Down the Rabbit Hole with the Nirvana Audio Chronos Optimizer (2/4)
Some background on Nirvana Audio and Chronos
By Tom Gibbs from Positive Feedback Online Magazine
Nirvana Audio is owned by one Mr. William Su, a successful entrepreneur and major player in Taiwan’s prepackaged commercial foods industry. His principal business, Snow Factory, was founded in 2007, and has gone on to become a market leader in branded yogurt products with annual sales in excess of $30 million USD. Of particular relevance to audiophiles everywhere is that Su's impressive level of financial success has provided him with the resources to pursue his lifelong passion for audio and music to the fullest extent possible. In 2021, he became the owner of Nirvana Audio Co., Ltd., which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Snow Factory.
While still a college student, William Su became an early adopter of the nascent (and rapidly evolving) computer-based audio technology. And he shared his enthusiasm for digital music with his contemporaries, some of whom happened to be physics majors at the university. As his core studies progressed – along with his fascination for computer audio – Su was enlightened by one of his peers to a particular phenomenon he’d observed regarding digital audio playback. One that wasn’t hardwired to digital circuitry or data, but nonetheless had a definite effect on the sound of the resulting music. Intrigued by this, William Su continued his explorations into the phenomena for well over a decade. Eventually, the unprecedented success of his core business allowed him to direct significant resources into research and development of his audio obsessions, which culminated in 2021 with the introduction of the earliest iteration of Chronos. Chronos’ initial appearance came in the form of a USB stick, or dongle if you prefer. That appears to have been something of a “happy accident” of sorts, but the USB stick was soon determined to be entirely appropriate for the delivery of the Chronos effect to audio systems.
While technical information concerning the actual function of Chronos is proprietary, Nirvana Audio makes clear certain considerations regarding its implementation in an audio system. Firstly, Chronos achieves optimal impact on audio systems that are located in an enclosed space; that can be a dedicated listening room or other similar environment, or even a large exhibition hall. A pair of Chronos devices are typically employed for use in very large spaces, but a single device is more than sufficient for most home listening environments.
Additionally, Chronos requires a miniscule amount of power to produce its effect on the listening environment and the equipment contained within. Even when plugged into a USB charger connected to an AC power source, Chronos doesn’t draw a significant level of power, although it does get warm to the touch. Chronos' effect on an audio system is cumulative, and even without connection to an AC power source, the device will eventually reach its maximum effect. Listeners with accelerated timetables may choose to plug in the device to more quickly achieve the full Chronos effect. But removing the device from the power supply and simply placing it in the room or near the equipment stack will allow Chronos to be energized by airborne musical signals and their ensuing acoustic wave vibrations. As with anything, experimentation by the end user is the key to finding the best power or placement configuration for their particular implementation.
Finally, Chronos is not strictly intended solely for digital music playback, and its effect works in combination with both analog and digital equipment alike. In William Su’s earliest experimentations with what would eventually become known as Chronos, he quickly realized that despite the conceptual nature of the USB carrier as a digital device, the power of its effect wasn’t limited to only digital equipment.
As I mentioned earlier, there’s a great deal of conjecture among reviewers and listeners as to how Chronos actually achieves its stunning effect. Most of those lean towards some influence of particle physics as the most probable explanation, and that Chronos likely generates a field in the listening environment that affects everything within it. That field seems to eliminate any type of noise that might otherwise mask critical spatial cues of the music source, allowing the associated equipment to offer music playback that’s unhindered and unrestrained. And the effect can even extend to car stereo environments; one of the reviews I read relayed an anecdote about how William Su, early on in the Chronos experience, approached one of the Asian audio publications for a potential review. The principals at the publication were initially hesitant, especially considering that Su’s known background was in commercial foods, but eventually agreed to hear Chronos. When he arrived, he convinced the magazine’s point person to come to the parking lot to hear a demonstration of Chronos in combination with his car stereo. That demo apparently made such a positive impression that they agreed to evaluate the device in a more suitable audio environment.
Again, while Nirvana Audio doesn’t share much in terms of the technology employed by Chronos, they do make fairly adamant claims about its effect on your system playback. Those include a significant reduction of EMI, RF, and other sources of noise; a noticeable increase in the overall clarity, dynamics, and musicality of your system; a significant increase in your system’s operational stability; a marked increase in system headroom, allowing your music to play at much louder levels without any accompanying increase in strain or distortion; and an extraordinary increase in both stereo imaging and soundstage realism and believability.
P.S.
This article is excerpted from the following webpage:
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