Thank you for your extensive reporting Joachim.
With your post as a guide I tried 8x normal AP against 16x AP-Custom against 16x normal Ap myself yesterday. Just press Pause in the middle of a track and switch a couple of times.
Maybe I can hear what you mean. But this is my own "verdict" :
(let's keep in mind, I listen to 16x AP Custom now for many weeks (over 8 I think) so this has become my automated reference)
16x AP (normal) brings quite similar overtones in cymbals everywhere which seem right but can not be because too much the same throughout. This
looks like *additional* harmonics but in comparison with the Custom filter at least I now perceive it as distortion.
This "distortion" is now more profound with the NOS1a because of the way lower distortion the DAC itself now produces.
Also good to know : this distortion in the really higher frequencies (think about 12KHz) can easily be measured. No worries because this is just normal for a filter serving the time domain almost exclusively.
8x AP (normal) did not bring much of a difference. Notice that I played it in the sequence as you read it here and maybe it was not wise to first try 16x AP normal. So how it works : 16x AP normal brings me not the best (see above) and thus a next setting is to improve on that specifically. But it can't work because nothing was done to the distortion mentioned (it will even have gotten somewhat worse).
So ... there
might have been a difference, but it did not want to go into my head because overwhelmed by things more important (as how my brain interprets it).
Now notice that I in fact started out with 16x AP Custom because I was just playing that all the time and started "testing" in the middle of some longer track.
Back to 16x AP Custom;
When it is performed in this sequence, but I think my 8 weeks of using this anyway, this becomes uper apparent :
Richness. So what lacked in both normal AP session -and what I did NOT notice - now is super apparent when going back.
Of course this is the same harmonic richness Charlie talked about and - just saying - it is also 100% logic. There just *is* more HF output to begin with (for level I mean) but is is also "distorted" at levels which theoretically should be OK. Or at least far better OK (I am talking about measuring it all now).
This richness can be put to words better if I describe it as "more vibrant" and then envisioning this more vibrant as the whole left/right experience, in the end making the sound clearly more full. Like a warm bath thrown at you (gently).
For you Joachim, it could be worth while to explicitly watch for this. On the other hand, I did NOT watch explicitly for your remarks because the track playing coincidentally was not right for that. And I actually had reasons for comparing (but with your post in mind).
So here we go again with one of my "sh*tty" albums :
Made in Japan (Deep Purple) - original version (watch out for that super bad remaster);
This is always a test album for me because it is about fairly much smashing on cymbals of which you can hear that there's more in it than shown (through your system). Ever back this started for me with "all grey" because, well, I played the LP so many times it just was grey.
Through CD this is different, because through CD (or computer playback) this is about how much of cymbals come to the surface.
The fun (MY fun) : The cymbals seem to be "over" now. Seem to be, because how to judge well with a 1971 rock album. But point is : since NOS1a this now happens for the first time and where now all the smashing is heard very well it suddenly becomes a matter of "and how to represent those well". This thus while previously it was a matter of "how to bring them to the surface". So really a big difference.
Because the filter adds to the highs I started to A-B. Just the first track (Highway Star).
The 16x AP brought the overtones at always the same frequencies as described and if there's one thing I hate it is "not neutral". The 8x AP did not change a thing to that. The 16x Custom made it disappear again. All what lacks that is just too much of it (in my subjective view of course and it will depend a lot on the speaker). Plus all got so nicely rich and full.
Not much important for this post (say against your post Joachim) but when Child in Time came up ... man, that now shows playing on the ride cymbal I never perceived. So, a ride cymbal (used in ride fashion) always shows the best of cymbals (say 40 years again also) but this time I could see how the stick was hitting the cymbal from various angles (you must have seen drummers doing that in the first place to get that into your bain from listening only). But not only that, smaller cymbals are used just the same for "ride".
Never ever I got a glimpse of this in this track, and possibly I played it 500 times in my life.
OK, I just wanted to share this because it is a typical example of how a certain album or track can show huge differences while others stay close to the same. But remember what I said : I often use this album for testing, just because I can "hear" that there's more in there than shown through my system. And now that finally happened.
(I so often give Sgt. Pepper as THE example of things being in there which don't come out - and today this whole album sounds totally gorgious (believe it or not) ... most Beatles do now).
Anyway, watch for that richness / fullness. I even played a double album of the Beastie Boys throughout. This did not work ever before because too lean. Now it works (but head for a fight with your wife
).
Regards,
Peter
