Hi there All,
It must have been a 100 times that I wanted to write what I write below, but I never was able to find some real time for it. Also, it is difficult for me to share enthusiasm when I don't do that right the next day after a listening session full with pleasure. And of course I get used to things, so a couple of days after and I don't know how to
anymore.
However, day before yesterday, after a vacation and a full day in the car passing countless "Baustelle" in Germany - with the most pittyful "modern" radio music (music ??) ... I had a few hours in the evening and so much appreciated what has been accomplished lately. Mind you, this spans more than a year of B'ASS development.
Actually I was ready for this sheerful message two weeks ago, when I blew something in my own NOS1a and had to switch to another one I had laying around, but without B'ASS provision. Ha !! NOW I knew. B'ASS is infinitely better.
It is different too. Very different. You will just have a different DAC because of it.
So you thought the NOS1a was the best DAC you ever owned ? wait. Because now there is the
G3.
Uhm, what ?
The G3 is the further development of the B'ASS but in a very diffferent setup as how it was / has been for a year in my own system;
It is
not in an external cabinet because I found it actually un-doable with the stiff Blaxius Interlinks which most - or many of you use. You just can't put the cabling anywhere and e.g. taking out the NOS1(a) out of its cave became a very tedious job, therewith molesting the interlinks if not careful.
It is
not provided with switches and different settings as originally planned because, well, I found another way of doing the same (in effect) with one option only.
It does
not come with destructive volume control, and the talk about that was only disturbing me (very much).
It also does
not come with a headphone output, although the normal outputs can be used for headphones (and if you are not satisfied with that then so be it, because I refuse to let degrade SQ even the smallest because of any side dish option).
Finally, it does
not come with several inputs for the same reason.
Yes, what a list of what it's not !
G3The G3 incarnation of the B'ASS is way better than the original B'ASS, because it is now more than that.
How ?
It consists of
3 different Gain Stages.
Here they are :
1.
The configuration as originally planned, but with one stage of amplification only. This is because of #2 below which is the more formal one, and this (#1) config is actually strange as it works all right but without justification that I myself can discover. It changes the sound, it does that for the better, and with more amplifiers it changes the sound more and for the more better. But my guts tell me that all what it does is make the sound slightly more fuzzy, together with a more bassy sound. Completely nothing wrong with it, but only more expensive than #2 below.
2.
This configuration can be regarded as the schoolbook application for the setup involved, which I never really got working at first, which is all related to the power supply and oscillation (and the very high slew rate of the chips involved, which people may recall as over 2400V/us).
New PCB's were designed for a new supply (actually the regulation) and now it worked. And mind you, now the vagueness of "current amplifier or not", can be scratched because now it is a real current amplifier (so #1 is "half that").
3.
Your good old gain stage.
He says what ?!
Ad 1, 2 and 3 :
The thought of this has been dealt with in between many lines, but originates from my finding that a certain chip on your momentary gain stage is responsible for the breaking in of the NOS1(a). With the explicit thought that such a chip is required anyway, the situation of #1 emerged, which has this chip in the chain but in the NOS1(a) as is/was and the remainder of the "current" amplification was posed to be in the external cabinet. This is to be read as : how to move the chip from your NOS1(a) to the external box which is thus impossible and thus think of a design which allows the chip to remain in the NOS1(a) and chain thingss such that it works together with what's inside the external case.
... Which I in the end did not like for physical + $$ constraints. So :
With the idea that the external case would not be the cheapest upgrade anyway and falling back to the more normal "upgrade situation" which implies building-in the NOS1(a), I could now think of any setup that suited me, and which incorporates that chip you have on the gain stage at this moment.
A first trial batch of new PCBs was ordered so they could fit in the NOS1a (the "a" now not between braces because the a version occupies more space to begin with), which for myself meant that the famous chips (one per channel) were taken off the old gain stage and put on to the new oneS (see more below). This fitted all right (and played well too), but I regarded it unnecessary "wired" so again a new PCB was designed. This PCB looks quite similar to the old one (for the gain stage) and attaches to the DAC board again (no wires involved).
Side note : The production of these should have gone out 10 days ago before our small vacation, but this failed because the W10 machine of concern (with the PCB design software) gave up on us all together. The machine is up and running again, but I expect 4 weeks before the PCBs now can arrive.
OK, but apart from the "opportunity" to provide the old (means of) gain stage, why do it in the first place ?
The answer is simple : The sound is so totally different with the #2 option (also with #1) that you can be sure to have a brand new D/A converter with a so changed sound that you may like to listen to the old sound once in a while.
And the NOS1a had no sound of its own ?
Yes, funny. It hasn't. But once you listened for a year (which is what I really did) to another "neutral" sound, you will discover that certain favours of, say, accuracy are audible indeed !
As usual, this hard to explain in words, but an attempt :
Let's imagine that we have random guitars with a certain mid (frequency) sound; what we perceive from that through the NOS1a (NOS1 I forgot a bit) is the sound of the string(s) with (relatively) few guitar body. Mind you, the body of the guitar largely makes the sound. It is this body which is added largely by the B'ASS and after listening to that for a longer period of time, the "flavour" of the NOS1a with old gain stage is one of strings. And oh, they are all so accurate, which is perfectly audible because of no real fundament (lower frequency) disturbing it, but it is not "complete" so to speak.
The sound of the normal NOS1a could be summarized as a very accurate and pinpointed sound, which accuracy etc. comes forward because nothing vaguens it. It is not false accuracy, but it is incomplete. So let's say that the flavour of the NOS1(a) is one of incomplete music sound, never mind that you do not recognize this at this moment.
I myself have been looking numerous times for less accuracy with the B'ASS amplification because most certainly it feels like that. But I could not discover any by means of explicit listening;
all the accuracy is still there, and now the bonus : a 1000 more sounds are there because so much is playing at the lower frequency (but think upper mid to begin with and most certainly not sub low or something). An example of it could be the now impossibility to not hear what the lyrics are. OK, this already was so largely, but it is now more so.
Mind you, in the above I am talking from the experience with #3, which is the latest incarnation of the B'ASS and active over here for a small month.
The designFirst off, the G3 gain stage is Double Mono now (this was not so with the gain stage you still have in there). I am pretty sure this is audible in the Left/Right separation but to be honest I can only have my judgement from comparing with the first PCB with "integrated" Left and Right, more so than what you still have in there. Anyway if you look at the board you can envision a vertical line going in between the "AS" of B'ASS and it is there where the board galvanically splits (with a small bend at the top because the right hand input signal needs some space).
Next, a new power transformer (one of them) is now matching the situation so good that the main power supply (right hand leg) remains almost at ambient temperature (maybe it is one degree Celsius above that). In itself this is a requirement for the ultra low noise (double) regulation on the G3 PCB, so the benefit is two-folded. And let's keep in mind : the lower the temperature, the progressively longer the longevity.
The main (shunt) power supply is now regulated so it can take 700mA for plus and 700mA for minus (was 500mA for the NOS1
a (300mA for the NOS1)) with a dissipated heat as describe above.
The amplification is always in differential (Balanced) configuration, never mind you use Single Ended outputs only. This is no different from how the DAC works and how the old gainstage worked, but it *is* different from the original idea about the B'ASS (where SE stages could (virtually) be ordered). The additional advantage of this is that your NOS1(a) remains to be fully balanced, just in case you want to use that later (while today you may use SE only, like with the 75 Ohm BNC connection).
There's a 13600uF of buffer per channel (was 470uF) so the high slew rate can really be served when required. However, besides the possibility of assembling your own caps, there's also the possibility to assemble smaller capacitance (and with that - smaller sized) caps which again makes a difference to the sound - see the bottom side and the four holes under de capacitors.
The output level is now 1dB more.
Means to configure the B'ASS G3On top of the PCB you will find a bunch of jumpers (10 per channel);
The default configuration will be the #2 and for example, to move to #1 requires pulling off 2 jumpers per channel and move them to another position. 30 seconds of work, outside the taking off of the lid. Moving to the original Gain Stage goes similar.
Of course a guide for this (including pictures) will be provided.
The sound ?Obviously this is a re-attempt of descriptions which passed by already in this topic, but possibly today I am better at it because the other day I listened to the NOS1a without B'ASS amplification for two days.
There is no spur of leanness, might leannes have bugged you to some degree. Instead it is slam and punch, but mind you, without any sniff of disco sound (this combination has been quite hard to achieve).
There is body in everything, though with the notice that not each song/track utilizes it; this is because what's not there is not added either. But for example, might you have had problems with some (or more) Rock albums, then you can take it that they now almost all play because of the added fundament. Of course this is about the disappeared leanness again, but now more focused towards "and what can we now play suddenly ?".
In addition I can tell that only the last incarnation (which is #2) made it possible for myself to play Rock albums for 2 weeks in a row by now.
In general we could say that the G3/#2 configuration makes all "less difficult".
There's spades of new sounds and where they are exactly can not be described. It is nothing like new or more bells or more bass, but it is about more clear voices (and then because they are nore realistic), "scratching" sounds which seem to be about ultra high transient on/off sounds (think like squeezing paper into a ball in your hands) and all kinds of "side noises" you never heard before but which are really there (think percussion but - trying to avoid my Ambient - also think about all the rarities hip-hop or that kind of bands can make for sounds (Faithless, Massive Attack ?). Water drops is an example of something which far more nicely develops and is renedered as a hole. And with this latter in mind, try to envision how clear a piano can sound while this is caused by again adding fundament; Clarity is not necessarily created by high frequency when we think "purity". Purity is more of the round (I say).
All sings more - it is more musical.
I don't know exactly where it happened (but probably it is a combination with Windows 10 Build 14393.0) but albums which were lacking highs, now don't lack that any more. It was already growing towards that prior to 14393.0, but today this has been "finalized".
You will notice a special treatment of cymbals, with now additional/again better "size estimation". This too is emphasized by 14393.0 and/but it is the combination with the B'ASS (G3) which lets this work out (instead of occasional too lean nastyness).
There is way more differentiation in drums again;
If I myself try to envision what all happened since the not so long ago times that each tom in the drum kit sounded the same (and paper like) then it is hard to see what all happened. But a *lot*.
A bit depending on what you play, it can come to you as "dangerous". This is about the most typical attribute of the B'ASS - dangerous. This is about the sheer energy which is thrown at you and which really feels like electrical energy. It can give the feeling "is my system sure it can do this for real ?".
There's now something with instantanous hits which are not only very live like, but also don't make you startle. The best example could be Dean Peer and his crazy dynamic basses (like on the Airborne album) and morphed sounds from them, which are not only dynamical but also very powerful; the normal NOS1(a) would make you jump to the ceiling at the louder levels while with the B'ASS there's always that tad of body that starts to occur right before the real hit so you know the hit is coming, which hit also is now more rounded because of that body (fundament) again.
An example in the same direction is the "push" behind hits like from a drum (but bass guitar the same). So with drums, and when in order, you can see the drummer first jumping up in the air so he now has his full body weight behind the sticks to slam the drum (like floor tom). To get the idea, envision A View to a Kill (Duran Duran) which is all about those hits. Meanwhile recognize that previously (still your situation at this moment) this was not really a track to listen to, because to lean and hurting. Now this works to some extend. So it is also about the relative ease that all now expresses. Yet all the high twingles and bells and stuff remain to work.
An example which is almost the other way around and mentioned because that works beautifully too, is the conga's on Pusherman from Curtis Mayfield on People get ready (live at Ronnie Scott's). This is such super fast stuff and so fragile that it testifies the exact opposite of "push" and which is thus important to work out just the same.
The mid is one of the most crucial improvements and to understand that, start preparing with listening to I heard it through the Grapevine from Creedence (the long version).
If you, like me the other day, play your regular albums with the new G3 (#2 or #1) you won't even recognize the album as the same (mix etc.). So you really can enjoy all your albums all over. But merely (and it was implied in the above) you can also try the albums from your younger era, because they all play better now (I bet you).
PriceEvery NOS1 or NOS1a owner can have his all new sounding DAC - including the same sound he was used to - for the price of
580 610 euros (excluding VAT for those who are VAT liable).
For people outside of the European Union I need to add 55 euros for the import duties we always need to pay. Or actually (I think) for everybody outside of the EU except Norway somehow (we are never charged import duties for goods from Norway, as far as I can recall).
So please, you never noticed and knew, but each time anyone sent in his NOS1 we always paid ~40 euros import duties plus 12,50 of whatever fee the shipper charges for arrangements and this happened 100s of times by now (just think yourself how many times you sent in your NOS1 for upgrades). And the stupid thing is : getting back the ~55 takes about 2 hours of filling out forms, arranging for stamps and more non-sense per sent in DAC, so it is not worth it to claim it back. Which does not mean that I like to pay it.
So I hope you like to pay it yourself this time ?
I had a text here, referring to
this post in which text I justified the price and that actually nothing changed regarding that "original" post. I saved the text, so if someone likes to know ...
Peter
