Another "listening evening" has passed, and my mind still did not change. But, as types of music pass by, I may have some interesting remarks, and withgoing (made up on the spot) reasoning. Just thoughts, and just context. No laws (later maybe).
Of course we must assume that my audio chain is not tricking me and that my ears are okay. Neither is necessarily true, but I hope both are. All I know is that my chain doesn't produce strangenesses for measurements, *and* that I had to adjust things just there once working with the NOS1-USB. Without that nothing seemed to be rigth (all further theories being good). For your reference, notice that I am talking about not the slightest addition to mainly the noise spectrum, that being down at something like 115dB IIRC, after amplification (amps at full gain). This, opposed to many who will perceive audible noise from the "low sensitivity" speakers at cranking up the volume, while here nothing is audible with my "high sensivity" horns obviously. Keep in mind that when this is not good, all will be moot and no real conclusions can be drawn from any OS (or XX version).
A further thing to again notice is my useage of that NOS1-USB, which a. sustains transients 100% (impulse resonse can't better so to speak) and which b. theoretically allows for high frequency hash as the result of a.
This makes comparison not easy (rather undoable in writing to eachother instead of listening both to the same), but all what it tells me that if anyone has a headstart for the better sound while something else is not 100%, it will be you, not me. The "you" should then be referring to non-NOS1 users, however, since I know what a huge difference the NOS1-USB makes, it can even include normal NOS1 users as the "you's".
Now, I'm sure I reported elsewhere that the high output really went crazy with the NOS1-USB, but that I could find no single example of that being distorted. It is as pure as it can be, just loud. But also : too loud for quite some examples I have. Should still be good because of the pureness coming from it. This was with SP1 (RC in my case). Now Vanilla :
Apart from the impacting bass Vanilla shows, the highs changed all over. Ok, no disagreement about that I think.
Also, by now, I'm fairly sure this is not about masking (by the higher bass output).
After playing more music, it is clear to me that this "pure" is not there anymore. BUT, careful, because this is merely about not having the opportunity to judge it, because the highs have melted into the lower regions better. In any event, I never have this "wow, so accurate" anymore, and this will be because it doesn't jump out anymore. But you bet I judge this as way better, just because all with the strange too high output now plays normally. Aha ...
Of course the latter is of utmost importance, because if you have read all I wrote the past weeks, you will have seen that I started to change my mind about "good recordings", and whether this was about "I'm not even sure whether this is a bad recording", or whether it was about remasters which really are not right - in the mean time these could not be played anymore. Well, let's say that there's much more around which sounded better, so why listen to the poor.
Why ? well, because it can be nice music. That's why. And it bothered me. Of course it also bothered me because I dedicated it to the NOS1-USB being too good or something. But hey, "too good" really does not exist when it works out for the worse (for those particular albums).
When things really change, I have a partner overhere who will notice. Or notice "things". And so it happened yesterday that I was thrown a "hey, this sounded dull !". Dull won't be the correct english word, but I can tell you this was about 2 or 3 blankets ...
And at listening to the track, I of course had the same experience. That blanket (or two) really exists ...
Things will now become very difficult right away, because it needs my own and personal reasoning, which won't be yours. It will be too hard to understand because it needs all the history of things and what (we all and) I experienced here. Also, I could be wrong, but write it down anyway, as I do most of the time. And so I can now refer to what I said elsewhere about albums which always sounded overley fresh but just good in balance, which did not work out at all anymore with the NOS1-USB because they were wrong. They could not have been like that for their age, but they still sounded so fresh and good. Something must have happened to them back then (thing of equalizing, whatever).
This has vanished again.
But with the sema phenomenon in force (whatever that exactly is) it backfires a little, because the albums which were not tampered with - and should be sounding more dull, thinking of their era (no talking about "age" !), now sound dull.
Oh boy.
Contrary to before, I now seem to be able to see consistency in it all, and it only tells me that it now should all be good. So, good for that base, which this time appears to be W7 Vanilla.
It is the most good that I ran into such a dull album, because it gave me the opportunity to hear (through) this blanket, instead of not knowing what you are talking about. So, from this moment on I was able to listen for the blankets in other music, and it really, really is not there. If it was in general I a. would have already noticed before, and b. I for sure would have been able to hear it now. But, completely nothing of the kind.
The conclusion of this MUST be, that all what was fresh but should not earlier on, was distortion. The higher frequency "hash" I was talking about eralier. Can happen easily too, because it wouldn't be so much different from NOS/Filterless DACs, which are way more fresh too, but only because of distortion. I don't say that that souinds bad, I only say it is.
And so it should sound bad, but it highly depends on the music.
If one is used to the high output of the high "frequencies", it is easy to hear blankets everywhere. But *now* it depends on the performance of your chain as a whole. What I can say, with my chain at least, is that *all* has improved in the higher frequencies, just because there is more colour. That colour seems to emerge from the small interruptions in those same high frequencies, which again is those on/off sound I dedicated to W7 Vanilla earlier on (say end of 2010). I am not yet saying that this on/off is 100% okay, but it seems to. It doesn't disturb, and it just as well maybe the cancelling out of frequencies (those always changing) in the horn throat. Comb stuff.
To make it more complex for you, the way the bass behaves is about 100% the same as when USB was "distorting" as hell. Not that this was expliccitly audible, but I could measure it. So, that distortion created that good bass. Or at least it had to be, because it was there right when I started with USB, and it (sadly) went away when the distortion (actually noise) was out. Then though, there was no consistency in anything. And moreover, if anywhere a blanket was present, it was in that stage. Impossible to live with that, although I tried tit for a week. I tried because of the bass, but my brains could not cope with the lacking highs. But now let's see further :
This sounded perfectly the same as a Berkely Audio Design Alpha DAC. Super silk highs turning your brain inside out because they want to perceive the real highs. This DAC is considered to be a fairly good one, you know. Well, is it ?
This is not so important. But what is, is that quite some more of this "behaviour" exists, and it is all a matter of filtering. No, not that story again, but I know what it does, and what it takes down on high frequencies. It is the 180 degree other story compared to NOS.
*Now* imagine what you, with those kind of DACs, want to get out of your system ... MORE HIGHS !
But I can assure you that when this succeeds, it will be wroing all over. It officially can't, but when it does anyway, this can be about distortion only. Mind you, not really audible as such, but high frequencies which emerge from not well processed lower ones. They become squary, and therefore more high frequent.
And thus, take out that distorting element, and the highs get lower. Ehm, those which were fake, NOT the good ones !!
(this is no story only -> what is genuine will stay, and what is fake because of distortion based will go away without the distortion).
And so I notice it here. And I really payed attention.
Peter
PS: At this time I can't make *all* completely consistent, and one of that is the better bass output with higher noise as with USB at first. Of course this should lead to the thinking that right now (Vanilla) there's just spades of whatever noise ...
PPS: I must apologize again about only being able to judge my 0.9z-6, and not being able to listen to 0.9z-4-1 again (for software reasons). Maybe later.
