Hi Georg,

Looks like a good idea to me. But it has to be made - not sure there's much time for that at this moment.
Still a good idea !

But what about the "Message Age" ? I think it is that what you actually like to use. Or ?

Kind regards,
Peter

Hi Charlie,

The Coverart is a thing in itself. This is a text I made for myself but never put up because it is hard to verify (it first needs to go wrong for not showing); it is an OS thing :

---

It is assumed that  "Don't do anything with Coverart" (in XXHighEnd settings, Coverart section) is not activated. Also it is assumed that at this time Show as Wallpaper and At Attended both are active.

Press Stop in XXHighEnd.
Go to Control Panel - Personalization.
Again click Stop in XXHighEnd.
In Personalization click one of the Themes with a background. This should now appear.
Click Play in XXHighEnd. The Wallpaper Coverart will now appear (the normal Wallpaper will be disappeared).
Click Stop. The normal Wallpaper should re-appear.

When the above all happens as described, the Wallpaper Coverart should always appear in actual form (from the track currently playing) and when played Unattended, all should be fine as well.

---

It should be clear that you actually solved the problem. But it also should be clear that by means of something you brought back the problem. So the obvious : try to think of what it can have been.



No .XXSI file - sorry !
W7 Settings (amazing that I saved them) :

---

W7 - February 9, 2014 (1.186-a)
XXHighEnd PC -> i7 3930K Hyperthreading On (12 cores) @*500MHz*, 16GB, Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit on SATAIII 2.5" 7200RMP spinning disk, XXHE on 2GB RAMDisk (IMDisk), music on LAN (dynamically stopped/started) / Engine#4 Adaptive Mode / Q1/-/3/4/5 = *6*/-/1/1/1 / Q1Factor = *1* / Dev.Buffer = 4096 / ClockRes = 15ms / Memory = Straight Contiguous / Include Garbage Collect / SFS = *0.40* (max 320.00) / not Invert / Phase Alignment Off / Playerprio = Low / ThreadPrio = Realtime / Scheme = *Core3-5* / Not Switch Processors during Playback = Off / Playback Drive 2GB RAMDisk (IMDisk) / UnAttended (Just Start) / All Services Off / Keep LAN - *Persist* (this is for conveniency and sub 1.186a)  / No WallPaper / No OSD / No Running Time / Minimize OS / XTweaks : *Use Settings* - *64, 1, 1, 0, 1* / Time Performance Index = Optimal / Time Stability = On / Double Octo Arc Prediction Upsampling / -> USB3 (*Silverstone *both* sides isolated*) -> 24/768 Phasure NOS1a 75B async USB DAC, Driver v1.0.4 (*16ms*) -> Blaxius BNC interlink -> Orelo MKII Active Open Baffle Horn Speakers.

---

I can't tell about others, but I don't think you have missed it. It is from the time just prior to XXHighEnd and how I myself (yes me) found out that XP applied dithering by standard as soon as it went through the normal "sound path". So back at the time we already knew that XP was not bit perfect (but it could be done by special RME drivers) and everybody was obsessed about it (say that this is 11-12 years ago). Then Visa came around and with Vista it was all about "Exclusive Mode" which was new to the Windows OS. Btw, XXHighEnd was the very first player whcih could utilize the new WASAPI (18 months later a second came about - XMPlay IIRC, and right after that Foobar). Anyway, back in the days it was all about "Exclusive Mode" and how to use and and how to avoid pitfalls.

You had Exclsuve access to the sound device all right, but it is about how to sustain that. And that part can be violated. I had lenghty discussions about this with AmirM (who designed this new means of Windows audio chain).



You are correct. Still it is better to just shut off all the WASAPI (WDM) audio devices, which is all what you can see when being in Normal OS. Just disable them. Btw, I have the hint that this matters for your "This message should not occur" issue. So try it. Otherwise do know that when WASAPI is shut off (do that in Normal OS) in MinOS there just isn't another choice for Sound Device but your KS device.



No. When it is .WAV is stays where it is and is played from that location.



You maybe won't believe it, but this time this is interesting for me. I mean, I know about this issue, and it is beyond me when it happens. Yesterday I had it again. Hapens maybe once per several days and re-applying the same right after is OK. So this is clearly a bug somewhere (in there forever) which you now suddenly were able to let surface for the first time, relative to your old situation.
Let's say we can survive this and also that you can indeed see it happen when you pay atention; the list is just processed too soon. Btw, I am sure I did not apply a selection yesterday and of what I recall, it surely can happen without selection. What I noticed yesterday is that this was with .WAV. This is especially apparent because .WAV processes slower (one by one). So easy to see it goes wrong.
This is not a matter of finding out when it happens (I would have by now if it were this simple) but it is a matter of knowing settings where it just never happens. Apparently you indirectly know that. But still quite undoable.

Peter

PS: I don't think it is a big deal that you can't play DSD for the while that you are in this "test mode" (but I am not you). Once you know what the issue is (how it can be solved), I can solve it in the software and then you don't need to switch matters (which implies two boots in general). And as said, removing the message as a whole is a solution already.

Hi Dave,

See the first bullet point in the Release Notes of 2.09. Main issue is the not-usage of Wallpaper Coverart. So use that and all is fine. Tip : Do not use the On Screen Display (OSD) Text for better SQ. But read that bullet point please.
... And obviously, to do what's further in there you need to use 2.09. Thus if not, switch On the showing of the Wallpaper Coverart.

When such a thing happens, all you need to do is kill the Sund Engine (click in the Blue led in the right hand border).

The tick at reboot is as ancient as Rome (for the NOS1-USB). Along with it comes the "always check your DC Offset" after a reboot. Indeed switch off the amps at a reboot, which does not prevail you from checking the DC Offset, also at just switching off the Audio PC (it is not Stealth related). Or when the NOS1(a/G3) is switched on. Just when something changes (powering on/off amps does not matter that I have ever seen).

Kind regards,
Peter

Charlie,

Now I see you writing about the Playback Drive ... I made a mistake with this advice. This is indeed not easy at all as it requires another partition the least (or another disk/medium, as you imply). I should have said :

Activate "Copy to XX Drive by standard".
This does exactly what I intended (per my description) but in a very simple way. You won't have "SQ Control" with this really, unless playing from the OS disk coincidentally sounds good.

The Playback Drive will sound different per "media" (it can be anything) and even brand.

Regards,
Peter

Mani, say hello and thank you to Ruben from me, and let him know that we will deeply investigate.
I myself already see the group of 4, so this logically is a potential problem to begin with.

Regards from us all !

PS: Ruben, this thing is spinning and spinning. What can we best do to stop it ?

From here, we at Phasure all wish you a Merry Christmas !
Small "electronic" Christmas Card :

High Resolution link XmasMod

This is the day that the 1.0 design of something new was finished and is going to be send out to China for the production of the (4 layer) PCB.
It is a project which has been worked on for 4 months in a row and in another month, maybe two, we will know the results of it.

This is also the day that I myself will start working on yet another something new. That's how it works (one thing finished - up to the next). That project will be a kind of outrageous because it should do something by "electrical" means, which has not been done before.
Of course this is all about audio.

So dear people, if you all could start to be acquainted with was has been accomplished this year, then you are better prepared for what the upcoming year brings. Ha !

Peter & Gang

Another hint :
Never use the Tidal player (desktop or Chrome Broswer) because it too hogs the WASAPI sound device and nothing will play in a means which can't be comprehended (no error message etc.). Notice that the player "being there" is sufficient to let all fail.

This won't be your situation, but just mentioning it because it will lead to the (I think !) same issues.

Peter

OK. Thank you for the extensive answers. Here are a few responses again :



I wasn't referring to updates. There's a lot the OS does (needs to do) after a boot and it can take minutes (observe a slow laptop and you may count 10 minutes before all dies out).
Don't neglect this for any issues you encounter right at the first playback.
Also notice that there are a few things shut off at first (by XXHighEnd) which don't come on again when playback finishes. So there too a source of "misery" lays.



No need to kill Engine3 for that. Killing Engine3 is only useful when you ran into some sort of erroneous situation (OK, that's your's often).
If you don't hear a difference, we must assume it is not easy to perceive. Technically the differences between the filters are quite large. And no reason to assume something is not working, regarding this (and in your situation).



Notice that Engine3 is the only one there is. It serves WASAPI and it serves KS (ever back there was also an Engine1 and Egine2).



I see you are referring to this quite often, including me knowing the best what the defaults are plus stupilating that they will be good. Please don't take that assumptions ...
Far better will be to copy my settings, apart from those your DAC will not allow for. Example : the Q3,4,5 are mostly used by me (say 999 out of 1000 days) and I thus know the exact response of those settings in relation to many other settings. And, this is all related to how a next track (part) loads. So my 1,1,1 does it 180 degrees different from your 0,0,0. Of course your 0,0,0 should work just the same, but when you have problems it is better to use mine. And explicitly not the defaults because a. I don't even know them really and b. I never ever use them.
The defaults are there to suit most and were set maybe 5 years ago for the last time. With a new setting which requires attention it will be obtained in the SettingsPreset.XXSI file and/but only for that single setting "observed". The others remain 5 years old, so to speak.



Strange hint perhaps : I like you to switch this On now; it will avoid any issues with your Music Disk. The OS disk is needed anyway, but now, in advance of playback, all will unconditionally be copied to your C: drive (or RAMDisk when you use that). The OS Disk usually keeps on spinning for its own reasons, while that other disk will spin down after 20 minutes when it was not accessed, and might it take too long to come up, then you will receive this :



All these changes are to eliminate all possible causes. When things are OK, later (but hopefully soon), we'll slowly build back (or just found the reason and can reinstate all you like best, at once).
FYI : There's a total of 14 seconds available to prepare the track and this includes the wakeup of the disk. I have one myself which would not suffice (takes too long to spin up).



This is interesting (and I didn't get that till right now ). The answer : I don't know. This is the OS and it might change per OS version. The thing which is crucial for you : I don't even know how Windows boot up sounds sound. Or any sound for that matter; Since some OS (W8 ?) it defaulted to no sounds, and prior to that I am sure we all shut off the sounds explicitly. Really. All but you, apparently. Haha. Bbbbbut, I now see the potential (quite explicit) conflict : XXHighEnd maybe soing something, the OS producing a sound and next the lost crashes (to some degree). And the bad thing : I don't even know about it, because I didn't hear a Windows sound for 10 years on my audio PC. Never actually. It is the prerequisite for enabling Exclusive (hogging) of the audio device ...

Also funny : When you'd use KS this can not happen. The Windows sounds don't operate on that (as far as I know/recall). Next up is : When you are in MinOS and disabled WASAPI at going to MinOS (see in Shut Off Services section), there *is* no sound device for Windows. Only your KS device and only for you ...

Just in case and because you tried the normal means, look below (picture).
RightClick the loudspeaker icon in the Taskbar Tray - Playback Devices, select Sounds tab (see picture) and select No Sounds.
More below in that picture you also see the Play Windows Startup Sound unchecked (might that matter for you).

Maybe I did not respond to everything, but I hope this is going to help now !
Regards,
Peter

Charlie, I removed a superfluous [ quote ] in your text to make it readable better.

Great stuff ! Maybe not all that old ?
I have seen my father in the same position(s).

Thank you Colin,
Peter

Thank you Joseph.

Kind regards,
Peter

I forgot : This omission was introduced in 2.07.

Colin, wow, your are GOOD !
I say this, especially because I wonder whether I would have have found this.

One secret : it will be XXVX.dat. But I will copy all three of them.

Thank you VERY MUCH.
Merry Christmas,
Peter

So Charlie, let's go :



If you mean during playback, that is right. The setting is only captured when a new Play is initiated. This counts for everything and all. Not things like Volume Change of course.


 
Interestig in itself because in my view Attended is not OK on many aspects. But notice the relativity of this : all I actually say is that UnAttended if super fine. However, not for you and the question is why. Hopefully we'll get somewhere with this now !
One thing which slips my mind : if you have any form of anti-virus etc. running, it will definitely cause problems of a nature without logic.



Please change that to On. I am pretty sure that XXHighEnd is doing things with this (and only during UnAttended) and I have no idea what will happen when it is not allowed. You may not like it for SQ (??) but you *have* to try. If it helps, we'll see what to do next.

We must (both) realize that nobody is using WASAPI any more. Are you ? if Yes, it can be the problem as nobody runs into issues which may have sneaked in, in 7-8 or whatever years. At least I myself never ever use it.



Somehow I tend to think that this is from your 2.01 install - not your 2.09. This very problem heas been dealt with, and I'd even say you announced it (and I suppose it was solved in some intermediate version (like 2.06b etc.). Am I wrong ?
Let's assume I am wrong and this is from your 2.09;

Very many things don't work out right after a boot because the OS is so erratic at that moment. This can take many minutes (on whatever maintenance).
This issue could be special to your "copy to RAMDisk" behavior. Maybe something is wrong there. Not even sure whether you are using that for this list of issues, so just saying. But if you do, try to use it without RAMDisk and see whether it changes things. Do notice that I won't be talking about RAMDisk issues itself (but see below) but about that first copy from disk to RAMDisk and there something being wrong or unexpected (my side and theoretically also your side).



I can't be sure whether this is consistent with your *"No RAMDisk*" but do notice that No Playback Drive is not allowed to combine with using a RAMDisk (I am not talking about RAM-OS Disk, where it *is* allowed).

Also, I'd have tp specifially point out that when the RAMDisk runs full, that too will bring totally illogical errors. Things just stop working well. At least with IMDisk there is not enough protection to tell you the "disk" is full (and this in itself will be because of the way MinOS has been set up).



I'm afraid you must rephrase this, or elaborate. I really can't see what you are talking about here.



... and combined with this one, I am completely lost. No beep as such is a Windows welcome etc. sound clip.
The *fact* that you receive beeps (if really beeps) is telling; there shouldn't be. But you talk as if this is normal.
The FACT that you allow Windows sounds is telling seriously much. This can't be because XXHighEnd uses the sound device exclusively. So or you disallow playback and imply an erroneous situation (XXHighEnd can't start playback because of a Windows sound playing), or the OS might crash (sort of) because it wants to play a sound but can't. You really have to shut this off.



None, NONE of this is happening ever. Not in 2.07, 2.08 or 2.09. And I use it every day, several times (mostly to skip tracks I don't want to listen to this time).
One thing : You need to use 2.09 because of timing problems introduced in 2.08 which in itself tried to solve something (I forgot) in 2.07 and which IS related. It will be due to the slowness of your PC somewhere that it is an issue in the first place (for 2.07 !) and only in 2.09 this was definitely solved. So I hope this was all judged in 2.09.

Btw, this shouldn't be related to the selection of tracks as such, but to things needing to wake up between two tracks and which isn't given enough time. Then playback stops (UnAttended thinks it is not fed with new data - hard to explain).
Set your disk spin down time to 5 minutes or more.



First off, there is no need to restart XXHighEnd (for a long time I thought that myself, hence the message). I think I can just as well eliminate the message. Still it testifies that something is not right. Btw, be very careful that this is not from 2.01 because everything was diferent regarding this, back then. Please confirm.
I receive this message maybe once per week and on W7. I think you use W7 too, right ? All I know or can tell is that this can be related to WASAPI again because the initialisation is different for that. And my W7 only has WASAPI devices.
Not sure what to do with this because it again is something with timing. If you have this 50% of the time, maybe your underclocking doesn't work out as intended.
Notice that my W7 is the development machine which is "slow" because of loaded with many things. On the Audio PC I never ever have this. Never (and this is underclocked to 500MHz but not the way you did it - as far as I can see, that is).



As said (previous post), at this moment this is not supported.
You can still mimic the situation by bringing up XXHighEnd, press pause in there, maybe press pause once again right before you want to restart playback, and press Play. That works. Or drag the time slider to any position, followed by pressing Pause and next press Play.



Maybe it is not important for me to understand, but I don't anyway. But as said, the whole of Alt-E does not work, thus better not use it like this. See above for what to do.

A last thing for now :
It seems that a larger part comes from rebooting. I hardly ever do that. Maybe for that reason I don't see what you see, because I see it maybe once a month and think "oh well". But anyway I don't recall anything else than all being slow at first.

Peter

Hi Charlie,

I just read this quickly. Before answering this extensively tomorrow (close to 1am here now) I wanted to let know you this for better context :

Alt-E does not work since 2.07. It Pauses all right, but won't continue where it left off. I think this is in the Release Notes, or at least I intended it to be. It is part of the unfinished job of "fast response" on the volume change and Alt-N(ext). Say it was difficult.

More tomorrow and thanks for holding on !
Peter