mind you, I do NOT suffer the least now. The sound quality made a huge leap with XX 1.186-a and after I dialled in the settings in my signature. I am so happy with the SQ. Everything fell into place. It is just "perfect".

But, after 35 years in this game, I know of course that the progress never stops...

Well, then I hereby sign up and order the upgrade!

PS: I am turning 50 on October 15th, so that will make a nice present for myself! 

W O W

Congratulations, Kjell!

You lucky guy. And daring to be a front runner, buying such expensive loudspeakers from a dealer abroad. Respect!

And I am lucky too, because now I have a chance to hear them in a living room similar to my own. They are even painted white as mine loudspeakers.

The NOS1 upgrade is of course on my schedule, just waiting for the queue to slim down. The Orelo, however, was only a distant dream. Until now... 

"Yo" is correct answer on the music quiz question "which artist has same middle name as first name"?