XXHighEnd

Ultimate Audio Playback => Your thoughts about the Sound Quality => Topic started by: leifchristensen on March 22, 2009, 03:44:36 pm



Title: 0.9x-5
Post by: leifchristensen on March 22, 2009, 03:44:36 pm
hello P
0.9x-5 has way better resolution than my previous 0.9x-3
BUT with q2-5 set to 0 it sounds too hard!
so I´m back to q1=4, q2=17, q3=17 and q4&5=0
scheme 4 running at present
MUCH more solid sound with these q settings
no interruptions with scheme 4
no scheme gives me small interruptions in playback!?!
5 is here to stay!
imo
best
Leif


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: Tony S on March 22, 2009, 07:55:23 pm
The 0.9-5a version sounds great. I am using scheme-3, Q1 at 4, Q2 and Q3 between 20 and 30.  All sliders at Q0 sounds a tad brighter, the soundstage seems a little more forward and the bass is a bit weaker, less slam.  Some of my music material might sound better with the sliders at Q0 since some recordings are bass heavy.

I am having an issue with selecting the next track in Attended mode, it will highlight the song but will not play unless I hit the Pause button then Play.  Otherwise sounding wonderfull, chill-up-the-spine sound!




Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: Ava12 on March 23, 2009, 01:16:05 am
I'm stunned! :goodjob:

Finally playback without interuptions from my system.
And nice gimmick with the playback time! :)

only thing:after pressing next on my "remote control" the task bar comes back with apps and Start button, then it all disappears again and the display is away for some tenths of a second. Is this normal? Because when I don't press next, but wait until the next song start automatically to play nothing of this happens, just a little hickup.

Ava



Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: SeVeReD on March 23, 2009, 04:44:52 am
Whole lotta changes going on with versions...
Yesterday I pm Peter and put a bug in his ear to go back and listen to 9w-9b against ... was it 9x-4 or 9x-5? .  I still preferred 9w-9b; bigger looser bass, much more natural, heck, less digital... anyway.
Then I heard 5a {which caught my ear as sounding right) earlier and now I'm just listening to 5b which, so far, seems to work every-how I've tried it ... and is sounding very good and different yet again... later.


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: Calibrator on March 23, 2009, 08:19:22 am

only thing:after pressing next on my "remote control" the task bar comes back with apps and Start button, then it all disappears again and the display is away for some tenths of a second. Is this normal? Because when I don't press next, but wait until the next song start automatically to play nothing of this happens, just a little hickup.


I see this sequence also, and I assume it is working as intended. When you use the 'remote' function you are presumably interupting what XXEngine3 is doing and requesting what is essentially a new restart point, so things which happened initially at start of play are basically re-run again in preparation before play recommences.

Am I close Peter ?

Regs,

Russ


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: PeterSt on March 23, 2009, 08:37:32 am
Yes it is true, but the taskbar shouldn't show anyway. I just did not think of it. So :

With the Volume-change an Invert change I did think of it, because that's seemless playback. Indeed with things like Next it is not (seemless) but there is now reason the taskbar showing/hiding (and activating / deactivating services) should occur. It just can be avoided and I didn't think of that. Will be solved in the next version.

Peter


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: PeterSt on March 23, 2009, 09:04:00 am
My own observations with the SQ of 0.9x-5b :

I think Leif and Tony can very well be right;
Last night I played at 0/0/0/0 but this time I used familiar material. Man, the dynamics seem to blow off the roof here !
But I'm not sure yet whether I find it too much ...

The most occurring to me was that I listened to a stupid Dire Straits album, and that at first the shivers boiled down from my stomache to my knees (there they stop somehow :)) and furthermore I couldn't stop having tears in my eyes for the last 5 tracks or so of that album.

With Dire Straits ??


I have the feeling never to touch that software again now ...
But maybe I'm wrong and just had a good mood ?


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: Calibrator on March 23, 2009, 09:59:12 am
G'day Peter,

I've noticed that in the initial play process when in unattended mode, that while the actual music files are being converted to the UnicodeTrackxxxx.wav's, AND the GUI is still onscreen, that an audible glitch occurs every time the red progress counter ( which has begun by now ) clicks over to a new second. I have the tick in the 'Start Engine3 during conversion' as you would expect from the above. This glitch was not noticeable prior to the introduction of the OSD progress counter. When converting a long album of MP3's ( for example ) it even stalls the playback momentarily.

Would you consider delaying the presentation of the OSD progress timer until the GUI has disappeared from view? Presumably by then all the conversion work has completed. It may also mean that whenever the GUI is visible that the progress timer should not be.

I'm using scheme-1 .. perhaps this has an impact also.

Cheers,

Russ


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: PeterSt on March 23, 2009, 10:16:25 am
y.w.i.m.c. :)

But from that you can see how stupidly those services influence ...


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: Calibrator on March 23, 2009, 11:47:03 am
y.w.i.m.c. :)


Thanks Peter  :thankyou:

I've just done some experimenting with different schemes and found that scheme's 2, 3 and 4 had an even greater disruptive effect to the initial playback. Scheme 4 in particular would even get to the stage where , once the GUI was removed and the desktop was replaced with the folder art, the music would have stopped entirely, and there was no sign of the red OSD. It was as if a too greater time has elapsed and Engine3 has 'lost its way'.

Decompressing MP3's seems to have a greater influence than playing FLAC's.

Cheers,

Russ


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: PeterSt on March 23, 2009, 06:00:10 pm
no scheme gives me small interruptions in playback!?!

Leif,

It only now is apparent to me that I defaulted the Running Time to On (the checkbox for it) while Stopping the Services is defaulted to Off, which is what you might be using. I can't be sure about that of course, but by now people sufficiently reported that this combination is no good. So, in the next version the Running Time will not be allowed anymore without stopped services, as it won't be allowed anymore to have the Running Time shown when XXHighEnd is brought up while playback is going on (which in the end comes down to the same principle because when XXHighEnd is visible the services will be running again).

This "protection" will be active in the next version.

Peter


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: Ava12 on March 23, 2009, 06:59:03 pm
Would it be possible to have the services shutdown also perform to close the side bar?
I don't know if anyone uses it anymore, but I do, and when I start playing music unattended the side bar stays and looks already "half shut down" but is still there.

Ava


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: PeterSt on March 23, 2009, 09:52:29 pm
Quote
I don't know if anyone uses it anymore

Hahaha, ... how to get it back there ? indeed it is over two years ago I shut it down.
But I will, as long as I can get it back ... :)


Title: Re: 0.9x-5b Update
Post by: SeVeReD on March 25, 2009, 06:47:06 am
I am too busy listening to update.  I have only been listening to 9x-5b
k bye



Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: PeterSt on March 25, 2009, 09:11:07 am
Leif, I moved your post to a new topic on the Support board.


Title: Re: 0.9x-5b
Post by: SeVeReD on March 28, 2009, 04:01:53 am
Qs: 4 0 0 0 0 (no time to change around and wanted to get a base)
unattended
~ & I (depending on recording)
wav/cue files ....(go yea!)
copy to drive
scheme 3

No distortion.  I can turn it up too loud way too easy. :)  This is kinda big and a little scary in a ... are things being stripped away? kinda way...  But no, just no distortion on selections that used to be over the top ?harding? I heard with versions just after 9w-9b. ...

lyric intelligibility way up... better articulation/focus somethingsomething

Phase changes more easily discernible!  I'm finding myself using "alt v" a lot.  Different recordings reveal the phase (~ or I) I prefer for them more than ever before.  I take that that means things are more in phase with the player than ever before.

I haven't gone back to 9W-9b ??? I mean... what's up with that???  No back and forth dance?

Everything has worked great for me so far ... I like using the keyboard shortcuts and wtheck, that AutoHK program must not get in the way of the music too much ???

Yea, thanks again
So revealing So free of any any harshness as far as I can tell.
Going to listen to it for another week before making any changes.


Title: Re: 0.9x-5
Post by: PeterSt on June 13, 2009, 04:44:43 pm
I am having an issue with selecting the next track in Attended mode, it will highlight the song but will not play unless I hit the Pause button then Play.  Otherwise sounding wonderfull, chill-up-the-spine sound!

Tony,

I just ran into this post (which I actually marked to look into and solve), but this is okay here.
Do you still have this problem ?

Thanks,
Peter