Phasure NOS2 wishlist

[manisandher]

I'm sitting at my kitchen table feeling a little sorry for myself - just recovering from a cold/flu that has kept me house-bound for the last few days. Horrible. With no energy to get up and actually do something, I started thinking about what I would really like as a digital source...

Well, I've had enough of computers. Really. OK, I'm not throwing my computer out just yet, but will be really happy to do so once there's a good alternative. I've only got experience with PCs, but I'm not sure that a Mac or Linux machine would be any better. It seems to me that a computer was designed to be a 'Jack of all trades' and perhaps is proving that it really is 'Master of none'. XX helps of course, but are we really sure that we're not spending all this time and energy on 'polishing a turd' (sorry for the English colloquialism)?

So, in an ideal world, the NOS2 wouldn't even need a computer. It wouldn't be the 'World's Best DAC' (Peter's words, not mine)... it would be the 'World's Best Network Player'. I mean, it would take on, and handily beat, the Linn Klimax DS.

So, here's my wishlist for it:

- ethernet input (galvanically isolated, of course)
- full UPnP 2.0 support for third-party control
- built in XX player (on FPGAs, or wherever)
- accepts any input resolution up to 32/768
- auto Arc Prediction upsampling of all inputs resolutions to 32/705.6 (or 32/768)
- ultra-low jitter clocks (as NOS1)
- 8x (or 16x) BB PCM1704 D/A converter chips (as NOS1)
- linear power supply (as NOS1)

The NOS2 would be controlled from a dedicated touch screen remote control, iPhone (connected by wifi to netwrok) or indeed it's own touch screen on front face plate.

Now, I know that many people are dead against network players in general. If there is a good reason that is based on SQ, then I would love to hear it. Perhaps it's just the case that XX is simply too heavy for any FPGA. But, I really think this is the future of digital music. Linn are doing it. PS Audio are doing it. I just know that a Phasure NOS2 would do it better.

Mani.

[Chriss]

wow Mani where can read more about FPGA?
FPGA in musicaspect ofc.
Criss.

[manisandher]

Chriss, take this post with a very larger pinch of salt. It isn't intended to be very serious.

I have no idea whether XX (or even Arc Prediction on its own) could be programmed into an FPGA. And even if it could, the real beauty of doing things the way Peter currently does them is that changes to XX are much, much easier to make and test, compared to changes to FPGAs or ASICs. If we look at all the changes that XX has gone through over the last couple of years, I'd say that this would have been really difficult to achieve in any other way than on a computer OS.

HOWEVER... most of these changes have been about minimising the negative influence of exactly that OS. So, we're in the hands of MS here. What if the SP1 final release doesn't sound as good as the RC? Then we're back to changing settings and/or XX code. I was just wondering whether this reliance on the OS could be eliminated once and for all.

As you can probably gather, I really know very little about all this. I'm a totally armchair designer in this respect. But I do know that Linn have managed to make this work, and so have PS Audio. My understanding is that in both cases, the investment in R&D was very substantial. It wouldn't be a trivial endeavour, and maybe Phasure are better off continuing to use their limited and ultra valuable resources in the way they currently do.

But 'my' NOS2 would be really, really nice and I wouldn't need a computer to use it... which would be bliss.

Mani.