After some hours of trial & error finally solved..!!
The error was apparently caused by the GPU driver    (AMD HD7950,the system also acts as a game pc = dual boot on 2 SSD discs)
After deleting GPU drivers and Catalyst control center it now works like a charm.

Man, 09-z8-2 sounds really sounds more analog..!! I now hear the wood from the violin (Bach: sonatas and partitas, Isabelle Faust) and the mechanism from the fortepiano (Kristian Bezuidenhout on his last Mozart cd). I can estimate the size of a Steinway and there's more depth in the soundstage.
Very, very good job..!!

i'll change my sig and after that i'll enjoy a "cd" or 2 (maybe 3)

Hi Peter and Gerard,

Well...playback isn't running at all, when i click away the message music isn't playing and i see a blue screen (Not the BSOD)
Only thing i can do is hitting ALT+S / ALT+X.

Thnx, but i've no trouble with the settings though.

Okay, that's clear. In previous versions i'd manually stopped all kinds of whatever is running in the background.

So the mentioned checking service is stopped by the "Stop all"..?? because i didn't see this before.

No, it persists and playback isn't running  If only once i could live with it.

Maybe not the right topic Sorry for that.

Os = Windows 7 x64 and it's a clean install.

I experience another error after activating "stop all services"
See the picture below.

This error comes up when i click the play button.
When "stop all services" is not activated it works just fine.
What can cause this error?

A second queston related to "stop all services";
What does "stop all services" do exactly?
Is it an script stopping all services or is it doing more than that?
If it only stopping services i can stop them manually right..??
That's what i did in former xxhighend versions.

Further more; when i hit "minimized mode" after rebooting i following message is showing up in the bottom right corner of the desktop;


In normal mode the message is gone..??!!
Either way the system is working just fine it's more like a nag.

I guess when u have a dedicated xxhighend pc these problems occur much less.
The problems especially occurring when u have a pc busy with all day tasks like mine.
Doing Photoshop, making pdf with Acrobat Pro and printing them with your HP printer, etc.
The problem with all these programs is that they leave all kind of cr*p behind polluting your system.
I was fed up reinstalling windows all this many times. Now i only have to reinstall or restore a back up when i have a virus.

My "recipe" when refusing to minimize;

• Open Task Manager; CTRL+Shift+Esc
• In the process tab kill everything wich begins with like acrobat, hp, etc. In any case processes related to installed software.
  When you´re new to this it´s a little bit of trial & error. But don't be afraid.
• Kill xxHighEnd as well.
• Retart xxHighEnd.
• Click the "minimize Os" button

I hope it helps.
When it doesn't;
Start Services; services.msc
I've alway a shortcut in my startmenu.
Just shut down all possible services manually. It won't hurt.
Listen to some music with xxHighEnd while doing this you'll hear the music become better all the way shutting services down.


My observation to the minimized os;
There is some more to minimize. There still some Services to shut down. Though they don't effect the sound quality that much.

Maybe not the right place but I have just 2 requests for version 09z-7 when in Unattended playback;

• Can u add Alt-V for Unattended.
• Scrolling within music while playing with some kind of slider.

Earlier i mentioned the Brahms 1st pianoconcerto with Pollini and Thielemann.
I'm a bit dissapointed by the result. Main reason is the lack of chemistry between Pollini and Thielemann. I can't describe what the lack off chemistry is all about. Pollini sounds and plays very good, Thielemann conducting good as expected but somehow they don't fit together. Though the Dresden Orchestra is playing beautifull with their distinct sound. The recording is also very good. For the latter worth listening.


When boleary wants to listen to another new fine Bach keyboardconcerto cd i have 1 more.
The pianist David Fray is new to me also. I've got this cd from my local library to give it a try and i was amazed by the energy wich it was played with.
The only minor thing in this very good sounding recording is perhaps the balance between piano and strings wich not very lucky. Alexandre Tharaud does this better. But Frays youthfull energy and enthousiasm is striking. There is also a dvd available where Fray is in the recording studio preparing recording and playing the concertos.
Both are worth listening/watching. Lately i listen this cd more than Tharaud.
The complete set from Murray Perahia still is first choice overall.


The Bach cd however made me curious what David Fray did more.
The Schubert pieces on this cd is played by every known and unknown pianist on earth.
Like i must play a piece off Bach everyday so one of the Moments Musicaux is on my daily musical diet. Their not very difficult to play for the amateur pianist. But don't makethis mistake. They're easy for the amateur but very difficult for the proffesional. Schubert keeps singing in the deepest misery.
Maybe David Fray does not fully let me hear the inseparable unity between the singing and misery but this was the first time i thought; So, this is how to play this pieces.
Frays formidable technique is capable to show how to play all the fine details hidden in this music. A must have to play daily 1 or 2 pieces.


Because of the Beatifull Bruckner 4 from Haitink i stuck with his late Bruckner for a while. With symphony Nr.5 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks Haitink is
surpassing every known recording for me both performance and recording. In the fifth the only competitors are maybe Gunther Wand with the Berliner philharmoniker and Christian Thielemann with the Munich Philharmonic.
I like the Bavarian orchestra in this repertoire even more than the Berlin orchestra. They sound warm and the Munich acoustic is very good.

Despite the same level of performance and very, very good orchestra the Bruckner 7 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is because of the sound a bit disappointing. Despite that a must have.


Last few weeks i've listen quite a bunch Mahler also.
Haitinks late Mahler performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are also wonderfull but the same problem with the sound make me listen to his older performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker and even his early cycle with the Concertgebouw Orchestra from the sixties/seventies.
His recordings with the Berliner are a must have for Mahler enthusiasts. I still regret he couldn't finisch this cycle. If you're looking for a good Mahler cycle with a good orchestra and good sound the cycle with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly is a good choice for repeated listening. Bernstein on DG sometimes exaggerates to much though is is a must have next to the Chailly box.

A new cycle with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Maris Jansons is still in process.
But u can enjoy symphony nr.1,2,3,5,6. This performances are top notch with the very well caught Concertgebouw accoustic while the orchestra is playing better than ever before and proofing they are the best orchestra there is.


It's hardly to imaging there is an even better performance from the complete cycle.
But there is..!! Claudio Abbado with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. A star orchestra coming together each summer on vacation from their duty with orchestras like; Berliner philharmoniker, Wiener philharmoniker, etc. and on first instruments top soloists from all over the world. Only on DVD/blu-ray. Unfortunately dvd's will not play on XXHighend but in return you'll see Abbado and the orchestra in action. Symphony Nr.9 is not in this box but available separately. Symphony nr.8 will appear later this year because it has still to be performed in schedule this season.

A warning is in place here. It's not healthy to listen to much Mahler like i sometimes do. Mahlers' music is a rollercoaster of emotions.

Every year on eastern tradition i'll go to 2 or 3 performances of the Matthäus Passion (st.Matthew passion) This year last friday 23 march was the first of 2. That's why i don't listen the Matthäus Passion on cd very little. In stead i listen very often to the Johannes Passion (st.John Passion)
Bach - St John Passion:
John Elliot Gardiner, soloists, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists
Everybody allready has his first performance from the late eighties. Considered the best there is. But the best can only be surpassed by Gardiner himself in this performance i've bought april 2011. The compelling direction from Gardiner, outstanding singing, beautifull choir and orchestra makes this Performance is a thrilling experience.
It's a live performance from 2003. Why it's released 8 years later is a mystery to me.
Sound quality; superb.

Currently I have a stack of brand new CDs that I did not come through because I am captivated by two new ones for the last two weeks.

Berg/Beethoven violin concertos by Isabelle Faust and Claudio Abbado.
The coupling of the Berg/Beethoven is very rare but it works very well. The contrasts between the two are enormous. Berg wrote his violin concerto (Dem Andenken eines Engels) as a requiem for the daughter of Alma Mahler (Gustav Mahler's ex) and Walther Gropius. Berg loved the young girl as his own daughter. Berg didn't know at the time that this violin concerto would be his last work en maybe become his own requiem.
Berg throws you in wistful sorrow and a poetic remembrance of loss, of things past, pain and shock. The Beethoven concerto relieves you from the pain. Faust recorded the Beethoven concerto in 2007 coupled with the Kreuzer sonata. That recording has all the quality and beauty to listen over and over again. Now i hear Faust has grown her interpretation and enriched her playing with a inner glow. The inspiring collaboration between Isabelle Faust and Claudio Abbado with his hand picked Orchestra Mozart is a wonderful miracle. The sound of this recording even more so. The violin is beatifully merged in the orchestra as Faust did in her Brahms violin concerto. She is not the violin babe with the tight dress on the cover of her cd's. No, she is the real musician with expressive range and emotional intensity.
Is this the best Berg or Beethoven on disc? I don't know. Berg is played with more grandeur by Perlman or Anne-Sophie Mutter. There are hundreds of cd's with the Beethoven concerto so it's impossible to say what's best. And who am i to say what is? Last couple of years there are some beautifull performances on disc. For example the one by the Dutch Lisa Ferschtman and the hystorically informed Jan Willem De Vriend. Both Ferschtman and Orchestra playing on gut strings. The concerto for me sounding like i heard it for the first time. And i can't live without Wolfgang Schneiderhan nor Arthur Grumiaux. Both 40 year old recordings but both violinists give their violin a soul. I still don't have them on cd but on gramophone. But Faust has this purity, this honesty i like.

An even great miracle is the new Bruckner symphony No.4 from Bernard Haitink and the London symphony Orchestra i mentioned in the post above. I play it daily. Its beautifull, definitive, heartbreaking, etc. I hear the end apotheosis already hidden in the beginning where the horn play the opening theme.
Why is this disc so beautifull? For one thing Haitink has lived and grown his insight in Bruckner for the last 40 years. His first recording in 1965 is still a touching, lively and excellent recording. The tidal movement in the new recording overwhelms at the tuttis. Haitink is the architect of a mighty cathedral. The LSO play as they never play before. They give everything they have; Tenderness when need like in the adagio and the climax of the first movement and the bursts of brass are shattering.
And i didn’t really hear this freedom the soloists have before in any other performance.
Both Haitink and LSO play not just. But there is an Urge, a need to do not any music but this particular music. Right now there is nothing else what matters, only this music matters.
I dare to say; for me this is the best Bruckner 4 available.
Although the recording is not perfect. Maybe because of the bad acoustic of the Barbican Hall. It sounds somewhat dry and flat as many LSO Barbican recordings seem to be.
I have to say the LSO is one of the best and world class orchestra but not in the league of the concertgebouw orchestra, Berliner/Wiener Philharmoniker or the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Despite the minor flaws this recording is so good that I’ll take it to the desert island.


Tomorrow I start some new CDs....Did i say Maybe..?? 

Are there any more classical music lovers..??


                                          +


I'm afraid i have this love hate reaction with Simone Dinnerstein's Bach.
A couple of years ago i heard her interpretation of the Goldberg variations. What struck me most is the sound of her 1903 Hamburg Steinway model D concert grand.
The sound of this beautiful instrument is less "hammering" than today's Steinway.
Her aproach to Bach is (over?) Romantic for me living with Bach the last 30 years. Bach is on my daily diet.
A Strange Beauty says it all for me. Her playing strange and beautifull together. Stylistically incorrect, sloppy trills and other ornaments but als a sense of beauty and tenderness of heart.
Unforunately the recording is not that well. The piano is fuzzy and the Bass is to prominent like the double bass has a separate mic. You can hear the strings vibrating. The violins etc. sounding thin. Very regrettable while they play very well.

I can hear she loves Bach but she is not entirely convincing. The recordings with Perahia, Schiff, Hewitt in the Goldberg variations i hear a herculean achievement, an 80-minute journey through a dramatically changing succession of musical landscapes. Dinnerstein remains disappointingly earthbound while the others severd all earthy ties.
I own both Perahia,Schiff and Hewitt's interpretations of the keyboard concertos. Please listen to one of them compared to Dinnerstein.

Last year i bought the cd with some of the concertos played by Alexandre Tharaud. Well....thats recorded very,very well..!!! Tharaud playing a Yamaha grand wich is beautifully merged with the strings. For example in the concerto BWV1052 in the Largo Dinnerstein spoyling the magic of the emerging piano by playing with the orchestra. When Tharaud deploys a shiffering is going down my spine. A must have...!!!!
Although Dinnerstein is not entirely convincing but a nice addition to a collection anyhow.


Dinnersteins ear-catching playing i hear on the Straight-ahead/Mainstream Bob James trio also. Indeed a startling recording. The last trio cd "Take it from the Top" is also that great recorded and played. You know the Fourplay reconding's. If you like the trio you like Fourplay.


My todays playlist:
I ordered the new cd with Brahms 1st pianoconcerto with Pollini and Thielemann. In order to prepare to a new recording i always listen to others.
Tonight i'll probably listen to Zimmerman,Rattle with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Maybe the Berliners playing to beautifull. I don't know. But there are few recordings wehre

an orchestra embracing the piano that beautifull, with tender and care as the Berliner do.

Next a recording of the 2 clarinet sonatas & trio by Martin Fröst in preparing of the soon to arrive cd with the same works played by Sharon Kam.
These probably last written music by brahms is hauntingly beautifull. As all what Brahms left to us they're masterpieces. I hope Fröst will soon record the greatest masterpiece off all Brahms's chambermusic and even chambermusic in general (with the String quintet of Schubert)....the clarinet quintet. (Ok maybe a little exaggerated)

After a break i'll play the 4th symphony of Anton Bruckner by the Concertgebouw Orchestra led by Mariss jansons. Also awaiting the new recording by Haitink and the London Symphony Orchestra. Haitinks interpretations evolved dramatically over the last 40 years of playing Bruckner. I already heard it on the radio. How free are the solos.  Haitink unleashes the soloists as never heard in compare to others. The finale is the true apotheosis. From what i've heard over the radio probably one of the best recording from that "difficult" Barbican Hall.
The Concertgebouw Orchestra is definitely the better Orchestra and also acoustic. The recording by Jansons perfectly captures the warm golden sound with shining strings and bronze Brass.

No...It's what i meant. I read about it but i don't understand. I don't know how it's possible and how it works. Maybe because it's all new to me. I have to read more in several topics, that's for shure.
Yes the 0.9z sounds slightly better than the former version. There is a little more space/air between instruments but noticable.

Both commands showing a message saying that registration succeeded;
DllRegisterServer van isanaloglibrary.ocx geslaagd
DllRegisterServer van isdigitallibrary.ocx geslaagd

Thnx....0.9z is starting up now.

Is it right different versions sounding different..?? How is that possible..??

Hi Peter,

Can't get 0.9z get to work. I receive an error, even with all the extra (1st and 2nd) zip files. I tried several times but it is a no go.

Error message:

Beschrijving:
  Stopped working

Probleemhandtekening:
  Gebeurtenisnaam van probleem:   CLR20r3
  Probleemhandtekening 01:   xxhighend.exe
  Probleemhandtekening 02:   1.0.3804.11877
  Probleemhandtekening 03:   4c049c51
  Probleemhandtekening 04:   XXHighEnd
  Probleemhandtekening 05:   1.0.3804.11877
  Probleemhandtekening 06:   4c049c51
  Probleemhandtekening 07:   2985
  Probleemhandtekening 08:   106
  Probleemhandtekening 09:   System.InvalidOperationException
  Versie van besturingssysteem:   6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
  Landinstelling-id:   1043


I hope u can help me out.

Thnx in advance,
mowa

Hi Guys,

Usually i only listen to classical music with some sidesteps to some Jazz and occasionally pop music. But running through some topics i read this 1 and got interested.
I've listened all trhough the Touch album and it's quite impressive. Though i think the die-hard high volume sub bass lovers are best served. This music requires a very good hifi setup to controll the lower and lowest frequencies.

By a fresh Windows install i lost my activation code so i listened with Foobar2000. The sound was quite direct and natural with beautifull controlled bass.
This morning with my new activation and listening the Touch album again with XXhighend the soundstage became really 3d, voices and instuments more natural. The music came to life...!!
I decided percussion though sounded genuine were actually computer or synth based.

I'm curious about some other Yello albums but for now i've enough.
After the Yello experience this morning it was time to other experiences;
Mahler symphony No.4, Conductor-Ivan Fischer, Orchestra- Budapest Festival Orchestra
Mahler symphony No.8, conductor-Michael Tilson Thomas, Orchestra-San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Mozart-Don Giovanni, Conductor-Rene Jacobs, Orchestra-Freibruger Barockorchester (Listened only some arias)
Tchaikovsky-Piano Trio in A minor op. 50, Lang,Repin,Maisky