Ok sound quality changes.

Now with the NOS1 side also disconnected, focus returns, and how! So much so that many 'background' details suddenly become clearly audible. I also hear far more into the sound ('depth' if you will) scape.
Loudspeakers have disappeared. Like Vollenweiders harp playing full power in the room. Another example is the brush that is used on drums on the Miles Davis' Kind of Blue album. You can now clearly hear it rotating over the drum's skin while the other (loud) instruments play their respective parts. There is a lot more nuance to be heard in the playing of the instruments. I almost envisioned them moving wrt the microphone. On that same album the piano has the kind of sound I recognize from the LP, rich playful and drowned in its own reverb.
Depending on the album the music stays between the speakers or moves out of them. In any case there is a natural lightness that I recognize from live performances.

So far I have not heard ill defined or sharp highs. The low end is just there like it fits, but it is not very prominent. Yet I have to start tuning the settings. They were just semi-random that was from my experiments with re-grounding the USB cards brackets.

And there is the matter of the right channel tilt. This is less noticeable in the midrange, but bass heavy instruments are constantly more to the right.

regards, Coen