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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
bhobba's avatar
bhobba
301 posts
 
Glad to hear Glory likes the Phasure so much, and having heard it on quite a few occasions now it's a great DAC - no question - easily accounting for a number of DAC's like the MSB, PDX and Playback Designs.

But yesterday I was privy to a 4 way comparison:
1. A Killer DAC driven by an Off-Ramp
2. A Phasure
3. A Playback Designs MPD5
4. A Wiess Minerva

My ordering was the Killer, a tie with the Wiess and Phasure, then the PD.

The Killer was harmonically rich and real sounding. The Wiess was surprisingly like the Killer but not quite as harmonically rich, the Phasure was, just like every other time I heard it, extremely clear, clean and pure, but lacking in realism and life to my ears, the PD was far too polite, recessed and relaxed for my taste.

Strangely, the person who held the event to help him decide on his DAC upgrade liked the PD best - precisely for the reason I didn't like it. This is really a funny hobby isn't it.

Thanks
Bill
agear
1,353 posts
 
Bill, that is interesting. We audiophiles are like cats, and our behavior and responses to things are inscrutable and unpredictable.

What is the MSRP of the Killer? From the little I understand, it is a 1541/43 NOS beast? I like the NOS sound and understand why people chase it.

It would be interesting to hear the Killer and Lampizator 7 side by side.

When you take away the Offramp, what happens to the Killer's sound? I have always "thought" that the transport is AS important as the dac itself. I think that is part of the reason why the Phasure is a monster (+ the software). Peter gets it....
pokey77
604 posts
 
Sounds like it was a fun get-together. For clarity, can the three other DACs use the Off Ramp? Was that tried?
bhobba's avatar
bhobba
301 posts
 
Ok - a few clarifications seems to be needed.

The Killer is a hand built DAC made in minuscule quantities to a customers requirements and in fact 'tuned' to their system. The price varies depending on options but mine cost $5.5k.

It's built around the legendary Phillips Double Crown chips, but the single crowns are also used if they are deemed better than the double crowns available - mine is a single crown.

Mine accepts I2S only and so can only be used with a I2S source like the Off-Ramp or an I2S Transport. Normally the Off-Ramp clobbers any transport but I have heard a very highly upgraded battery powered transport that sounded better - to my ears anyway - but it was the only one and the difference wasn't enough to entice me away from the Off-Ramp - in fact in some areas like bass extension and detail retrieval it was better anyway - where the transport was better was in harmonic richness and layering.

Everyone wants to compare it to the Lampi. If someone wants to send one over to our group on the Gold Coast feel free, but comparisons I have heard of with the Lampi doesn't want to make me go out and get one - eg in one comparison I read an AMR was considered better, so for me the AMR comparison is a bit more interesting and that will happen at a blind GTG on the 15th March along with the Phasure, Killer, and new PDX.

The Phasure at the GTG I posted about was not set up optimally (it used a Mac Mini with Audirvana and not their preferred XXHighend) as I have been totally blasted for over on Computer Audiophile, as well as using crap speakers, being deaf, and all sorts of other rubbish for simply having the temerity of, horror of horrors, suggesting to everyone's ears in some systems the Phasure may not be the god of all gods.

Amazing. I know some gear engenders a very loyal following, and I have been caught up in that sort of thing before and have learnt to tone it down a bit, but some Phasure guys do seem a bit over the top.

Thanks
Bill
bhobba's avatar
bhobba
301 posts
 
Sounds like it was a fun get-together. For clarity, can the three other DACs use the Off Ramp? Was that tried?

That wasn't tried.

The Phasure is USB only.

The PD had its own external USB and the Minerva was firewire only.

Thanks
Bill
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