Hi Everyone,
Yep I was actually completely happy with my AN DAC (XX fed) which sounded (and still sounds) superb I could listen to it all night long - surely no significant improvement (ie does it really matter improvement?) could be made. But with a failing laptop display small disks etc etc I wanted to properly "sort" the front end. NOS with XX and a new computer with big discs would do that - so long as it was at least as good as my AN DAC that would be OK. So I contacted Peter and was surprised to get my NOS delivered within a few days wow I was not expecting that!!!. And when I opened the box my wife said "if you don't paint that black I will" - now I can tell you that is a scary thought. Anyway it actually looks OK and my son thinks it looks "cool".
So eventually my PC arrived and now it has been up and running (not without a bit of pain I have to say) for a whole 4 days !!
There is little point in me repeating what others have written but the level of detail, smoothness and fluidity are the best I have heard by a long way. No it is way better than that it is simply stunning. Me and my music/audio loving mate Dave sat here with our mouths open in stunned silence. We were hearing interplay between musicians on well known well loved old favourites (love Joni!!) never heard before. The only thing was that the sound was a tad "hard" but hey this was a new bit of kit just out of the box and over the last four days of continuous operation the sound has relaxed and is significantly smoother.
But I wanted to mention the bass as I do not think anyone yet has covered this properly (from what I have heard anyway). I have never heard any system that properly reproduces bass and I really do mean never. One of my pet hates is the unavoidable boxy sound of box speakers which is most unfortunate as I have a pair. Even worse is the over damped heavy dead sound of other box speakers. But then all speakers have big compromises. So with NOS1 for the FIRST TIME EVER I can hear properly what is actually going on in the bass. Bass instruments play tunes. I can hear separate bass instruments. Bass does not modulate and is not modulated by mid range. How can I explain it - bass instruments are fully delineated, they are properly in tune with other bass instruments and they are now properly in phase with mid and high range instruments. NOS1/XX brings a complete new meaning to the word coherence in my system. This is by far the biggest surprise - surely this sort of change would be the domain of amps and speakers but NO this has been brought about by a change in ......... DAC!!! Can you imagine the so called experts in hi fi shops telling you change your DAC to get the above changes. Can you imagine that they would believe me if they told them (no way Jose')
I do not understand some of the comments that bass is "light" - no way!! not in my system - bass goes low and if anything lower (maybe not lower but cleaner lower if that makes sense) than before but it is accurate and the upper bass "bloom" has gone revealing a whole world of bass instrument detail making music and more important coherent rhythm than ever before. I love bass, rhythm the whole foundation of music for me. Now for the first time I have it properly reproduced in spades.
I started reading this forum years ago before the NOS project started and as it progressed I never imagined that I would actually own one. The XX software was already producing a quality of sound I never thought possible even without NOS. I could also never have imagined the quality of sound I now am listening to with NOS!. Simply stunning. The thing is that I understand that it will improve further with more running in - and Nick reckons he has found a way to improve performance even further. Wow what a thought.
By the way I am also surprised by the difference settings make now. Especially buffer sizes. I have found that for me in XX 48 buffer and 48 Q1 and 128/256 max (Juli@ latency) is necessary to get the base as I like it. What I do find is that with higher buffer settings in XX I lose some of the detail which I prefer not to!!!. But each system to its own settings!!!
Peter - I can't thank you enough - the huge number of hours work you have put into all this (and on top of that answering my stupid questions) and your relentless dedication and pursuit of the best possible sound (without compromise) has resulted in music quality in my own room hugely exceeding my best expectations. Tears of joy I think that also applies to me (shrugging off my English reserve!!!) I am definitely in the queue to buy you a drink and also (oh go on if a shrink can do it then it must be OK) a big big hug!!!.
Also thanks to all the others on this site that have helped me and others through the years.
It would be good to have a NOS owners get together sometime - a bit like say the Jaguar owners club or some such.
All the very very very best Peter
