Hi Juan,

I like what you did to absorb the vibrations of your external HDDs

I could make a box too to dampen my external cases, but the metallic one - can you tell me a little more about it ?

As for your USB connection to the NOS1, I see what seems to be an adaptor of some kind ?

Regards,

Alain

Hi Juan,

After reading your review, I can only concur with your conclusions (altough I do not have such a masterful writing). You put in words perceptions that I can't express right enough, but there are at least 3 things that striked me yesterday as I started a more critical listening.

I was stunned at the bass presence ! I was quite shocked by this as it never felt that way before.

The second thing is that when we switched to 09-7, I felt there was a loss of presence for the most prominent instruments (the ones that are in the "front"), as a trade off for more details. Now these instruments have regained their presence AND the details are still there, without any loss. I should precise: more details than before in fact.

And there is a "blackness" that just render all the music even more alive and striking.

It is the first time I follow suggestions from Peter and many other posters. There is a sense of "family" here that I never found anywhere else.

Thanks Peter, thanks Juan... And thanks to all that share their appreciation, positive critics - all in a respectful manner.

We are in a "micro climate" here and I hope it will stay that way

Alain

Peter,

I felt that I was too stupid to find that Tool Tip myself... But I hesitated a lot...

Alain

Well, what do I know... I did not deactivate the "Alain-PC stereo" (that's the name of my "all purpose" pc) that appeared in Device Manager under Audio after I connected through bluetooth with my music pc...

You were right, I forgot that. Thanks Peter. All seems ok there !

Now I listen to something that relates to this: "Mas que Nada"

Alain

As my net tendency is to stop almost everything on the pc, I have kept asking myself if I was forgetting something. Like you mention, it was working before, so there should not be any error...

In doing a test with 83a, I should determine if there is something missing. Rest assured that I will take notes about what I did to make things work as it was before...

This time I will try to be a little more brilliant and create a restore point.

Alain

Do you mean that I should disable the "audio" devices that are part of the bluetooth installation ???

That is a good question... Nothing that I can recall... I am so used to do the sames things, I can't see if there is either an omission or an addition in my methodology. Since it does not take too much time for me to reinstall, I will redo my tests tonight - with z83a and z9 to compare agin. I wish I had a straight answer for you...

Not sure about a KVM cable... This would mean I have to either plug a monitor or use the TV...

Choices...

Alain

Peter,

Now I can do whatever I want, provided that I don't install the bluetooth software. When I do, the "XXEngine3.exe" error occurs every time. And even if I uninstall it, the error persists, as if not all files are removed from Windows. If there is one thing that I forgot to try, it was to disconnect the dongle with the bluetooth software installed (and the same after uninstalling it).

I sure can live without the bluetooth software, but if I have to choose between using network (through either Remote Desktop via network OR wireless keyboard + mouse), which one would do the least damage for SQ ?

Regards,

Alain

Hi Peter,

Apart from the decimal thing (".") it seems that the bluetooth software interacts in some way. I can't say more, but as long as I don't install it (this is my conclusion for the moment), XXHE behaves fine with W8 and no visible anomaly... I have yet to try in Minimize OS.

It seems that I will need the use of a software like tightVNC since my equipment is not well organized for a direct connection with a keyboard-mouse combo... But of course it is feasible.

I was wondering if accessing the PC through a USB dongle (wireless) for a keyboard and a mouse would be worse for SQ than accessing the pc from a wired network ? This, provided that I don't use the same USB controller to access the DAC ?

So this is were I am at the present time.

Alain

Peter,

I talked too fast

It does not work anymore... I don't know what could have changed this behavior...

The 2 only things I did was to install the Imdisk (ramdisk) and the bluetooth software. Then I rebooted.

I removed the 2 of them, but nothing works anymore...

I will restore again and retry...

Alain

Hi Peter,

You are "spot on" ! It works fine when I change the decimals from "," to "." I normally do this automaticaly, as I sometimes use French to write and English to program (even if I don't do that on my music pc), but I simply forgot this time...

Regards,

Alain
PS: I was not sure about the ability to change the system language with W8 pro... I will check on this.

Hi Peter,

I removed the sotm drivers, connected the NOS1 to a USB 2 mobo port, but it does the same as mentionned. I then removed the Imdisk (ramdisk), then finally the Explorer 7... Same again.

I restored a W8 backup. This backup was taken right after I installed W8 and had it activated. So it is "virgin" W8 x64. I installed the strict minimum: XXHE, .net 3.5 framework, NOS1 driver (the one you provided me when I bought the NOS1 and it was for W7 and W8), Explorer 7... XXHE is not even activated for the moment. I only adjusted the buffer (4096), the contiguous memory, the upsampling and the setup required ("Is a NOS1", dac is 24/768), specified the music folder... I did not touch any other parameter (all like it is when we receive it).

Same error...

I then deactivated the upsampling. The music started, played for a few seconds then the error occured again.

There is also an error that mentions that the clock resolution was asked for 5ms and the system returned 1,00003ms (not sure about the amount of zeros...

I tried the 09-z83a and it works fine...

By the way, I did not even changed the regionals adjustments so a decimal separator would be the "." instead of the ","... Just in case it could explain something...

I don't know if I should install all from scratch (not from a backup) just in case... But if 9-z83a works with the actual installation... ?

Alain

H Peter,

I will do (only remove the Sotm drivers), yet I will ultimately reinstall W8 (after that verification), since I let Windows Update do its stuff as a final attempt... But as I have an Acronis backup of a fresh and activated W8 installation, in less than 10 minutes, it is up and running. Well... Add maybe half an hour for a few obvious things

Alain

So ok, I will reinstall W8 (from a backup) and not install anything (no Sotm drivers, no Imdisk (ramdisk), no Windows Update (I did try as a last resort)) just to be on the safe side and report back later for tomorrow. I will try with and without Explorer 7 also. To its simplest expression

I did try a regular USB 2 port from the motherboard...

Thanks.

Alain

PS: I am not sure about the attempt from XXHE to shut off the driver from the Sotm, as I have not tried Minimize OS yet, nor unattended...

Hi Peter,

I tried the 9z-9 latest version of XXHE with W7: all works fine. I even copied your config, except for "Stop all Services", since I need bluetooth to access my music pc. Same (all is OK).

Windows 8: I can't even get to play anything. No matter what, the "XXEngine3.exe stopped working" pops up each time, before the music starts.

My W8 installation is a fresh one. The administrative permissions were applied by XXHE as expected, the .net framework 3.5 downloaded and installed itself, the activation went fine, etc... I installed Explorer 7 to cut the "Metro UI". All went fine for these.

All I added was the latest drivers for the Sotm PCIex USB 3 card, the Imdisk (ramdisk) latest version.

No matter what adjustements I do, when I start XXHE at first, the message about the XXEngine3.exe appears. And when I am in XXHE and press Play, it does it again.

I tried all combinations in XXHE config, but it does not seem to even need a bad combination to crash: it does it before the XXHE GUI appears, so before playing... I restarted the pc many times, changed the USB cable, connected it through mobo USB ports (USB 2 and USB 3)...

I have to leave now. At my end of day, I will reinstall W8 (because after I encountered this problem, I even tried Windows Update just in case).

It was a fresh install of W8. I will redo all at the end of day, without Explorer 7, Imdisk, et al... Just to simplify the amount of variables...

But it works without any problem in W7 here.

Alain