Hmm... why does everyone think it's going to be a non-oversampling DAC? I mean, I just can't see how Peter could improve on a NOS1a B75 in this respect. Nah, I wouldn't be surprised if the new 'mother of all DACs' uses a different DAC chip to the BB1704U-K.

I've always loved the Greek symbol 'Σ' - i.e. Sigma. In mathematics this is the summation operator of course. The new DAC would be the summation of everything Peter has learned in his long audio journey. So for me, the 'Phasure Σ' would be an apt name. We could have a beautiful Σ inscribed on the DAC in silver or gold, just like the 'α' on the NOS1a.

Mine isn't the most original idea here though... some of the others really are great.

Mani.

Hey Gerard, I don't think this is true. Pono had talks with Meridian at the very beginning, but then switched to Ayre. In any event, the Pono Player has nothing to do with MQA AFAIK. BTW, I have a Pono player - I bought one of the early limited editions. And I have to say that I think its sound quality really is great... even without MQA capability.

Mani.

The biggest issue for me was feeding the BNC inputs on the speakers. So, how did you manage this?

Edit: I guess it's because you kept your XLRs connected, unlike me... Doh!

Mani.

You're welcome Kjell. And well done on a great outcome - your response is flatter than mine above 100Hz.

Mani.

Hi Anthony. Yep, definitely a lot to keep up with.

Yes, the LPS definitely made a difference before this weekend's antics. It's going to sound clichéd, but I heard a blacker background and a generally more laid back (less 'overly-excitable') sound. Worth the 835 USD I paid? For me, definitely yes - I dreamed for years of ridding my whole system from SMPSs, and now it's finally been achieved. I'm over the moon. And the LPS itself is a very nicely put together piece of kit from Teradak, which worked perfectly straight out of the box - and how many times in this hobby have you been able to say that?

Mani.

Hi Coen. Not only that, but my Win8 is on an SSD too . I haven't tried going back to a spinning HDD and am not sure if I will.


I'm not sure how Nick intends to take things forward. Although I'm happy to share my experiences, I'm less inclined to do so on CA - I see it as a very siloed place nowadays with people just attacking others' views and defending their own. Were I to post there, I suspect it'd be a case of, "Mani, the differences you're hearing are impossible so get a better system or get your ears cleaned", as opposed to "That's interesting - I wonder how Nick's Chronos addresses the issues in an audio PC".

As for 'commercially off-limits here', I'll leave that to Peter and Nick. But I can't see Peter objecting to anyone simply sharing their experiences, as I've done. I hope not anyway.


I should have a better idea of this in the next day or two. But I strongly suspect it's going to be a case of 'everything still matters'... unfortunately.

Mani.

Hi Arjan, no I'll do this in the next day or two. Fortunately, I now feel that the quality of my system is such as to do the comparison justice.

Mani.

I made my second visit to Nick's place over the weekend. On the previous visit, Nick applied some HW mods to my mobo which I felt improved the sound - not spectacularly, but certainly in the right direction.

I'm not going to go into any details of exactly what we did on this visit. Some of you may know that Nick has spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about the issues that using a regular mobo for audio purposes poses and, more importantly, how to resolve them. He has some serious IP on the subject now, which I think he deserves to protect.

What I will say is that the main objective of this visit was to 'tune' the previous mobo mods using a new piece of kit that Nick had acquired since my previous visit. There was also the installation of one new piece of HW, which again I will not go into.

Before this visit to Nick's, I was very happy with my system, to such an extent actually that I wasn't particularly impatient to get things all 'tuned'. My Orelo MkII speakers had been tuned to my room (and were sounding great). The Blaxius and Clairixa cables were in, and were doing their things. I had starting powering the PC with a linear ATX PSU (no switching supplies absolutely anywhere now!). The overall sound was good, but you may have noticed that I never raved about it. The bass, yes, just after I had played around with the DSP, but I never commented on the overall sound of my system, other than to say I was very happy with it. Well, since this visit to Nick's, I'm inclined to say that I now have the best overall sound (i.e. not just the bass, but everything) that I've ever heard from any system anywhere.

There are two words that spring to my mind immediately when trying to describe what I now have:

1.  'Holographic'. Instruments and voices have rounded edges. I don't mean smoothness vs. edginess, but in terms of visual perception. You can 'see' the curves of instruments. Nothing is a 2D cardboard cutout any more. This is most evident with large instruments like a grand piano or double-bass. Absolutely beautiful.

2. 'Sensual'. What I mean here is that ALL of my senses seem to be engaged when I'm listening to music now. My mouth is literally salivating. I'm feeling different textures and seeing different colours in the sound. I really seem to be hearing through my skin as well as my ears. Nothing sounds dull anymore - everything is vibrate and alive and stimulating my whole body. To such an extent that I simply haven't stopped listening to music since Sunday morning - nearly even missed Top Gear as a result!

Yeah, I know it sounds crazy. But I'm just saying it like I see/hear it.

I think the Gods are being kind to me. Everything seems to have aligned perfectly to achieve this result. All of Peter and Ciska's work. The stuff Paul (Scoobius) has done for me in the past. And now Nick's work. I'm not religious, but I'd just like to thank the Gods.

So why the title of this thread? Well, Nick can offer the PC mods I have in ready-made PC which he's calling 'Chronos'. I have no affiliation with Nick's endeavour whatsoever, but feel compelled to give him this plug. [Edit: I should add also that I have paid in full for all the HW that has been used on my PC, and for Nick's time - I'm not writing this thread as payback for any favours or anything.] My system was very good before this weekend, but now it's simply sublime. And only one thing happened over the weekend - I visited Nick's place.

Fire away with questions or thoughts...

Mani.

Hey, really nice write-up Juan.



I'm going to revise my description a little bit. My Cliarixa cable remains totally natural-sounding, but I would no longer describe it as "ultra-ultra smooth". I need to start a new thread in order to explain exactly what has happened for me to change my description.

Mani.

The first thing that came to my mind on reading this was Xenia Onatopp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_Onatopp). Not sure what that says about my mind!

I'm assuming Todd's NSX is 'onatopp' because he wants to use the F430 more often. Fair enough, as it's the newcomer... and a LOT faster... better-sounding & better-looking in many's eyes... but not mine of course

God forbid, should there be a mishap with the lift, I'd certainly want the NSX onatopp - not sure what the state of affairs is in the US, but here in the UK, the number of F430s for sale outnumber facelift NSXs by 50 to 1. You could replace your F430 with the insurance money pretty easily, but getting hold of a good NSX would be very difficult.

(All in good fun... there's no way you can really compare an NSX with an F430!)

Mani.

Yeah, I wanted to comment about the bass too but decided to wait until others had chipped in. Over here the bass is excellent too. Actually, there is probably a bit too much with the Clairixa and I may need to turn my bass DSP down a little. But I don't want anyone to get the impression that this is 'fat', 'woolly' and vague bass. It's tight, powerful and incredibly tuneful.

How these things can happen just by changing a USB cable is totally beyond me.

Mani.

 

A new stablemate for the NSX, hey? And a prancing horse no less! That's a VERY nice garage you've got there. Now how on earth did you get that past your other half? I need to know that secret

Mani.

OK, I've just taken a listen and here are my first impressions:

Firstly, I compared my 3.5m Clairixa to my 0.5m Clairixa and they sound pretty much the same to me. This is the first time I've ever had the opportunity to compare like-for-like USB cables of different lengths to each other and it's SO refreshing to know that USB length doesn't seem to matter one iota (within the USB spec at least).

OK, onto the sound. Well, I have to mention that I've had the YFS USB cable in my system for the last few days. Here's what I originally said about the YFS before putting it back into my system:


After a few days with the YFS, I totally stand by these comments. In comparison, the Clairixa is ultra, ultra smooth... and to my ears, a breath of fresh air. So easy to listen to. But I have to say that for me, the name "Clairixa" doesn't really fit. I mean, yes it sounds 'clear' and 'detailed', but not overly so in any way whatsoever. In fact, it sounds quite dull compared to the YFS, and much closer in sound to my Tellurium Black Diamond.

All in all, I really like the sound of the Clairixa. But I think a name like "Naturalixa" would be more accurate... though obviously not as nice or catchy.

The next job will be to compare the 3.5m Clairixa with the 3.5m Tellurium Black Diamond. The latter is some 5x more expensive, but I already have a hunch I'm going to prefer the Clairixa. We'll see...

Mani.

Yeah, you need to start doing such things when you get to Peter's age 

Mani.

My Clairixa USB cables (3.5m and 0.5m lengths) have just been delivered. I won't get a chance to listen to them until later today but will report back my thoughts as soon as I do.

Mani.