Bye Bye NDX...
Posted by: james n on 11 February 2012
No the upgrade bug hasn't struck.. It's heading back to HQ for the gratis 24/192 board upgrade today 
Hopefully you get a quick turn-around on service James. It takes more time to load the new firmware than it does to swap in the new board!
A while back I had converted a bunch of my 1-bit/5.6mhz DSD needle drops to 24/96 FLAC in order to be able to stream to the NDX. Now I have gone back and reconverted a number of them to 24/192 FLAC to test the new board. I am hearing just a bit more "atmosphere" -- a slightly bigger, wider soundstage, and slightly sharper images. But TBH, to my ears, it is not that big of a deal.
The other thing I am seeing is a slightly snappier N-Stream, as screen refreshes seem to go very quickly. But I suppose this could be as much a part of the firmware update as the board upgrade?
What do others think?
Hook
Hopefully you get a quick turn-around on service James. It takes more time to load the new firmware than it does to swap in the new board!
A while back I had converted a bunch of my 1-bit/5.6mhz DSD needle drops to 24/96 FLAC in order to be able to stream to the NDX. Now I have gone back and reconverted a number of them to 24/192 FLAC to test the new board. I am hearing just a bit more "atmosphere" -- a slightly bigger, wider soundstage, and slightly sharper images. But TBH, to my ears, it is not that big of a deal.
The other thing I am seeing is a slightly snappier N-Stream, as screen refreshes seem to go very quickly. But I suppose this could be as much a part of the firmware update as the board upgrade?
What do others think?
Hook
Would you let me know how to convert the 1bit/5.6mhz DSD to 24/192 ?
Cheers,
marcobb
I have found the response times in N-Stream to have significantly improved, and I have also found the unit sounds even better. I thought it was all in my head but my wife remarked on the improved sound quality and she really doesn't give a monkey's about my hi-fi kit. Still it's all change again with a new SuperCap.........
Al.
Could you share with me in which way it sounded better? I am just curious how my NDX would change when doing the update.
Mario
Hi Mario
I am useless at trying to convey how a piece of kit sounds; Suffice to say that I felt that the unit was so good that I sold my nDAC (NDS is coming!), but the most significant improvement is in the unit's response times when accessing menus either from the front of the unit or through N-Stream. Must dash, the snow is awesome....
Al.