More priase for the NOS1a :-)

[Nick]

Hi,

I wanted to post on sound and experiences of the last couple of months since my NOS1 arrived back from Peters as a NOS1a. What a small letter that “a” is but what has transformational effect it has on music played here at home.

Straight out of the box the NOS1a a massive step up on the NOS1 that was sent back to Peter for upgrade. If nothing more came from the NOS1a than that heard on the first day, I would happily go through the upgrade process time and time again for that sound.

Over the last 2 months the target has been to get my NOS1a to approach as much as possible the musical performance I heard at Peters (with a tweaked NOS1) and at Manis with a NOS1a. The common factor listening at Peters and Mani’s has been that they both have / had versions of Peter and Burts loudspeaker system which are IMHO simply in a class of their own. The NOS1a has needed a considerable running in period and I’m still reasonably sure that it continues to improve even after 2+ months of 24 hour a day power.

Although the NOS1a sounds in a completely different class to the NOS1 whilst being driven using just about any XX and PC settings, for me the REAL magic has come with very, very specific PC and XX software settings. I have moved in small steps towards Peters signature settings and those he recommends for the XXPC BOIS. I say slowly because there have been three important system tweaks/mods that have been necessary in my music system to let the NOS1a perform here. I should say however that these tweaks are specific to my system and not related to the NOS1a so I’ll post on these elsewhere.

Today I finally applied the last of Peters under clocking BIOS settings to my AsRrock mobo. What a sound ! The sound is now the most real I have heard save for Peters system and Mani’s (I am still to visit Pauls which I am sure will be added to this list of exceptions). I have stood in awe this afternoon playing track after track. Even the massively rose tinted audio recollection of hearing Blue Monday pounding out at the age of 14 on my first ever night club visit, just could not compare with the way Blue Monday sounded today, WOW !. Milos playing Spanish guitar was simply in the house playing to my family during dinner this evening.  Vestiges of HIFI are absent, music is coherent and cohesive and pushes forwards the performance. It flows with delicacy or power as called for with lifelike dynamic and timbre. My speakers at times appear to have so little to do with the music I think it might be possible to remove them to another room (they do look a little odd when “watching” the musical performance haha).

I want to say an absolutely huge thanks to Peter and Ciska for their dedication and commitment to produce such a remarkable instrument for reproducing music and making it available for people to enjoy.

Nick.

[PeterSt]

Yo yo yo Nick,

Can I say it ? it looks like you now have an "a" stuck on your head because you transformed yourself ?
I don't want to be the psychologist, but it really looks like you have settled down in peace, maybe go hunting once in a while but do all at ease even together with your mother in law and save the goodies in the fridge so after two months you can pick the best for your visitors - us.

Are you sure this is you ?

My speakers at times appear to have so little to do with the music I think it might be possible to remove them to another room

Obviously I tried to outsmart this text with mine, but I am sure I did not succeed.


Peter

[manisandher]

GREAT news Nick!

(I need to pass something by you, but will do this via PM later today - need to catch a flight now.)

Mani.

[arvind]

Hi,

Just putting in my two bit on the praise for the NOS1a.

Being one of the later ones to go in for the upgrade, I got my upgraded unit only last week. So its obviously still in the breaking in phase.

To analyse the difference between the NOS1 & NOS1a....here goes.

General SQ: By far more clearer. Resolution is significantly better. Individualisation of the instruments is far greater. This is across the entire frequency spectrum. Soundstage too is wider & deeper.

Low Frequency: Significantly tighter & less boomy.
Mids & Highs: Significantly clearer & more accurate.

Recommendation: Those sitting on the fence should jump in & go for the upgrade, budget permitting of course. However a word of caution; this upgrade will expose weakness in the chain as well as deficiencies in room acoustic.

Peter: Fantastic upgrade really enjoying every minute of it. Thank you.

Best Regards,

Arvind

[PeterSt]

Thank you very much Arvind. Very glad it works out, also for you.

Best regards,
Peter

[2glory]

My NOSa is worth every penny I spent on it! A fair price on such a huge upgrade.

Seeing there was talk that the USB cable Made a difference unlike before I went out and bought the Synergistic Galileo LE USB cable. Ha what a trip with this guy this USB cable is the crowning glory on the NOSa.

I am not a writer that pens phrases like deeper wider taller soundstage highs are .... Mid range is ....

To me the illusion that real living musicians with real instrument are playing music in my room in a greater way is happening more with the NOSa so than the NOS. A believable sound emerges from my system unlike before.

Keep up the good work Peter.

[juanpmar]

The differences in favor of NOS1a regarding NOS1 are very obvious, they basically refer to what others have already mentioned, a larger and more coherent sound stage, better defined and deeper bass, mids and highs with more presence and smoothness, etc. But in my experience the most striking finding has been meeting for the first time with the wide sweet spot, the wide listening area where you can hear both speakers as a whole while you walk around the room. It gives the feeling that if you change the listening position can still hear equally both speakers. The speakers disappear in the sense that you can´t locate its exact position. However although this effect is surprising, still if one gets the perfect center, the sound is perceived a bit more defined.

Although the differences in between the two NOS are clear from the start I must say that I did not noticed a major jump in SQ with the NOS1a until I did not make two important changes:
 
First, I put the last recommended settings by Peter and not the ones Peter has in his signature as I did before.

Second, I set the Peter recommended settings for the bios, although as I have a different mb I could not use all of his settings. I could set, however, the CPU ratio to 12 and some other things.

I mentioned in some other post that if let the bios control the speed of the fans if it had influence in the SQ, finally I can say that it does. When the fan speed is controlled by PWM it makes a metallic sound and a less cohesive sound stage that appears as divided into parts.

In summary, the NOS1a is an important step forward compared to the NOS1. Here I, like others, add my congratulations to Peter and Cisca for the great work done.

Now I hope to try very soon the Blaxius modification I've already ordered.

Kind regards,
Juan

[PeterSt]

Thank you for your thorough report Juan !
Now watch what happens when your Blaxius(es) arrive. They went out today.

Best regards and thanks,
Peter

[boleary]

So I'm a bit late to this party but cannot help "piling on" with a few thoughts too. I've had the NOS1a for 9 days. After letting it burn in with the Blaxius 24/7, I finally sat down yesterday,day 8, for about 7 mesmerizing hours. First impressions: it's a completely new sound. The bass and mids have dramatically improved. They now have a presence and accuracy that gives vocals a full "body," head to toe, instead of just being  "talking heads." Related to that full body sound, I think, is the shift in focus from separate, clearly defined sound sources, instruments and vocals, to the space in which those sources of sound emerge. To me this is what makes the sound so new and fantastic: one hears, primarily, the music as an event which occurs in space, while keeping all the detail and separation of instruments one previously heard. And its the hearing or presence of that "space," as the primary experience,  that makes everything seem to take on the quality of a live recording. Also related to this experience is that one doesn't just hear the music but one also feels it too. Ever been to a live event and sat close enough to the musicians that your entire body resonates or feels as well as hears the music? That's what I mean. With the NOS1 I could get that occasionally, but always playing on the edge of too loud. Now that "feeling" is the norm and it occurs in a range of volume levels--from not quite loud enough to a bit too loud. Really mind-blowing.

One last thing, which I think is also related. My man-cave/music room is on the third floor of our home. There is a door that separates the stairway from the second to the third floor, as well as a door to the music room. There are water pipes for the heating system that run from the basement, through a corner of the living-room where we watch TV, to the radiator in the third floor music room. Previously, with both of the described doors closed, I was never able to burn in new stuff, cables, DAC upgrades, etc, at my preferred volume levels and watch TV on the first floor at the same time. Though you could barley hear the music, the sound of the TV would make the sound of the music imperceptible, there would always be an occasional stray blast of some frequency, usually bass, that made TV watching annoying to my wife. So I'd have to burn in at lower levels than I wanted. This past week, during the day, (my wife works from home) I've let the music play at full volume all day till bedtime. Not once has my wife complained! No occasional stray resonances or sound that distracted her. At all times the music, from the first floor, just remains barley perceptible and totally unnoticable when the TV is on. Very strange when one would assume that the explanation for this is that there must be less bass when, in fact, there's more bass than ever before.

Okay, enough for now. More to come regarding Blaxius, XXsettings and high RES.

Thanks Peter. Incredible achievement.

Brian

[PeterSt]

What a report, Brian. Thank you so much.

Not once has my wife complained! No occasional stray resonances or sound that distracted her. At all times the music, from the first floor, just remains barley perceptible and totally unnoticable when the TV is on. Very strange when one would assume that the explanation for this is that there must be less bass when, in fact, there's more bass than ever before.

Yes, and by now I call this "The Toilet Test".
So this is the same as me always being in the toilet, explicitly watching for this phenomenon when I'm there anyway. This phenomenon - not being able to hear jumping out anything's - is in my situation almost 100% there and I think it tells something. And also, when I applied a change for the worse, right away there's some "boom - boom" which can happen at any frequency, but indicates something not "even" and which is far more hard (if at all) to detect in the music room.

Thus in my view such "Toilet Test" is realy on to something and a sheer measure. Easy to apply as well. But don't confuse with other sounds in there !


Best regards,
Peter