Hi there Johan,

Let me start with the unimportant stuff ...

I can't be sure, but the out of memory looks like something being in a loop there, something with that Favorites.txt.
I guess you still have that Favorites.txt in the old XX folder ... would you be so kind to sent me that one ? it almost for sure will help me debug that error.

The spooler error ... I must say, I receive more of that lately again, and yesterday for the first time my GUI was back to windows 3.11. This has been a long time ago, but for me it (very very theoretically) indicates that things have got better once again. Careful though, because that is 0.9w-1(a), where things indeed drastically changed.

Now on to the important stuff.


You know I like to hand out prizes , and this time you receive one for "discovering" this. Apart from my wife you seem to be the only one ... (publically telling about it);

So yes, I guess it is true. Somewhere at heading for 0.9v-7 (which took me a month coming from 0.9v-6a) I changed something in XXEngine3 of which I thought it shouldn't matter to SQ. So, I did it (being kind of afraid it could influence), and didn't pay further attention to it. Was more focused on the particualr solution it should provide (that was about the one missing sample in Cue Files between tracks), and actually forgot about it. But already the next day it came to me that that day, and the day before had some similarities ... things sounded differently from all days before, and I really liked it. Then, that day my wife asked to turn up the volume, and if wives say that, something must be going on. I asked why, and the answer was : it sounds to good. Hmm ...

I did not announce it, because the change wasn't "logical" to the sense of what I heard could be reasoned out towards a direction (like I could change towards more bass etc. as has happened in the past), and honestly up till today I can't reason it out. BUT, it is in an area where I can improve (or change anyway) more, so I will be doing that in the near future.

Anyway, me, my wife, you, it just must be so, and honestly each and every day since then I hear that character which has come over the sound, and it is a fragility which I can't put to words other than "better fragility".
Oh, there was one other user who actually expressed the same (off line) by means of wordings I could definitely recognize, but he changed all of his hardware at the very same time (Hi Dave !).

Peter

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There are serious reaons to believe that this version is not the best for sound quality. If you are new here and want to experience XXHighEnd for sound quality, please go to XXHighEnd Model 0.9v-7.

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Reference : W1 does not play.

This has been solved in this version.
For the actual Release Notes, see 0.9w-1.

Hi Andrey,

May it help you somewhere, I can assure you that Shared Mode (hence non-Exclusive) has been completely eliminated (since some version maybe 7-8 months ago).

Remember, this is unrelated to what you perceive hence hear. I trust that.
Peter

That's what I meant ... it is such a tough job to test this properly. And I didn't succeed apparently.

This is the most weird ...
The 0 (instead of 2500) I already was afraid of (couldn't test this properly), but where the heck the 700 comes from ?? if it weren't that I used 700 at some stage for a default I'd say it's random. But I *did* use 700, and now you have that.

Ok, even with 700 it won't work. You may think so, but it will go wrong at some stage.
I'm afraid I'll have to put up a new version ...

Thanks Gerard.


PS: I think this goes wrong somewhere at answering Yes to "Load previous settings". So, it does that, but obtains 0 because officially the feature is already in there all the way, but doesn't work properly. The default of 2500 (as how it's put in there) is thus overwritten by your "yes" answer.
That still doesn't explain where the 700 comes from, but I guess that's somewhere "hard coded" in the program due to testing.

Hmm ... In the Settings Area there's a disabled field "Split large files". I assume that's on 2500 ?

Furthermore, are you sure you upgraded all files ? Please look at the date of XXEngine3.exe. It should be from yesterday.

Peter

Hi Joerg,

I you still there ?
I wanted to have it in in 0.9w-1, but didn't manage.
I will try to do it in the next version ... if you still need it.

Peter

Ok. Done. I hope it works in all cases. Be careful.
Peter

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There are serious reaons to believe that this version is not the best for sound quality. If you are new here and want to experience XXHighEnd for sound quality, please go to XXHighEnd Model 0.9v-7.

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The 0.9w series will be oriented towards the loading of music data and the speed of it, knowing that all has to go into memory first (Engine#3 only).

In this first version it must be stated that many thing have been changed in the area of memory management. Most of it is on behalf of something yet to come, but anyway. Might you suddenly run into (out of) memory problems where before you where ok, please report.
Also, when things seem to have changed according to gappless, or even errors occuring, again please report.

Might you encounter changes in sound quality ... it can ... but then it was unintentional.

• When you have a processor with two cores (hence acting as two processors), loading of tracks to be converted (like from FLAC) at UnAttended Playback will be achieved twice as fast now. When you have 4 cores, this will be 4 times as fast.
  When you use 2 or more cpu chips with 4 cores each, please say so. Currently this is not supported to this respect, but it can be just the same easily.
  All accounts for all types of conversion.
  
  
• Unattendted Playback : Since "caching" is performed on just earlier converted tracks (like from FLAC), the first track playing never was cached. Thus, e.g. changing the digital volume when still at the first track of a list to play had to convert the track again. Not so anymore and playback instantly commences now.
  
  
• Unattended Playback : In the Settings Area there's a new checkbox "Start Engine3 during conversion". Tick that and you are relieved from the misery of waiting for the whole selection to be converted, assuming it just had to (like 50 FLAC tracks selected to play).
  When the checkbox is ticked, right after the first track has been converted, playback commences.
  Note : Because also the processor core will will be used Engine#3 runs in (when appointed so), this just will influence SQ during the loading of the tracks. However, keep in mind that a. it won't disturb playback and b. the priorities as you assigned them will have been applied at that moment. This latter means that the Player Priority (being XXHighEnd) will be assigned as soon as Engine#3 (the Thread Priority) starts playing.
  
  
• Unattended Playback : The End After Track checkbox so far only worked at Attended Playback. Now it does also for Unattened Playback. Just bring up XXHighEnd, tick the checkbox (quit XXHighEnd or let it be) and the currently playing track will be the last one playing.
  
  
• It is now allowed to tick before mentioned checkbox even before Play is pressed and its setting is applied to the next (and now only) track playing. Before, playback wouldn't even start in that case.
  Note that while this applies to Attended Playback just the same, its importance unveils for Unattended Playback, where before it just wasn't possible to play one track only from the Playlist (ok, but the last one) in Unattended mode. So now, tick that checkbox and only one track will play.
  
  
• Apple .AIFF files are now supported, them being similar to uncompressed .WAV.
  Please note that this was tested on 16/44K1 only, which testing also has been rather briefly, and not on a various means of sources;
  As known from .WAVs this may differ very much, thinking of diverse ripping software, tagging means, and downloads from in fact unkown source. So :
  Please be careful especially if you are using the Digital Volume without preamp.
  AIFF albums appear in white text in the Library Area, just like WAVs.
  When an AIFF track plays, the Apple logo is shown (at the place where FLAC and MP3 icons will appear when in order).
  
  
• As it appeared, when using XXHighEnd for the first time, you might click "Yes" on the question to load Previous Settings, that producing some - in fact rather normal - error messages, but that sequence implying no proper presets for the useage of Engine#3 (amongst which not even selecting Engine#3 as the default Engine). An attempt has been made to solve this in a more useable manner.
  Also some messages were added, pointing out more what to watchout for, like the necessity to slide up the Digital Volume slider, which has a default so low that no (static) sound will be produced from it.
  From this, it also was determined that when you are used to install XX in a new folder for each new version, answering Yes to the question to load the Previous Settings will never workout as intended. At least that is how it looks like. On this matter (and if so indeed) try to get the habit of installing XX always in the same folder, after you saved the previous version into another folder. So, just the other way around. This most definitively allows for loading the Previous Settings at a new version (which still btw may produce errors on Settings which just weren't there in a Previous Version (hence they cannot be reloaded).
  
  
• Although not certain, most probably the combination of not running XXHighEnd as Administrator (running XXHighEnd as Administrator is advised for several reasons) and installing XX in a sub folder from \Program Files\ can give errors on the creation (or useage) of the TemporaryData sub folder in XX. Due to this, the TemporaryData sub folder is now created only when needed (which currently is about Logging (Settings Area) only), while then first some messages are presented to warn you about this phenomenon.
  
  
• When a track in the Playlist was clicked twice, it could happen that an error message about an illegal path showed. This has been solved now.
  
  
• Similarly, when the Playlist was quickly browsed an error message containing "DBNull" could appear. Also solved.
  
  
• When albums were addressed to from within XXHighEnd, like them being in the Playlist Area, they were locked and couldn't be renamed etc. from within normal Explorer. Now they can (but obviously will imply other anomalies, when they're at the same time known to XXHighEnd).
  
  
• As it appeared, from of the ever new Setting "Show Data" and on from there in subseqent XX versions, the Previous Settings couldn't be loaded at a new version. This has now been solved.
  Note that the Log Activities checkbox also reloads the settings now, of which earlier was explicitly stated it would not.
  
  

Do not download below zip, which contains a bug.
Please go to 0.9w-1a.

Pedal, your link isn't working ...

Hi Dave,

To be honest, I'm not sure.
I am fairly sure at least some special driver will be running/needed in order to access that NAS drive(s), and you will have some additional Ethernet traffic floating about. I can't tell the effect of that, and the only thing I can tell (but who can't) is that normal Ethernet traffic won't bother you.

The driver will have (or can have if you want) a normal driver letter, so no problems to be expected there.

May the drives (be able to) spin down, don't ask me whether *that* works out allright. I think it should be okay, but just the same a part of the system may be stalled, waiting for them to spin up, and if that part is the wrong part, no sound (until they spin).

The most probable for a negative could be the way the drives are organized internally. I mean, chances are fairly high that the method for storage used is so that the sequence of files is not according the alphabet, but according the time of creation. And *that* is something you sure won't like (it is just way inconvenient). How to know this in advance ? ... I don't know. Test it somewhere where it is running I guess.

Peter

I just exported a .WAV to .AIFF and the header is not recognized ...
The files are exactly as long, so it can't be a big deal.

Despite this, please note that currently I can't upgrade (some heavy changes going on), which I hope will be next Sunday.
Peter

Hi,

Although I must say I never tried it, I would say AIFF is the same as WAV, as long as it is the Little Endian version.
I must honestly say, that at not being sure, the way the question was put "AIFF/WAV" in one go, made me say yes. Of course the least which should happen (at trying) is rename the .AIF file to .WAV (XX for sure won't recognize the file otherwise).

Nah, I am not sure. I just Googled a bit and indeed renaming workED. In some old days.
I guess you have to try (I don't own AIFF file). It can only be a matter of header data being different. Be careful when it plays, because there's also footer data, and when that is interpreted as music data, you'll have static noise. So when it seems to work, try a few carefully.

In the mean time I will dig up some .AIF files and try myself, and also provide an official means for conversion hence support. May take a few days though.
Peter

Hi,

As just has been confirmed by a second user, Vista has some special rights I did not take into account;
Since the latest two or three versions a sub folder \Temporary Data\ is created within the XX folder;
When this XX folder is in \Program Files\ you don't have rights to that folder, and the program errors at startup or a first quit, and then can't be used.

Until this is solved in the nest version, don't put XX in the \Program Files\ folder !

Peter

Haha, not much strange to that !
First of all one has to learn what to listen for. And, if that didn't happen yet it is exactly your experience what happend (only the "tapping feet" decides).

Ok, there are so may things one can explicitly listen for, there's hardly a beginning.  One of them thoug, and this equals your experience more or less, is listen from even e.g. the right from the right speaker. The more the left speaker is heard (or even the left of that) the better it is. Judging like this is much more easy than sitting on the sweat spot !

This is all related to "phase linearity".
It works for depth too, altough some rules apply for the angle you're listening to then. Just try it : when all is right there is a diaoginal line where all sounds as good. The further you are away, the less critical this gets, but the more fuzzy the stage becomes. All kind of "normal" btw.

Might you be interested : I hardly ever listen on the sweet spot to listen or judge;  Just because much more is possible.
Whereever you are, the instruments should play on the same position ...