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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: BEST DAC
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on: July 02, 2010, 12:35:09 am
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Lampizator aka Łukasz Fikus is Polish guy (same as me). 'The best DAC' of his is highly tuned, lampized Behringer DAC, which is available for everyone. I'm going to try his DAC soon, so I'll let you know how it performs. That is if you trust my judgement haha :D
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291
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: SQ differences in priorities, buffer sizes and split sizes - discussion
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on: July 01, 2010, 09:00:43 pm
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I've flashed my Cantatis with ESI firmware again in order to try Special mode with low buffer sizes. Encouraged by Calibrator, I switched from my 'reference' settings (see signature) to DAP instead of QAP and KS Special Mode with Q1=-1 and buffer size at 48 samples - yep, it's possible, these drivers are awesome and I don't need ESI card to use them, great. After play button was hit, I heard not only 'more' but in a more realistic way. Then I figured, what the hell, QAP is 'supposedly' better than DAP, but no, at least not with my card and my system. Next thing I've done was going to redbook - 16/44 (DAC set to 16 bit as well) with intert ticked. Now that I've played couple of albums and compare it A/B with DAP and QAP, it's the best sound I've heard so far. I don't know if it's due to ultra low latency (2 samples?), because I can't play QAP with these settings (have to increase Q1 to 5 - 48 samples) or simply upsamling doesn't go along with my card and DAC on it (delta sigma), don't have a clue. I'm 100% sure that it sounds better though - I am able to hear more details and it's so realistic that I get a goose skin over my head. So I have a hint for you guys, if you don't have a NOS DAC, just stop for a moment, don't pursue this 'upsampling' journey, try good, old 16/44 with following settings (if your drivers allow it):
Engine#4 *Special Mode* / Q1/2/3/4/5 = *-1*/0/0/0/0 / *Invert* / Playerprio = Low / ThreadPrio = Realtime / Scheme = 1 @ UnAttended / Services Off / No Upsampling / *1024 samples* / DAC set to 16 bit !
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292
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: 9z-2 "No Track given" message during playback
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on: June 30, 2010, 10:26:55 pm
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Roy, there is no rule, believe me. I've flashed my Cantatis to ESI firmware again and here I can say without any doubts that it sounds better on 2 cores. With native Cantatis firmware and VIA drivers, the sound is better on 1 core, it's like they programmed em to work on a single core computers, very strange. I wouldn't have thought that drivers matter this much...
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293
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: 9z-2 "No Track given" message during playback
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on: June 30, 2010, 07:49:22 pm
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OK, let's assume that my PC is low, but these "revelations" don't pop up all the time and I don't use the PC for anything else than playback, I don't even move my mouse :D But you're probably right, it should be gone once I upgrade my computer.
PS You should precise XXHE minimal requirements for smooth playback in your release notes, that would help newbies and prevent such topics. And I'm not trying to be picky, just want to help you improve your software and grow awareness of rest of the users.
Cheers, Marcin
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298
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: 9z-2 DAP dropouts
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on: June 30, 2010, 12:05:33 pm
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It's ok, the dropouts are not common, only with few of my albums and I'm gonna upgrade my audio PC in few months, that will solve the problem. Out of curiosity - what split size value do you use? There is very noticeable difference between e.g. 32 MB and 64 MB. The latter sounds fuller.
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