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Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: IRQ CPU Affinity Setting
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on: October 22, 2010, 06:46:59 am
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I wouldn't be myself if I hadn't checked this again - yep, I'm crazy Anyway, this time I decided not to stick to Nick's settings and went a little bit wild applying almost everything to CPU0 (I left CPU, motherboard resources untouched though) and for sound card as well as PCI bus, I set mask to use two cores. The result exceeded my expectations. So many details, but what struck me the most was the level of background information. I was listening to Diana Krall (24/96) and I couldn't believe my ears, I asked myself - 'is this noise'? Yep, noise from a mic is very clear now, later I played other hi-resolution stuff and I got the same feeling. This time nothing sharp about the sound. I think these settings could be fine-tuned, but I have to do a little research or perhaps you could tell me, what devices 'need juice' during XXHE playback for PCI card. Maybe 'ati i/o communications processor pci bus controller'? Cheers, Marcin
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138
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: IRQ CPU Affinity Setting
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on: October 21, 2010, 12:45:26 pm
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After many hours of listening, I'm disappointed with these affinity tweaks. The sound is to bright. I went back to my reference settings and the magic is back IRQ8Priority=1 Win32Separation=28(40) I tried IRQ11Priority, which is the IRQ of my sound card, but I didn't like the sound. (of course not parallel with Nick's affinity tweaks)
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142
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: IRQ CPU Affinity Setting
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on: October 20, 2010, 11:45:03 pm
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Thanks, maybe increasing the buffer size is a good thing now, I'll check that. I have to tell you, that after playing with IRQ affinity tool, I checked my sound card resources in device manager and I was amazed to see that it uses dedicated IRQ now - 11. (previously 23). I'm not sure it was the IRQ affinity settings though, because I haven't checked the IRQ of my card for a while now and in the mean time I applied a lot of tweaks, including disabling the whole bunch of devices - 'regular', system and hidden.
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143
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: IRQ CPU Affinity Setting
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on: October 20, 2010, 09:28:35 pm
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Hi guys,
Finally I tried this tweak on my machine and I'm not sure if like it. I get more details and clarity but I got a feeling that the sound is somehow sharp/bright. I have to listen more and maybe fine-tune Nick's recommended settings.
Thanks a lot for your effort Nick!
Cheers Marcin
-EDIT
I hope that Peter's announcement about fixing the SFS is going to do the trick, because I like the increased level of details, deeper soundstage, but I miss the body and punch. Now I can listen at about 20% louder levels whitout any sense of fatigue, which is a good thing (I guess).
-EDIT2
Nick, so what's your present XXHE settings (Q1, buffer size and SFS)?
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147
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: What is going on here???
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on: October 18, 2010, 07:19:10 pm
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Hi, After my initial excitement I tried to figure out if some settings could yield the same sound I heard from storing the stuff on my (limited) Ramdisc. No Luck for me, nothing I did could lead the way in the direction I wanted it to go (SFS settings, Q sliders, cardlatency). Thats real bad, since I believe the ramdisc/ramdisc combi is exactly where I want my sound to be (or to baldly move from there into the unknown). Besides that the music is more focussed and playfull it's also like a subliminal door opens to let the music flow straight into my brain. A trick my deceised NOS TDA1541 Dac could also pull off. Still with me ? In a desperate attempt to understand what's going on here I cleared the playlist and selected the same tracks from my HDD. Good sound but no magic here. Note that the very files did allready reside in the XX folder of Ramdisc (since copy to... was ticked). To mess things up I cleared the playlist, unticked 'copy to...' (files still in XX folder) and played again: still nothing happening here, maybe a little less than before. My conclusion: the space occupied by the files on the ramdisc makes no difference to the sound, no matter how many times the files are copied to whatever folder. The magic is only 'there' when the playlist is selected from Ramdisc. It is there rather regardless of (SFS) settings.... What is going on here????? regards, Coen p.s. used vintage hardware does not allow for special mode That's a very good question, because it's beyond my comprehension. I've just had a jawdrop, had to try few tracks this way, because I couldn't believe my ears. Previous the sound was good, great even, but now it's like Coen said - magic! But again, how? The size for both files is identical...
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