Paul, I'm writing to you directly on the off chance your dad may miss this post. You never know! Anyway, congratulations on the NOS1 Lego. It's an incredible achievment; the photo's are stunning! It must have been frustrating waiting for the photos to finally be shown to the world but I hope you'll find the wait was worth it. I mean your dad is saying there will be a new DAC better than the current NOS1a-75B. Seems impossible to me. But then who thought the Lego you made was possible? Really having the photos of your achievement in the forum thread announcing the new DAC is nothing short of perfect!

 Now, any chance you could replicate the Lego color scheme on existing NOS1a's? If so I may be sending mine back to you! Also, I was wondering if you could do me a favor. Your dad has suggested that his new DAC circuit board will be finished soon. Any chance you could steal it from him for a bit and see it if will fit in the current NOS1 DAC chassis? If so, could you incorporate it into your now existing Lego version and post more photos so we can see how it fits? I'm only asking because your dad makes cryptic statements like this:


Maybe I'm reading too much into these words, but if they mean what I think they mean then you should be able to make the new circuit board work in your so very cool Lego replica. Thanks and sorry for such a long post.

Brian

Alain's quote, above, made me think about the footers I use under my NOS1a: Daruma 3II isolation bearings. (see: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue1/daruma.htm) These footers consist of a stainless steel bearing sandwiched between two aluminum cups. The company doesn't exist anymore. If I recall correctly, there has been some discussion in this forum that "hard" or metal footers under the NOS1 provide a more focused but sharper sound, while softer material, provides a less sharp sound. Shouldn't we include the type of footer used under the NOS1a when describing the sound of a particular usb cable? Perhaps the ultra focused sound of the footers I use in combination with the Clairixa is too much "clarity", but paired with the softer sounding YFS cable, I achieved a "just right" synergy? Geeze,
more testing to do!

Brian

Thanks Peter. Probably won't be till the weekend untill I get time to listen to the Clairixa (no tape) with the 768 filter. Hopefully the new version of XXhighend will be out before then. 

Brian

Well, since last Wednesday,  I let the Clairixa burn in for two and a half days and spent at least five hours on Friday listening to the system without any A-B-ing. The sound was fantastic, though different from what I've become accustomed to. Late Saturday, after again spending several hours listening, it seemed that i'd never heard the various drum solo's on the Bassface Swing Trio's Gerschwin album sound so real and energized.  However female vocals (Eva Cassidy, Claire Martin, Alanis Morrissette-accoustic Jagged Little Pill, Ana Caram) didn't sound quite as natural and textured: the timbre seemed a bit too energized, tending toward a less nuanced or textured or less analogue sound. I adjusted settings and found that with Peter's recommended NOS1a settings, 16x oversampling ( I usually only do 8x) and the device driver buffer set to 8ms the sound became more like the sound I get from my YFS V4 data only cable. However it wasn't until yesterday when I finally put the YFS cable back into the system that it became clear that the active 5v power leg of the Clairixa adds a level of noise that on the one hand "energizes" the sound, but on the other hand colors the sound in a way that leaves vocals less satisfying because they sound less natural.  With the YFS V4 cable the magic of a live vocal performance returned.

So I then applied the tape Peter supplied with the second round of Clairixa cables to the power leg of the Clairixa. Immediately the noise that had bothered before disappeared; however, the sound wasn't as spacious as the YFS cable and it seems, though I don't really have any idea if its true, but it seems to me that the spaciousness of the sound is related to the delicacy and naturalness of the timbre of vocals. The two seem to go hand in hand on my system. I didn't leave the Clairixa (with tape) in for too long so it may be that the sound will open up more with a few more hours of use.

A few conclusions: It pains me a bit being a contrarian. I would much rather be "in line" with the experience of others but that's just not the case here with the Clairixa. The energy and clarity of the Clairixa just sounds a bit "unnatural." One cannot discount the possibility that I have become addicted to a sound that is not quite right and the Clairixa is "upsetting" that, but, if that's the case, oh well.  I personally don't think so but who knows. Equally concerning to me is the fact that quite a few forum members here listened to the YFS Reference cable and have rejected it as sounding not right. Being the only one here, as far as I know, having listened to the YFS V4, rather than the Reference version, makes me wonder if the V4 isn't actually better sounding that the Reference? I was really hoping I'd get a turn with the YFS Reference cable when it returned to the US but I guess that's not to be, as I've not gotten any response to my last query about it.

Anyway for me the YFS cable sounds "truer," without any lack in detail or rolling off of the higher frequencies. Bass is taught and textured and vocals are just magical. The last thing I'll say about the difference is this: with the Clairixa, I had some trouble getting the volume "just right." One "Alt X" up and it was a tad too loud, "Alt X" down and it was a tad too soft. With the V4 I simply have a range of undistorted,  pleasurable levels of loudness. I hope that makes sense.

Lastly, I want to say that I am very glad to have gone through this experience. It has been totally worth it to once again assess the overall sound of my system!

Brian

 

Thanks guys.

Brain 

Geeze, sorry about that misselling Alain! Thanks for the reply. I just read Peter's instructions (for the first time  ) on using the RAM Disc and I think the problem is probably related to the size of the discs. I have my drive A as 1 gig and my playback drive is 5 gig. I thought this would be sufficient for 24/96 and 24/192 playback. The Mozart I spoke of above is a 24/96 file. I really don't understand why Drive A needs to be bigger?

Well I think I finally figured out the general cause of my Hi Res problems since switching to W8 several months ago. Changing settings made no difference and, over time, the problem seemed to change: drop outs and ticks stopped but they were replaced by occasional blasts of white noise or static near the end of the last track of a Hi Res playlist or, like a needle getting stuck on a scratched album, the track would just start repeatedly ticking till I turned it off. These problems only occurred with large tracks - 10 to 15 minutes long (classical stuff, BTW Mozart Symphonies 38-41 by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, produced by Reference Recordings, is an exceptional orchestral recording. Fantastic!). Yesterday, having no luck changing ALL settings, I started XXHigend from the hard disc instead of the RAM Disc and for the first time everything was fine. I could finally play all four tracks of one symphony without any issue whatsoever. Anyone else have a similar experience? Am thinking I should re-install Alaine's program which I have used since installing the IMDisk software, but thought I'd ask here first. One thing I do remember now is that several months ago I got an error message that one of the RAM Disk drives needed to be scanned for errors. I hit okay and the scan never started so I rebooted and forgot about it. Don't know if this is relevant.

Customer service? It just doesn't get any better! 

Hey Peter, thanks for taking the time to sort out the virtues, or lack thereof, of a "data only" Clairixa. Now I won't have to mess around with the same effort!

Haven't left for work yet, but I lent my volt meter to my friend Rick! I should be able to get it back tonight or tomorrow. Will let you know. Maybe Joachim could do it faster since he has a YFS cable too?

The above quote is from the YFS site regarding their data only cable. So they only "tape" the + power lead but not the ground. I use the YFS V4 cable.For me, it is significantly better than the standard $1 cable, though I'm anticipating a change to the Clairixa.

Thanks Peter. It's interesting that I've been using W8 a couple of months now and this just started. I'll see if changeing the SFS helps but I don't want to change SQ. If SQ is effected I can live with these ticks cause they never happen during playback.

I've started to get two quick ticks when volume actually changes after an  Alt/u or d command in unattended. Not really a problem, but it has never happened before and over the past two days it happens every time I change the volume.

Is Clairixa blue? Hope so. 

Thanks Peter and I'd be happy to receive that Clarixa invoice at your convenience.