XXHighEnd

Dear all,

I realize that at times I am not different from any of you, and just like to express my "sound" without all that much of merit for others. I suppose this is such a time, although it is not 100% true that it will apply to me only. But alas, at this moment I have to think that, so here goes :

3 days ago I changed something in the software, actually at fighting a specific W10 10074 problem; you can have run into that problem as well, that mostly exhibiting in the Wallpaper Coverart not wanting to show any more (into an Album). This then, as the (often) result of Alt-z to put a Track into the Demo Gallery, or possibly some other Remote command; it has "always" been difficult for me to recognize what caused it, and whatever I mean, it happened in 10074 only.

Two weeks or so ago, I "moved" my 10074 install, still from last May or June, to the "OS RAM Disk" so I have all together in there now, ready for production (so to speak). This somehow seems to have emphasized the problem, because now as soon as "the thing" happened, it was also so that XXHighEnd kept on running under the hood ("Another instance of XXHighEnd is already running; Kill the other instance(s) ?"). I am sure that some of you will have seen this. And, no matter what you do, that other instance keeps on running. Thus, something going wrong really. But hey, W10 Alpha eh ...

I saw in the program that well over a year ago I had ran into a similar problem, which actually is about XXHighEnd crashing at its moment of stopping. Also Alt-z, and not W10, obviously. It started to occur, and it vanished as well. Well, for me it did. With the 10074 on the "OS RAM Disk" it started to be really annoying, because one time Alt-z would imply that XXHighEnd kept on running (in crashed state) which actually (and psychologically) required a reboot to get rid of it.
Not good (for my mood).

I had looked into it a couple of months ago for a few hours and I had looked into it 2 weeks or so ago for a whole day, but I couldn't find the cause. Also (and FYI) this is about the situation that you won't be able to see any XXHighEnd in TaskManager. Something is just really wrong, then.

Then, 3 days ago I was able to nail the cause, hence, be able to quit XXHighEnd avoiding the crash state. Mind you, this was after my 10074 was running a week or so in a row (the importance of this is emphasized in the below). Read : it was never rebooted, and runs from RAM all the time. Also, all the time this error state was there, me also not being able to kill that invisible process, causing the message (Already Running) anyway.
Now, miraculously, the process (wait, it could be a 100 by the time) went away. It / they went away by the new means of quitting XXHighEnd and I can't even really reason how or why.

A stupid story made even longer :
And since exactly then I have a sound here, Ohhhhhhhhh.
There is NO comparison with how it was. Ultimately good.

Meanwhile that 10074 still never was rebooted and in that is the danger; will it still sound so good when I reboot the thing ? I'm afraid it won't. I'm afraid I implied some very strange state that now makes this happen for the so much better, and obviously I won't be able to mimic that state, later.

But hey, let's say that such stories always have a reason and that I actually plan to express my joy for a much longer time. Here are our options of this moment :

1.
The sound is now so enormously good because of a temporary state of the OS and I will loose it soon.
Nobody will benefit.

2.
The sound is now so enormously good because I changed the way XXHighEnd is moved out of the system, with the notice that it can be so that previously in ALL situations something was left behind, that causing sound deterioration. Mind you, playing Unattendely the quitting of XXHighEnd is always in order. Also notice that while it was proven that XXHighEnd intances were there, we could not see them at all. Now I anticpate that 10074 is so "poor" that it comes up with something which should remain hidden to us (OS bug and MS masks it (badly in 10074)).
Everybody may benefit, possibly also for other OSes.

3.
I regularly have spoken about my new "hardware";
By sheer coincidence that got broken in after 6 weeks or so of using it continuously.
This is a tough one because too coincidental. Still it can be so as it got better and better anyway.
Many may benefit.

---

Because I have to write it somewhere, I will do it in here :

My sound has, all together, changed so much that one won't even be able to recognize normal songs. Even when a reboot will undo all the extra goodies of this moment, the changes are more drastic than you all ever encountered (including new speakers etc.) which is also why it takes me (or took me) forever to judge it and tell about it. This sort of includes that when things change so drastically, there are always downsides to see (hear) as well. In this case, for me, they were already overruled by the goodies, but since the change I am talking about in this topic ... there is none for the worse that I can see (in three days of time). So this gives me confidence, at least until that reboot. :veryhappy:

---

You see, I just announced something "halfly". When it doesn't work out after all, I can always deny everything.

Now what sall I do ? Reboot to find out, or let it be as long as it lasts so I can enjoy the best sound by very far EVER ?

Peter

That computer can't run forever Peter...and the worry about when it is going to stop or for how long it is going to sound great is probably worse than not having that "best sound"...at least you have an idea of how you got there and can try to replicate it.

Reboot I say.

Regards,

Anthony

Only one answer possible of course: reboot as soon as possible so you don't get too spoiled by the sound  :prankster:

Hans

Hi Peter,

Since the sound you hear is now your new standard of excellence, at least you know that this sound lies in some sort of state of the OS and XXHE... It is not possible to wait that long to get it, so maybe you should continue to investigate and find what allows it ?

Maybe make as many measurements as possible to picture this state and try to make it appear as you wish ? The running processes, the memory and network status, voltages, CPU, etc...

I was not aware that MS would hide some processes...

It may be a frustrating journey, but you have always been the most persistent "fighter" because of you search for perfection...

Alain

Looks like a "Mexican Stand Off" with Peter on one side and his PC on the other. Who is going to make the first move?

Listen and enjoy as long as possible. If the worst happens after reboot you know which can be achieved when the actual SQ is gone 

Georg

Gosh how do you know it won't sound even better on reboot????

No you have to reboot at some point. Perhaps load a new disc with 10074 and your updated XXhighend and see how that sounds compared to what you have now before rebooting.

Not that I can tell you anything you don't already know.

Good luck, but I'm sure you will solve it. 203a in 10074 is sounding excellent. Still has issues playing mixed files 16/44, 24/92 etc causing XXhighend to stop playing until reboot. I will put this in a new subject.

Robert

Hey Peter,

What's the score after five days? Still enjoying?

Cheers, Coen

Haha - yes, still going strong.

I should have rebooted today because of a test I planned to apply with a trial SSD (for the "OS from RAM disk"), but I never got round to that. Should be tomorrow now ...

Peter

I did it yesterday after all (and to be honest, I forgot about my plans and you reminded me, Coen).

So yes, I rebooted, this time with the SSD as the BASE. Btw, that shouldn't make any difference (SSD vs HDD).

All still fine and otherwise I did not notice it.
What could be important is that yesterday I played "commercial music" without exception. So say Pop. This with the notice that for W10 this always seemed more difficult (like I noticed for I think 10565 and the sheer distortion coming from it). And if I play this commercial music for 4.5 hours in a row, all must be (still) fine.

If there was anything that I noticed, it was this :
So this boot has lasted for two weeks or so, and two days ago I started to think that maybe (maybe !) it started to sound a little more brittle than it has done the previous days. Nothing to really worry about, but I started to think that it perhaps could be a tad more smooth.
And after the reboot I seemed to notice the "better" smoothness right away (and I forgot about the brittleness so I wasn't placeboed either).

There is one other thing that could be called a downside :
I got used to my system (whatever part) requires 20 minutes of playing in order to let things sound "warm". Now :
Things have improved so much (I think) that it is easier audible that the lot hasn't warmed up yet. And now it is also audible that it takes more than this 20 minutes. Maybe double ...

Peter

Don't know if this has anything to do with what you just mentioned, Peter, but John Swenson says he leaves his DAC on with music running through it 24/7 (volume off when not listening) because it sounds worse when first turned on if it's been off.

Hi Jud - Thank you.

John and me agree over a few more things ... (without having spoken to each other a single word, ever).


So Yes, but it's an "incomplete process" like that;
Response from speakers is not there (hammers on the output), speaker drivers themselve don't move (quite crucial as it changes the impedance of the drivers when more "warm" (magnets do get warm)).

:offtopic:
... You actually bring me to an idea about breaking in :
I think it is commonly known that no NOS1 lets itself break in (burn in) faster for throughput time by means of the suggested 24/7. Oh, maybe it helps but then I don't know about it really. But what could be happening by the fashion of "play music for the normal couple of hours, each day" is that the mere forced means of playing let things break in. Think about all what "moves" and what moves more badly (not so easily) than when warm. So say that a speaker driver is tougher to move when cold, then the cold sitation lets the driving means (amplifier) act more hefty (heavily). Now that driving means gets (hey, literally !) "broken in".
Each new day of music playing implies this.

:wacko:

If Anthony reads this :
Anthony, I know that you have been testing the influence on drivers getting warm and impedance changing. But do you also know how long it takes to undo the effect - IOW how long does it take for all to get completely "cold" again ?

Peter

I don't really know the answer, because I have never bothered to measure the cool down, but because the warming is a physical process, once the stimulus is removed the length of time to cool depends on how effectively the voice coil and magnet are able to dissipate the heat inside the speaker enclosure.  I would say minutes, perhaps 30 depending on ambient temperature to cool down.

Saying this all though, I now find it quite easy to tell when a driver warms up too much...the tell tale signs are pretty easy to pick up, and at its worst it sounds like packets being lost in the NOS1a when the SFS is set too low.

That is one of the reasons why I like horns so much...low excursion = less heat = speakers that sound the same all day long.