APL NWO2.5 ?

As an aside, does anyone know how to improve cd's that have digitalitis? Is it even possible? What caused it? It seems to me that it eliminates almost all cd's until about 1995. I do believe(without a lot of experimentation) that analog to cd sounds inferior to the analog itself(pre-1982).

Check out the impressive measurements for the APL NWO-2.5 that Alex Peychev posted on the APL Forum:

http://www.aplhifi.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=593

They correlate with the stunning sound that is unfolding with only 65 hours of burn-in time on my NWO. I can't wait to hear it when it's burnt-in with the recommended 200-300 hours and when my primary amp is back in the system.

I just got my NWO 2.5 on Friday. Right out of the cold box it sounded wicked good. I first connected it to my pre-amp and said wow, this sounds really impressive. Then I connected it directly to my darTZeel amp. My jaw hit the floor. Once you take this step there is NO going back. Everything is better going direct to the amp, in a big, big way. Fortunately for me I don't have other sources to worry about.

I bought this unit without hearing it. I now have only 30 hours on my 2.5 and it not only lives up to all of the raves on this and the APL Hi-Fi forum....it exceeds it by a wide margin. This is the real deal. This is the "Digital Neo" we audiophiles have been waiting for.

First, you simply cannot believe how good RBCD sounds on this unit. Who would have thought it possible. DVD-A takes digital playback to a strata that I'm not sure even the best turntables can better. And even if they can, the margin will likely be very small indeed and they will have to be optimally set-up, vinyl cleaned and without scratches, etc. Note (!), this is only conjecture on my point as I have not yet had the chance to put the 2.5 up against SOTA vinyl yet, but I do know that a poster on the APL Forum has made this comparison against a $65K vinyl rig and the 2.5 came out victorious. I must admit when I first read his post I rolled my eyes...not anymore I can tell you.

I am observing a steady improvement in resolution, extension and micro detail as the unit burns in and I've been told that at 100 hours the 2.5 shifts to another gear...I simply can't wait for that to occur.

The way Alex P (the designer, resident genius, nice guy and passionate audiophile behind the NWO 2.5) has integrated control of the volume, digital filtering and S/PDIF digital input is clean and very clever.

I cannot more highly recommend this unit and will post a more substantive review after I get more hours on it. From a full disclosure stand point I have no commercial associations or interest whatsoever in APL Hi-Fi. I'm just an ecstatic customer.

Great post Earflappin! Just curious, are you using the DarTZeel preamp and bypassing that? Are you runing the 2.5 balanced into the Dart? Looking forward to more comments! You may have to bring the APL NWO 2.5 with you if you stop by and we'll have a little shootout against the Emm CDSA SE. What do you think?

Frank

Thanks Frank! I am currently bypassing the darTZeel pre-amp as the NWO 2.5 has a built in volume control, although I will go back and verify my initial findings by reconnecting to the darTZeel pre-amp.

I spec'ed my NWO 2.5 with RCA outputs, although the way the output stage is designed there shouldn't be a XLR vs RCA performance difference. As you know, the dart gear is RCA-centric so that's why I went that way.

I was thinking the same thing about the shoot out! BTW, what power cords and interconnect cables are you using and do you have a set of RCA's or are you going XLR from the CDSA SE into the dart pre?

David