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14641
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: 09-u1 & Stello DA 100 external USB DAC
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on: February 23, 2008, 11:48:54 pm
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This report makes SeVeReD a little sad :/ Contact your dealer ?  This again is about what is to be expected from the USB DAC Audio device ... I vote for that this is just correct ... Please keep in mind ... my TwinDAC+ reports exacly the same USB connected. It's in the specs as well. Still, SPDIF connected it's 96/18 and it really does that (to spec again). |
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14646
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Can't play with Terratec phase 24FW
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on: February 23, 2008, 06:58:13 pm
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I was trying to make clear to not try any "DAC Needs 24" setting, and only 32. I estimate the 24 can't be right (wrongly reported by Vista / the Terratec driver) and when you try to play with it, things go severely wrong. Before it couldn't come that far because something else in Vista said nothing was possible. Don't forget the Double option (and "Needs 32") which I'd put my horses on. Also keep in mind : it would be the most logical for a DAC (Soundcard) which supports 24 bits to play 96K files. 88.2 would do too then. And otherwise ... try a genuin 96/24 file now ...  |
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14647
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Can't play with Terratec phase 24FW
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on: February 23, 2008, 06:24:33 pm
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It is plain impossible that *and* Needs 24 *and* needs 32 is supported. So put your bets on 32 only, and try now.
Note that it can do "more" than before. If you only have errors now while before something played, then I must be careful with what I did.
So please let know ...
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14651
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Can't play with Terratec phase 24FW
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on: February 23, 2008, 05:32:16 pm
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PS: Suggestion: put a save settings so when it crashes i dont loose everything. Yeah, this is annoying. But it really is getting the habit of -after a new version- set your settings, and after that click Off. Then it's saved. Not that I ever thought of that myself before I lost my settings for whatever "test" reason. On the BSOD ... do you really get that ? normal Vista, or SP1 maybe ? If you can be more precise on the error(s) maybe I can help ? Also, let's wait a bit please. Maybe others have that too now, because I *do* something which is not completely legal (but it works okay here for the 3 soundcards I have here).  |
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14654
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Download Area and Release Notes / XXHighEnd Model 0.9u-1 (Support for Upsampling to 24 bits + DAC Analysis)
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on: February 23, 2008, 04:23:00 pm
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It is strongly advised to not use your system without a preamp (or the pre-amp at max volume for that matter) if you or your speakers won't be able to handle a situation that e.g. the file contains wrongly formatted data or otherwise - because of which cracks may emerge with an energy beyond imagination.All Vista / Engine#3 : The following has been added to this version : - DAC Analysis, meant to find out what Exclusive Mode really supports for your Soundcard/DAC.
- Set the "DAC is" combobox to "DAC Test" as indicated in the picture below (the "DAC needs" section does nothing now).
- Load at least one track in the Playlist Area. This is not allowed to be a 24 bit file !
- Press Play.
The various theoretical possibilities will be examined now, and when finished Notepad will pop up showing you what is supported and what is not. See the second picture below for an example.
Please ignore the number on the second line.
If you like, when you have more Audio Devices, subsequently make them the Primary Device (as usual for XX to play with Engine#3) and repeat the test.
You can type the name of the Audio Device in the Notepad area and save it under a name accordingly for later reference.
The XXModeSupport.log can be found in your XX folder when needed.
Please help : When you encounter a "Supported" for a "24" in the second column (meaning "DAC needs 24 bits" in the given situation (never mind "given"), would you be so kind to post the Notepad output in the forum please and tell what Soundcard and/or DAC this is ? Thanks..
Edit : Currently this only works with normal WAV files (Cue files too, but that's rather slow). So no FLAC and no MP3 ! (or you'll get errors).
- Compared to the previous 0.9u-0a version, your Soundcard/DAC will now allow for different modes of Playback. Also see above.
Note : Shared Mode is *not* supported anymore because it brings nothing additional (not in this 0.9u-1 version), is the most confusing, and in fact s*cks all over. For that matter, there is no reason anymore to go to Vista's Sound Properties - Advanced and try settings overthere. They are completely ignored now ( ).
- When "DAC needs" is set to 32 (!!!), hence the "DAC is" > 16 bits, Doubling and Upsampling (to 88K2) is supported now.
Important : Most often Upsampling takes place in the 16 bit domain, as was the case with XXHighEnd before. Now, "genuin" Upsampling is performed as soon as the DAC has more than 16 bits (17 would be sufficient theoretically). BUT :
Upsampling *and* using the Digital Volume Control should really not be applied together !!
Why ? because the "genuin", or better, "balanced" upsampling will be destroyed by it. Anyway in my theories the Upsampling of the Samplerate (2x) including interpolation to the proper amplitude values (right in between two adjacent original 44K1 samples' amplitude) will be destroyed by the Digital Volume. And just the same : when an e.g. 18 bit DAC allows for the headroom to do this, attenuating with 12dB already has removed that necessary headroom.
When your DAC is 24 bits and play it so ("DAC needs" is set to 24 (but see below topic for 24 !) or 32), YMMV and it kinds of depends how much you attennuate.
On the other hand : When you use your system with the Digital Volume set to -0dB (hence the Volume Control is analogue), Upsampling will be way better than before hence will not be able to show the anomalies from before, thinking of no headroom at all when the amplitude varies less than 2 decimal in two adjacent samples, or varies uneven decimal for that matter (like 3, 5, 7, etc.).
- Referring to the "!!!" in the beginning of the previous topic, a "DAC needs" of 24 and Doubling is NOT supported yet. Also the code doesn't look at it and when the Soundcard/DAC tells it is supported *and* you try it indeed, loud crackle will be the result !! (this is one of the reasons I need to know whether your Soundcard/DAC allows for it anyway, see earlier question).
- XXHighEnd can be played on Windows Server 2008 now and acts like running under Vista. When the Playlist Area does not contain tracks, this will show like Vista/S.
- Although already implemented in 0.9u-0, if everything works out as intended, USB users can now press Next once for playing the next track (Engine#3). Please let know when this is still an issue for you.
- Added a few 48000 samplerate / bitrate combinations plus one 192000 for the combobox "DAC is". Hardly important for now.
The download file is completely at the bottom below.
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14655
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Strange DAC settings
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on: February 23, 2008, 11:48:20 am
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Peter, you told me "upsampling from 44.1/16 to 96/24 is not supported yet".
Then you also said "Strangely enough I can just Double to 88.2/24".
If I play 16/44.1 songs, I can no longer use "double" or "upsample", no matter what my "DAC needs" settings are.
Well, I said that a little differently of course : Strangely enough I can just Double to 88.2/24 (which I have working here now  ) So *I* have that, you don't.  (yet) That you cannot Double or Upsample at all, while before you obviously could, is the strange matter of ... well, I just thought of something ... ! Hehehe, I now realize that before, I set the appropriate settings to ask the DAC for its possibilities ... well, AFTER I ask that to the DAC (driver). This was a kind of quick-tweak to get that running a year ago. Today ... I do that as should, so I set it before asking the DAC. And there it gets rejected now ... So it's my guess if I move *all* the settings to *after* asking the DAC, and let that asking be dummy 44.1/16, it would work. I know, I'm talking to myself here, but I guess I just found the tweak to get things going while now they won't because of "bugs" in that part of Vista. What I will do as well, is create an enumeration of what "your" soundcard will accept for playing. Just all the combinations it('s driver) doesn't reject, and report that. Can save you tons of time. Peter Ok, this all appears to be true ... With my regards to MS ... My "analisys" functionality is finished now, and I managed to get the real merits of what Exclusive can and cannot do. That is, this function does not report anything that -as far as I can see- is not justified, but it still *may* be so that it doesn't report possibilities of the Soundcard/DAC while it actually has them. In that case there's nothing left to do that I can think of at this moment. But first let's see how (in)consistent this reporting now is opposed to what "you" think your Soundcard/DAC is capable of. I have to finish up the code a bit, and I guess within a few hours a 0.9u-1 will be up. Peter |
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