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Phasured to Life NOS1

So I had the Lampizator Gen 4 L5 Vcaps with DSD.
So the game here is Gen 2/3/4 and late Gen 4. Have to have D caps and Lamp DSD and only Lamp DSD. So I am a loser as I never heard Lamp L5 because Ming Su the ex Distributer for Lamp installed the DSD. LOL. Marketing BS and many fall for it. Change a wire here there and move this around and bingo Gen 32.

Ok so this Lamp guy is the best digital I ever heard. Natural organic realistic and draws you into the music. If you own a Lamp you are sitting really good on the digital tight rope.

Something is missing still. What was it? Noise and distortion and color was all there but sounded great. Tubes are glorious !!! Big soundstage . Musically convincing.

What's this Phasure guy doing on the outer skirts of this digital playback world? Read up and the bugs in the software XXHighend was a no go for me. I like push and play!!!

So this chap in Australia is beating me to try Phasure. One year of his talk and I just passed him by. Then one day!! Yea one day I did it. Stupid computer dude me ordered the full Monty. Phasure NOS1 computer and XXHE. It all goes together you know.
So I am told that this PeterSt guy is kool and helps out plus 90 days to try out. I pull the $$$ trigger.

Everything comes in 4 days?? Yes it does.

So how does it do next to Lamp??

No color

No distortion

No noise!! I mean the noise floor is zero. Gee I like that. Lamp has a colored sound to it. Distortion and noise out of the A$$ it does.

So are there bugs? Yes but there is Peter right on it. No two day wait to hear from him. How about within 45 mins. he is there. I would say I was/am his biggest PITA buyer but then again he likes the reward of Phasure users being knocked out with his stuff.

So now I am in Unattended mode for the first time where SQ is now way above Lamp. This mode shuts down the computer to doing nothing. Now it is a music playback that is truly a must have for me.

I will keep this short and sweet. Phasure full Monty rocks out big time and has far exceeded my expectations.

If you are looking for that breakthrough digital playback machine then go out and lay down the coin and try out one of the best Dac software computer going. Phasure NOS1 is the real deal boys and girls!!
128x128glory
wtf's avatar
wtf
307 posts
 
Hey Bill .. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying I've read many of your posts across numerous forums and quite appreciate your insight. Perhaps your own blog should be a consideration :)
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Bill,
I'll join the choir as well, I appreciate your continued efforts and well reasoned opinions. Many things are easier said than done, blind testing is but one glaring example.
Charles,
agear
1,362 posts
 
Bill, I also enjoy your thoughtful and thorough approach. It appears you are demonstrating signs of early PTSD, but please persevere. I have performed a fair number of blinded tests (thankfully they went unpublished) and understand they are a hassle. I have been in the process of "trying" to set up a blinded dac shootout in Atlanta this fall between the Phasure, L7, and the newer AMR. People do get cagey, but still it's fun and illuminating.

I "tried" to do the same thing many years ago with a set of speakers (Intuitive Design, SP Tech, and Audio Kinesis), but it flamed out and got a little tribal. You can find that soap opera documented on Audiocircle if you are morbidly curious.

To be honest, I would be proud to own a Killer dac, or L7 or Phasure. There is too much hand wringing on the mountain top. On a personal note, I am shopping for a dac that sounds like a good turntable. I share your enthusiasm Bill for NOS and vintage chips. The two dacs that are on the top of my list are the L7 and the Totaldac, but my mind is still open and thus the impetus for "hearing" things before I drop a lot of cash.
agear
1,362 posts
 
Ha, Pat! You were my partner in crime on that fated speaker shootout. God bless Bob (formerly Sp Tech), Dale (Intuitive Design) and Duke (Audio Kinesis). All fabulous people and fabulous designers....
bhobba's avatar
bhobba
303 posts
 
Hi Guys

Was at a comparison yesterday between:

1. The Phasure

2. The Killer

3. Playback Designs MPD 5

It was with Adam Tensor active speakers fed by an Audio Research Reference 5 SE pre.

Different outcome than I expected. It should have been the AR pre triumphant comparison.

It was amazing. All the DAC's sounded great through this pre. People have been telling me about it for ages - the soundstage widens and envelops you - voices just sound great. But its not dripping in honey etc - its undoubtedly some kind of valve euphonics, but what its doing is subtle - the effects aren't - but what it's doing to achieve it aren't clear to me - not clear at all. I am going to have to eat crow - I originally thought it was just hype about this pre - it isn't. Still at nearly $20k here in Aus I wont be getting one any time soon - but its good to know you are actually getting something special for that type of dosh.

Anyway I liked all DAC's in this system, but my ordering (worst to best) was the Playback Designs, then Phasure, then Killer - but I would have to say I could see that my liking the Killer over the Phasure was purely the harmonic richness - it didn't sound uninteresting at all - it's just I found the Killer a bit more interesting. But in compensation it had greater detail - which is better - can't say - I liked the richer sound - but that's just me. The PD still sounded too polite for my tastes, but one guy thought that was because it presented stuff in proper perspective - other DACs may have been emphasizing things.

Just to see what the pre was doing we fed the Killer directly into the active speakers. Its the most harmonically rich of all the DAC's and it was thought it was experiencing the lift of the pre the least. It simply dropped away - dull and uninteresting in comparison.

I guess a lesson here is, if you have a top notch tube pre, then if your DAC is tube or not isn't that important.

Thanks
Bill
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