Hi Arjan,

No, you don´t necessarily need more than those 32Gb, it depends on the size of your Playlist. The files in the Playback Drive are WAV files, that means that you could have a Playlist of around 20/50 albums in 32Gb, it depends on the albums size.

Each time you turn off XXHighEnd the Playlist is erased.

Best regards,
Juan

I tested the WD RE4 WD5003ABYX that I use as Playback Drive connected directly to the TeckNet USB 3.0 PCI Express Card and the sound now is even clearer and more detailed, fantastic!!. A very noticeable improvement. (Thanks Praphan!).

So I don´t use anymore the USB 3.0 hub to connect the Playback Drive. I´ll use from now on the hub just to connect other external hdds with music files.

Best regards,
Juan

P.D. For the ones interested in HOW TO BUILD MY NEW PC... I recommend to check once in a while the Updates in the first post of this topic.

Some little things that can help to get better sound, I´m using these two...:

Against vibrations in the Playback Drive: http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/node/915

To clean the power just for the USB 3.0 hub and Playback Drive: http://www.psaudio.com/~psaudio/ps/products/detail/duet-power-center

Now the sound is even better!

Juan

Congratulations Peter!! and Happy birthday Mani!!!

Juan

After some time testing some hdds for Playback Drive I´ve come to some conclusions:

First, let me tell you that I compared the following units:

- USB 3.0 32Gb pen drive
- WD Elements USB 3.0 1Tb, self powered
- LaCie (Seagate Barracuda), 230Gb, 7200rpm, 8Mb cache, USB 2.0, externally powered.
- WD RE4 WD5003ABYX, 500Gb, 7200rpm, 64Mb cache, externally powered.

I tested the WD RE4 with some different connections like SATA, eSATA, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. The LaCie was connected with the USB 2.0 directly to the computer and through an USB 3.0 hub.
To do that I used some Sharkoon SATA QuickDeck, one with eSATA and USB 2.0 connections and other with USB 3.0 connection (I returned the one with USB 3.0 because I can´t reboot the computer with it connected and I used in place of it a TooQ Prodata Series USB 3.0 external case that works flawlessly)^*1. The USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 were connected to a powered USB 3.0 hub and directly to the computer. The SATA and eSATA were connected directly to the computer.

Soon I discarded the two first ones in the list because the sound seemed too cold and lifeless, so I concentrate in the other two.

The WD makes a sound that is really clear, vigorous, clean, it seems to me that it is more true to the real music, in other words less euphonic. It doesn´t mean in any way that the sound is cold or something like that, no, the sound seems to be like the real recorded sound is, that´s the feeling I get listening this WD RE4.
The LaCie hdd, on the other hand is a little more veiled or, better I´d say smoother, but I wouldn´t use that word because the WD is also smooth if the recorded music is that way, I´d better say that the LaCie reproduce the music giving the sense that there is some less information than with the WD.
The information with the WD RE4 is outstanding, I heard things in some albums that I listened hundreds of times that never heard before, some details, subtle sounds...
In my opinion this WD RE4 makes a fantastic hdd for Playback Drive.
I´m going to use also the LaCie as Playback Drive. In fact I´m using both drives as it is very easy and fast to change from one to the other in XXHighEnd. When I use the LaCie?, well not very often really because I´m in love with the WD sound, however I´d say that I sympathize with the LaCie in some way. I´d use it e.g. if I had a party or a casual reunion in my home and I´d have some background music. If I´m alone listening music I´d use the WD RE4 unless...I wanted to listen an album that would be very brilliant, and even so...

So in my opinion it is a great discovery this WD RE4, but let me tell you that, as Peter says in the tutorial, the Playback Drive sound depends on many things like where it is connected and I guess it depends also on the other components you have in your computer. But anyway I recommend it, just read the specification and you´ll see that all can be for the better like e.g. the control of vibrations and in general the way it is built.

I posted this test here, and not in the topic "Playback Drive drive" because I have some other parts that now I use in my Music Pc like the SSD for Galleries. It doesn´t have any influence in sound but it makes the selection of music much faster. Mine is a 128GB Crucial m4 SATA 6Gb/s (SATA III). I connected it to a SATA 6Gb port and goes really fast.
Btw there is not different SATA cables for Sata I, II, III or for 6Gb/s. All SATA cables can work with all SATA connections, the only think you must take care of is to buy a good quality one, that´s it. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA


I´d like also to give some ideas to the ones that use a laptop as Music Pc, they also can make big improvements for no much money.

- Buy an USB 3.0 card if your laptop doesn´t have any USB 3.0 port, with maybe two ports and if it´s possible look for an externally powered card. Maybe you´ll need also a powered USB 3.0 hub to connect some other drives (for Playback Drive or for a hdd with your music files).

- Get an old hdd no matter if it is only 200 Gb or so, and use it for Playback Drive. If it is USB 2.0 or IDE use an adaptor to connect it to the USB 3.0 ports. Of course you can buy for less than 100€ a very good external hdd USB 3.0, no need more than 500Gb, it is important that this hdd be externally powered (as a general rule use always devices with external power).

- You can put your Galleries in an USB 3.0 pen drive connected to one of the hub ports.

Total cost?, depends on the hdd you get but I´d say that even with a good external USB 3.0 the total wouldn´t surpass 200€. If you use an old IDE hdd with an USB adaptor the total cost could be around 120€.

With just that you can play a lot and enjoy the music in a way that probably you haven´t imagined before.

Best regards,
Juan

^*1
Sharkoon adapters:
http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/sata-quickdeck-pro

http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/sata-quickdeck

TooQ Prodata Series USB 3.0 external case:
http://www.tooq.es/product_detail.php?id=1463

Thanks Peter,

The new SSD firmware is for:
Improved Trim response time
Improved power-on-to-ready time (known as POR, or TTR for Time-to-ready)
Improved resume-time from low power modes, and improved reliability of warm reboot
Improved power consumption by disabling HIPM (Host Initiated Power Management)

I don´t know if it has any importance for Galleries, probably not and maybe it is mostly if the OS is installed on it. So far I´m going to use the SSD the way it comes from factory to see how it works.

About how to resize the Coverart the idea is to have those jpg in the Galleries occupying as little space as possible without loss of quality. Could you tell me please how to do it and what values I have to give to the CoverArt Resize Size? (in case this is the place where I have to do it).

Juan

Today I got a SSD that I´m going to use only for Galleries.

I have some questions:

- There is a new firmware that I´d like to install in the SSD, to do it I have to download first .NET Framework 4. Those are a group of Windows Updates. Since it is better to not have Windows Updates should I install them?. I could stay with the current firmware even it is not the latest.

- How should I have to format this drive?, in the pendrive I was using for Galleries I had exFat and allocation size 64K.

- What´s minimum value I should give to the CoverArt Resize Size to keep it in the Galleries without loss?.

Juan

- Well, it bothers because several XXHighEnd.exe are running at the same time although they can only be seen in the Task Manager. The problem is if that there is more than one XXHighEnd.exe running at the same time it is impossible to load a new Playlist and play music. As I say the only way to solve it is to restart the computer. I´ll try to see if waiting for more than 5 seconds after I turn it Off solves it.

- It is supposed that the updates don´t have to be installed in order to get the best possible SQ. With the updates installed don´t exist the problem mentioned but of course I have to try to get the best SQ. At the end I took out all the updates but the only one that can´t be uninstalled.

- I don´t have anything clicked in the Skin Settings, so plain GUI.

Btw, no more clicks since I use your settings (SFS=60, Q1=14, Q1F=1, DevBufSize = 4096, volume -30 to -18) and:

- After SFS rounds: 2
- Fade-out Step (3): 3

Juan

Peter, what could be origin of the problem I find and that I explain it in my first post:
- Not always but frequently after playing some tracks when I stop XXHE and turn it Off the X icon disappears from the task bar but when I click again in the desktop icon to turn it On a message appears: XXHighEnd is already running. Kill the other instance/s.... This issue was happening also with the previous version the same way that happens now with this new one. As it is happening after I re installed the OS maybe I did something wrong.
In the Task Manager I can see XXEngine3.exe and three or more XXHighEnd.exe depends on the times I´ve tried to turn it Off/On and I can´t kill them with End Process, to do it I have to reboot the computer.

The OS that I installed has 98 updates, with them installed the problem doesn´t exist but if I eliminate the updates (but the only one impossible to eliminate) the problem appears again, I´m trying now to know what are/is the update/s that avoid the problem. Although maybe the problem is not due to the updates but a bad XX configuration in my computer

Juan

I realized that it happens to me as well, besides all the other things I stated in the previous post. I installed again the OS.

Best regards,
Juan

Peter, I realized that it takes a few minutes to appear XX again after I clicked in the XXHighEnd is already running. Kill the other instance/s?... message. The Playlist is still there even when I cleared it before.

Juan

Hi Peter,

I installed some days ago the OS and since then I was hearing some ticks and cracks. Today I´ve installed the new  0.9z-7-5 and two or three ticks are still there one just at the start of the first track in the Playlist and the other ones a few seconds inside this first track. No more cracks when changing volume or at stop.

Some questions,

- with this version I understand that it is not necessary to install again XXengine3.z74.rar in order to avoid the cracks when playing with low SFS, as it was only made for the 7-4 version. Correct?

- Not always but frequently after playing some tracks when I stop XXHE and turn it Off the X icon disappears from the task bar but when I click again in the desktop icon to turn it On a message appears: XXHighEnd is already running. Kill the other instance/s?... but the program is not running anymore...This issue was happening also with the previous version the same way that happens now with this new one. As it is happening after I re installed the OS maybe I did something wrong.
In the Task Manager I can see XXEngine3.exe and three or more XXHighEnd.exe depends on the times I´ve tried to turn it Off/On and I can´t kill them with End Process, to do it I have to reboot the computer.

Best regards,
Juan

I started this topic some time ago with the idea of putting here information that could help to understand better the components we use to build our Music Pc.
I know that so far we use SSD mostly for Galleries, a few among us use it also for OS and XXHighEnd. This time I´ve found this short but very informative article about SSD: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Anatomy-of-SSD-Units/904/1

Best regards,
Juan

Hi Nick,

I used the Autoformers with the Sound Lab A1, big electrostatic speakers (http://www.allegrosound.com/Soundlab_A-1.html) with very low impedance but to tell you the truth the amps I had at that time, a pair of Wolcott monoblocks, were perfect to drive that kind of speakers with difficult loads, so I only used the Autoformers for a short time and in my case I couldn´t see an improvement in SQ due, as I say, to the amps I had. The Avantgarde Duos probably don´t need autoformers, but I don´t know very well your speakers.

Best regards,
Juan

Hi Nick, have you ever tried the Zero-Autoformers from Anticables?, I remember using it some years ago with big Sound Lab electrostatic speakers. Those Autoformers helped to drive that speakers easily making the bass tighter and the highs smoother. I think that I still have them in some place...many time since I don´t use it, since I changed the speakers and amps. Just curious if you or Paul have tried it.

http://www.anticables.com/products.html

http://www.zeroimpedance.com/story.html

Best regards,
Juan