I always update XXplayer when you present a new build. So i installed 0.9u-10 at the moment.
I did not do a A-B comparisons between different builds. I will do that tonight. i'll will try the 'mem' box as well.
I only stream at 16/44.1 and play with the settings Q1 and invert.

Better in this case is not an easy thing to explain and bescribe.
between 0.9u-10 and XMplay>WASAPI@EXCL_mode the last sound more musical, softer and less harsch.
Instruments sounds more real, more enjoying the consonance.
XXplayer (0.9u-10) sounds scharper with a bit more dynamics. In my setup it is a disadvantage to enjoy music.

Your not alone. I currently play music with XMplay with WASAPI output because it sounds better then the last generation builds of xxplay (sorry Peter).

Not to criticise XXPlayer, but would you try XMplay as well to discuss differences in SQ between those engines.   

Dogber added a handler to his driver which stops a stream whenever it is unexpectedly closed.
So now it should be save for unwanted behaviour of audioplayers/streams.
I hope it will work for me so i can safely remove my pre-amp.
But now i will think twice to do that...

Normally i use 5 playlists of favourite songs which i play very often. I re-decoded these files to get rid of the 'no track data error' at the end of a song. The last few days i listened to new albums out of my big (FLAC) collection. I made a lot of new playlist's in XX. It was notable that the number of short 'DAC-cracks' increased and honesltly i didn't pay alot attention to it, because i'm using a pre-amp now. The concrete connection to 'no track data recieved' message didn't have my attention. Last evening i took some time to get it concrete. My girlfriend and daughter asked me if i has become crazy. Start-stop-start-stop-start-stop...
And don't get me wrong. Since you payed attention to this problem the mini-loops are history, DAC-cracks are a lot less. I suspect that the DAC crack issue has to do with the output drivers, not XX. But Dogber sounds so good!
I would appreciate any help preventing things through the code of XX.

DAC is 96/16 makes no difference.
Loading a playlist isn't the reason i found out.
It happens when starting a song AFTER the last song has played, ending with a 'no track data recieved' error.
A suggestion; is it possible to add code which checks a gap. So detect when a song is finished by its data. Then stop the player or fade out and go to the next song.   

After loading a new playlist i pointed at the first song and clicked start.
At that moment there was a continous crack until the file was loaded.
After load was completed the songs started playing normally.
Could this be an XX related issue?
Dac is at 16/44.1 no OS, only invert
The effect is repeatable 

Ok sorry, don't want to confuse things, but only interested in possible relations with drivers and any unwanted behaviour.

Edward, i also suffer with plop's/cracks
Just a question. Are you using the native windows usb drivers or did you install a different driver?

 ?  ?

ahum..  still waiting on my new tweeter..

The good news -for XX- is that i now quiet sure can say that the DAC cracks are involved with the use of Vista's exlusive mode.
Yesterday i played with a concurent player XMplay with WASAPI (exclusive mode) output. The same cracks came up.

Well this topic is about sound quality.. 

I agree that 'what sounds good' not always has to be a 100% agreement to theory. 
If it was, our hobby would have ended after Philips made his first cd-player  .
But 'impressive' mostly gets boring through the time. Although, i think that kind of phenomenons keeps the highend market alive.
Don't you agree that its more about the natural level of sound with stable precision in more complex parts of music (like orchestra's).
It is very hard to achieve real natural sound. 1 'wrong' capacitor in a circuit can screw things up.
Mp3's may sound impressive, but will i.m.o never fit in the framework of highend.

  no!, because i also like to listen to my diy (Monica) NOS dac. Sounds very nice. But....

My Stello 220mkII Dac is connected to 100% clean power (Kemp powerstation).
The Stello can be easy switched from NOS to OS.
The audible differences I hear are more in agreement with the theory, wich i suppose as the truth;
OS (192khz):  More subtile, a little bit less dynamics,  much more microdetails in sense of dying-out sound wich makes the sound image more complete and enjoyable . 
NOS:   A bit raw, more dynamic sound.  Very good musicality but ‘not complete’


Moderator's note for future reference :
The "NOS" referred to above, is unrelated to the official "Non OverSampling" phenomenon. The Stello 220MKII is a Delta-Sigma Oversampling DAC.

Can it be so that the audible effect of artifacts and distortion with NOS (without filtering) is heared and interpretated as more details? In other words; that what we think to hear is not what we really hear.
 

I don't get this. Upsampling means more precise reproduction of the original waveform. That precision looses a little with Upsampling cannot be true in theory. When you hear the opposite effect, there must be another reason.         

'DAC is DAC needs' only gives the possibilitys of the DAC in XX isn't it?
When no upsampling is choosing and playing 16/44.1, it doesn't change anything to the output when choosen 'DAC is DAC needs' = 16/192.

My experience with upsampling is that the advantage of upsampling is also related to the noisefloor coming from the powersource wich feeds the equipment and the sensivity of the speakers. With high sensivity speakers and clean powersource, i prefer 192khz upsampling. With lower sensitive speakers (<90db) en bad powersource Non oversampling sounds more dynamic, more 'raw'.