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391  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: 0.9y-4 - w00t on: November 11, 2009, 12:22:40 am
And turn the "Buzzing" in the music to "Sparkling", get yourself some decent wiring for your reference system, hehe, really!
This will open another dimension.
NOS1 deserves, it. (instead of using those mediocre cables, not your first choice, I know)
Also amps can be closer to DAC and make longer speakercables instead of very long interlinks (not being shielded)
It becomes rather important, at this final stage.
Don't hold your horses on this one.
I can provide you with those, you know that.

 Happy


392  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: 0.9y-4 - w00t on: November 10, 2009, 11:58:07 pm
Ugh,

Latest XX keeps me really interested and more and more drown to the speakers.
Kind of feeding just that kind of music, were latest xx makes that big difference.
Percussion, percussion and percussion.

It doesn't matter what kind, pauk, wood, drums, bongo's but also the metallic ones like bells, triangel and such.
XX really makes me drool, its sounds most honest ever heard, totally unheard of since the digital music age started.
But again, how to judge, when never heard before.

Really sofisticated, every album becomes a gem again.

Peter, let me know your experiences (with psu on dacs, I mean) about how gitars will do distorted or acoustic.
Try some hardrock albums or try something difficult and complex like Zappa.(can your mind cope with that ?)
This is the final frontier, IMO

How do you perceive complex music, with lots of music samples going one at once.
Thus multi-instrument parts of music were speed becomes really important

Especially with those PSU's on DAC's, you lucky bastard

Nice movie quote from The Italian Job:

I get myself,.....,............Burr Bown Dac's, and speakes SO loud, they can blow a woman's clothes of.


393  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: A wish for XXHE on: November 10, 2009, 11:09:21 pm
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PS: To be honest, I didn't dive into the matter at all. So, may it be so that (one of) the stations you mention allow a kind of full "download" before playback commences, then it is another matter and I'd say it is a nice additional feature (and not much of a problem to implement).
 
 
 

There are possible means to do so, hehe.
Whatever you stream can be captured and saved!!
And played from that location

 Happy

But expect some time delay in the music, I guess
394  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: A wish for XXHE on: November 10, 2009, 11:00:18 pm
Welcome and nice question,

Really get on with Windows7, works really well and sounds better anyway.
I think xx does MP3, but I never used it, just try.

I see your thing here, I even had some discussions about this with PeterSt (the old Wizz here)
Believe me I see your point, me lucky user of 100MBs internet speed, but if they stream music why not FLAC (LOSSLESS)??

FLAC is so much better, not only SQ wise, but its that whole thing with MP3 its become a marketing name just like Itunes.
MP3 can sound really good, agreed on that, but its just I don't like it.
Why would men use MP3 anyway, MP3 was a smart choice some years ago when there were no TB discs available.
I have 2TB disc's with only FLAC files each containing almost 6000 albums, so its not a question about enough available space, hehe
I let say, use my internet connection rather creative, Why settle for MP3 when there is also FLAC,APE,WAV,WV,TTA,ALAC,AIFF (or just LOSSLESS) available.
XX canot play all of those but you can convert them, to whatever you wish.

Streaming would become interesting when they do LOSSLESS streaming, think big in this, connecting all music there is on the globe to 1 player.(no more onboard HDD's needed)
Streaming will be the future, but not now, the tools ain't right.(yet)

But there is a solution, stream with other player, then output to seperate folder, let play xx from there.
Have to think this thru, but everything is possible.

But we need LOSSLESS streaming and most people need faster and unlimited ratio internet for that.

And most of those stations have bad connections, lots of drop-outs, xx won't deal with that well, I think

Oh and btw, when hearing xx on a dedicated pc with W7, there is no more listen to it as in "ambient" wise.
You will be shocked (impressed), about the SQ and you will understand why it is we are not that font about MP3.
395  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Wishlist XXHighEnd on: November 10, 2009, 05:06:06 pm
But Keep in mind that,

PrintSpooler service can be off

Accually I need my printer too, but expecting some hassle when installing, with the current service settings.
396  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: Phasure NOS1 listening experience on: November 10, 2009, 02:48:23 am
Quote
Well Roy, a bit late maybe (no, for sure), but thank you very much for describing your experience "en public" which out of all should be honest (as I asked you to, when doing it anyway).

       Its not only about the NOS1 you know, its the whole project by  itself that is intriguing.
       So much nice people here, sharing all info they can find.
       The "you" in the project is really great, "you" can share your opinions, "You" are involved in "your" own project about making it all better.
       AND "you" have to do a little work to set things up the right way, that counts here too a little, but anyway.
       Then there is XX ofcourse especially the latest version, instead of distortion I get "instrument details" WOW and WOW, still works for me
       This IS the next generation of dealing with digital music and the way we bring this in our livingrooms.
       Lots of people don't realize this, their wake-up call will come when hearing (about) this "little" project of Peter.     
       A kind of generation LEAP for me going from CD to XX, just a year ago
            
       Kinda curious what comes from all of this, stories about the NOS1 will be written, compares will be made
       I will not be among the first owners of a NOS1 ($), so will keep track of all that will be written here and elsewere.
       I know what I hear, will they too?
       I am a bit "naked" too here you know, expressing my opinion "en public"
       But feel a little obliged to do so, because I feel greatful versus Peter sharing all his inside and time to explaining the hard things going on in the digital domain.
       Always keeps us interessed with his nice and (not) always understandable posts,
       But don't forget it just starts here, the outcoming of the DAC is not the ending of the project, that is I hope not.\
       Really curious to see how you (Peter) give this a nice "spin", releasing the DAC.
      
       I look forward to an "en public listening day" with snacks, beverages and music ofcourse.
       Setting up a "Perfect system" just for the dutch people, maybe, hehe !?

       But be kind to Peter, he can still decide to just keep the DAC for himself, haha Happy
       So please don't piss him off ?!

Quote
As you know the final PSU (as per design) came late and you missed that. It is running here now, and partly to my own expectations, but for the largest part now ... hmm ... what to say ...

As known by now, it seems that any "minor" theoretical change has a huge impact on sound quality, but where "SQ" as such has become a wrong description. It seems obsolete. Sound Impact may be more adequate, but that is just what it is these days, when starting off with something which seems "right" at the first place.

Now, this is just a PSU to the DAC itself, and not to the I/V (analogue) stage for those who don't know. It is just a PSU to those tiny microvolt necessities a couple of DAC chips have. It is nothing a whatever PSU can't cope with, you should say. Well, it turns out to be different ...

Funnily enough, and as you know, the Arc Prediction stuff brings "shortness". In fact dryness, but technically this is about nomally perceived longer "sounds" being much shorter, therewith giving room to the other sounds coming right after the initial attack etc. of the before sound(s). Now, with this as a recognizeable phenomenon, it just can be shorter again.

Without hearing this, it becomes a kind of hard to explain (also to myself ! ), but it looks like it is giving room to the "singing" of (parts of) instruments. It might be small vibrato, it might be the sheer singing of cymbals (as a by itself more common phenomenon from analogue I guess), and it even seems to create a more psychological "more distance from subjectivity" ... but after a night full of listening and presenting some tracks here to my confirming ears Ciska, we come to the same conclusion : again the most different from before, but only positives to come up with.

Ok, in any more normal situation I wouldn't be able to explain any further to you all, but with the help of Roy's experience I may (remember, everything is relative to a before known situation, or "reference", and what happens here is challenging those references again and again).

So first to Roy : What we listened to is what we'd say is the most approximazation of reality. Whether this was the most interesting is another matter, and here I refer to my own earlier experiences of "the most interesting", but tyering after a couple of hours. This is sure *not* fatigueing as we all know it from digital, but just tyering because you are not able to cope with all the interesting noises and smashes all over. I am serious here.



Damn, I missed that one completly, did I, I kinda explained this phenomenon referring to use the red Black-Gates (BG) to feed to DAC's. (in a PM to you, I believe)
      Many of us know this rather "costly" tweak about using BG as capacitors for power and decoupling of IC's.
      This is were I stopped planning my own DAC, but there was "buzz" in the audio-scene about 3 maybe 4 years ago.
      The Treads were coming in about the use of shunts, those were rather cheap and simple to build, therefore money left over to use just good parts.
      Best of all, you can feed all IC's seperatly. (but its not always easy to work with pre-build PCB, in my case)
      I hope this is what you mean, give all DAC chips their own shunt PSU.
      This would be the cherry on top, would love to hear that change.
      This brings a lot of realism to instruments, this was my experience with the black-gates.
      Really loved the sound of those "red cups", but the use of shunts would be even better.
      Never realized, this still had to be done.
      PCM1704UK's on steroids, hehe

Quote
But beyond "reality" there is another dimension : normal.
This is something in our brains;
Where "interesting" (by now, and as it comes to me) is subjective and in the mean time not good, there is reality as we might like to hear it. It may be about expressed T's at the end of words like mighT or touche(d)T (and mind toucheT does not start with the capital T), which can be perceived as realitiy if we only think the microphone is sensitive. However, this is similar to spitting which can be perceived, which -when heard- of course is reality BUT NOT NORMAL to hear.


      There is more going on in the brain as well (hopefully that is!, haha), this I was trying to explain,
      do you  know the phenomenon were the music is playing really loud (out of a rather anoying cheap cd-player), people talking.
      Normally I would get stressed by just this, but when music is preceived the right way, I can easely listen to loud music and do conversation as well.
      Then I am more at ease or laidback so to say, this is what its all about, it must bring complete relaxation.
      Especially to the brain, if the brain has to cope with all sorts of distraction (distortion), its has to work very hard bringing it back in proportions.
      Peter knows this very good, Why? How is your ear Peter! hehe (one ear shut for long time, sorry bringing this up) tiring isn't your mind trying to cope all day.
      Not hearing dept and such, your mind trying to cope with this as well, your ears trying to focus by turning your head, even without you wanting it.
      Maybe this sounds a bit vague to you, but anyway.
      Why do blind people hear better? this is about hearing sounds in 3D, hear objects in a certain space.
 
      Something else going on in the brain too, everybody has this library in his head of his most special albums, how they "should" sound (or the way you remembered it as so)
      The harshness as I was refering to in the Original post, try to understand that this harshness is gone, yea strange, but what comes in that place (or space) ??
      Yep, another dimention behind it, so not only the harshness is gone but it has openend up gaps that are filled with so much more detail, music really drools out of your speakers.
      As is said somewhere before, you have to learn all your albums again, and best of all you can acually do that because all albums DO sound good again.
      Mind can go on ease and just relax, this will be a new experience to all of us, I know this for sure.
      It must be right, If I preceive "it" as sounding right,

Quote
In this latter area things have changed again to a large degree.


Quote
And because its that clean, there is more place for music

This is very true (I think), but because of what I just said -it is more normal now- this leads to again a next dimension of "more music".
Maybe this time the music as such was already there (I mean with the before PSU), but things can distract. If a mighT sounds, it distracts from what's coming next. Thus, it doesn't overvoice as such (as ringing would for sure), but the single fact that it distracts makes you miss something. This seems to be all over, and not only with overexpressed T's. So this is what I meant with "again it is shorter". As a matter of fact I am starting to hear cut counds (I think I said that before with te first impressions on Arc Prediction Upsampling) but funnily enough they give room to beautiful artifacts like ... believe it or not ... half touched hammers on piano strings. And remember, half touched here means they hit twice when meant once, and because of that additional harmonics appears, and it buzzes.

You want buzzing ? try Jan Akkerman (he is dutch) and his "Passion" album. This is one large interaction of buzzing half touched strings on his acoustic guitar. Also, I described "buzzing emerging in mid air" long ago, but it was rare. Now it has become a standard.
Similarly I desribed a long time ago the -as it seemed by then- flageolet (which is a similar half touch of guitar strings making *only* harmonics audible) being a measure for good sound reproduction, and the more it appears, the better the sound reproduction is. Listen now ... they are all over, intended or not (too fast played chords to ever be able to press the string in between te frets imply the same).

This all, again, makes your before played music a kind of totally unreconizeable.
Peter


I have to be honest yes, I felt there was more to come, this will fill the space (dryness), this has to be good.
       Midair colliding of sparkles thats wat we want.

Roy
      
397  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: XXHE and DSP claims on: November 09, 2009, 07:12:08 am
Would there be a section available at the Betty Ford's Clinic.

For the xx addicts, among us. Cool
398  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: XXHE and DSP claims on: November 09, 2009, 06:57:36 am
It took me 3 secs to hear the difference between xx and foobar.

If you can not hear it, stick with foobar, whats the point then anyway.
Why bother yourself, with stuff you can not even comprehend to understand !

But always nice to provogue Peter a little, I can see he does get the humor out of this.
 prankster

Quote
...it's clearly audible

399  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: XXHE and DSP claims on: November 09, 2009, 06:43:35 am
He can has his opion, (we life in a free world)

But the only one who is adding color is himself, just stick with Foobar then, I would say.
 Happy

Its all about removing coloring and filtering of any kind, certainly not adding it.
400  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: Tweaking Windows 7 Dead on: November 08, 2009, 09:06:11 pm
And btw xx always plays WAV.
Because it is converted to WAV before playback

 Happy
401  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: Tweaking Windows 7 Dead on: November 08, 2009, 09:01:07 pm
Maybe not Roy, but I see no downside of skinnying down Win7 as much as possible if all one is doing is using it to play audio... 

BTW, have you experimented with FLAC vs WAV on XXHE - is there any SQ difference?

You can set your zalman to barebone setting, always better to do so, I can not because I us the PC for other puposes too.
I only try to say, it won't help SQ further.

on the FLAC vs WAV:

This should not sound any different, but welcome to AUDIO WALHALLA, keep an openmind and trust only your ears.
Like I said should, untill someone has an other opion, I believe this is the same.
402  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: Tweaking Windows 7 Dead on: November 08, 2009, 08:46:13 pm
I don't think further tweaking of W7 as discribed in "Peter's tweak vista dead" topic, don't lead to more SQ improvements.

It just lighten the weight of it (in SIZE, I mean), not in CPU power, nor disc I/O.

I use my PC for just about everything, lots of software, no virus-scan.
But when I play xx, its all dead quiet (don't have to switch off anything)


403  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: Does Improving PC PSU and Reducing PC EMI/RFI Improve SQ? on: November 08, 2009, 03:33:58 pm
I dunno....I think your post on how the Q sliders work rates pretty high on the most vague post ever as well... wacko


LOL,  rofl

That one is much harder to get a grip on,

Roy
404  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: Does Improving PC PSU and Reducing PC EMI/RFI Improve SQ? on: November 08, 2009, 03:29:34 pm
Haha,

Thanks for your always interesting posts Peter, enjoyed reading it.

If I was a lawyer, I would say: you have a strong case there son.
And how does the industry plea, ....... ! Wink hehe

Quote
The principle of Arc Prediction as how it works out net, 100% anticipates on no further filtering needed

This is most important ! that proofs why hires doesn't sound good, it is "touched" already.
But it also proofs that I (and many of us) like ARC prediction.
But as Peter said it works "theoraticly" (to preceive the best) only on NOS and non-upsampling DAC's.
No I start to understand why music sounded so "clumpy" for many years.
With all that filtering going on.
And there you have it music with those "wrong means" of filtering "baked" in to it, and its lost forever.
With lost forever, I mean, just get the 16/44 original version. (and use ARC)
I also dare to say, this also implies on those "24Bit/96Khz Remasters", those are tempered (touched) too.
Can we throw them out of our collection, hehe (me spending all those hours on getting "them", but I hope it helped)

Quote
With the danger of me myself not even being able to understand what I just wrote, I am convinced that something else is wrong.
I mean, the current means of this filtering s*cks all over in the first place and the people who should know do actually not (like D.L., your setting 1, name it),
but I am afraid there is something going on beyond (!!) the red book \

Understanding is one, yes, but just take a listen and anybody should easely understand why.
405  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: Does Improving PC PSU and Reducing PC EMI/RFI Improve SQ? on: November 07, 2009, 11:10:08 pm
I hope this will work,

To keep the soundcard out of the mobo, and give it its own psu.

Have you thought about integrate this in the DAC, or would you rather keep it outside. (boxed)
And maybe the integrate of word-clock (on both sides) would become easier this way. (as in bring PCI slot with soundcard into DAC)

If this all works for the better, anyway.
Really great someone capable of doing these kinds of measurings!
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