Just to remind you to make a folder functionality for easier playlist management. Eventually you make the structure and then the user can add subfolders himself when organizing his number of playlists.

Good morning!

Following yesterdays settings-experiments, I got surprising results this morning:

1.
I switched on the PC and started all programs as usual (Explorer, Remote desktop and XX).
I went back to "worst case" of yesterday settings: Scheme 3, PP/Below normal, TP/High, Unattended.
Startet to play music. The first half hour I heard a few ticks during each song. After that it's been perfect playback.

2.
Have tried to "provoke" the setup, by changing Scheme, Priority, Unattended, but WHATEVER SETTING, it is now perfectly stable without any ticks or noise. (All the time I use Q1 = -2 due to superior SQ).

3.
today, there seems to be less activity from internal Windows systemfiles. Maybe this is a part of the explaination?

4.
Also, today I didn't have any "accidents" with XX/my PC. (Yesterday morning and the evening before, the PC got "hung up" because of XX abruptly closing down - probably because I asked it to load a faulty playlist while entering too many commands).

THEORY:
If a clumsy user, like me, "mistreats" Windows/Vista/XX, then maybe it provokes extra OS system activities/programs runing in the background. (I think there is A LOT going on inside VISTA, which you normally don't see). Which again creates a conflict with XX afterwards.

Picture: Resource Monitor in Task Manager. TIPS: Clicking on the green DISK graph, opens the DISK log, where you can study OS files running. Disk use is in blue colour. When the blue graph goes max, that is when ticks and noises MAY appear. They did yesterday, but not today...

Fine.

Tomorrow morning I will follow up my findings. I hope going from Scheme 3 to 1 is a valid solution also when Vista is crumpy/moody in the morning. He-he.

I have read this thread carefully and realize I have the same problems: Occasional short ticks. Sometimes they last for many seconds, somewhat like "50%" traditional harmonic distortion, with changing intensity - let's call it "scratches"?! (I never had "digital" noise like dropouts or bursts). Obviously its a resource conflict between Vista and XX, as you have discussed above.

I am not an PC-expert. My brother is. I will ask him to study this thread to see if he can come up with something clever. In the mean time I am fidling around, using the trial&error technic. (Not to be underestimated, that's how Colombus discovered America). Here are some observations:

Observation 1:
In Windows > Task Manager > Performance there is a button called "Resource Monitor". This feature has lately become my favourite watch (apart from The Simpsons, of cource). Here I notice that Vista is running A HELL OF A LOT OF system operations. There are more operations first 30 minutes after rebooting. Also, more operations early in the day. (Probably Vista has a lot to monitor, update, etc, etc). Ticks and scratches seems to happen more, when Vista is bussy.

Observation 2:
Setting both priorities to "Nothing" seems to help a litle bit.

Observation 3:
Changing Scheme from 3 to 1 seems to help a lot! BONUS: I feel an interesting change in SQ between 3 and 1. EDWARD: Can you pls describe your opinion of SQ diference between Scheme 1 and 3? (You first, then I'll tell mine... ).

Observation 4:
When useing XX: I never load only 1 track. Normally I load an album and play some tracks, or all the tracks in a row. Eventully I load a readymade playlist of 10-20 songs taken from various albums. This is probably common use also by you. If such a playlist has been in use, it seems that the "pre-processing" of those songs is present even if XX is turned off/on. To completely remove them I have to reboot the PC. This is necessary if I am testing the VISTA performance with different settings to get rid of ticks and scratch noises. At least this is what it seems like when watching Task Manager > Resource Monitor. Peter: Is it so?

Observation 5:
Beacuse of Observation 1, trying to find a solution is like shooting on a moving target. For example today I switched on my PC and started playing with old settings (see signature). A lot of ticks and scratches. Unlistenable. After 3 hours, and several changes of settings (se photo) it now works perfect (for the last 30 minutes at least). Going back to old settings (right now while typeing) it's 98% perfect, with only couple random ticks each track.
 
Present settings: Se photo.

Yes, it sounds like 2 but longer lasting. Like when spoiled beer dryed up and its remainings got stuck in the grooves of your LP. 

---------

I think it is linked to my new PC. Not XX 14 or 15 in particular.

Checking Task Manager > Resource Monitor > Disk, then it occational happens that XX use up all the DISK capasity. It happens when XX has been closed down brutally (clumsy me/fidling with too many playlists). -Seems like that the old playlist remains "in the system", taxing the computer?

Just waiting (giving Vista some minutes after loading new playlist) and closeing/opening XX properly a couple of times, helps.

On my side, I will investigate if I can shut down some back ground Vista operations.
Also, I just installed 30GB solid state memory for Vista. (It's really lightning quick - loads albums in no time at all!) But maybe I will buy a bigger memory chip.

We will see.

-----------

Apart from all this - the sound is dynamite now! For the first time in 25 years I am perfectly happy with the SQ of 16/44 files. So dynamic, so wideband, so transparent, so 3D, so liquid/natural. Who needs hi-rez? Boy o boy!! 

I hope you can tighten up the functionality and "go big" soon. The product is superb and it deserves more users.

--------------------

A final tip:

I love making playlists:
Best of Dylan mix.
Sunday morning mix.
Bass torture tracks mix.
Etc etc.

BUT: When changing XX version, every time I have to find manually and copy/paste the playlist files. Maybe you could create a dediated playlist-folder, making it easier to copy and organize?

It was my brother helping me. He say he followed your suggesting no. 2.
After that it works fine.

Something else:
I sometimes get "glitches" (kind of noise, similar to occational noise when listening FM radio in car) during a track. It can happen anytime during a song, but most often at the end of a song. It only happens with v. 15. not 14. Attended/Unattended doesn't matter. I play uncompressed WAV files.

My brother says it seems that there is some kind of "interuption" from Vista. -Other tasks stealing computer capasity. (He says Vista is running an index program all the time in the background).

When restarting the PC the problem goes away or get reduced. It is more prominent shortly after (first 3-5 minuttes) startup of computer.

I have Vista Ultimate with SP1.

Any idea?

BINGO! Works now. Thanks a lot Peter.

Regards

Hello,

After a new fresh install of Vista due to the installation of a SSD harddrive (for Vista XX) ver. 15 is bugging. While ver. 14a is working perfect. The settings(ver. 15) are being reset at every startup. Looks like is has something to do with the app folder?

Please find 2 screenshots attatched.

Thanks

After fidling around with XX and FF, 24/96 plays correct now!


Se FF400 settings below.

Peter: Can you pls share your FF settings with us?

With my new FF400 up and running I was eager to hear truly hi-rez music in my house for the very first time. Playing the free downloadable sample tracks from 2L (both WAV and FLAC) I realize that they play at half speed!

How can this be solved?

Hello again,

1.
FF400 up and running!

2.
I will compare carefully the SQ differences (if any!) between USB and FF/SPDIF (both coax and TosLink).
Eventually I will also try to get a dedicated high quality FireWire PCI card. (At the moment I use the standard FW port on the motherboard).

3.
In the meantime here are the DAC TEST results, when using FF and TosLink. A strange thing is that my DAC is quoted to be 24/192. But the DAC TEST says it supports 384kHz. How can that be?

-----------------

Start Audio Device Analysis Exclusive Mode support
046CFD24

    Supported : 2|16|44100|176400|4
Not supported : 2|24|44100|264600|6
    Supported : 2|32|44100|352800|8
    Supported : 2|16|48000|192000|4
Not supported : 2|24|48000|288000|6
    Supported : 2|32|48000|384000|8
    Supported : 2|16|88200|352800|4
Not supported : 2|24|88200|529200|6
    Supported : 2|32|88200|705600|8
    Supported : 2|16|96000|384000|4
Not supported : 2|24|96000|576000|6
    Supported : 2|32|96000|768000|8
    Supported : 2|16|176400|705600|4
Not supported : 2|24|176400|1058400|6
    Supported : 2|32|176400|1411200|8
    Supported : 2|16|192000|768000|4
Not supported : 2|24|192000|1152000|6
    Supported : 2|32|192000|1536000|8
    Supported : 2|16|352800|1411200|4
Not supported : 2|24|352800|2116800|6
    Supported : 2|32|352800|2822400|8
    Supported : 2|16|384000|1536000|4
Not supported : 2|24|384000|2304000|6
    Supported : 2|32|384000|3072000|8

Sorry for my delay, but the delay will pay off in the end! My original linesource loudspeaker cabinets are about to be greatly improved. There will be 1 separate very slim tower (damped/open back) for the 220cm (true) ribbontweeter and 1 separate tower for the 12 midrange units. (made of solid blocks of plywood). This 2 sections will play together with my 2 basstowers of each 7x12" woofers, going down flat to below 10Hz. Everything with active X-overs and all elements in parallell and in fase. Will pick up last 2 cabinets from painter tomorrow, and will finish all mounting at carpenters house on Sunday. Then a few days cabling/tweaking. So end next week I will be in the proud position to post some photos to you. I'm excited like a child on x-mas eve...

BTW: The treble ribbon has X-over at 800Hz and has solid silver rails 1x10mm as internal cabling. Same as you. He-he.

Work and family has limited my music playing time lately, but today I finally got a chance to a short listen being alone in the house. Here is what I heard today:

In my opinion 0.9u-13 bests all the previous versions. It's more dynamic, tighter, more transparent, more honest.

The bass is better defined. Playing The Weavers Reunion Concert At Carnegie Hall, I hear footsteps and other subsonic stage sounds not noticed before.

Beatles "Yellow Submarine" from the remixed soundtrack is a very "difficult" track to get right, because it is a bussy soundmix done on (probably) first generation SS mixers giving a thick and un-resolved sound. It really takes a good system to enjoy this track on loud levels. With 0.9u-13 it sound better than ever! 

There is for sure more "dynamic energy" in the upper octaves. But not unpleased. I find it more true to the source, than earlier versions. In fact I think the treble now resembles the transient speed of (expensive) vinyl. Up till now I always thought that CD had a softer dynamic character in the treble, compared with vinyl. With 0.9u-13 I think this point has improved a lot. [The "softnes" is more audible with traditonal filter DAC's, and less with filter-less DAC's. I own both kinds. -But with 0.9u-13 a traditional filter DAC like my otherwise excelent Eximus, sounds closer to my filter-less DDDAC, in this regard].

Also I found that Q1 = -2 sounds slightly more transparent than Q1 = 14. [many versions ago, in 2007 with a different DAC, I heard the opposite. So this was a surprise].

--------------

I see that some have objected to the "crazy dynamic" character of 0.9u-13. Of course this will allways be a matter of individual taste and choice. But I just want to add some food for thought, which is: There is a trend towards thinner signal- and loudspeaker cables which gives added focus to the treble and the overtones in the music. Also many loudspeakers are not very time corrected, so the tweeter is slightly closer to the ear than the midrange. These 2 factors works well with the "softend" treble of traditional CD sound...

Exactly same by me.

I have a quite new machine, which only purpose is to play XX. When I monitor the usage of CPU, I can see an improvement. But it's a small difference between the 2 cores. The biggest difference is when performing other program functions (start new tracks, etc) than just playing music. I haven't listened seriously if there is any difference in SQ.

Seems I was under the influence of April the 1st. He-he.

BTW: "Olaf Pirol" was the signature of an April joke in the British Hi-Fi press around 1980, regarding a revolutionary new "digital loudspeaker". The story was picked up by the Danish magazine High Fidelity, for those who still remembers way back before internet. When the world was small and the occational Hi-Fi magazine was read like the bible.