NORWAY CALLING: NOS1 impressions from Pedal

[pedal]

Got my NOS1 today after some bad weather DHL delay.
Opened the box and, surprise, surprise, it’s painted in blue! 

Looks like nothing else, he-he. When you manufacture a State Of The Art DAC and sell it at such a reasonable price as Peter does, I guess it allows him some personal quirkiness in choice of styling…

Cold out of the box, it sounded dark and muddy. But then I realized that my active X-over was adjusted to suit the “hot” sounding Weiss INT202 Firewire interface. After recalibration the X-O back to normal (quick, approximate settings by ear) I managed a quick listen to a $18 album download from HD Tracks in 24/96:  Jimmy Cobb - Jazz in the Key of Blue. -A superb recording of a jazz quartet, playing some relaxed mainstream standard tunes. Yep, it’s THE Jimmy Cobb. -The drummer on Kind Of Blue, now in his 80s and still having a busy recording career at Chesky Records.

It took me only a few minutes to realize that the NOS1 is something special. Even cold out of the box, it delivers the most “real” trumpet sound I have heard from a Hi-Fi system. It’s brassy without being too edgy. -Just glorious pure and "immediate" sounding. Also I quickly noticed Jimmy’s discrete kickdrum sounding more immediate, dry and distinct. The NOS1 seems to have a more pure and quick bass, than what I am used with.

I have loaded a huge playlist of 16/44 which will run silently 24/7 for the next weeks in order to speed up the burn-in time. I am really looking forward to spend more time together with the NOS1 in my system.

More detailed listening reports will follow. Stay tuned.

[Gerard]

Pedal,

Congratulations!! nice to hear! 

Have much fun. 

Got my NOS1 today after some bad weather DHL delay.
Opened the box and, surprise, surprise, it’s painted in blue! 

Looks like nothing else, he-he. When you manufacture a State Of The Art DAC and sell it at such a reasonable price as Peter does, I guess it allows him some personal quirkiness in choice of styling…

Cold out of the box, it sounded dark and muddy. But then I realized that my active X-over was adjusted to suit the “hot” sounding Weiss INT202 Firewire interface. After recalibration the X-O back to normal (quick, approximate settings by ear) I managed a quick listen to a $18 album download from HD Tracks in 24/96:  Jimmy Cobb - Jazz in the Key of Blue. -A superb recording of a jazz quartet, playing some relaxed mainstream standard tunes. Yep, it’s THE Jimmy Cobb. -The drummer on Kind Of Blue, now in his 80s and still having a busy recording career at Chesky Records.

It took me only a few minutes to realize that the NOS1 is something special. Even cold out of the box, it delivers the most “real” trumpet sound I have heard from a Hi-Fi system. It’s brassy without being too edgy. -Just glorious pure and "immediate" sounding. Also I quickly noticed Jimmy’s discrete kickdrum sounding more immediate, dry and distinct. The NOS1 seems to have a more pure and quick bass, than what I am used with.

I have loaded a huge playlist of 16/44 which will run silently 24/7 for the next weeks in order to speed up the burn-in time. I am really looking forward to spend more time together with the NOS1 in my system.

More detailed listening reports will follow. Stay tuned.

[pedal]

Everything has been cooking for 24 hours. The sound is getting more and more released from the loudspeakers, floating into the room. Maybe it is caused by a hallucinating substance in the proprietary blue paint on the NOS1 vaporizing into my listening room when the chassis gets warmed up. Or, eventually, it’s the 30 year old Dalva Port wine accompanying my late evening tapas snack. Whatever it is, Joao Gilbert is clearly transported into my living room and Stan Getz’ saxophone sounds more reedy and articulate. (Another stunning 24/96 HD Tracks download costing only $18)

Switching to regular 16/44 and modern times, Leonard Cohen/Dear Heather is another favorite. A very good recording blending Lenny’s upfront vocal with the angelic voice of Sharon Robinson and some discrete electronic rhythm beats. Through the NOS1, his vocal is less forced, less in your face, but more resolved. The effect is like switching from a dynamic to an electrostatic loudspeaker.

Shortly put, the NOS1 provides so much recorded detail, that any plans of buying a vinyl turntable are hereby dead and buried. The NOS1 takes you to places where vinyl cannot reach.

To Infinity and Beyond!

[christoffe]

Shortly put, the NOS1 provides so much recorded detail, that any plans of buying a vinyl turntable are hereby dead and buried. The NOS1 takes you to places where vinyl cannot reach.

Hi Pedal,

just made a comparison between NOS1 and vinyl (EMT 950) with a LP  from Miles Davis "Kind of Blue".

Vinyl replays the echo of the recording studio (especially the bass) superior, plays more emotional, cymbals sounds great.
The heights of the cymbals with the NOS1 are colder, more technical. The air between the instrument is more, so I miss the resonance of the bass. But I play with engine#3, and I will recheck with KS.

All this on a very, very high level. For a superior turntable you have to invest more than €25.000,00. The NOS1 costs much less, and a new turntable makes no sense.

best

Joachim

[pedal]

Hi Joachim!

The vinyl rig of my friend Leif (he is here on XX too) is in the ”€50.000” category, including his insane custom RIAA. Listening to selected LP’s it is capable of creating audio magic. A couple of weeks ago we played Harry Belafonte Sings The Blues, and it was simply awesome, with a kind of aliveness I never have heard from digital per today.

The late 50s Kind Of Blue is another example of such a selected album, -well known for its many great sounding versions on LP, including both old original pressings and new audiophile reissues, some even with 45rpm.

Unfortunately, the best selling jazz record in the history is the property of Sony Music. Which means that the only hi-rez transfer of it, is on SACD. For those of us not equipped with a proper SACD player, the only choices are some rather poor sounding CD transfers.
I think you are perfectly right in preferring KOB on vinyl, but you can’t extend that observation into a universal format conclusion.

The NOS1 works with all sampling frequencies between 44.1 and 352k8Hz. CDs are “bottom feed”, it is the low class medium. If you want to take the NOS1 for a test drive, you must feed it high octane fuel.

What about the Getz/Gilberto title I mentioned in above post? Do you have it on vinyl? It’s also an oldie from 1963 with vintage SQ, but never the less a very good recording for its period. The 24/96 download from HD Tracks is very good. It would be interesting if you could compare those two versions.

(There are many titles available where I think the digital version bests the vinyl, but that we can look into later on).

[pedal]

DAY 3
The DAC has been on for 48 hours now. But don’t worry; I will not embarrass you with a listening report each day. According to Peter the NOS1 keeps on improving for a whole month. If I spend my entire glossary the first week, what to say then in the end when the real magic appears?

So, I am just popping by the forum tonight to tell an interesting observation. While having dinner I was playing the CD rip of Lucinda Williams/Essence. It was my (first) music gift to my wife when we just had met in 2001, so we have strong attachments to these songs. But today the background music kept on calling my attention more than ever. In spite of sitting completely off axis, and playback at low level, I was struck by the sheer amount of details and low level information in the music. It took my attention away from the meal. Quite mesmerizing.

ESSENCE
Baby, sweet baby, you're my drug
Come on and let me taste your stuff

Baby, sweet baby, bring me your gift
What surprise you gonna hit me with

Refrain:
I am waiting here for more
I am waiting by your door
I am waiting on your back steps
I am waiting in my car
I am waiting at this bar
I am waiting for your essence

Baby, sweet baby, whisper my name
Shoot your love into my vein

Baby, sweet baby, kiss me hard
Make me wonder who's in charge

(Repeat Chorus)

Baby, sweet baby, I wanna feel your breath
Even though you like to flirt with death

Baby, sweet baby, can't get enough
Please come find me and help me get f-----d up

(The lyrics are a fitting tribute to the NOS1 too!)

[PeterSt]

You could do this every day, really. But remember, for the next 10 days or so nothing will happen.
But *then* the real steps begin ...

Nice ...

[pedal]

DAY 4
On the 4th day God created The Beatles. Combining the legendary Abbey Road album with the legendary NOS1 during Christmas put me in Bible mood, ha-ha. (Sorry about that).

I was curious to verify Peters claim that the NOS1 removes the “grain” I always have associated with most 60s rock recordings. And you know what? It did! -Replaying Abbey Road with XXs Arc Prediction and x8 upsampling, it sounds more like a modern recording. The usual “hardness” is (if not gone) much reduced.

It reminds me about a phenomena explained to me by Norwegian amplifier guru Leif Ernstsen, who said that distorted music material is a much harder task to resolve, than “perfect” recordings. Because “distortion” has a very complex nature with odd order frequency components, squarewaves and other nasties.

Amen.

[PeterSt]

Now you understand why I merely use so called "bad" recordings than the best. The latter allow for improvement much harder !

But nice to hear. And luckliy I seldomly lie. Haha.

Now try the Abbey Road remaster from last year (oh, two years back by now). You probably will know it.
Now tell us how *that* sounds today ...

[pedal]

DAY 6
The 5th day was New Years Eve, so I left the DAC in silent run-in mode. But yesterday, on its 6th day at work, I played the 6 Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach – the famous 2CD Marriner/Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields recording. I think most of you are familiar with it. Beautiful string orchestra music, perfect for an awful hangover on January 1st.

Again, I was stunned by how much 3D information the NOS1 can dig out, even if you are seated far away from the sweet spot. Traditionally you have to sit in a triangle with your loudspeakers to experience a useful degree of depth, height and width (“space” let’s say).

But there are at least 2 sources of “space”. The recorded one, and the one you can “create” with (properly) delayed reflections from side- and back walls. I think with the resolving power of the NOS1 you hear more recorded space than before. The funny thing is that it can easily be enjoyed while sitting so far away, even in the next room.

Rejoice!

[pedal]

DAY 11
God made love in my living room today. I swear. He was everywhere in the room, surrounding me like Q-sound on steroids. A new experience of the Jimi Hendrix Experience! (The title track from Electric Ladyland – ordinary CD).

Dusty Springfield singing the title track of 007 The Look of Love in 24/192: The soundstage is much bigger, her voice now appears more to the left channel than the somewhat bloated center position I’m used to. Still I’m not that much impressed by this recording, compared with the ravings the vinyl receives from Harry Pearson in TAS. Maybe the HDAD transferred mastertape lacks the mechanical colorations of vinyl?

Rob Wasserman/Duets: Have not played this CD for ages, feeling the CD never met the SQ others reported from its vinyl cousin. Well, today I listened through the whole album, enjoying every track with a veeeery spacious soundstage with oodles of details. Some very demanding female vocal tracks here, but it all comes through without hardness.

Rickie Lee Jones/Pop Pop – Dat dere: Another huge improvement of a plain CD: Spacious soundstage, clean clear vocal, raspy presence of the sax, and a very “airy” and “stringy” acoustic bass. Hey – who needs hi-rez?!

Elton John/Yellow Brick Road – Benny & The Jets 24/96 DVD-A playing right now. This is mastered too bright unfortunately, which doesn’t change with the NOS1.


Mani said it short and precise: NOS1 has a x-ray kind of resolution, sounding extremely transparent, but in a comfortable way without any edge or emphasize of sibilants.

I do also agree with him about tonal matters being somewhat “light” in the bass. This is no problem for me because with my active X-over’s I can re-adjust my 3-way system. Today I turned down the treble (>800Hz) 1 dB and tuned up the bass (<80Hz) 1dB. My XO settings are now somewhere between the settings of my RME FF400 and what I used with the WEISS INT202.

Also, to be noted, is that from DAY 1, I was able to sit closer to my back wall than prior to the NOS1. Usually this gives a boomy midbass, but with the tight bass of the NOS1, it’s only beneficial. And just to be clear: The NOS1 bass was superior from DAY 1, to my old spdif-run BUFALLO, simply sounding more “real”. -If I can get that little “extra” punchy midbass, it would be the icing on the cake. But the DAC is only half way through the marathon burn-in, so anything can happen. Also there are probably things to be tweaked in my new W7 SP1 OS.

PS: I am absolutely NOT motivated to go back and forth A/B listening to the same old test tracks, just to learn what’s changed the last days. It’s too much fun digging up old music of all kinds! Besides, the NOS1 is still a moving target due to the break-in, so better hold the “final verdict” until its performance has settled.

[pedal]

The recent acquisition of the NOS1 DAC has turned me into a lazy fat cat. I am sorry to say that for the time being I fail to meet this site’s spirit of sharing. I have become an egoist, only concerned about digging deep into my music collection for my own pleasure.

My sincere apologies,
Yours truly Pedal

[Calibrator]

Imagine how much more enjoyable the experience would be if you drank a decent beer! 

Cheers,

Russ

[pedal]

The NOS1 has been in my system for about 10 weeks now. I haven’t played that much lately. Also I have changed into XX version 0.9z-4-1 with improved setti ngs.

In spite of this other factors have changed, I still sense that the NOS1 is improving (because of further burn-in).

First, the sound is even more detached from the loudspeakers. The music window is even bigger and room filling, with very precise localization of each instrument within it.

Second, it’s more dynamic. Micro and macro dynamics are more “sudden”. Sometimes it makes me jump in the sofa, when listening to records I didn’t listen to for a long time.

Third, bass is becoming slightly more prominent, more authoritative. It also goes deeper, where it is more felt than heard.  (I have 2 pcs linesource bass towers each with 7 pcs 12” woofers working down to 4Hz, active driven by huge DC coupled transistor amps. NOS1 has opened up a new world of bass details in my living room, bringing out so much instrumental bass timbre and details).

[LydMekk]

Pedal wrote: "I do also agree with him about tonal matters being somewhat “light” in the bass. This is no problem for me because with my active X-over’s I can re-adjust my 3-way system. Today I turned down the treble (>800Hz) 1 dB and tuned up the bass (<80Hz) 1dB. My XO settings are now somewhere between the settings of my RME FF400 and what I used with the WEISS INT202. "

I have done the same thing here, setting the EQ slope in my Lexicon 1db up more in the bass and 1db down in the highs when using XX to get more bass and a more balanced sound.

Gratz Petter!