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76  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Ripping CDs: is there something to do in relation with SQ ? on: August 01, 2016, 03:46:39 pm
Hi all,

You may have read that some people report differences when listening to rips of their CDs (and DVDs). While it is "not supposed" to happen, even with the same checksum, two files can sound different at playback time, depending on the attention (care) that was taken to do so.

I have used EAC in almost all of my rips. If I recall correctly, some have already reported that EAC and Dbpoweramp where not yielding the same sound signature...

At the time I ripped my CDs I was longing for quickness. I had 4 CD readers of different brands, 2 internal (sata connected) + 2 external USB drives. It was practical, since under certain conditions, it was sometimes required that I attempt again the ripping of a CD (because it was not correctly extracted with one of the "rippers").

They were all powered with SMPS.

At the time I also had a RAID hardware controller card, with 5 hard drives working all together in RAID 0 (SSDs were expensive ). My PC was an "electrical inferno" but at the time I did not know that this was not really good at playback (I was using Winamp...). All I wanted was to have my music on  a hard drive and listen to it through a pair of PC speakers. 

In the recent years I heard about tests that were driven by few peoples. They were attempting to find if there would be SQ differences at the ripping stage, in using better regulated power for the CD/DVD reader-writer or Blu-Ray player. While the checksum of these files has been reported to be identical (no matter if the ripping was done with a carefully implemented environment or not), they reported differences (not all, but some). To be honest, I have always been unsure of the results for many reasons, but I never discarded anything as I have trust in some of these people, may it be their persistence, hearing abilities and their efforts to have those results validated by others.

I intend to try ripping a few CDs with the Intona between the external USB CD/DVD reader-writer and the Audio PC. I also intend to have the hard drive and the CD/DVD reader-writer powered with a linear power supply, through LAN between the server PC and the Audio PC, each of them in minimized OS mode, one of them having the OS being in RAM (Audio PC), to check if there could be differences between what I already have ripped in less than ideal circumstances and some of them under more careful conditions.

Has someone done something that resembles this kind of test ? If so, did you notice any difference ?

I know that this triggers a lot of controversies, and that copying these files to a backup drive may degrade the results, but... ?

We know that at playback time, there are differences but could ripping also be additive to the SQ ?

Thanks for sharing Happy

Alain

77  Ultimate Audio Playback / Phasure NOS1 DAC / Re: My NOS1 is now a NOS1a on: July 27, 2016, 02:20:28 pm
Hi Fred,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts too Happy I am amazed at what I am hearing day after day. It is like a flower that blooms. More details appear and I am surprised. It will take quite a while before I can really grasp all of this. I will certainly come back and add my observations as more happens Happy

I am sure that the Stealth is even bringing the level of SQ further ! I am still stuck with a SMPS in my Audio PC (a good Seasonic Platinum 1kw) and hope to change it someday (or change the whole PC) Happy

Regards,

Alain
PS: I listened to Crosby, Stills and Nash "Guinnevere" and Robbie Robertson "Sign of the Rainbow"... These two are among my favorites also and they bring strong emotions ...
78  Ultimate Audio Playback / Phasure NOS1 DAC / Re: My NOS1 is now a NOS1a on: July 27, 2016, 12:20:07 pm
I was listening to music yesterday evening... The sound is even more open, and the bass... It has a vibration that I never heard before... I thought to talk about this later, but it is so alive. One more step and I am sure I will smell the sound with my nose !

Windows 8 - that is Happy

Golden Earring - Radar Love - I am discovering this song again. And I have listened to it so many times...

Alain
79  Ultimate Audio Playback / Phasure NOS1 DAC / My NOS1 is now a NOS1a on: July 26, 2016, 09:00:18 pm
I recently got my NOS1 upgraded to the NOS1a... It took me 2 years at least to make that step. For different reasons, I postponed that upgrade, but it was obvious for me that I would do it someday. At least hopefully.

I am no good at describing SQ. There are many aspects toward which I am not sensitive. In fact I am always split between trust and feel. Trust in what Peter does, feel in what I hear as it pleases me (or not). Generally speaking, the feel is not as assured as the trust, so the trust is very important to me.

First, I have to say that sending the NOS1 in Netherlands is not something I like. It's the transportation that bugs me. Now that it is back here, I am happy... And relieved.

During the time I waited for it, I almost did not listen to music. After a period where I had trouble with hearing human voices correctly, I felt the need to rest my ears for a while. And it paid, because I do not have that perception anymore. I don't know what was causing that.

It is hard for me to determine the difference between my NOS1 and the NOS1a. One thing was obvious: it was at least as good as before. But this is not true: it is better than before. Much better.

I haven't had sufficient time to "taste" all the goodies that this version brings, but I can already say that the sound is so fine that I can feel emotions with songs that never brought anything of that order to me.

Details are easier to catch, there is absolutely no granularity (not that I heard some before, but it is even more obvious). There is air around the music, allowing me to feel the delicate sounds from further instruments. The voices (...) are more precise but not in a "bright" way.

It is the naturalness that I get now that is the most striking key point. Everything "flows" so easily. Again, I was hearing this before, but it has reached another level.

A word of caution though: I "closed" the ground (pressed the 3rd switch down) , because there has been a series of "thuds" releases in my speakers while the volume was high on my preamp. I don't know why, but it seems there was a release of ground potentials between components. Since I have turned that switch ON, nothing of that order has happened. I guess I should isolate my PCIe USB card from the PC chassis... I am actually using my old Sotm PCIe USB 3 card, powering the Intona with an LPSU (Uptone JS-2), as it delivers clear power to the Intona. I really like the results.

Now I am doing some listening, comparing Windows 8 and Windows 10. For the moment I tend to prefer Windows 8. The bass that is exhibits seems more natural than with Windows 10, but I have to confirm this through time. Windows 10 seems to have less latency because it is easier to have shorter buffers. This I can see when switching between 4ms and 8ms. I do not feel the "robots" with Windows 8 in RAM mode. I would tend to say that Win 8 and Win 10 are nearer from each other than before, but this is just an impression for the moment.

It is not a technical review of course. I am not good at that either. But I am very grateful to Peter and Ciska for their formidable work.

From a very satisfied client and a happy colleague in this marvellous voyage into the music, thanks again !

Alain
PS: And thanks for the new USB input port location Happy
80  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Win 8, ram-os drive and driver buffer (from the driver control panel) on: July 23, 2016, 09:12:18 pm
Don't forget your life jacket Happy
81  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Win 8, ram-os drive and driver buffer (from the driver control panel) on: July 23, 2016, 08:48:06 pm
I think we passed aside each other Happy

I heard ticks, but I also heard those hiccups. I am ok with the ticks and I understand.

My quest was about trying to make Windows 8 work better under the ram-os drive.

I have to say that I really have a hard time saying which is better between Win 8 and Win 10. It will take time for me to really draw my conclusions...

Thanks Happy

Alain
82  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Win 8, ram-os drive and driver buffer (from the driver control panel) on: July 23, 2016, 08:33:03 pm
Peter,

These were not "ticks" because I have heard them too, even with Windows 10.

No, what I am talking about is different. It is the "absence of" something, nothing to do with a "tick".

And it has been specific to Windows 8 with the ram-os drive, not with my Windows 8 OS drive that I still keep.

I have tried the parameters you use with the Mach II, without, with more conservative adjustments - nothing worked. The common denominator was that once in RAM, errors were more prominent.

It is only as soon as I changed the buffer in the driver control panel from 4 to 8ms that the errors stopped.

Alain
83  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Win 8 and Phasure NOS1a driver 1.03 vs 1.04 on: July 23, 2016, 07:41:46 pm
Peter,

You may recall that we discussed about Windows 8 and the ram-os drive a few months ago:

http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=3626.0

As for your question, I can't tell what time interval happens between the errors (hiccups) because I heard them for the first time yesterday evening and did not have the reflex of noting the frequency.

When I tried again this morning (without doing anything), it seemed to be different. The driver (v1.04) control panel  was showing errors at the start of the song (redbook) but played the rest well.

I changed the driver from 1.04 to 1.03, renamed the driver from .tss to .tst as required. The behavior was almost the same. There were errors.

I checked the buffer and it was at 4ms. Changing it to 8ms stopped these errors, in BASE OS and in RAM OS too.

I then reinstalled the driver v 1.04 and renamed the .tst to .tss for XXHE. All is good now.

It seems that the buffer should at least be at 8ms to prevent these errors, but I am aware that my tests are not exhaustive.

I am holding to Windows 8 because the bass sounds better to my ears than the one exhibited by Windows 10. This is not conclusive, as there are many aspects that may not be to everybody's tastes. My sensitivity is limited and there are aspects I cannot hear easily (not to say that there are some toward which I don't hear any difference)...

8ms and higher ? Could this be a solution ?

Regards,

Alain
PS: Peter, if you can remove the "driver vs driver" in the title ? It should be named "Win 8, ram-os drive and driver buffer (from the driver control panel)" maybe.
84  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Win 8, ram-os drive and driver buffer (from the driver control panel) on: July 23, 2016, 12:26:04 pm
Hi Peter,

I would like to try the 1.03 driver with the NOS1a and Windows 8 from the os-ram drive.

I have "hiccups" with Win 8, no matter how I use the settings.

When I use XXHE v. 2.04, with driver 1.03 under my own Win 8 (plain vanilla) on my previous OS drive, there are no hiccups. I apply the same settings with Win 8 from the os-ram drive, but it does those hiccups. The differences I can see is the driver version and the XXHE version...

I see that there is a driver (1.03) with the ".tss" extension. How can I activate it (and reverse it if required) ?
Thinking of it, could I also install XXHE 2.04 on the os-ram drive ? I would only do this for Win 8...

Regards,

Alain
85  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: New PC, new sound on: July 06, 2016, 12:21:33 pm
Wink
86  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: New PC, new sound on: July 06, 2016, 03:04:59 am
Hi Juan,

My personal answer is similar as always : I still have the famous black wire disconnected - this time because the Intona is causing the isolation.

Anyway I have it running like this for 4-6 weeks (I forgot) and all remains to be OK.

Regards,
Peter
Peter,

I probably have it wrong but I thought that turning the 3rd swith ON on the NOS1a was similar to detaching the ground wire from the NOS1a USB ?

Alain
87  Ultimate Audio Playback / Phasure NOS1 DAC / Re: The drilling of a hole taken seriously on: June 30, 2016, 06:37:19 pm
Peter,

All this for me ?!!  blush1 I recognize my biological "son"...

Is this installation at your place ?


This is fabulous. I am so happy !

Thanks in piles Happy

Alain
Edit: I was thinking this morning exactly: "Maybe I should tell Peter to abandon my request..." but I was late for work, so I postponed the idea... My ears were probably "ringing" while you were preparing your post Happy
88  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Ram-os drive an Windows 8 activation on: June 14, 2016, 07:53:09 pm
Peter,

I haven't activated any Windows 10 version since the beginning, nor have I updated any Windows 8 to Windows 10 in any way, including before and after the RAM-OS got here.

I was wondering if the fact that my Windows 8 DVD is French could explain the rejection, but at this point I will make sure I have at least another vhd copy of that activated W8 elsewhere to prevent any need to activate it again.

Be assured that I will not try to activate anything else on the RAM-OS drive and there will be no more access to internet unless an update requires it (a new XXHE version for example with a need to activate).

Thanks for you recommendations.

Alain
89  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Ram-os drive an Windows 8 activation on: June 14, 2016, 03:09:54 pm
Hi Peter,

It seems that there is already an activation key with Windows 8 on the RAM-OS drive ? It got activated without any problem.

Then I attempted to use my own personal activation key from an upgrade DVD that I bought some years ago. This is the one I was using prior to the RAM-OS drive.

It is not accepted.

So now I am with an activated Windows 8, but I am not sure this is correct ?

I checked around to see if there was a tutorial about this or something on the subject but I can't find it ?

Regards,

Alain
90  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Windows 8 and os-ram drive Errors (and too low frequency) on: June 13, 2016, 01:30:47 pm
Using Windows all these years has showed me that compatibility issues can arise between different Windows versions, even under the same version...

On additonal note could be to check the volume properties in Disk Management after extending a volume. For unknown reasons, one was exhibiting "NTFS" (correct) while the other was showing "RAW" (incorrect). 

Wait for the moment when a new Windows 10 build will support "odours". That should be fun Wink

Alain
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