Review: APL Hi Fi NWO 4.0 Master Edition CD Player

I must admit that when Alex Peychev announced the NWO-M upgrade, I hesitated because I have been very happy with my NWO-4.0SE and didn't feel a need for an upgrade. I expressed my satisfaction with the 4.0SE with many superlatives in an Audiogon review. However, Alex assured me the "M" version (M is short for Master) is a significant upgrade to the 4.0SE. In all previous upgrades I got from him, he always delivered greater sonic improvements than he promised. So, I sent my player in.....Got it back in less than 2 weeks....And once again Alex exceeded my sonic expectations.

Right out of the box, the NWO-M sounded more relaxed than my fully burnt-in 4.0SE. My lady friend and I were totally captivated by the more natural and effortless flow of music. I do not recall hearing such magical fluidity produced by any audio system I had an opportunity to listen to.

It now has about 150 hours of playing time and I continue being astounded at the increased level of realism and beauty.

The highs are sweeter....much sweeter....cleaner, more delicate and with greater sparkle. If there are other digital or vinyl systems that can match or better M's natural sparkle and shimmer, I have not heard them.

The bass is simply awesome. Cleaner, tighter and more tuneful. The harmonic texture is more palpable and has more nuanced sonic hues.

The midrange is also significantly improved. In a word: glorious. On the NWO-M, the human voice is smoother, warmer and more expressive.

I am continually amazed at the naturalness of the transients, the improved focus, the overall cleanliness, and the expanded soundstage floating effortlessly....very solid yet wispy when called for.

The NWO-4.0SE took 500 hours of playing time for each format to burn-in. That suggests the NWO-M may have more room for improvement and refinement....Stay tuned. In the meantime, Alex's masterpiece has already lived up to its name, the Master.

Kudos to Alex!

After a number of years, I finally decided to upgrade to the latest APL 1-box digital solution, in this case, the NWO-M. It replaces my 3 box Esoteric Ux-1pi Transport/ Esoteric Rubidium clock/APL prototype NWO-4.0 Super-DAC.

Totally unbroken-in, out of the box, its not really even close to what I had - voices and instruments have an even more palpable weight - as lifelike as I've ever heard, anywhere at any price. Pretty special, since I know its just going to get lots better as the different formats break-in. Won't be doing any critical listening for weeks, but it sure is fun to listen to NOW!!

SACD also benefits from the asynchronus upsampling at 195KHz/32 bit. While I don't pretend to understand even a fraction of the engineering that went into this piece, I DO know what I'm hearing, which is quite nice, even at this very, very early stage.

There is also now a facility outside of Chicago that has done and will do repair work for APL, both in and out of warranty. I've talked to them to confirm this and they do lots of warranty work for the major brands, so they are real. This helped my decision to finally do the 1 Box ultimate APL NWO upgrade. So far, this seems to be a very wise decision :-)

This is an update to my first impressions of the NWO-M upgrade to my APL HiFi NWO-4.0SE.

Out of the box the NWO-M was impressive. (See my first impressions above.) At about 140 hours the upper bass and lower midrange began to open up, creating greater fullness and warmth. Around 170-200 hours, the top end began to open up to create a better spectral balance. Past 300 hours, a new level of resolution began to unfold. The SACD format has about 500 hours of burn-in now and this is how it compares to the NWO-4.0SE:

The NWO-M is more relaxed, there is no strain. Simply put, its more natural, more real. As a sonic bonus, it is sweeter, and much more emotionally involving.

The bass is even better than on the 4.0SE. It's tighter, and has more subtle texture. The highs are more open, much more open and airy.....And the resulting delicacy is magical and seductive. The midrange has more presence and charm.....In a word, it's glorious.

There is a new level of resolution of detail: subtle harmonic textures, micro transients, and subtle dynamic gradations; all of which create greater realism. Transients are cleaner, crisper and more real....And the decays are to die for. All the additional resolution of low level information has created a greater fullness and coherence. Some of this increased resolution is the result of a quieter back ground.....an improved signal to noise ratio.

The sound stage dimensions are better defined, especially the front to back dimension which has gained in clarity and cleanliness. The images are more focused, better scaled to real instruments. And the outstanding ambient information together with the above qualities teleports you in time and space to the venue of the recording.

For me, the M also has a quality that is hard to verbalize: it's in how the music now unfolds in the time domain....You sense the performer's creative process in that unfoldment....The emotional impulses that create the subtle nuances in the sonic flow....The M captures not only the music but also the magic of music making. Overall, it's much, much more enjoyable.

Based on my burn-in history of the previous versions of the NWO, I think the SACD format is almost burned-in. I will then turn my focus on breaking-in the Redbook format.

Forgive an perhaps stupid Q, After 1000 H burn in time is the 2 small NOS tubes on the back ready for replacment? Whats the lifespan of this tubes? What do they cost?
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