OK, another question about RAMdisks, or rather, about random access memory:  Can anything (besides music - I'm thinking if it can be on an external USB3 drive, it can be on a USB3 stick) be on a USB3 stick, or is that just stupid even to think of?

(I know I have a lot of questions - this is the way I become when I get very interested in something, as I am in following along with you through these changes.  Feel free not to respond, because I will learn with everyone else in good time.  But if it is interesting to you to talk about this, then by all means....)

Thank you!


Not completely understanding.  Right now I have XXHE, the OS, and Galleries on a SATAIII SSD.  I suppose having the SSD is a bit like having a RAMdisk, but when it's time, please let us know if it makes a big difference whether these things are on RAMdisks or on an SSD (or together or apart).


Yes, unplugging SMPSs is what the fellow I've gotten my cables from for years (and about whom I PMed you in connection with the feet) has always advised.  He too, with his partner, actually tests all this stuff, so no matter how far out it seems, he has the measurements and the listening sessions to back it all up.


Interesting - is that because of USB's included power leg?  Wonder how battery and/or linear supplies might play into this (though there we are talking either money for such a supply for a desktop, or laptops)?

Glad to hear you are making it worse.  Really.  Losing small choirs means to me it's not time yet to start using more noise to eliminate a sonic signature.  Right now that's just dithering around.  (My apologies - I do so love really horrible puns.)

Couple of ideas I haven't had time to try yet:

- If there's something weird going on with phase effects, how do things sound with adjustments to, or elimination of, phase alignment?

- How do XXTweaks affect system noise levels?  In particular, do tweaks like Balanced Load and Utilize Cores Always result in more system activity than there would otherwise be?  I suppose turning off Cool When Idle has got to lead to more thermal noise, but is it enough to have any effect?

It's OK, we have company this evening.  My wife has ordered me into the shower, and someone will surely have gotten it before I get back.

Good luck, all!   

Guess it has to do with stopping something, maybe?  Some piece of the OS, perhaps.  Or maybe even some hardware function.  But what?

Yes, that just depends on which Windows theme and/or sound scheme is active.

Just a data point and don't know whether it's because I'm in the US, but I always get the money back in my PayPal account as soon as you send it.  I don't know whether I could get it out in the form of cash, but so far it hasn't mattered because I've had purchases using the eBay companies (PayPal, eBay, Bill Me Later) that I could apply the credit to.

I figured I would attempt to eliminate room and speaker effects as much as possible and try to understand what is going on with the sound, especially this "panning" Peter is talking about.  So I used my IEMs, Etymotic ER-4P.  They are certainly much better than my $99-on-sale bookshelf speakers sitting on a glass desk.  I also get to drive them directly from the Dragonfly, eliminating my amp (quite nice but old and not as good as no amp).

First, let's get the obligatory over with.  The sound is just stunning.  I was going to play with Q1 and Q1 factor settings but said to hell with it just as soon as the music started.

Now, this panning - The imaging and localization of individual instruments and voices is more precise with this software on Win8 than anything else I've ever heard.  Even instruments and vocals quite close to each other are entirely distinct.  On "Cherokee" from Cat Power's Sun album, always a beautiful mess before, I heard every last layer and effect (but with no less drive).

Now with IEMs of course there's no shifting position of the listener relative to the speakers.  But with this sort of precise localized imaging, you will hear a strong, consistent sound from either speaker for any player or singer in the middle of the soundstage, and a strong consistent sound from each speaker for the players or singers on its side of the soundstage.  So as you move around from side to side relative to the speakers you are going to get rock solid imaging and localization on each side, i.e., strong panning. 

The precision of the rendering may also very possibly be good enough that imperfectly done stereo effects which would wind up in the middle of the soundstage with slightly fuzzier reproduction come out as one effect on the left, and its near-but-not-quite twin on the right.  I heard some of this, intentional or not, with the electronic effects on "Cherokee."  But on natural, clean production like "Tennessee" and "Down Along the Dixie Line" from Gillian Welch's The Harrow and the Harvest, the guitars, lead vocals and backing vocals all stayed rooted firmly in one spot, including Gillian's vocal anchored right in the middle of the soundstage.

Juan, you have my meaning backwards (likely due to the fact I did a bad job of making my meaning clear).  :-)  I did not mean one needs W8 updates to run XXHE.  I meant one needs to be connected to the Internet for the "automatic" install of .Net Framework 3.5; and if one is going to be connected to the Internet, then it is best to have the security updates for W8.

Peter, by the way - don't know whether it's the W7 shell app or XXHE that's causing it, but using XXHE in Win 8 on my computer causes my desktop background image to shrink horizontally so it doesn't cover the last inch on left and right side of the monitor.  The OS itself works OK in this respect, it seems - that is, my recycle bin, which is the only desktop icon I have, sits within less than an inch of the left edge as it always does, but it sits on top of an inch of black background rather than the desktop background picture.

The background is a slideshow, one of the downloadable Windows 8 themes from MS, called "Forest" or something like that.  After the background image shrinks, it can be cured by going into desktop settings, switching to the regular "Forest" background theme, then deleting the unnamed "custom" theme with the too-narrow background that has been substituted.

Can give you my monitor specs and settings if helpful.  It's widescreen, a 16:10 or 16:9 aspect ratio, I think.

If you ever intend to be connected to the Internet at any time with that machine (e.g., to download a new XXHE) then yes, because many of the updates are for security.  And at least one update (one of the .Net versions, 3.x if I remember right) is necessary just to run XXHE.

I agree, the tightness of the bass (real notes, not just growling along on the bottom) is very nice.


Don't know if you can cancel the DVD, but if you have a USB thumb drive 4GB or more, follow this, particular attention to steps 10 and 11: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/clean-install-windows-8-upgrade.htm .  Then you won't need a DVD, and yes, you can do this right now instead of waiting.

Yes, I never would have switched to W8 if Peter hadn't mentioned the improvement in sound (I agree, even with my middling rig) and the $40 US price versus $200 February 1st.  And I have a feeling if you do go to Win 8 you will be extremely grateful for the nice little application included with XXHE that lets you get rid of the more dumbfoundingly obnoxious bits of Metro.

But apparently there is something more to the new OS than just the (very wrongheaded IMHO) Metro.  This from Ars Technica:


[Emphasis added.]

Very nice, Peter.  Very nice indeed.  There was the merest edge from W7 with XXTweaks and SFS=2 that's now gone with W8 and SFS=430, and I was even able to ratchet up Balanced Load a touch (from 63 to 67) to get a little more "swing" into the smoother sound.  Not only is that tiny edge gone, but I can hear more real details as well.  As you say, it's "right."

Overall, happy I switched to W8, though that is pretty well entirely because of the better sound from XXHE.  (Thank goodness for the W7 shell.  What could they have been thinking with Metro?  It's like some damned torture device to keep you from finding anything on your computer.)

Well, Mani, have you tried W8 and if so are you liking the sound better than W7?  Because of course Peter that bad man knows how to pique my curiosity and so I just had to order W8 last night.  (Downloaded but didn't have time to install to a USB stick and thence to the computer.  Will wipe out W7, but I have a backup of that on my external drive, so no problem reinstalling if I decide I really dislike W8.  Won't do a "dual" boot because I already have two other OSs on the same machine (Lubuntu and FreeBSD-STABLE), and there would be less space for each OS than I'd like running four on my 256GB SSD.)

So Peter, Mani, and everyone else, with SFS=430, what are you finding sounds nice for Q1 and Q1 factor?  (I assume my result will be a little different because the device buffer size for the Dragonfly DAC is 512, rather than the 4096 it seems most others have for the NOS1.  But I at least can perhaps use what I learn from others as a starting point.)

And what about XXTweaks?  Anyone playing with different values for those than you used on W7 and finding something better?