NOS USB Impressions

[Nick]

There was a nice surprise on Friday afternoon, my NOS1 was delivered back having been lovingly converted by Peter to NOS1 USB spec..... Fantastic ! 

Peter sent a special NOS1 USB driver / control panel and a copy of V09-6, then it was time to set about getting eveything going. As Mani mentioned, the NOS1 USB connects in about 10 mins, "zimple !!" (as the meerkat says    ). With some “unusual” parameters to set in V09-6 (eg large buffers and Q1 of 30) all was done. Peter has certainly done one hell of a LOT of work on new hardware and software to produce the NOS1 USB that’s for sure.

Last night I was not able to really stretch the legs of the new DAC (small people sleeping in the house), even so it made quite an impression. I thought I would post the note that I sent to Peter this morning below to give a flavour ....

Today with the sound wound up properly the DAC is terrific and improving by the hour as the electronics burn in. I will post some proper impressions as the burn in takes place and the DAC settles.

Nick.



“Peter hi,
......
I could not listen too closely last night due to low volume levels but spent time getting the pc and 09-6 settings about right. I even had the amp connected directly without TVCs, brilliant !
 
The sound is very interesting, it has so little digital signature and is timed with such ease that I am sure that you have not added a new interface. My theory is that you have found a way of taking 20k worth of turntable and miniaturised it and put into the NOS case :-). And this from red book, it's the dream really come true, my goal for more than ten years has been a CD player that is as natural and engaging as vinyl but without it's problems. For a long time I really had doubts that it could be done, there would always be some vestige of digital signature getting in the way. The NOS USB has shown me it can be done, I am so pleased :-)
 
So today some proper running in and listening which I am really looking forward to. Not so much to listen to the performance of a good piece of equipment which is normally what i would be doing with a new peice of hifi, today I think I will be able to simply enjoy the priverladge of listening to peoples musical performances.
 
Will let you know how it goes.
 
Again, thanks Peter for the new NOS USB  of course but also for being so endlessly determined to create software and hardware that does justice to live performances.
 
Kind regards,
 
Nick. “

[manisandher]

Hi Nick,

Congratulations! If your experience is anything like mine, you'll have a great time re-discovering your CD collection. But hopefully you'll have more time to devote to this than I've had lately.

I had a bit of time this morning though and 'forced' my wife to take a proper listen to the NOS1. She said that it sounded great, but insisted that she still preferred the sound of the PM2, which itself had remained switched off since the USB NOS1(s) arrived back. So, I switched the PM2 on and let it warm up for an hour. I then dragged my wife away from what she was doing and played a Bill Evans track back-to-back, with each DAC connected directly into the power amp in turn and the vol adjusted as equally as possible. Well, it was absolutely no contest. And even my wife now says that the NOS1 is substantially better than the PM2 in every conceivable way. Of course, I totally agree with her.

If I'm honest, this saddens me quite a bit. The big decision I now have to make is whether I put my PM2 up for sale on Audiogon/eBay... It seems total overkill having a PM2 just for digitizing vinyl, which is the only need I now have for it. But maybe I should just keep it and sell it to an audio museum in 30 years time.

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Thank you Nick. And thank yourself. You know ...

Mani, maybe you can sell it to me ...

No need to respond to this really. But I'd say it is worth it for my vinyl and mastertape collection ... ()

Dilemma : I don't know myself yet what the recording capabilities in/for/from the NOS1 will bring. Of course this is already getting out of hand ...

[Nick]

Hi Nick,

Congratulations! If your experience is anything like mine, you'll have a great time re-discovering your CD collection. But hopefully you'll have more time to devote to this than I've had lately.

I had a bit of time this morning though and 'forced' my wife to take a proper listen to the NOS1. She said that it sounded great, but insisted that she still preferred the sound of the PM2, which itself had remained switched off since the USB NOS1(s) arrived back. So, I switched the PM2 on and let it warm up for an hour. I then dragged my wife away from what she was doing and played a Bill Evans track back-to-back, with each DAC connected directly into the power amp in turn and the vol adjusted as equally as possible. Well, it was absolutely no contest. And even my wife now says that the NOS1 is substantially better than the PM2 in every conceivable way. Of course, I totally agree with her.

If I'm honest, this saddens me quite a bit. The big decision I now have to make is whether I put my PM2 up for sale on Audiogon/eBay... It seems total overkill having a PM2 just for digitizing vinyl, which is the only need I now have for it. But maybe I should just keep it and sell it to an audio museum in 30 years time.

Mani.

Mani hi,

An interesting story, I can understand the outcome but it must mark the end of personal era when a reference as good as your PM2 is surpassed. It is not quite the same but my AudioNote DAC is likely to be looking for a new home shortly as well.

Best regards,

Nick.

[esimms86]

Nick makes an interesting point. Once you've surpassed the gold standard what else is there to strive for? I suppose Peter could go on to further tweaks of XXHighEnd or develop a comparable music player for the Mac platform. Or he could make the async Phasure NOS 1 comparable in sound quality to an even higher end vinyl-based setup.

Esau

[Karma]

Nick makes an interesting point. Once you've surpassed the gold standard what else is there to strive for? I suppose Peter could go on to further tweaks of XXHighEnd or develop a comparable music player for the Mac platform. Or he could make the async Phasure NOS 1 comparable in sound quality to an even higher end vinyl-based setup.

Esau

XXhighend for Mac is due. Will this surpass PC sound achievements?

[PeterSt]

Ah, good that I know it too !
haha

But is it ?

[Nick]

I thought I would post a short update now that the NOS1 USB has had chance to get a few hours of use clocked up.

First thing is there there defiantly appears to be a running in process. The sound has become more richer, tuneful and extended in the highs and lows with 40 hours or so on the new interface.

It's well worth having the DAC on for a few hours before serious listening. My amp likes a few hours warm up but the NOS1 USB is like a good red wine, it's best left to warm and air for a while before enjoying. 

I found direct connection to power amp using XX volume control sounded too thin initially so I kept using a transformer volume control. Now the NOS has has some burn in and settings (see below) are worked out, the sound is now wonderfully detailed and rich when connected directly to my amp. I have no plans to to use an analogue volume control now as a result.

Setting to unattended mode with  XX to start playback immediately and not using copy to XX drive, seems important. The palpability of the music steps up a whole gear with these settings. A few weeks now and already superb sound is improved so I am doubly happy.

One fun characteristic is that each time I sit down to listen I think I remember how good the sound will be, but every time the music starts I find over again that it's just much better than I remembered. A nice memory problem to have.


On a different subject I finally got around to taking the CPU fan out of my pc, the only moving part is now the HDD. The idea was to buy something that would support upgrading my pc at a later date, so I went for this Zalman Resorator water cooling system. http://www.zalman.com/m/eng/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=183

Removal of the fan has improved sound as expected. The unit is very well made and silent in operation, the pump runs directly from it's own electrical supply so no electrical linkage to the pc. Overall a nice bit of kit even if it does look just a little "overclocky".

Nick.

[PeterSt]

I guess I can connect that to my floor heating water system ...
Could heat up the floor, could cool down the cpu and stuff.

haha

[Nick]

Hi,

A small update that might be usefull to NOS users.

I have been experiencing a rather annoying "tape hiss" type sound in the background on very quiet passages. This has been coupled with slighly confused sounding mid/highs that are at their worst when the passage being listened to has some low frequency content. The strange thing was that the symptoms were only present when playing CDs at 8 and 16 times over sampling. After 3 or 4 weeks of methodically trying everything I could think of and hours spent with test disks and frequency sweeps the sound is fixed, yippee !!!

In the end it was quite a simple problem, the fix was two things; move the NOS off the top of my amp and connect NOS to amp with a 1.0m set of interconnects instead of exactly the same type in 0.5m length. The result is much, much better music. If you have audible "tape hiss" you may want to experiment with the above.

Generally, I am just loving the NOS there is no going back once you hear this DAC

Regards,

N

[Scroobius]

Hey Nick  -  Great that you fixed the problem and that you are enjoying your NOSUSB.  There is problem with NOSUSB and that is dragging yourself away from listening. Best to set an alarm clock - I keep forgetting to go to bed 

Just out of interest what type of interconnects do you have and also what type of speaker cables do you use?

All the best

Paul

[Nick]

Hey Nick  -  Great that you fixed the problem and that you are enjoying your NOSUSB.  There is problem with NOSUSB and that is dragging yourself away from listening. Best to set an alarm clock - I keep forgetting to go to bed 

Just out of interest what type of interconnects do you have and also what type of speaker cables do you use?

All the best

Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks, I am really pleased to have found the solution. The interconnects I use are XLO Type 4. I have had them for years (out of production now I think)  they are an unshielded design woven around a tubular hollow core. I really like there transparency but VERY unforgiving if all is not well.

Speaker cables are Van den hull 102 hybrid. I have to say that they are ok but I have tried better. Problem is I also have 4 x 6m runs to wire up so good stuff tends to get very expensive. Now your copper cables are on the cards as soon as I have carpet down in the room where I listen. At the moment we have tiles and I am not convinced enamel on wires will last long on this surface 

Thanks for doing the test for "tape hiss", knowing it was not a normal situation really helped in getting the problem solved.

Cheers,

N

[Scroobius]

Nick - I also have 4 x 6m runs of speaker cable. The home made copper speaker cables are good for copper but silver was significantly better when I tried it (but then the bybees more than wiped out that difference). So not sure if they will be as good as your van den hull - still for £30 it is worth a try. I may well have to come past your area in the New Year so maybe I could bring mine speaker cables in for you to try (there is a lot work in making them).

As far as enamel is concerned the biggest problem I found is getting the stuff off - dressing the ends of the wires is a pain. The enamel is very tough. I used TechFlex to cover the exposed parts of my cables just for cosmetic reasons I am confident that it would protect your cables on tiles - and TechFlex is cheap. 

P

[Nick]

I may well have to come past your area in the New Year so maybe I could bring mine speaker cables in for you to try (there is a lot work in making them).

Paul your very welcome to drop in, and thanks for offering to bring you cables over. If you get some idea on dates drop me a pm and we can get set up.

Cheers,

Nick.

[PeterSt]

Nick, it is not commonly known, but you shouldn't sell your car in the mean time.
(yea, to me)