Thank you Henk.

I have a native 14393.0 (ISO) available for those who want it.

Regards,
Peter

(I moved this to a separate topic)

Charlie - a short and quite useless response just because I can't make up any longer (and correct me if I am wrong) :

I don't see how your responses to mine are relevant - but it is difficult to really see (through). You start out with "No, I wasn't using AI last night at all". This suggests that I stipulated that AI is causing the noise. I did not anywhere.

I do claim that AI is unusable for stability reasons, but you seem to avoid just that - or like to ignore it which is human.
You did not explain about "stability issues" outside of AI. I just can not make up what you are talking about now. This includes :


Of course it doesn't because the message is from XXHighEnd. But in the end you respond to me telling about the DAC being a possible cause and *then* you say this ? now all is beyond me because it happened to you ONE time in a million years and besides all you are in the middle of a topic which is about 2.08/2.09 so you can't be talkin about the same issue anyway, if there is one anyway. (but say there is one).


It doesn't look good that you don't know this. And the default is whatever you set it to yourself (could be 3 years back).
For a new, fresh install the default is 2.00 I think (maybe 4.00, depending on how it was for 2.07 vs 2.08 or 2.09).


Not really in combination with the Straight Contiguous Memory setting.


I use a tablet and drop my finger on the led. 


Good thinking. HQPlayer does not support KS. But your descriptions too much lead to "inherently XXHighEnd" and a few pilot errors. But "pilot error" is easy to say for someone like me who just "knows" what not to do. Just saying !

Kind regards,
Peter

There is one other out there of 3m and I don't have feedback from it.

What do I think ... that is difficult. As you know I had the idea already that 3m could be on the edge and I am glad it works in the first place. But how this works out for SQ I really can't tell (maybe I should have tried yours, but this is already difficult because of breaking in etc.).

In the far end I would not worry too much. Also see my next post (maybe posts).

Peter

Dennis, if that Education version is 14393.0 then it should be fine. However, take care that it can do RDC or otherwise you have no remote ...

Regards,
Peter

Hi Dennis,

Well ... that seems bad luck for you then. Maybe you don't really need the text ?
Is this in Normal OS already ? (if so, you can always try MinOS and cross a few fingers)

But maybe it was not a wise thing to do. There is no official support beyond 14393.0. I do have 15063.0 all right (for many months by now) but can't find the time to do something with it. Besides, the prospect is not good SQ wise (too much overhead in that build, of what I read on the Net).

Regards,
Peter

Hi Charlie,

Thank you very much for this extensive report.

You did not change Q or SFS settings recently ?

Did you find that message with "24 bit Crack Detect" on your screen somewhere, after playback had stopped ? If not, it is very probable that it was your DAC (or interface to it).

Let's also keep in mind that those who announced themselves (in this topic) have the issue with 2.08 or 2.09 and not prior to that (like 2.07). And even that possibly is not the reason because for me it is far more likely that it is the changed SFS (and more) settings people use since 2.08.

The reliability issues you have ... what to say. First off, there is totally nothing instable whatsoever. BUT, you use AI and it is for a reason I want to deprecate that. The way it works it just "unworkable" no matter you think it is. For example, you start playback, the conversion starts under the hood but you press Stop already. That conversion keeps on running though and when pressing play again, nothing will work any more. It is just an example of so many more problems in that (AI) area.
The least you should teach yourself is stopping the sound engine (Engine3.exe) before playback, which you can do by clicking at the blue led in the right hand border (it will go dark after that).

Kind regards and sorry about your pants !
Peter

Thank you for that, Juan !
And yes, such a chair (reflection right behind the ears) really makes a difference you would not want.

Kind regards,
Peter

Colin, so far it doesn't look like it. Personally I don't think it is a wise thing not to try it.
By now I have quite some MQA albums in my "Nice Stuff" Gallery, and the Demo Gallery also grows and grows. But it is a matter of finding them, and what your favorite genre is. And for example, I can not imagine that classical will improve from it (I never tried it, so this is just based onm experience).

Indeed it is so that NOS1 users can not use KS Special Modem, unless they have the very first NOS1 version (the one without USB interface). But if two are still round, I'd make up one already. But the other one regularly visits the forum, so he will ready this too ...
And just saying : KS Special Mode ever back was the best means of playback. That should still count for those not using a NOS1 DAC ...

Back to MQA - I guess it is difficult for people to even start thinking it might be for the better. I am positive it is, but it depends on the album. And let's be fair, once you found one for the better, you should be happy with it ?

Personally I would not approach this in the sense of "better sound quality". It is not like that and the dimension is a different one; it is merely about a "is working out better".
Gets into you better. Brings across messages better. Is more clear. Is NOT more refined.
And this latter would determine SQ. So when judged with that, we go wrong (IMO).

Is more firm. Has more punch. Is sounding more straight. Is sounding more honest. And yes, more real. And I hardly dare to say it : more how it ever was during the recording ... although I can't know that. But this is about the "more real" thing. You can sense it and you can see it.

One thing is quite crucial I'm afraid, and this is the NOS1 again. So if you'd know a but how MQA's filtering works (or destroys, name it as you like) then it actually requires the NOS1 including its filtering. Well, "requires" is a big word, but it suddenly brings out all the positives of MQA while any other DAC would not. But include the filtering, which lately for me is Arc Prediction, or Custom Filter - Highest (705600). I must experiment some more with this (it all goes way slowly), but the filtering is the key and the NOS1 does not filter anything. So it can all be tuned 100% in software.

For those who understand a bit more and now don't understand  : We are explicitly talking about "no MQA hardware" and use the decoder stage only, BUT replace the MQA hardware filtering (!) with our own in software. This is not because we lack the hardware (at least I myself don't) but because that part (named the Rendering part) is the bad boy of the MQA chain. So that's convenient.

Anyway, I really like people to try it, already because all the effort I put in it (all for free). So a little feedback would be nice, just like Colin just did. And if it is negative then this is OK because expected. But better would be if we could make something of it because it then will benefit ourselves.
Yes, it requires Tidal. But you can get a trial subscription for 30 days for free (the 19.99 subscription). And no matter you need to give your credit card, if you cancel then you're out of it (I tested that myself).

With settings I cant help because mine go all over the place, lately. Different settings matter in general but not specifically for MQA that I noticed.

Thanks !
Peter

Aha ... clever finding !!

But
I now see that I made a Copy URL to Clipboard on the Item in the Library Area. I think that option is "incomplete" so to speak, because I forgot it is there. If you press Load on the Item and perform rightclick on the coverart in the left pane, it will work.

Thank you Colin,
Peter

Colin, is the below the message you're receiving ?


Anywaym I can't understand this one. But maybe I don't know my own software. Just saying ...

Regards,
Peter

Hi Brian - Thank you very much for your description.

Did exactly what you described, but of course nothing.
What seems to recur is that people select tracks one way or the other. And something did change in that area. So I think I start to grasp what could be happening. But still, I do this so often myself.
Great track btw.

And did Ibrahim did the cover design together with Carsie ?

Regards,
Peter

Hi Anthony,

A few things could be crucial here, but depending on your own settings. So let's see :

For us NOS1(a/G3) users, the buffer size in the NOS1 Driver Control Panel is suddenly a leading factor with this high Q1 (notice the 30x40, while you only mention the 40 (so 14x40 ?)). So this buffer plays a role in the same area as the Driver's buffer size (think of resonance) and I have that at 8ms. This has not been done explicitly by me, but it just is at that forever (for the maybe off reason that 8ms gives the most problems with the Phisolator, so I actually test this continuously).

If possible, more crucial is the fact that I use native Arc Prediction. Of course I can't tell for real, but I'd swear that your "bleach" was in my system just the same because the Custom Filter now seems to smear too much "white" into the sound. Actually this is Lush USB cable related, but alas, you are using that too. And if I don't use Arc Prediction, I now use the highest filter for 705600 (not the lowest which seems to worsen the "white").

By pure accident I yesterday played Tracks from Mark Knopfler, but in MQA incarnation. It sounded gread and especially "honest" and also full (say the opposite of bleach ?).

A thing I tried to pay special attention to is whether the distance between the now crazy bass (this really is so and of youn ask me caused by Arc Prediction) and the also crazy highs (I wonder where this stops) does not imply a hole in the mid. Regarding this I am psychologically influenced by 10074 which totally lack mid, but each time my attention is drawn to it, it is immediately overruled by a super strong voice. Yesterday I also heard a upper mid bass with the superb purring of an electric bass (if that still is the right term to use for the sound a cat produces when happy and warm), in a track I never heard that purring before. Because this is about very fast (mid) bass response, it tells me that this is all over good.
I guess it keeps on drawing my attention because of the already mentioned "bass player now brought his own amplification (which is the truth for an electric bass player) and thinking further it is all even more separated than it already was. No instruments interfere with each other BUT maybe it is more asy to perceive studio recordings now (this is a negative for net result).

Anthony, the key dial for you(r bleach sound) will be the SFS. Set it a bit higher and that tonality will change (I think).

Regards and you too, thank you for your trying and feedback.
Peter

You are usually right on your SQ judgments and allow me to grab the second half of that sentence.  Yesterday I have been thinking a couple of times that I now seriously have too much bass and must do something about it. But quality of it is good and I will allow myself to get used to it a little, until people in the room start to complain. It also depends on how loud I play, and this setting does not allow to play as loud as I am used to (for volume setting I mean) because it is just louder. This seems to be caused by everything, especially the highs.

If you have problems with Highres now, this will be because of too much to read (from say disk) for the too low SFS. But also combined with this super high Q1 which, honestely, a long time ago did not want to play anyway. I recall 30x30 to be the highest possible, while now we do 30x40 and it works. This is a crazy long buffer somewhere which is all in the kernel of Windows and further out of my control, except for the necessity to match the SFS.
Btw, I set the SFS to 0.70 just to make it a little lower compared to the 0.90 I had. I don't even know whether I did it for a reason, but probebly to dial in the extreme of something which was never tried before. Btw, I played 24/96 with that yesterday (upsampled to 32/768), without an issue.

Regards and thank you for your feedback,
Peter

Hi Richard,

I know people who'd offer me money if I take *out* a few Q parameters ! haha
But no, I don't think that will be possible or at least not soon.
But there is something else to offer ...

Luckily we still have members who explicitly explore things, and one of them is Colin (coliny). He was working on letting sound MQA acceptable and came up with something I never saw and also personally never ever tried. Nice software - it contains parameters and in 10 years of time I myself didn't try some combination yet. But Colin did :

Make Q1 very large but sustain the SFS at quite small. Tug this into the sauce named 2.09, et voliá.
Yesterday I listened to the always difficult Joe's Garage (Frank Zappa), planned to listen to The Yellow Shark as well, but never came to that because I was listening with open mouth to Joe's garage. And maybe it should be advised to listen to, because I suddenly hear so clear what the whole album is about. And don't I suddenly miss the "Advisory - Explicit Lyrics". So yes, that clear all suddenly is.

So Colin came up with a 14x40 (Q1/xQ1) for MQA with unknown SFS, and I made that 30x40 and SFS = 0.7.
And now it looks like we must re-do 10 or so years and find best settings again.
I think I can hear through that the Lush (USB cable) also contributes here. The highs receive some magic kind of spell in a fashion that I hear stereo imaging unheard before. It is almost like left/right interaction is manipulated.

I hope some more people can share their opinion on this one !

Peter

Hi Arjan,

I am not sure whether I already mentioned it in this topic, but see the Release Notes for how to solve Alt-U and such. So in there, I describe what you just also did ...

Best regards and thanks,
Peter