The continuing saga…
Recently corresponding with Jay (Captainhemo) he reminded me that I really hadn’t done any further review of these. I’m not much for reviews as they often strike me as vehicles for feathering one’s own cap or reassurance for a decision made and subsequent desire to have others climb on board your thought process…so there!
This has been a process for me that was both eye-opening and at times discouraging.
As many here know, my thing is the physical design, woodworking and problem-solving within those arenas. The acoustic design and mechanics of crossovers and such is significantly less intriguing…that’s my reality. The other reality is that I casually listen 90% of the time, often from another room. My desire to sit and critically listen for extended periods comes infrequently.
When I initially got these done, in the system and dialed in pretty closely, I was impressed with many aspects but, to be honest, it wasn’t the quantum leap in overall sound quality I expected. At first, I attributed it to break-in, which did make a difference, but there was still some “is this all there is?” going on for me.
I assumed that either my expectation was too high, my hearing was flawed, or had some system synergy that wasn’t right. The biggest beef I had was a mild harshness that seemed to increase with volume, I described it to someone as “cacophonous”. Not a glaring fault, but rather a subtle aggravating annoyance. It was, however, affecting my enjoyment in the rare moments of sitting and listening, and subsequently these became fewer.
The problem-solver in me rose up and I began to plot my course forward. Maybe I should build the NX-Oticas, perhaps changing amps, DAC, preamp, or wire was the key to nirvana. The projected $$ outlay just grew and grew to the point that it sucked the joy from the whole damn thing. I needed some outside perspective, which I asked for in another thread, and the advice I received helped me to gain some better understanding and persevere.
For those that don’t know me, I’m suspect of anything that smells of snake oil. I try to remain objective, but for me to look twice, there must be a factual component that hits my analytical buttons. When I first built the CAPS server, one of the current hot tickets (and there were and are MANY) was a product called Fidelizer. As I understand, it works on the core operation of a computer (server), minimizing non-audio related functions. This makes sense to me. The other thing I gleaned from all the buzz was that computers are electrically noisy and this affects playback of audio files.
So I used Fidelizer, and I installed an iFi iUSB to address the issues I thought important and was a happy a camper. Well, as happy as a camper can be when afflicted with an audio obsession, anyway. Then along came Windows 10. Now, I like Win 10. I like it better than 8, which seems like a mildly horrific mess of an OS, particularly the GUI, but that’s another story. Somehow, I came to the conclusion that Fidelizer was causing dropouts within Win 10, so I quit using it…no biggie. Or so it seemed.
Enter the X-Oticas. In an effort to localize the cause of the harshness I was hearing, I eliminated the preamp and used the DAC as pre. Actually sounded a bit worse but still the harshness persisted, so preamp was deemed innocent. In the other thread I wrote of, Tubeburner drew my attention back to Fidelizer…hmmmm. So I installed it, loaded JRiver, reinstalled preamp in system and gave it a listen.
Oh Shit! That instantly did away with the harshness I’d been hearing. I (metaphorically) pinched myself, “can this really be happening”? That little utility, really? Only two things changed; wires were moved from DAC to pre and I ran Fidelizer…that’s it!
So mark me down as a believer in “digital hash”, which I think I truly understand the meaning of now. Insert all the audiophile adjectives here, this made a remarkable difference. The expectations I originally had of the X-Oticas are fulfilled. The high end and mids have a clarity and pureness that is really easy to listen to. The so called “listening fatigue” is absent. It’s damn near an epiphany for me. The only downside, which I mentioned earlier in the thread, is that higher resolving equipment reveals ho-hum recordings for what they are…shitty. Can’t fix that with gear, I’m afraid.
Moving forward, in an effort to further address the “computer noise” I’ll be installing a Sonore microRendu and Uptone LPS-1 power supply, which I’m looking forward to.
