You bet I will (wait)

While I have been listening to music through W8 for quite some time, I never gave XXHIGHEND a chance with W7... After listening to 9-8e with W7, I understand now...

Thanks Peter. It would not have been you and all you did and are continually doing, I would not have tried W8 with the same interest.

I did not allow myself to listen to the latest version with W7. I will restore a backup tonight (Mmmm... Be ready to see an activation demand again...). Looks like I really have the full name for it: Alain Grégoire, Activation Guy... AG all the way.

An OT remark: I never got an SQ increase more than with XXHIGHEND. No matter the cables I changed, the tweaks I tried, the "this" and the "that" - XXHIGHEND is by far my "best component" and the incredible thing is that each time it feels like I have a new system... Of course there has to be a minimum synergy with all components, but XXHE remains the "peripheral" that amazes me the most.

Alain

As Peter knows, I am not that good when it comes to describing details about a XXHIGHEND version. My sensitivity to SQ is far from ideal when I read what many can sense from different adjustements with the software and their sound systems.

For sure I have sensed differences with the last 2 upgrades (9-7 and 9-8), but for example I never heard ticks (apart from the beginning) but I have to add that I don't use PA... Can't explain why. Sometimes I enable it, but I am apprehensive of a sudden burst in sound. I know, this was happening in the early implementations of it, but still... I allow myself to change my mind with time.

I have tried W8 as soon as it was available last October. I felt that the sound was a little "brigthter" (a leftover of my years of listening to systems with too much treble - possible), but appealing. From this report from you Peter, it just confirms that I do not have what it takes to differentiate good sound from excellent sound. Wether it is because of my sound system, the acoustics of my room (too much echo), me or a combination of all this - the results are that I realize each time my review of something will be quite limited.

The test Peter suggested about the ticks had me listening to one of my speakers with the ear at 3 inches of the speaker grid. This and only this allowed me to hear some ticks at .5 SPF. My environment is not really silent as I use a noisy PC to access my music PC through bluetooth. I would be unable to tell the difference in SQ from a connected/disconnected CD reader/writer. I do disable it in the device manager, with a few other things, but to tell that I hear a difference...

Maybe I am lucky not to hear all these fine tuning adjustements, but if the conclusion is that W8 is not that good for sound, I will revert happily to W7.

But for sure, from all I have heard before, although I felt that with W8, some instruments were not as prominent as I felt they were before, I hear a lot more details before. This may have no relation to the fact that I use W8 though.

Alain

Peter, if I use my words to describe things... A lot has happened since 6c... I felt as if some front instruments were not as prominent as they were, but on the other hand, there are more individual details, more tones, more of many things I never heard before ?

Ah... Sh*t ! I should not only read the fine prints, but re read them ! I remembered that I needed to install net 3.5, but instead I downloaded it. I had to retry quite a few times, with an error message telling that there was a problem while attempting to download it... But it finally installed, though I do not recommend it (because of all the failed attempts)...

Thanks for reminding this... Next time (I hope there will be no next time)... To be on the safe side, I did an Acronis with XXHIGHEND activated, so I should be quiet with the activation process...

It behaved the same way as it was doing with 8a - no display at all. And yes it was with the files from 8d, because when I initialized W8, copied the XXHIGHEND folder back and started it, it was indicating "8d".

During Christmas time, I exported all the original services in an excel file (to have a reference) and started deactivating many of them. After I exported that new list again and made an excel file with different columns to have a view of what was changed. At the end, I had a little under 20 services working, but I knew I would eventually run into problems when Minimize OS would work.

I may have deactivated a service that was related to the restore function, because when I tried to Minimize OS yesterday, an error message popped saying that it was not possible to create a restore point. Nonetheless I decided to go forward. Then...

At this point I should have used F8 but from what I experienced before, I decided instead to restore from an Acronis backup. It was a PITA to make F8 work, so I skipped this part.

After the Acronis restore it was easy to initialize and I could verify that it was working well. The only surprise came from the fact that I had to insert my W8 installation DVD, because it seemed that some files were missing (?).

Ah... And since I had deactivated the DVD reader/writer from the Device Manager, at first the initialization was not starting I had to activate it - something not to forget

By the way: I haven't tried again the dongles for Bluetooth connection, but I will and report the results... It did not work the first time, no matter what compatibility I tried (XP, Vista, W7)...

Alain

Hi Peter,

All is working fine with Windows 8. I was able to MInimize OS with no problem It was all those services that I deactivated that created problems when I did my attempt today. I also had to get a new activation code (for the same reasons I guess).

Regards,

Alain

Please not worry about me. I was not able to create a restore point, but I am quite sure I did something wrong long before I attempted to install the latest XXHIGHEND.

I will simply reinstall from a backup and start from scratch. It's not a big deal

I will post my results. And if it is tomorrow, no problem either

Regards,

Alain

Well no, not really (you did not forget). So I tried... Did not work... I am reinitializing the PC right now, because I did too much stuff before, so maybe this explains why it does not work still ?

Anyway, I will keep you posted

My doctor would approve you

About Minimize OS with W8... Still not ? I prefer to ask instead of trying...

Oups... Like you already told me, I forgot my new year resolution... Always read the small prints

Sorry Peter, from the size of the download, I assume that it simply has to be installed over the last version ?

Hi Peter,

I did not change the xxengine3 to do this test, but yes I can hear the ticks as mentionned, but with my ear quite close to a speaker.

It is the first time I am hearing this and my guess would be that it is a combination of things:
- System not resolving enough
- "abused ears" from exposition to loud music a long time ago...
- SFS that I tend to put higher than 2
- Not a really silent environment
- W8 and inability to connect with Minimized OS

Alain