First impression of the NOS1a (and Orelo)

[Arjan]

Hello all,
Last Sunday evening we had our first impression of the NOS1a at Peters home. My family and me have enjoyed the hospitality of Peter and his family that evening. Special thank you to Ciska and Paul! We know now who is the better drummer! Luckily the worse drummer is so well gifted in other areas. Although The Netherlands is a small country we discovered this nice region around Oene (Epe) again.
During the meal we talked about our jobs and I learned also Peters honest passion in that area.
And Ciska the meal was delicious!

Off course we listened to music via the NOS1a and the Orelo speakers. I learned some new music and passed the test! Also Peter learned some new music he already had in his possession. Because we could listen to music we were familiar with also my children enjoyed it.

I was able to NOT fall in love with the Orelo speakers. And I am happy with that, because they will never fit in our listening room (=living room) And buying a new home for speakers will never pass the board.
I think they are speakers you have to learn listening to, but they are really good. It is like falling in love, not at first sight, but you have to learn them better, and you will see that they have the best character and soul there is. That is good, I know from experience that a speaker that gives you a first WOW effect will be hated after 2 weeks. And off course the whole setup is so different from my own, like the size of the room to name one. Yes they are really good, that was proven by the live drumming recordings we heard. What I really liked was the reproduction of voices!

Peter is already using his new filter in xxhighend. He did one switch back to the old, I did not know that but he asked me what was different. For me the new filtering is the better one, in one word its cleaner! But I know of people who will be able to write a long essay about this.

Our main reason to be there was, picking up a new NOS1a! Yes, we have it.

Later to day I will write my first impressions with it at home. It is not an upgraded NOS1! So I can not write about the upgrade. Sneak peek: It is good, even after just 1 day!

kind regards, Arjan

[CoenP]

Our main reason to be there was, picking up a new NOS1a! Yes, we have it.

Later to day I will write my first impressions with it at home. It is not an upgraded NOS1! So I can not write about the upgrade. Sneak peek: It is good, even after just 1 day!

kind regards, Arjan

Hi Arjan,

Congrats, you'll be probably the first to have one at home. Peter probably warned you, but if the 1a behaves anything like the NOS1, then you'll be in for some burning-in roller coaster the next month!

Enjoy,

regards, Coen

[vrao]

Hey Arjan,

I just wanted to let you know, my first impression on the MK-II was just the same. It felt very ordinary (nothing special)  ... What was Peter raving about?, live with them for a while, then slowly you feel it's virtues grow. More specifically it does not have audible distortion/enhanced dynamics (these are loudness cues with higher order harmonics, such as the amps clipping or the speaker distorting), which can as you say cause a "wow effect" in the beginning, but your ears will later tell you something's wrong.
Previously, when discovering music before, I would listen to less than one minute of a song or few songs on CDs for sampling, now, I tend to listen to the entire album.

Congrats on your 1a, I'm looking forward to your impressions.

[manisandher]

Well, mine are now up and running. But I will not say a word about the sound until:
a) I get my NOS1a from Peter (probably early next week)
b) the speakers have had a good time to burn-in

But here's a pic...

Mani.

[christoffe]

Well, mine are now up and running. But I will not say a word about the sound until:
a) I get my NOS1a from Peter (probably early next week)
b) the speakers have had a good time to burn-in

But here's a pic...

Mani.

Hi Mani,

nice to see, but

no carpets in the room?


Joachim

[Gerard]

Well, mine are now up and running. But I will not say a word about the sound until:
a) I get my NOS1a from Peter (probably early next week)
b) the speakers have had a good time to burn-in

But here's a pic...

Mani.

Congratulations!!  Nice... 

[manisandher]

Congratulations!!  Nice...

Thanks. They are, aren't they?

no carpets in the room?

Yep, no carpets. This is totally 'by design'. I find any carpets or soft furnishing deaden the sound. Without these things, the room has just the right amount of 'life'.

Mani.

[Stanray]

Wow, I really like the finish! 

Birds-eye maple??

Regards,
Stanley

[CoenP]

Congrates with the new speakers!

They look neither big nor obtrusive in your room.

regards, Coen

[christoffe]

They look neither big nor obtrusive in your room.

regards, Coen

Hi Mani,

this was my first impression too. Special adaption for your room? This size has a high WAF.
http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2921.0

------------------------

Did you find the optimal acoustic position for the speaker already?.

Joachim

[Arjan]

Hi all,

Mani, congrats with the Otelos. They look very nice!

First the NOS1a! Yesterday I let it burn-in, just one day....I know that is nothing.
Today I had some time to listen, and it is very good already! It is a better DAC then the replaced NAD M51 with audiophilleo 2 spdif converter. How much better, difficult to say the sound character is not changed, just a bit better in all areas. The NAD M51 was not bad at all, especially with my xxhighend pc that is powered by linear psu's. But it looks like a pc on an intensive care with all the leads going in and out.

But as Coen already stated the burn-in rollercoaster must be finished before I can make final conclusions.

One thing I checked Today (maybe to early as well) is there a difference in SQ depending on the pc used. I made a new fanless pc (hdplex case) and linear psu (hdplex). It is a low power i7 so less powerfull then the xxhighend pc. I run xxhighend on it without any special settings like minimized OS or playback drive. I compared it with the xxhighend pc that has all possible features active. And (wispering) I hear very small differences, the fanless pc sounds a bit leaner and more restless in difficult music parts. So at this moment I still prefer my xxhighend pc.

Peter, on the fanless Pc I use the xxhighend -e version, not on the xxhighend pc, might that be the reason? Do you have some hints for other possible reasons? Or just wait untill I have done this test again.

I will first burn-in the NOS1a for a couple of weeks and do this test later on again!

And with the fanless pc I also really like the SQ!

Kind regards, Arjan

[PeterSt]

Hey Arjan,

Peter, on the fanless Pc I use the xxhighend -e version, not on the xxhighend pc, might that be the reason?

Of course when you swap from the one PC to the other there's more burn-in on the DAC by then. Haha.
But no, I don't think that anything has changed. The only real subject can be the new filtering but in your (-e) version that has been shut off.
Keep us posted.

Because we could listen to music we were familiar with also my children enjoyed it.

Maybe we must be careful when children of ~15 of age start to overdo the behaviour of their fathers up to the fathers utilizing the children to confirm what they maybe hear themselves. At some stage I winked to the women outside to let peek into your all behaviour - something worked.

But about that, you can see how fragile things are. Like with Sibelius (wasn't that Opus 26 ? haha); you hardly will have (explicitly) noticed, but what was that according to your daughter ? saltless. "So what" you could think. But I heard it too. So I flipped the F-M switch at the back of the speakers so that now the 1K-4K region was lifted one step. Remember ? you asked "what did you do". But did you notice the right away different behaviour of your daughter ? suddenly even Opus 26 worked. She now moved on the way the music was intended and was suddenly involved ...
So fragile things are.

But it is also about the totally innocent remarks from those with the somewhat less knowledge I always enjoy. Hard to explain to others, but if your wife - clearly not all *that* interested - says "but at home it is always so in your face" then our "system owners" response is easily "but we listen way more close" (smaller room). Done.
But not done, because that should not happen anyway. Or at least not because of that reason.
There wasn't enough time to set up in-depth discussions, but I am sure we could have deliberated quite a lot over how we "system owners" (always proud about it) should observe better our children and especially those who are not much interested in the first place - and thus are more easily disturbed about our volume setting ... our partner. So if our wife tells us things sound harsh, we better take that for granted and try to do something about it.

Anyway what I liked the best is how children of that age can be involved with music and I'm afraid that a "hey, what do you think - look in the midst of what they grow up !" isn't the complete answer. Explicitly involve them (like you do Arjan) seems key though and at least I noticed that when I only one time ask Paul to listen for me to something (could be noise) he will forever come back on it when necessary ("hey dad, I hear noise today !"). So in my view there is a "helping" part in children which is mighty important and when children can help their parents in orders of "parent just can't themselves" then children might go all the way. This is not weeding the garden because you can do that yourself just the same.

OK, this was a bit too deep maybe, but let's say I am jealous somewhat. And maybe I learned a few things ...

Hey, welcome to the club !
Peter

[PeterSt]

Arjan, also look here : Re: NOS1 Upgrade contains ....

[manisandher]

STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS

My NOS1a ('white sheep') has arrived home. VJ, and anyone else commenting on the sound of the Orelos can just stop until they have a NOS1a connected up. This has taken things to a totally different level. I used to think that XX was the best bargain in hifi, but I now unreservedly revise that to the NOS1a. For me, this is the end game for a DAC. I'll post more detailed thoughts later.

I'm going to hold off from commenting about the Orelos for a while longer to let everything burn in a little more. Nick and Paul are due to come over on the 22nd, which might be a good time for the 3 of us to share our thoughts.

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Next up could be a new filter.

haha