Although the NOS1 DAC is still not finished, by now I had a fair amount of listening hours, and I think it has sufficiently broken in.
First funny thing is that I still can't find the proper wording to describe how it sounds. I
think this is because "we" can't describe in cold stupid phenomena anymore because they are from an other leage and behind me for a longer time. So the only *real* thing I am definite about is : it is better better better.
Yeah, "better".
Again, I
think this is about the earlier idea to have achieved reality already, allthough you can always find some things which can improve. A kind of main point here is that earlier I listened mainly in the cymbals area for further improvement, while right now I am totally overwhelmed by the improvement in complete other areas, where I wasn't looking for improvement. So, this kind of put my both legs to the ground again, and I have to re-learn listening.
This isn't anymore about "staging" (although if anything I'd say this is more laid back than I'm used to), and this isn't anymore about placement of instruments. Oh, it might be, but somehow you don't come to that anymore. It is now about the instruments themselves, how many of them (same type) are there, and listening to your own room has shifted to listening to the recording room/hall etc.
Btw, I might repeat myself, but these are the things which spring to my mind at wanting to describe what happened.
Am I estatic ? strangely enough not even that. Being estatic from overwhelming goodness suddenly has changed into being very critical only. And the ever again wondering how things happened. Like the so profound metal sound from bass strings of which I can't imagine where it's coming from (better the other way around : how is it possible that this wasn't there before while it is so profound).
Or other kind of "technical" angles which jump into my mind : the better the reproduction is, the better oscillating amplifiers can be noticed. I already heard that coming up better and better (when things got better), but now this is near to overvoice the music itself sometimes. Not only with guys like Julian Sas, but also with respected jazz players like our Toots Thielemans. Btw this happens when an amplified instrument is played way softly and the artist wants to let that hear loud, so the amp is cranked up.
I hear the double/triple strings from pianos/wing now. They interact with eachother, and buzz into eachother. It is that which forms the character of that one piano/wing and which differentiates the one (manufacturer) from the other. But what must I say ? I hear more detail ? nope, because detail as such is a phenomenon which can exist without buzzing strings.
Higher frequency squarish synth sounds seem to fly through the air now. I think I said it before : in a much more fragile way than before, *if* audible at all before.
I have listened to several complete jazz albums, where I couldn't find *any* anomaly in the cymbals and hi-hats used, or IOW just for real, and can't be improved anymore. Ok, that is what I think today.
Before I would have to save the rare track with the same judgement in a "nice stuff" etc. Gallery because it sounded so cool. Today ... today I'd need to save complete albums where the cymbals do not sound right, in order not to run that album anymore ...
And there you have it. Right now there seems to be a huge difference between recordings. O yes, there always was, but I always managed to let poor recordings sound rather right just the same. It was my hobby.
It still is, but I wonder how to close the gap between those poor(er) recordings, and those who just sound 100% right. And now I have another problem :
Once you can obtain the "100% right" (to your idea of it anyway), there is no going back to less. For example, now I know that all basses can express their individual vibes, playing an album which does not do that looses my interest immediately. And they exist. Most probably because the room where the artist was had bad cancellation or the mike was too far away.
For me things have become a huge challenge, and right now I am kind of obsessed to queeze out more again. The Firewire->I2S interface should be one of them, and a special setup of balanced interlinks to the main amps another (I hope both to apply this week). Then there is XXHighEnd which more than ever has my attention, and of which I already have a version with improved SQ (well, that's what I think).
Here's an example of a stupid challenge :
It was not long ago (what about 20 days or so
) that I was kind of hunting for the lowest basses to jump on you with the real power they have. Well, I have that now. Now start laughing for the challenge ...
...
These low basses will be something like 60Hz and they work (with the power needed that is). But from there on, I realized that there are "boundaries" upwards. Similar (I think !) to hearing the wood of the bass, there are these individual vibes UPWARDS. Just think of it : an e.g. 40 Hz tone is easily audible for its individual vibes (you must have the experience of it of course). However, before, with not enough drive, those vibes would smear and no good vibes would be there. Now this is arranged for, and IMO all the way down to e.g. 16Hz, it is MORE DIFFICULT to have the same effect more upwards, in the, say, 120Hz area. Why ? well, because it may need almost as much power NET because of the doubled energy put in. Of course, the higher frequency by itself requires less energy, but since the amplitude might be nearly the same, the total energy required is higher.
What the h*ll am I blabbering about ?
Well, in fact something I hear coming (read : being improved next week etc.). I hear that a cello may be able to express the same vibes in its higher frequency region. This is the interaction with the wood which is already audible, and which springs from individual vibes as well. All is amplitude related, and if one thing is so so so much profound already, it is the dynamics with which a (double) bass is played. The string can be pulled hard and soft and anything in between. It can be pulled with full resonance to the cabinet, and with less (making metal sound only). If one of the guys (of three) on the Superbass vol-1 album pulls a string 5 cm sideways, you now can hear he is doing it. This is confirmed by the audience laughing loud because of it. Before ? before I thought the guy made a handstand or whatever. I couldn't understand.
The same things happen on a cello but all in a more fragile way (higher frequency etc.).
Similarly I can clearly hear the veil of a floor tom vibrating, while knowing from my owm drum stuff that a higher pitched tom clearly can do that too audibly.
So it is these areas where the next improvements will be I think; obtaining the higher frequency individual vibes.
Now you all could tell me that you experience these things for many years already ...
So far for now.
Peter
