Hi Peter,

thx a lot for all these infos about the LAN switches. All these issues are much clearer for me now and I understand well why it's acting the way it does.
So version 2.09 is working now and it's pretty impressive. I will write my comment soon into the related topic.

Yes, fast volume switching and jumping to the next song is great! Thanks for that.

Kind regards
Richard

Hi Peter,

thx a lot for your fast response. I did it as you suggested and copied a proper 14393.vhd file over the corrupted one.
Corrupting of the OS occured after I copied all files of a backup of the XXHIGHEND folder, which I have done two month ago, over the actual folder XXHIGHEND. I didn't even download the complete 2.09 rar file.

Yes, I also had the problem with the blocked files. But since I know about it, this is easy to resolve.

What I realized today:
As reported before, I have got a special LAN setup since a pretty long time: audio PC, music PC and LAN are directly connected to my router, the music PC even through Wifi only. And that's always working perfectly.
The only point that came up today is:
After moving out of Min.OS and back in again, the audio PC lost the LAN connection to my NAS (that's always done just with the local IP number of my NAS). Maybe this problem is connected to my settings in "Services and OSD". To optimize SQ, "Keep LAN Services", "Persist", "Keep PAN services" and "Keep Wifi-Direct Services" are all switched off. And that works great. But when I go out and back into Min.OS, the LAN connection to my NAS is lost, probably because of these settings. So, I believe, that this optimization should be done after already moved to Min.OS.
What do you think about that Peter? Could it be like this?

One final question:
Is it ok to paste the update files into the XXHIGHEND folder during Min.OS operation? I believe, I read something like this somewhere in the forum.

Kind regards
Richard

Hi Peter,

unfortunately I found this topic right now and not already yesterday, when I obviously ran into the same problem.
As I wrote to you in my email yesterday, I got into deeper troubles furtheron, after I first got out of Min.OS and then copied back all files from my backup of the XXHIGHEND folder (version 2.07) to get it run again. Now I cannot switch back to Min.OS any more.

Kind regards
Richard

YES, 3G IS AN AMAZING UPGRADE!!!

I was not at home during the summer, so I had a two month break without listening to this high level of SQ. Coming back home I installed my 3G upgraded NOS1-a right a way. And the first impression was WOW!!!  I never before had these great basses.
Soon I relaized all the incredible improvements of SQ in varous aspects:
higher precision, clearer soundstage, better basses, all together a significant fuller body of sound with higher precesion. Just great.

There is one point, which maybe was not mentioned before (I didn't read all the post though):
As I reported some months ago, I had kind of a instability of sound when running the NOS1-a for a longer time. After about 5 hours or so, the sound became imprecise and after a day or even more "smearing".
So I had to switch off and on my NOS1-a after a couple of hours to get the good SQ back again.

With the 3G UPGRADE THIS BEHAVIOUR IS GONE!
There is no need to switch it off and on frequently. It seems to be just the opposite: After switching off and on, the NOS1-a 3G need some minutes to deliver again its best.

3G IS A MUST!!!

Richard

Hi folks,

I was off from this forum for some time. The reasons for that are that 1) I had to listen to music with much lower SQ on my sailboat in Croatia for some weeks and 2) I found a way to keep SQ in my living room with Stealth Mach II and NOS1-a constantly on a pretty high level. More on that further down in this post.

Before that I tried different USB ports on the back side of my Stealth and yes, they seem to produce quite different SQ. So maybe it's just a plug-in/plug-out effect. Something similar happened with plugging in and out the Intona, as described before.

I will never forget the very odd way the new Stealh Mach II behaved after I had installed and listened music through it for the first time. Taking the Intona in or out had such a huge impact on SQ, what's still amazing for me.
I still wonder, why a new PC needs such a long burn-in time, what was also reported by others. So I guess there is something weard and somehow unknown going on through the USB connection.

And there is probably another effect, Peter was describing in a post some month ago: some static load of electricity (no sure about my Englich here) on the output of the NOS1-a towards the preamp (or amps).

I usually let the audio PC and the NOS1-a running for a long time I just switch off my tube preamp and amps when I don't play music.
I and found out that SQ became worse after a day so or even already after some hours, when the audio PC and the NOS1-a are never switched off. After 3 days the sound became really bad, smearing low dynamics, enoying...

So, what I found out and I am practizing since about two month with amazing success:
With everthing switched on, preamp and amps too, I switch off the NOS1-a for about 10 seconds. Before that I put the volume control of my preamp to a lower level, so the noise and clicks coming through the speakers right after swiching off the NOS1-a don't are not too loud.

This easy to do precedure always perfectly cures the system. Maybe it has a double effect:
1) The USB connection gets reinitialized and
2) the static load on the output side of the NOS1-a gets completly unloaded what you can hear very well for a second or two.

After doing it, SQ always is improving a lot and is on such a high level that didn't try anything else after I had started doing it.

Therefore I don't know, if this effect would be the same without the preamp and amps switch on. I also didn't do any more testing with plugging in and out something on the USB ports of the audio PC. And I have no intention to put the Intona back again into the USB line, because I know, that won't be better.

There is one thing I will do after reading the recent posts in this topic: I will try the front USB ports. Maybe there will be a further improvement of SQ. We will see....

Kind regards
Richard

Something more about:
Taking out the RAM-OS SSD disk:
It's my impression taking it out is followed by some distortion, but after some minutes SQ becomes better and better, finally significantly better than with the SSD disk in.
So, could it be that Windows is busy for some minutes searching the lost disk?

Something I forgot to mention in my post above:
When I did this afternoon the rebooting of the audio PC and switched the NOS1a off and on (one right after the other, so more or less simultanously), XXHE didn't see the NOS1a any more and switched to the standard audio driver.
The NOS1a was switched on for sure, because I did the DC offset setting. It needed some time to bring the communication back to work:
- check the USB cable
- switch the PC off completly and restart it
- try another USB port on the PC
- switch the NOS1a off and on again
- and so on...
Finally I plugged off and on the power cable of the NOS1a, set the DC offset once more and then it worked.
So... it seems that I mayne have got some kind of an instability on the USB connection(?). But it was the first time that something like this happened in my setup.
Peter, as you described in your last post it might be that something gets capacitivly loaded. Maybe this is also somehow connected to the problem I had starting the new audio PC right after I received it.

Kind regards
Richard

Amplifiers:
In my setup ithis is very likely not related to the amplifiers. I always switch them off over night because they are tube amps (to save tube life time).

Rebooting the audio PC and switch on/off the NOS1a:
My experience from the last days is: It always brought back the perfect sound. I will go on testing it.

Stealth Mach II:
With my new Diva this effect is significantly bigger than with my older audio PC, or it's maybe coming faster. I don't know.
There is another effect with Diva, I didn't have with the old one:
Taking out the RAM-OS SSD drive, is followed by some distortion, espacially when I do that right after booting and listening to the first tracks.
Again, Diva seems to enjoy to have something plugged in
Gladly I will do further investigation in this.

Finally I want to state, that all this is kind of complaining on a very high level.  When I compare the sound in my living room with others, it's sometimes hard to believe how big the difference became. Diva contributes a lot to this.

Kind regards
Richard

Hi Peter, Anthony and others...

thanks a lot to you Peter for your so detailed explanations!

An important point for me is: I am not talking about distortion, hall effects or something similar, when my Diva - Stealth Mach II - is acting in her best way. It's the clear, clean sound what makes it so impressive and so pleasant to listen.
The size of the sound stage is not so important here. So let's discuss that maybe later.
When my Diva is not doing well, SQ is becoming slowly worse and worse. That happens so slowly that you would realise it after hours, or next day or after an even longer period. Especially more complex music tracks with higher frequencies are effected by low precision, kind of smearing, ... what makes the listening pretty anoying.
I never ever used an hifi equipment with such variable SQ!
In her good hours I would give Diva&NOS1a 99 points out of 100 without any doubt about it.
When she is in her bad mood she get's not more than about 10 out of 100. It's a huge drop of SQ. The sound becomes more and more inaccurate. This doesn't happen within 10 minutes, it takes a day or so, I guess, to get her there.
The good point is, that there are means to bring her back to the "make me happy" mode. I mentioned the procedure to plug in / plug out the Intona (in line or into another USB port). I tried this more often recently and found out that it doesn't always help. Sometimes the sound may change even a little to the worse when plugging the Intona into another USB port, but only a little bit (maybe a change 5%). Peter, that's probably the same what you experienced.
This afternoon it was like that, I was not happy at all with the SQ. E.g. Al Di Meolas album "Splendido Hotel" was hard and anoying to listen. Plugging in/out the Intona didn't help. So I thought... ok, it's Windows running on this PC. Maybe it just needs a reboot (as PCs running Windows need it quite frequently, right?). So I rebooted Diva and during that reboot I switched off and on my NOS1a too and set the DC offset as always.
And... bingo! Diva was playing nicely and precisely again. Incredibly good SQ. She was doing that for some hours. No it starts to get slowly worse again.
What I realised later is, that I forgot to take out the Intona when doing the reboot, what's interesting.
All that is still pretty confusing... Hard to say, if these effects depend on somehing physical like the 5V USB voltage or on software activities.
What I will do in the near future: Reboot the the PC and switch off/on the NOS1a whenever I am not happy with the sound. And I will try this with and without the Intona plugged in.
I wonder why I haven't got this idea earlier...

Important point concerning all this: Peter, as you suggested a few month ago I keep all this equipment running for days, weeks and even longer without switching it off even once. What I also do is: I let a long playlist run in lower volume, when I am not listening (amplifiers switched off).
So maybe that's too much for a Windows based system(?). We will see...

Once more I have to state: When my Diva is doing well, I am most likely one of the most happy music listeners on this planet. I am sure we will find a way to make her always going that way.

Kind regards
Richard
Richard

yes, plug in the short one first. But the long one could be even more effective 

My new audio PC got a new name: I call this machine "Diva".
She is a pretty capricious Diva!
When she is in a good mood she plays like hell and creates a sound stage larger than my living room.
When she is not in such a good mood, I have to plug in and out something... that helps 

It's unbelievable how capricious Diva behaves. In the beginning she was harsh and abrasive, she didn't provide me any (b)ass... ha ha ha
Plugging out and in the Intona helped her a lot to become more approachable, but her tonality was still on the hard side for two weeks or so...
Now she sometimes acts preety mellow. And again... plugging the Intona into her other port gets her back into the nailing mood 

I am pretty curious what comes next...

Kind regards
Richard

Hi Peter,

I have to add some more infos to my post above which I wrote about a week ago.

The video card is out since some weeks already. Yes, SQ is better without it. But... the mysterious effects with the Intona described in my last post above are much bigger than with any other sound improving action I did until now. And I am able to repeat that behaviour in an even more strange way:
First I have to report that SQ during the last week was always good, never again hard or harsh as described above. So the burning in still seems to go on in some way.
Th sound became even a bit too mellow, a bit smearing (without the Intona beeing plugged in).
I was thinking about the mysterious SQ improvement with taking the Intona into the USB connection and out again and I tried something new:
I plugged the Intona into another USB port of the Stealth Mach II and without touching the USB cable directly connected to the NOS1a. So the Intona is plugged into the PC without anything plugged into the Intona.
And.... WOW! That brings the same result: an incredible improvement of SQ: much deeper sound stage, amazing holographic sound, best ever listened to! With highres music files this SQ improvement is even more impressive.
It's interesting that SQ stays the same for some time after taking the Intona off again. But after a certain period (I don't know yet how long that takes) the sound gets more mellow and a bit smearing again and the sound stage is not that great any more.
So I wonder what could be the reason for that? The Intona plugged into one of the USB ports seams to take out something evil, whatever that is. Maybe it's taking off some energy from the 5V USB power supply? That's just guessing, I didn't do any messurements, so I don't know.
I tried that 3 times during the last week, always the same incredible effect.
Because of these experiences my listening procedure changes a bit:
As always I let audio PC and the NOS1a being switched on.
When I am not listening to music I now take the Intona off.
So I will be able to enjoy this effect of incredible SQ improvement again by just plugging in the Intona into the other USB port.
Readers of this post may think that I got somehow crazy. But the result of doing it is so impressive that there is no doubt at all about it.

Kind regards
Richard

SHOCKED, CONFUSED, FINALLY HAPPY!

A few weeks ago, I got a new Stealth Mach II from Peter. Before I was using Peter's older audio PC model, which I bought about a year ago.

So I have to report about my various, sometimes strange experiences during the last weeks.

1) SHOCKED!
After unpacking and getting it running in my home network, I was really shocked when I plugged it on to the NOS1a and played the first songs.
What's that??? ... the sound incredible hard, cold, harsh... Extremly strong and clear highs, very good 3D image, but almost no bass... unbelievable!
The first I changed was to take the Intona out of the USB line: much better now, the basses were back, but still too hard and anoying high frequencies.
So I let it run with long playlist to burn it in for days and weeks as adviced here in this topic.
I became better by the time. A week ago I compared it once again with my old audio PC. The new Mach II was there and was even a bit better than the old one.
I also tried different values for the Q parameters and I was kind of happy but not fully convinced.

2) CONFUSED!
All this weekend I was playing a lot with the new Mach II. It was doing well, but something it was still (again?) annoying. Listening was somehow tiring. So I played around with different Q parameters and found out that they seem to act differently compared with my changes a week ago.
Next I activated the Intona once again and wow!!! What a difference, the sound was much softer and pleasant. So I thought, ok the Intona probably is smearing in some way and that makes the difference but not, because:
After taking the Intona out again, SQ was still pleasant, more than that: very, very good, completly different than a few minutes ago, the best I ever listened to!
What I have to add is: The audio PC and the NOS1a are running for weeks now without being switched off. Only the audio PC had been switched off a few times shortly for rebooting, yesterday the last time.

CONCLUSIONS?
Two times takeing the Intona out and back in had an enormous impact on SQ. Imagine it 10 or even 50 times stronger than doing even big changes in the Q settings! So I wonder, what the reason could be for that enormous sudden change of SQ.
I believe that is has something to do with USB data transfer, because doing something with the Intona had such a huge impact on SQ. Maybe it is somewhere here where the burning in of a new audio PC happens.
Or maybe it is caused by something very simple like a bad contact with the USB cable. I am sure, I had it always plugged in well into the same USB3 plug.

HAPPY? - Yes!!!
Nowhere, never ever I experienced such an amazingly great SQ as tonight in my living room. But it took about three weeks with a sudden inexpected quality leap this evening.

Regards
Richard

Hi Peter,

when we met in Holland about 2 weeks ago, I told you that I planned to send you my NOS1-a for the B'ASS and additional upgrades in the beginnig in January, as I will be in Panama in January.
I decided now to do this upgrade later, as read here that there more great inventions to come...

Instead of that I want to order a new audio PC "Mach II..." now. But I am not sure which type to choose. Let's decide this during the next days.

All the best for 2017!
Richard

Hello boleary,

thanks a lot for this hint concerning the antivirus firewall!
I read this already a few weeks ago in another topic and didn't pay enough attention to it, because in general RDC is working fine in my setup, even over wifi and only in certain rare circumstances it failed.

I tried it today and yes, you are 100% right!
After installing special rules in the Windows firewall of my music PC (actually it's only used as a remote PC as all music is stored on the NAS), I now can play in unattended mode with switched off "persist" for the LAN services. The music as always is loaded from my Synology NAS. That's great!
So this contributes once more to even better SQ!
And probably there are more situations where RDC will be more stable now and may reconnect better with unattended playback.

Best regards
Richard

Hi Peter,

thx a lot for your so detailed explanations!

Yes, you are right, "Copy to XX drive by std" is active.

Peter, I didn't answer yet one of your questions from a post above:
"Start playback during conversion" is off and always had been off.

Kind regards
Richard