Just thought I would report that these settings also work with W7. I currently use Leonard Cohen's latest album Old Ideas second track Amen to do comparisons.

Changing from SFS 120 Max 120 to SFS 4 Max 20 was an immediate improvement. I did change the clock to 1ms but today have gone back to .5ms. I did not change the Q settings.

I find both the voice and bass on Amen to be more natural.


I havn't had the reboot problem with W7. I have left the max at 20.

Can you explain the reason and effect max SFS has?

Just thought I'd throw this out there, currently I have been using db Poweramp to rip my CD's and convert to 24/192 directly.

I see in a current review on Absolute Sound of 3 DAC's which have DSD capability the reviewer was pointed to try Saracon software to convert DSD to DSD or PCM as a comparison to Audiogate. The author confirmed he felt Saracon was better in his setup than Audiogate.

I borrowed a copy of Saracon and proceeded to try a few things.

First I ripped a fresh copy using db poweramp from CD to 16/44. Then converted it to 24/176, 24/192 using Saracon.

Differences between the three were there, I still preferred the 24/192 over the rest, but the difference between the dbpoweramp direct 24/192 and Saracon 24/192 from 16/44 rip was easily audible. The Saracon was cleaner, more open, more detail, less bass heavy.

Weiss is the perpetrator of this software and it is used largely in the Pro industry and comes at a Pro price which for your average Hi-Fi person is probably out of the question.

The thing that concerns me now is, it must be likely that ripping software must have issues between different makes.

Obviously getting the music files off the disc is very critical in the first place, before we even play the files!!!!!!

I have only tried EAC then DB poweramp both seemed similar at the time.

Interesting that off late, HD tracks seem to be ever widening their catalogue.

I already own the very well recorded CD of this but couldn't resist this new download.

Well it appears to be all it should be and easily out weighs the CD for sound. Thoroughly recommend this recording.

One hopes that more new releases will become available in high res soon.

Well well its nice to put a name with a picture thanks.

I always feel sorry for people who do HiFi shows, its unforgiving hard work and long hours. Almost impossible to get a great sound but people are quick to report bad sounds which can have a negative effect.
But a necessary evil to get exposure for your product and in the long run it does work.   

What about some captions re the photo's. Presume its your wife showing good interest in loudspeaker cables for a HiFi wife. Mine would never go near anything like this preferring to go shopping for womenly things.

Would be good to see a photo of St Peter.

I've downloaded WinRamTech (QSoft) and it beats Dataram sound wise. Also using Fat32 not NTFS. As playback drive only.

Winramtech
Pros:
-Best performance of all the RAMDisk tested
-Only writes the changes made to an image

Cons:
-Initial image takes a long time to create
-Extremely difficult to manage more than 1 image, especially if they are of different sizes

Other considerations

FAT32 vs NTFS
FAT32
Pros:
-Faster
Cons:
-4GB maximum file size

NTFS
Pros:
-No file size limit
Cons:
-Doesn’t scale well with high queue depth

Xxhighend needs to reformat Ramdisk when changing albums or music. It does at first playback.

Well ram disk has opened a new can of worms. But using it in the playback drive field has increased SQ in my system by a large margin so much so I'm happy to only be able to load 20mins of 24/192 music files and play.

I managed to get Data ramdisk working and sure is better sounding aside from the extra wait for music to load.

How can I get two ram disks working the other with Xxhighend in it?

Thanks Juan, in searching the web some people suggest Imdisk is faster whether sonically this makes a difference.

Does Imdisk require .Net4 to work?

Is the playback ram drive 2g and XXhighend and data 500mb from your signature correct?

Perhaps we need a separate ramdisk subject topic unless I've missed it.

Interesting comparison here between different ram disks

http://www.overclock.net/t/1381131/ramdisks-roundup-and-testing

Yes I'm intrigued with ram disk and its implications. I downloaded Imdisk but can't get it to work. When I click on the icon in control panel it uninstalls. I do see that putting XXhighend and playback in ram disk is an advantage speed wise. Music wise speed has always been an advantage. I think this does need explaining more.

Well I replaced a switched mode power supply for a linear one on my M2tech Hiface Evo and whamo what a difference in sound. Vast in fact. POWER SUPPLY IS EVERYTHING never changes!!!!

Cold lowers resistance enabling better sound. Super conductors run at very low temps. Found this bit of trivia and what do you know the Dutch discovered this:

Yes I've had the same experience when power company replaced power cables in the street that dated from 1940's.

Not only did my shaver run faster and the lights brighter, the HiFi sound was much improved.

Don't worry we are all guilty of being premature.

I tried the Q settings Q1=7 and xQ1 =1. Yes was quite an improvement in sound, I can't go back to 30 and 10. Still using W7 and SFS 120.

I havn't had a moment to experiment with settings so have relied on others.

I'm reluctant to change to W8 yet. If under XXhighend's command W8 is working with the W7's shell why should we? But there must be other things at play here outside or within W8 that influence the sound. Such a complex web this seems to be.

Gosh even though Peter's been able to get XXhighend to work better with W8. What is this everyone thinks W8 is a dog. Even microsoft are coming out with an upgrade to deal with issues(nothing to do with audio probably).

I'm not upgrading yet, if thats what you call it.

Can't help but feel Peter should have his own OS!!!!!

I mean I only run basic W7 no upgrades. Windows is the problem isn't it, same as Apple is the problem. Hate both really.