I've learned that you do not realize you are missing anything in SQ until you hear how much better it can be.  Then in retrospect you realize the limitations of what you had before.

The universal experience with friends who listen to music at my home is that they never realized the limitations of their systems until they heard my system.  I tell them about XXHE and NOS 1a; they look at the Phasure box and say "strange looking!" to which I respond form follows function.

I expect W10 and XXHE 2.05 will be an improvement.  One reason for not hearing a big change with Intona could be that I still have music on a USB drive, and so things are not quite optimal.

I am interested however in what people are doing respect to everything downstream of the DAC.  Speakers could end up limiting any improvements on the DAC/player.   I'm now using the Linkwitz LX521 active speakers: dipole with 2 10" woofers, lower midrange, upper midrange and two tweeters.  Would love to compare these with the BD Design speakers, but there is no opportunity to hear the BD Design speaker here in San Francisco--or is there?

Anyone else using Intona with W8--which is what I am doing at present.  I'll try this again, but the difference between just using the Clairixa cable, and using the Intona device with a cheap, short USB cable between PC and Intona is not very dramatic.  Waiting for OS HDD to try further optimization of SQ.

Peter,

Not sure if Paypal payments will go through.  I just made one for the HDD and cable and it seemed to go through, but maybe you will not receive it.  Let us know.

Ramesh

Posting this just in case there are other newbies like me figuring this out.  I found the "Get Activation Code Offline" option and generated the XXActivate.txt to send to sales at Phasure. 

Fixed the sound.  I had accidentally selected the wrong device.  Really stupid!!!  Working on activation now.

Apologies again for a question from a newcomer. 

I downloaded 2.03a, extracted to proper location (XXHighend\2.03), and am now trying to: (a) get it running and (b) activate it.  I have been running 2.00 prior to this.

Using my 2.00 settings on the 2.03a demo (except for things that the demo version does not allow), I am unable to get sound.  File plays with no sound.

If I press the activate text, I get the screen with the Paypal icon and a place to enter the activation code.  I'm on an XXHE PC not connected to the internet.  The instructions online suggest that the activate button should get me to a URL that I could copy and activate on a PC connected to the internet. 

Selecting the Paypal button gives me an alert box saying "Unhandled exception has occurred in your application" which seems to occur because of not having a network connection.

Wondering if anyone has experienced the above scenario (s) and any help on how to proceed to get the upgrade to 2.03a working.

I am looking to use power line ethernet between the NAS and XXHE PC.  Does anyone have any experience with SQ and power line ethernet.  I am assuming that there will not be a problem.  The NAS will be in a media closet downstairs, the XXHE PC is upstairs in a part of the house that is not currently wired for ethernet.

Thanks everyone, and thank you Peter.  I will write up on my listening impressions in a short while.  I'm using the Linkwitz Orion speakers, and also completing the LX521 in a few days.  8 channels fo chip amps. 

Sorry if this is old ground, but having just acquired the NOS 1a, I am still trying to make it sound as best as it can.  The DC offset reads +04.7 and -07.0, which I am assuming is outside the recommended +/- 20 mV.  I have tried various attempts at turning off/on Switch 2, and the DAC itself.  Always the offset remains as shown.

Is there something else that anyone has tried that I am overlooking?

Thanks for the help.

Ramesh

Peter, thanks for pointing out that I needed to reboot in normal OS mode, not minimized OS mode.

Here's what fixed it for me.  De-selected minimized OS in XXHE.  Removed USB mouse during shutdown.  After reboot in normal OS mode, the PS2 mouse started working.  Selected minimized OS and restarted again.  PS2 mouse still works.

Pure PS2 mouse, no adapter

Hans,

I'm running Windows 8, not sure if this is an OS related issue.  I've looked on-line, and all the fixes suggest disabling the mouse, disconnecting and restarting.  The problem is that the mouse does not even show up in the Device Manager to be able to do anything.

Ramesh

Just bought an XXHighEnd PC and NOS 1a from a member, and am trying to set everything up.  One issue I have is that the PS2 mouse does not work.  It is not recognized--no mouse shows up in the Device Manager.  Sometime a stationary pointer shows up and does not move; other times there is no pointer at all. 

I can plug in a USB mouse and the mouse shows up and works.  Wondering if there is BIOS setting I need to check or some setup to get the PS2 mouse to be recognized.  The machine is running Windows 8 as shipped from Phasure.  Thanks for any help.

Not sure if anyone else has experienced this.  I am using XXHE 1.186a on Windows 7 (Professional) laptop (Sony Vaio Z Series) with 8 GB memory.  I have had no issues playing 16/44.1 files upsampled to 24/88.2 with my Empirical Audio Overdrive DAC.

Main usual settings are: Q1/3/4/5 = 6/1/1/1; SFS=2.0; Max = 60; minimized OS.

However I have a problem with high resolution files: 24/96 as well as 24/88.2.  Play stops between tracks.  Very occasionally play will continue across tracks.  If I wait a while, I will get an error saying either that "data did not arrive on time" or "Engine #4 failed to start".

I've tried various settings changes as follows:

- Q1 from 6 to 20
- SFS from 1.0 to 4.00
- Max size from 60 - 120

Nothing however has worked so far. 

I'm really new at this, so I suspect there is much to be learned, but wondering if anyone has some thoughts or has encountered (and hopefully fixed) this issue.

Ramesh

Wow! Wow! Wow!  I've spent about a week now listening to various albums, and the sound with XXHE is really astounding!  I imagine everyone on this forum has already experienced this, but I'm still amazed because I had always imagined that the sound I had before was about as good as it could get.  It does make me realize that the Linkwitz speakers are extremely good, and I think a lot of Orion/LX521 owners have no idea how good these speakers can sound with a really good digital front end.  I should get my activation mail soon, which will let me try additional settings, and then the PC + NOS1 DAC are next.

Ramesh