One of the two principals in the companies from which I buy all my cables (including an inexpensive USB cable with which I'm quite impressed) has a habit of being especially correct when he says the most outrageous things.

For example: http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/products.asp?dept=1 and http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/departments.asp?dept=96

Mani: Highlight the rectangle you move or the number field and use the up/down arrow keys to adjust.

I find with -8a the types of changes one has the opportunity to make can be less forgiving, at least with my middling setup and my CPU overclocked back up where it's usually been.  My sig has what I've arrived at after some fairly careful listening testing a range of settings from my old ones to Peter's new ones, and many in between.

I found the only setting that caused temps to rise more than I'd like (still well within the safe zone, but 10 deg C more than the usual range) was turning off Cool When Idle.  This was accompanied by an increase in the "sizzle" noise that I must be ever on guard against with -8.  So Cool When Idle is staying on.  (The "sizzle" never occurs when there is otherwise silence, but is present as an edge on upper midrange instruments and vocals.  For lower midrange it is less present, but when audible is a very slight "fuzz.")

The system just doesn't like the "special" Nervous Rate setting of 100, but it's fine with 99, so that's where I've got it for the time being.  For Q1, no multiplier above 2 will allow XXHE to start before I grow impatient, so that is where it stays since I like the sound slightly better than with my old multiplier of 1.  For SFS, things seem just about right halfway between my and Peter's old setting of 60 and his new one of 120.

Balanced Load has been the subject of most of my tweaking tests.  Strange that the degree of "sizzle" that is the penalty for an incorrect setting doesn't seem to rise consistently across the range from 43 to 70, which is as high as I care to go.  Where I've got it now seems to be a sweet spot.  I can still hear the merest edge, but even a single digit lower and it makes things a little too polite and polished, just the slightest bit less real.

...and 196x2= (200-4)x2....

 

Yeah, 28 = 14x2, so 28x14 = 14x14x2 = 14 "squared" x 2.  (196x2=392).

Hey Peter, speaking of latency, one question about Q1 factor in your sig: Is that Q1 = 14, multiplied by 2 gives a result of 28?  Or Q1 = 14, multiplied by 28 is twice 14 squared?

I have an i7-950 CPU that I had been running at 3.7GHz with -7.  (The BIOS of my mobo makes it easy to choose 3.0 - no overclocking - 3.3, or 3.7.)  Prior to trying XTweaks in -8 I figured it was safest to begin experimenting with no overclocking, so I've currently got the CPU at its rated 3.0GHz.  Temps with any of the XTweaks I tried were quite comfortable, less than half the temps at which I'd get warnings, and with low fan speeds.  The same was true (comfortable temps and low fan speeds) when running -7 with the CPU at 3.7GHz.

So I'm curious what the thoughts are of Peter and other users regarding sound quality.  If temps and fan speeds remain reasonable, would higher CPU speeds be better or worse for sound quality?  I'll listen myself of course, but before I get back home to the computer I'd be interested in any impressions from others.

Right, so of course on further experimentation it turns out to be my computer under the XTweaks settings.  The most critical one for me seems to be Cool When Idle.  If that's set to off, no balanced load setting sounds quite correct, lower ones having too little liveliness and higher ones having too much sizzle, with no happy medium.  Turning all the XTweaks off leaves things with the sound of -7, very nice but not up to -8.  If Cool When Idle is on, then a Balanced Load setting of 70 sounds about right on the liveliness scale - things "swing" nicely - without having the unacceptable level of sizzle that occurs if Cool When Idle is off at that load setting.  There is still just a very slightly perceptible edge, but since I can't seem to get rid of it entirely without turning off all the XTweaks and losing all the accompanying sonic benefits, this last little bit is acceptable to me right now.

With Cool When Idle on and Balanced Load at 70, the Stable Power setting doesn't make a huge difference, the Utilize Cores Always a bit more but still not a lot - both do sound slightly better when on, though, so that's where I have them.

I agree with others' impressions of the sound, *but*: Seems to me I hear the slightest "sizzle" in the upper midrange, and slightest "fuzz" in the lower midrange that was not there before.  Switched to my IEMs just to be sure it wasn't in the speakers or amp.

Test tracks were "Rich Woman" from the 24/96 HDTracks download of Alison Krauss/Robert Plant "Raising Sand"; "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Joy to the World" from the Blind Boys of Alabama's "Go Tell It On the Mountain" (CD rip in my case, but available as a 44.1 download from Peter Gabriel's RealWorld label - utterly awesome music and of course seasonally appropriate); and "All Day and All Night" from Jakob Dylan's "Seeing Things" (Bob's son, very talented songwriter in his own right).

By the way - it's not impossible my, ehm, cheap preamp is responsible and I'm just now getting audio response that will tickle the bug, or clarity sufficient to hear it.  My computer I would consider less probable.

P.S.  Two administrative details - (1) Wouldn't activate despite several attempts.  Then at one point after I'd closed XXHE for some time, I happened to bring up Task Manager, which showed the activation process still running.  Ended the process with Task Manager, started up XXHE and it was successfully activated.  (2) I'm getting the message about "Device allocated but won't play" repeatedly.

Happy Erev Xmas everyone!

My second-favorite toy!   

Season's greetings to you as well.   

Why take photos?  You mean there are no pictures in Hell?

One of my favorite cartoonists, now sadly retired, was Gary Larson, whose strip was called The Far Side.  In one of his cartoons, Satan's mother runs around Hell taking milk and cookies to the damned, to Satan's horror and exasperation.

Larson was an equal opportunity cartoonist regarding deities.  He also had several about God.  One of my favorites has a nerdy-looking chubby kid with smoke-blackened face standing behind a rack of shattered test tubes, with a whole bunch of feathers raining down from above.  The caption is "God as a kid tries to make a chicken in his room."

Bert -

Please tell me the toilet is tucked away somewhere I cannot see (i.e., that you do not use as a toilet the part of the picture I *can* see).

No, but good eyes.  It's a nearly 30-year-old Linn knockoff, a Systemdek IIX.  Not bad in its own right at its reasonably low price for the time, but no Linn.

Sorry for the blurry shot, it was taken with my iPhone.

The digital-related part of the main system is as follows:

WD MyBook FW -> MacBook Pro w/SSD -> Mapleshade Clearlink USB -> Schiit Bifrost -> Spectral DMC-12 & DMA-150 -> Vandersteen 2Ce. Other cabling and power strip Omega Mikro/Mapleshade. Also MIT Z-Stabilizer.

Photo of main system attached (lacking a Phasure DAC, sadly).