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Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

They are repeating the mistakes of Tice

In the early '90s Tice made power line conditioners that were very highly regarded. Then they stumbled on to a tweak whereby a digital alarm clock could be "treated", and plugging this clock into an AC outlet would make your stereo sound better.

Tice made all kinds of mumbo-jumbo explanations for the product. Something about aligning the electrons to make them "coherent". Their explanations had two properties:

a) They were so outlandish that they destroyed all credibility that the company had, and within a few years they were essentially out of business. Please note that this had *nothing* whatsoever to do with the actual performance of the clock or their other power line conditioners.

b) It was obvious (at least with a moment's reflection) that the process was too cheap and easy to replicate for them to reveal it. (It also must have been unpatentable.) If they had told the truth about their process, then everyone and anyone could have copied the process. Perhaps some kind of cryogenic treatment, perhaps some kind of demagnetization, or something along those lines.

Now Nova Physics is following the exact same script. They take a computer and use standard technology to create a (presumably excellent sounding) CD player. Since the technology is nothing that cannot be easily copied and is not patentable, they make up a big story about "error correction" that is so outlandish that they are mocked in print by Robert Harley in TAS.

Now other companies are starting to copy some of their technology. For example, PS Audio has shown a prototype of their "Memory Link" and it uses some of the same features claimed for the Nova Physics device. All of a sudden the Nova Physics website changes and says that the PS Audio player is *not* really a "memory player" because it only stores 4 MB of data in solid-state memory, and the *real* "memory player" stores the entire disc in solid-state memory.

I would guess the following:

a) The NP "memory player" probably sound pretty good.

b) It could probably be duplicated by an end user for less than half of their asking price.

c) The main reason for its (presumably good -- I haven't heard it) sonic performance is *not* their "RUR" bit-perfect nonsense, but rather that the audio data is stored in solid state memory.

Just guesses, and I could be wrong about all of it. But the main point is that they are shooting themselves in the foot when they make up obviously incorrect stories about how their stuff works.


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