NOS USB Impressions

[Nick]

Peter hi,

Unfortunately the last of the 4 vintage cars we were selling just sold. Sad to see them go but glad to have sorted them out for the family.

Somehow my wife and I could not bare to see all of the other cars go so we are now up to 6 including the daily drivers. The Ultima is the "interesting" one. If Paul comes over on a dry bright day it might be possible to have a little fun in it 

Best Nick.

[Flecko]

Somebody like to buy a Master build Classical Guitar, that a poor student can buy a NOS1?

[PeterSt]

And then play back your guitar through a stupid machine ? Looks like trading your right arm.

[Flecko]

I have three guitars (acoustic, flamenco, classical) all of high or very high quality and no time to play all of them. So it is some kind of waste to just have them and not playing them as they deserve it. I selected all my guitars with the same enthusiasm as I build my hifi system. The cassical guitar is of course the most expensive one and the one I could give away with the smallest feeling of loss. I am in the first place a steelstring guy and second I like the sound of the flamenco guitar a lot. Even if the classic guitar is the better instrument and build like a dream. In fact, you are right. But I am realy, realy curious how the nos1 sounds. And I fear I have to wait a little longer....

[PeterSt]

You might try crisnee, but I think he already owns a good guitar.

I forgot where you live (in Germany), but I could always offer you to come over and have a listen. Just because you are a long time special. I don't think I have done this ever before ...

I know that this won't solve your long time student problem, and maybe it makes things worse; but at least it will cure your curiosity ...

Regards,
Peter

[Flecko]

Thanks a lot Peter for the offer. And I will take it up if there will be an opportunity to combine this trip with something else. It is not a long time anymore until I will have finished my studies. And as I have sudied something usefull, all will be well. Just some month...

It was more a joke at first to sell the guitar here but anyway, I now complete the offer: It is a Jochen Röthel 2004 (hauser style) Cedar Top and Caviuna side and back  (some kind of rio). Frensh polish, best mechanics incl case. Hardly played. New (2009), they sell for 6200€. I sell for 3500€. The buyer will make a good deal I think. In the USA you pay 8000 to 10000$ for a Röthel and in GB 5500 pound (simple rosewood) to 6000 pound.

[Nick]

Flecko hi,

That is one hell of a guitar, it must sound beautiful.

Best Nick.

[Scroobius]

It looks superb I would love to hear it played

Paul

[Flecko]

Thanks guys! I like to play it and listen to the sound very much. I love instruments where a single note played already is rewarding.

[hf]

Since a few days also the (proud) owner of the NOS USB. Wow what a sound... Much has been said above. I wanted to compare it with the Berkeley v2+USB (stt... I didn't tell Peter  ) but once I heard the DAC I was immediately convinced. I know the sound of a piano quite well: once you've heard that on this dac you know it is a very very good one..

But I want to thank you all, and especially Praphan, for your impressions & thoughts because it has helped me to come to this decision. And Peter, of course, since it takes a lot of courage and resources to develop such a great product!

[PeterSt]

Hey Hein - nice story. Thanks a lot for the feedback.

I wanted to compare it with the Berkeley v2+USB (stt... I didn't tell Peter  )

Ha ha, no, you didn't. So what you say is that I didn't even get the opportunity to talk you out of that ?

Let me add a little story :

As long as the NOS1 doesn't go by the pallet, we always like a delivery; whether the whole arrangement happened by email and a courier only, or whether someone from The Netherlands comes to collect it.
In this case it went a little different, because Hein wanted to audition it first. But, we don't do that. It is not in the price (sorry) and what about the poor people living further away. So, no preferenced for Dutch, no matter I am one myself.

Hein also couldn't bring something for me to combine it into something useful for me, because I already had his Alpha over (ok, not his one). But, just because of that I could promise more or less what would happen.
Hein could come over and have a listen, but payed in advance anyway. We agreed I'd pay the money back when he didn't like it afterall. For both of us this seemed a "can't go wrong", and of course depends on good trust from the customer.

What happened was that after 30 seconds of listening (make that 90 to be on the safe side), Hein wanted to leave with NOS1. So yes indeed, the difference is not small. But I knew that.

The Alpha USB interface instead seems a logical path (since it is there now). But, following those reporting about it, you can already see that although it is better, there's nothing like deciding within 30 seconds that you are sure about it.

Of course this experience was a kind of new to me, just *because* of not allowing auditions. I'd almost say "if it always works out anyway, why not".

But what I (we) really like the best is the satisfaction we can provide. A sheer goal for life ...

Thanks Hein,
Peter

[Robert]

God I can't believe this story with all that's been written already, 30 seconds probably 2 seconds in reality to hear the difference. You know it when you hear it instantly. But you always have to do it again to prove your ears weren't faulty.

[PeterSt]

But you always have to do it again to prove your ears weren't faulty.

Completely true. And as I always say myself : I take 5 days for it. No less (I think it happened 3 times that even on day 5 I rejected a change).
But then this is about far more subtle differences.

Of course it can't be explained what the non-subtle differences are, but this is exactly about how we (incorporate the development of XXHighEnd now) try to change the world;

Think about your Christmas albums you talked about in the other topic. That too happened to me several years back, and how suddenly written-off old stuff had come alive - and instead of the necessity to listen to Christmas music because it belongs, that changed to sheer joy because it now sounds so good.

You got this, right ?
Now incorporate the NOS1 as well, and think it will be two times worse again, at least.

The whole problem is, is that we need to think in terms of improving "live sound" which is close already, instead of rejecting all the so many albums because of te "poor recording". The latter happens when things are not quite right, and it will be a matter of you preferring the nice bass on it but actually don't like the highs, or like the cymbals but all sounds too cold. This is because something is wrong. You will not be able to find the right settings for everything, and which in the end is the reason I need 5 days (to play sufficiently enough different material).

Once things are right (and of course this is what I'm saying), the whole world is different. This alrready was so with the first NOS1 (non-USB), and this is perceived close to instantly. But there's also the "exaggerated" high frequency output, which

- obviously strikes you as crazy to begin with, but
- which immediately makes clear that it goes in undistorted fashion just because of that high level (say, the louder, the better audible).

If I am allowed to say it : For the Alpha this is the most apparent of all modern DACs I know of, because they tried to let that sound right by means of applying filtering means which end up in cutting out so much high frequency output (level) that it can't go wrong for harshness (well, in my view). There's just nothing capable of being "sharp". But in the mean time there's no grain of freshness as well, and the next thing coming *not* from that is the spatiousness which is created from high frequencies. They lack, thus it lacks.

So the trick is not to create high level frequency output (this is fairly easy, like a Weiss can do that) ... it is about squeezing that out in undistorted fashion. And this indeed was the very first remark from Hein "man, and it doesn't even show the lightest of harshness !". So this is the apparent thing right away.

That this is not all is another thing, and as just told, for me it would need those 5 days to check it out all. That there's also spades of bass (hey, as unheard I can tell you), and that things are right in general. That no e.g. piano notes jump out. And so many more technical things. When these are behind you there's the emotional factor. This is always a problem with technical OK sounding stuff, like the WASAPI engine in XXHighEnd (very accurate, but non-emotional).
But this is what the 90 days money back guarantee is for; it is just needed.

But hey, let's not forget that it is XXHighEnd producing the sound. The NOS1 only lets it trough unmolested. Also not easy, but all starts in the software. And that software ? that is what you created with all your ears. It just is so, believe it or not.

Peter

[esimms86]

So I pack up my async NOS1 and send it back to Peter who finds a faulty capacitor, does a repair and ships it back to me on the other side of the Atlantic. I set it up connected to my 2010 mac mini running XXHigh End on Windows 7 Home Premium in Boot Camp mode and then...the magic happens! All of a sudden I understand what all the excitement is about. I wouldn't call it hype because the NOS1 clearly delivers. I'm listening to 70's rock and roll in redbook format and I have to pinch myself because it all sounds better than the hi rez flac files on my other DACs and I can swear that I'm listening to playback in the mixing studio. I suddenly understand why hi rez really doesn't matter if you own async NOS1 as I find myself scrambling through my music files looking for more diamonds in the rough. To be sure, there are occasional extraneous sounds that tell me that I need to optimize the settings on XXHE, but that's for another time, and right now I just want to listen to the music. The bass is deeper and more complex, the background is blacker and the voices(human and instrument) are richer in detail, even on your garden variety redbook with standard CD remastering. I tell myself again, so that's what they were talking about! It's like in the film Blade Runner when Dr. Tyrell says of his android production company, "more human than human is our motto." I stop short of playing "Kind of Blue" because I want to savor it as an experience to itself but I just know it's going to sound phenomenally great. Peter, thanks again for the NOS1 and the first rate product support and, Mani, thanks for tipping me off to the existence of this wonderful DAC. I know I sound greedy, but I look forward to that day somewhere in the future when Peter perfects the add on board to allow for DSD playback, though I can't imagine that DSD could sound any more real than what we have here already.

Esau