Hey Brian,

This is why I advise you to ALWAYS use test&copy function in EAC...............

If you are going to rip with either EAC or Dbpoweramp do it the proper way, for EAC use the guide in my previous post, for Dbpoweramp you have to look for yourself.

 

Source: http://blowfish.be/eac/Rip/rip10.html#no10f

My 2c,

Before accuraterip, the only way to be sure if your rip was OK, is to do a test & Copy run, then compare both CRC values.
I still do this with EAC, I always use the test&copy function, Cue+Tracks based. (this to get all the info (pre-gaps or Pre-emphasized) from a cd, not talking about audio data)

Before ripping in EAC:

- Detect gaps
- create a Noncompliant-cuesheet (Cue sheets can also contain the PRE flags, meaning the album is Pre-emphasized and will never get the status of lossless when used for pc playback)
- Use test&copy to rip the album (still old habit OK, but that log file is my proof of a 100% accurate rip, it also includes the pre-gaps)

After this I keep the log and cue file in the same folder as the audio files (!!!!), in theory you don't need the original cd anymore.


This is explained http://blowfish.be/eac/Rip/rip0.html

<little of topic>

- I just read juanpmar's thread, and want to add that you don't need internet-connection to check the integrity of your rip on the fly, you can do that later anyway in Cuetools for eq.
  Well you only could need the track naming database, but there are several ways to do this afterwards too.
  I rip the album as .wav first, then use Cuetools to make FLACCL and check accuraterip database, this gives me a log with crc values even if you have drive offsets.
  Cuetools can fix drive-offsets too, EAC 1.0 makes also use of CTDB (Cuetools Database), when an album acceeds >3 proper rips in accurate rip database, the next same rip data will be uploaded to the CTDB, with the future purpose of even repairing an album. (I already repaired several albums to get accuraterip status)

Can be of help sometimes http://eachelper.uphero.com/index.php

- Lately with all those different pressings and mastering-methodes I stumble upon, I find my album on discogs by the catalog-nr (bare in mind not all classical on jazz can be found there)
  Next I copy/paste the discogs link in Foobar using the foo_discogs.dll, this way all info from the discogs site gets tagged in the files at once.

<   >

Having this said, you now have all means to compare different software rips.

I do believe same rips can sound differently, but I do have a problem with blaming it on the ripping means, can we not trust: CRC, md5 or hash values?

Well, a while ago i read an article about md5, some guys managed to get the same md5 value from two different pdf files.....

Personally, I think this resides in the pc means itself.

- Think of how several CD pressing materials or CD-R's can color sound when playback in cd-player, because of laser-reflections, but the data on the CD is the same in all cases.

The big issue is ofcourse: Do I have re-rip all my albums again, if you do it properly as discribed above, I think not.

We all hope to see this issue solved soon ............

Although paying more wont solve the *problem* directly.
its about time rather than money.
 

Hey,

one pair please (willing to buy 2 pair, if needed to get things going)

 

I read in several places that in theory it should be possible to run a pc past post without graphics card.

1. Check the BIOS and disable "stop on error" or "Halt on all errors"" (workaround the HW)
   This option highly depends on the Mobo.
   I think newer mobo's mostly will pass post anyway without a graphics card. (you get some beeps)

2. Maybe after that you can't get into windows, probably windows OS depends on graphics driver,
   then there is a special driver needed to fool Windows.
   A VMware driver (Virtual Machine).
   W7 I don't know ? (most likely it does boot)

You can test this, just setup a working RDC, check your BIOS, remove graphics card, boot.

Roy

Hey,

Peter,

Maybe this is something to look into....

Tango.info

Example

It says every music album has a 14 digit number tagged in, that can not be removed.

Having that 14 digit tag, tango.info gives you all the info you want about an album, incl catalog nr, EAN, GTIN, TINP, Disc ID
which can be used to identify and tag albums thru Discogs, Amazon and using Google.

Giving you not only the right album but even the right album version.

With the nice option to mass tag all this info you'll ever neeed, right into your files.
This way it will even be possible to use extreme short folder names and use compare album options.


Maybe this way you only have to make a template for your remote,
receiving tags from your audio pc or as a gallery in your remote itself, instead of going online for each album.


Best,

Roy

Hey Peter thanks for your reply, hope all is well with you and the family, its been a while.


Actually it is more or less about the future direction, the most simple and "cheapest" solution would be to have just 1 PC, but it needs to be fast, sheer fast.
Because lots of people would like to use that same PC for high-end video purposes too, otherwise "we" need to have 2 super PC's which can be very costly to start off with and also to maintain up-to-date.
Personally I was thinking of creating a dual boot with 2 separate OS's, 1 for audio and 1 for video (or gaming).

Thats brings us to the Question, is it better to maybe leave out the GPU completly, OR is it possible to maybe add another one in SLI for eg. (XX SQ will be the most important thing ofcourse)
Regular people will normally never buy 2 PC's for just media purposes alone, hmmm, curious which way this obstacle brings us.

First of all the time you spended on the remote solution, is much much appreciated, really great job and much rewarding when it all works properly, belief me, baring in mind the current and hopefully almost obsolute xx UI.
When the remote is finished and fully functional, really no one is going back to the cr*ppy UI because it comes in handy or something like that.
This would be mayor step forward in functionalty and takes the xx project a little out of the geaky scene, I guess.

So Peter get it right and please take your time to do so, we need simple panes and decent buttons, like 8 or 10, 2 panes for the buttons (1 for common function, 1 for other settings), a gallery pane, lyrics pane, a coverart and additional info pane, a tracks pane, etc. (but hey thats just me, maybe some things are open for discussion)
so please no more dodgy buttons etc, also its best to just focus on how things work out on a tablet (Laptop is too clonky, Iphone is too small) to let things work right, just get an Apple or Samsung tablet, belief me.
Next, its also best to install a proper pre-tweaked android ROM version as OS, their are lots of projects on the internet about this subject, most important tweaks are already applied for you,
such as Lag-fix and reducing the memory size by half and therefore get a nice speed upgrade, to get you going, this gives you a more response controller,
the overall "feeling" will be much better and feels more natural, no lagging anymore.
Its not that dramaticly but it wont takes much effort, its mostly already done for you. (or look for "Android Kitchens" to do some ROM tweaking yourself)
And mostly they also removed the sneaky spyware which still resides in android, if you know what a keylogger does, well this is just the same, its a standard part of the Android-ROM, nice huh.


haha, who will come up the first app for xx ?


Well i am done typing for today...........
Later


Roy

Most people will think FINALLY a proper remote control for the PC.
Well indeed it is, the remote UI (User Interface) has many, many advantages/functionality options I will mention later on.

But lets think a little longer about those 2 words "remote" and "control".

It started out with Unattended playback and later on the minimize OS functions in XX,
as we know everything has an effect on SQ matters, we can easily say "less is more".

As we all know for eg. recently Nick put a lot of effort and time in this subject of "stripping-to-the-max", the outcome well we could have guessed it, again "less is more".

But the opposite is true about the current functionality.

- First I really hate this, enjoying my music, when on many occasions I had enough of the album i was litening too,
  didn't made my mind up what to play next, so when in Unattended mode its inconvenient (SQ-wise) to take a dive in my XX gallery.
  After you have found an album to play this is mostly followed by a minimal silence of 30sec or more, well what is 20-30 seconds, not that much.

  But this is about "control", I ratter don't want to get out of my chair to select another album, right!?
 
  And the genius that he is, yea you Peter, came up with the only proper solution, a "not SQ destroying" tablet-pc as remote control to serve us "the people".
  I guess, a modded XX UI with probably a kind of xx-gallery and all network functions still working while playing music.
  So now its possible to select an album while still enjoying music + all the network functions still working,  for eg. go thru an album review online, just for fun.
  Also, now its finally possible to get a decent functional 'playback timer' or 'remaining time function' working.
  Not to mention all the "geaky" functions most other software players have, are again for the grasp. (think, LastFM, displaying syncronised lyrics (yea it really works), visualisations are possible again.
  Like I said before, no restrictions, compleet "CONTROL" over your setup instead of the other way around.


  But indeed a remote control is very handy, cool and a "gods" gift to the people, but..... there is that word again, "Remote".
  Think about it for a second!

- I did somewhat longer than a second, but its not hard to understand that this is pure and simple about taking the nessasary steps to take SQ to the next level.
  Everybody thinks, wow nice, an Ipad remote control, wait till my friends see this and indeed so right they are.


BUT .... couldn't it be so that:


- Most xx users have likely a second PC next to their dedicated and costly audio pc, mostly a dedicated audio pc that most hardcore gamers would be jealous of, ....all that to play music
  I hear *them* say, what a shame.

- So, Peter, Nick can we still minimalize the audio pc more? (HW and SW wise)


You tell me........

1. Do we still need a GPU-card in there, when having remote access working ?
   The GPU-card takes most power, needs most cooling and costs the same as an Ipad, to keep the GPU cool we use expensive watercooling solutions to iliminate the need for cooling fans.
   Because some also tend to use that PC as HTPC or gaming, its a costly and capable machine afterall, what was it...........dual CPU HT 24 cores etc. etc.
   "The" machine is doing most of the time actually nothing (as should), all that processing power getting wasted for the purpose of ..... what? converting some FLAC's to wav.
   Its like going wild and taking a Ferrari to Madurodam, for some site-seeing on steroids.

   Now what about stripping some more, make a Minimalist Standalone Audio PC and keep all that processing power in your staggering working Horse, The HTPC (no, not the Ferrari),
   for more fun stuff like extreme gaming (60fps) or for eg. frame-interpolation in movies going from 24fps to a staggering +200fps, creating on the fly the needed intermediate frames, its like upsampling for movies.
   its to avoid something called Judder, you do know those fast movie action-scenes its like you experience "interfalls" in those fast scenes, just not enough frames to keep up with the action scenes or great nature scenery's.

2. Could it be possible to run the XXHE UI on the HTPC, to do the pre-process stuff, network stuff and as the residing place for your stack of music HDD's.
   Superfast pre-process using both CPU and GPU with OpenCL, to do a 1 second conversion and than send it over the network to the audio-pc.
   Which means, you have 24/7 control over your hdd's to do better things like acting as a "semi-public" music server, thus now we are taking all the audio hdd's out of the audio-pc? (incl. the SSD gallery disc)
   OK, think a step further, can it be so, correct me if i am wrong here, that the XX UI runs on the HTPC and XXEngine3 runs on the audio-pc, imagine playback won't stop untill the HTPC finished the pre-process task
   and its ready to send the pre-processed audio data over the network to the audio-pc, using for eg. a router to trigger the "green LAN" port to wake up, or something like that.
   So, with the idea, that the Ipad is not controlling the music pc but rather takes control over the superfast HTPC, which eventually means the audio-pc has no need for processing power at all,
   this could now be a simple and cheap pc and not being constant under construction and won't wear off that fast.

3. So Nick, yea..... hopefully more stripping to do, if possible, remove GPU-card + watercooling (a real money saver), reducing the power concumption and iliminating cooling (or fan) problems.
   CPU wont need a fan, just a block alu, cpu does no demanding tasks anymore. you wont even need a case fan anymore + PSU can be very simple, clean and high-effenciency and no fans are needed anymore.
   Next, how many hdd's do you currently have in your music PC, Peter ? a whole lot, having them in there will most likely never work out for the better.
   And dont forget, no more need for: monitor, keyboard and Mouse. Removing all that HW will most likely reduce the needed software and driver stuff. (maybe more OS tweaking possible, closing ports and such)


4. Unattended to the max, yea, the audio pc only sees some "daylight" when letting 700MB per album of audio data in, or selecting a next track, or volume changes.
   (this in consideration, I dont know what the response time will be for functions like that).


5. Can you explain a bit, at what stage the upsampling stuff takes place, I thought this was a pre-process, which I assumed wrong.




OK, thats all for now....



Roy


:added later:

Q: If you use a 2TB OS drive in the audio-pc, which can easely hold 2800 pre-processed albums, why deleting them directly after playback ?

2800 albums can be very big favorites gallery, or........
Just a thought.

Hey Peter,

Is it possible to use OpenCL (CUDA)
in the preprocess to speed things up dramaticly.

for eg.
It can convert flac to wav (with my nvidia 9800 gtx)
2-3 times faster than my overclocked quad-core Q9550.

So use CPU and GPU together in the preprocess.

????

Roy

What about DC-offsets in recordings?

They can be removed ofcourse, but this needs high-pass filtering.

And the steap high-pass filtering could lead to problems, did you ever experiment with that, Peter?
Or is there nothing to gain and just makes it worse?
And what about removing everything under 20Hz?


Roy

hmm,

I dont dare to say right now, but you are probably right
and it remains the same as RDC.

Hey,

Its possible to make a webremote.

Using .html script to make a webpage on C drive (remote.html)
together with browser (browser.html) (for searching xx gallery)

Then using jquery Java for nice UI layout
http://jqueryui.com/

Adres on Phone/IPad browser for eg:
http:// IP-adres: port / remote.html

Cheers,

Roy

Up to the job Peter??

44.1,  88.2,  176.4, 352.8 Khz

48, 96, 192, 384, 768 Khz

 

First:

When 8CH NOS1 is needed is it possible to have actually 2 Nos1's 4ch, just as you are building right now ??

NEXT:

What about using 2 PC's instead of 1 -  1 for left channel 1 for right channel
This way you can and will eliminate all interlinks, speaker cables + later on also almost all Powercables and redux the mains-outputs locations to 2, and dont have to buy strange mobo's with 2 CPU's,double RAM + more choice in mobo!!! , easier on pc when implementing software X-overs, no vga needed, everything is twice as fast.
So you have to buy 2 PC's OK, Just ad up the price of your speakercables and interlinks.
And think of one ring (PC) to rule them all, display, gallery, internet,wifi,portible solutions or the idea of a tablet.
Hell xx can run on any computer any os, no performance is needed.
Put all mains switches in software, so power on everything and power off everything.
volume control will be faster and fills up the task of balance control too.

+ I think now the task is easier to build an (server) OS just for audio, when maybe asking students in Eindhoven.

Let me know what you think of this Peter.......maybe you just say its a stupid idea......i dunno

Just see it as brainstorming an architecturual update as how a system ougth to be, all is there....and twice as fast always
With the idea of always needing 2 places to put your speakers, put the rest there as near as possible in modules, bypass the current audio ouputs and mains input in your equipment.
these tweaks are easely reverseable and can be done locally.

The architecture should be like this:

4 cubes left and 4 cubes right, I can even design those AND have them made, OK you have to do some tweaking to let it all run hardwired.

2 Cube amp
1 cube NOS1
1 Cube PC
(included centralized mains, so no need for power-cables)

Actually i dont need those casings and "impressive" and very costly looking connections.
Who needs them, yea the show-offs.
My idea, When music becomes so real and just as being there, the cheery on top would be in the Q, where is your "equip"??
Answer: It has evolved into a system leaving all snake-oil and marketing out.

If people are interested in having REAL proper CNC custom casing/cubes in all styles and materials.
especially when also using gainclones and such.
As you all might find out already: there are no proper PC casings nor amp casings or NOS 1 casings, forget even fitting it in a certain style.
I have the backdoors in the smartest city in the world, BRAINPORT,DESIGN CITY, EINDHOVEN.

In this case relative small money gets you everything just as you want.


Roy

Well I actually made my point here, thank you.

You judge, I can't, you get it.

its indeed uncalled for, ISNT IT
thats all

You actually learned something today, you can leave the bottum part of original post out, its fine this way

sorry this was needed to make my point, now you understand how that feels.

roy