My wife had similar issues and an acupuncture physician was able to get her middle ear to drain after only one treatment.
I am liking it pretty well now that Iāve got it in the system and, although it is still āmarinatingā, I am finding that I appreciate the lower noise floor during very soft musical passages which is very pleasing and there is decreased edge in the upper register. Mid-range material, especially when it comes to the female voice, is much improved as well. It was a good decision to purchase and use the NPC in a purely A/D mode. A picture of my analog rack is attached. The TT is a Rega 10, the R2R is a Revox PR-99Mk2, the headphone amp is a iFi Pro iCan Signature and the little thing with the heat sink on top is my HTPC.
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I have tape envy 
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Corticosteroids did it for me - nasal spray ones to start with followed by lots of oral corticosteroids.
Not great for bones, blood sugar, blood pressure thoughā¦
Thanks for the advice.
Mike
Just heard that the Converter has been repaired and I made a payment. Iāll have a spare now, which is a good thingāthese are one of a kind machines.
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Good deal. I have configured my system to use the new Stellar for listening via the XLR outputs and with the RCA outputs feeding the input to the Nuwave which remains powered off until needed to do the A to D conversion for storage.
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It would be kind to change the title of this thread. Something gentle like āStellar Phono Preamp found to cause wartsā.
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I thought only mishandling toads caused warts.
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What was the total costs of NPC repairs and shipping? Sounds like a common problem with the device that I have to look forward to at some point.
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Mine was 300 dollars plus shipping, donāt yet know what the shipping is/will be.
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Thank you. Sounds like it was about 2-3 weeks turnaround time?
Thatās right. I had to prod a bit to get some info, was not informed when it arrived, over two weeks later after a few emails was informed repair was completedātwo boards replaced.
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In the future parts, obsolescence will be a problem and they may not be able to repair it at all. Mine also took several weeks round trip and, as my unit was not as bad off as Ionsonās appears to have been, my cost was $150 shipping included. I am sure I became a nag trying to find out the status of the repair. Shipping to Boulder from the East Coast was not inexpensive however.
(PS. Iāll see if I can edit the title of this to include the saga of the NPC.)
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Yes, that is why I am glad I bought another one and now have a āspare.ā Itās a unique component and I love using it with my DSD Mk2 so having one in reserve is a good feeling.
Maybe I should focus on saving for the Stellar for when that inevitable day comes
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They were offering some pretty good trade in deals as I recall. If I had it to do all over again, I would go for the Stellar and, if I needed the capability to digitize, Iād look for an outboard A/D as technology has changed quite a bit over the last ten years. Also, the Stellar does sound better than the NPC in the purely analog realm.
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I will be selling my Stellar Pre soon. I need to get around to taking it out of the cabinet and prepping it for sale. It probably has 100 hours on it. At my current snail pace thatās at least two weeks 
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Iām sure the Stellar does sound better and that there are better ADCs out there. But the NPC is well matched with my turntable and Iām not going to be able to afford a better table, pre etc. for a long long time if at allāand if I did I would probably get something tubed as a pre. Iām quite pleased with the vinyl playback I have, and that accounts for about five percent to ten percent of my listening time, no more.
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FOMO will keep me from trading up my NPC. That said, I only have a Pioneer PLX-1000 as my turntable, so the weak link in my analog chain isnāt the phono stage. Then again, having a full matched Stellar set has its aesthetic appealā¦
At the very least I need to use my NPC to digitize my Genesis solo records that never made it to digital like āActing Very Strangeā by Mike Rutherford and āThe Wicked Ladyā soundtrack by Tony Banks. Too much work. Too little time.
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