Down the Rabbit Hole with the Nirvana Audio Chronos Optimizer (1/4)

By Tom Gibbs from Positive Feedback Online Magazine

On a recent, really late evening, my phone chimed nearly nonstop as good friend and fellow high-end audio enthusiast Finnbogi Sigurdur Marinosson urgently slid into my DMs. Finnbogi and I are fairly obsessive hardware geeks, and he’d just descended into an inexplicable, almost incomprehensible journey from which there was seemingly no possibility of return. And he desperately needed a sounding board. His near-madness was brought on by the installation of a new tweak he claimed had transformed his audio playback like nothing before – surpassing even the effects of his recently acquired Shunyata Research Altaira¹ grounding hub (*¹ I was present for a pre-release demo of the Altaira ground system at the Florida Audio Expo in 2024. To this day, it was beyond doubt the single most impressive before/after demonstration I’d ever witnessed at any audio show, bar none. The attendees in the room literally gasped in disbelief at the difference when the Altaira was inserted then subsequently removed from the system. A near-riot ensued in the demonstration’s aftermath, with one attendee screaming "What the hell am I supposed to do with the Nordost QCORE grounding system I just bought?"!). Finnbo’s steady stream of direct messages continued well beyond midnight, resuming again shortly after 6 am the following morning. His manic, sleep-deprived expressions of absolute incredulity carried an unambiguous undercurrent: “You have to hear this in your own system, or you won’t believe it!” The device he was lunatic-raging about was the Nirvana Audio Chronos Optimizer.

Finnbogi Sigurdur Marinosson shares his world view of the high end over Cuban sandwiches at Rhumba in Aiken, South Carolina.

This kind of encounter with a fellow audiophile typically just sails right over my head <whoosh!>, but Finnbo’s earnest, nearly maniacal insistence wore me down to the point where further resistance was futile. I reached out to Michael Garner of Tweek Geek, Nirvana Audio’s North American distributor, concerning the possibility of getting a Chronos for review. His response was swift and without hesitation, and within an hour, he had one enroute to me via UPS second day air. Upon messaging Finnbo that Chronos was on its way, my direct message line continued to buzz for days in anticipation of my first impressions. Unfortunately, Chronos arrived late on a Friday when I had just picked up my grandkids for the weekend; shortly after putting them to bed that evening, I inadvertently kicked a subwoofer with my bare left foot (ouch!), breaking the middle toe and badly bruising the entire upper portion of said foot. Needless to say, the initial phase of the Chronos audition got delayed by 48 hours of chasing (actually, more like hobbling!) around after 4-and 8-year-old crumbsnatchers all weekend.

𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐬 arrives

The black package of Chronos Optimizer

The UPS box containing the Nirvana Audio Chronos was surprisingly large, especially since I already knew its form factor was that of a USB dongle of sorts. Inside the outer box was what the Chinese refer to as a “beauty box” that contained Chronos – and nothing else other than a warranty card – but the golden foil-lined packaging made quite the visual impression.

Following Chronos’ arrival, I’d spent every available moment (while not engaging with or hobbling after my grandkids) in reading every published review of the device (all from the Far East, with the exception of Rick Becker’s from Enjoy the Music). In a vain attempt to try and ascertain the science behind Chronos, which was pretty much an exercise in futility, as the magic behind the curtain is proprietary and heavily guarded. Most of the online evaluations pointed towards a common hypothesis: Chronos' unusual behavior can very likely be explained by the effects of particle physics. Once again, <whoosh!> and right over my head²,(*² As a journalism major in college, I was required to take certain core courses as prerequisites, including a semester of Physics, for which I was awarded a “C” grade for my less-than-stellar academic efforts. I blame my scientific failures on my youthful impetuousness, where at the time I was much more focused on billiards, bowling, chasing skirts, and drinking beer than gaining a firm grasp of Vulcan-like theory.) but I’ve always been more of a “what my ears tell me” kind of audiophile than one who relies upon “what the empirical and statistical evidence” tells me.

Here’s the part that runs counter to most of my beliefs regarding high-end audio and how it typically operates: Chonos isn’t a thru-put device that conditions the signal or alters the function of the connected equipment in a traditional manner. Chronos requires power, which involves either plugging it into a USB charger or simply placing it in the room where your system resides, where it will be energized by music as it plays. Michael Garner strongly suggested using Chronos without a USB charger, but any colour you like will work with regard to powering the device to create the desired effect.

I alternately proceeded with Chronos by employing the obvious options. Including: powered by a good quality USB charger I had on hand and plugged into a wall outlet; powered by the same USB charger and plugged into an outlet on one of my Vera-Fi Audio Snub Station Zero power conditioner units; and also powered passively by placing the unconnected Chronos on the equipment rack. One of the Asian reviews suggested that powering Chronos with a USB charger would help to initially jumpstart the effect, and I ultimately chose to do exactly that in my early explorations. To my great surprise, Chronos’ effect was impactful and immediately obvious, which struck me as very odd indeed in a world where newly inserted equipment often requires hours, days, or even months of run-in to achieve optimal performance. P.S.

This article is excerpted from the following webpage:

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/down-the-rabbit-hole-with-the-nirvana-audio-chronos-optimizer/