Thanks Peter for the time you have put into this! Given the difficulties you encountered I think I'll stay with native W8, unless there is a definitive consensus that SQ is better with 8.1 or Santa Clause leaves an 8.1 install disc by the PC.

Thanks Anthony, one of these days I will get to it!

Thanks for the technical response I didn't want to hear......On my way to the fridge for those beers. Though it's only 10 a.m., I need some priming in order to thoroughly ponder the do's and dont's of RAMDisc. Glad its a holiday -- Veterans Day. 

Thanks Peter. Of course I should just give it a try but I'm getting more and more lazy as time passes! Several years ago I tried RAMDisc and it was an improvement at the time, but I was also using an external drive for music storage.

 I guess i was hoping you might have a "technical" response like, "Absolutely, no need to try RAMDisc......." 

Hi Peter, the quotes below are from your recent post about SQ of 8.1:



I'm assuming that, "...how it was at first." refers to when you initially played 8.1 with the music directly on the OS drive and not the external disc. Because my music collection (mostly 16/44 wave files) is relatively small, about 900 gigs, I have been storing and playing music on a UEFI formatted, 3 TB OS disc since I put the computer together in the spring of 2012. When I put the computer together I tried every possible playback drive, except RAMDisc, and nothing sounded as good as music directly on the OS hard drive. Even creating a partition on the OS drive for music didn't sound as good as  storing the music directly on the OS "C" drive in a "Music" folder. Anyway, I have so far resisted creating RAMDiscs for XX and playback drive because things have sounded so good here for a long time. Your experience, described in your quotes above, seems to confirm my "intuition" that I don't need RAMDiscs. Assuming I read your quotes correctly, do you think it would be worth trying RAMDiscs in my configuration?

Thanks Joachim. That amp looks like it's really great. However, I was able to get my hands on an older model BD-Design 30 watt amp here in the US. It's my understanding that BD-Design no longer makes the amp. I'm amazed at the sound of this little twelve pound box. All the buzz about gainclones turns out to be true! 

Here's some other observations about vga v DVI from August 9, 2013. I believe it was Nick who posted first about it in the thread:

http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2677.msg27651#msg27651

Interesting. Several months ago I switched from VGA to DVI --no HDMI--and the sound improvement regarding glare was significant. Makes me wonder, Alain, if the HDMI connector is the "problem" with your DVi cable?

Peter, very much appreciate the cautionary words; I was hoping you would point out issues. Though I would love to have "female voices to die for", I'm also wanting orchestral classical to sound dynamically "correct," full and "present;" and rock to have high energy, slam and low distortion at very high volume. 

 I guess what you point out doesn't bode well for accurate, low distortion sound? 

Finally found an amp with as many options as XXHighEnd.  Lifetime warranty and 30 day moneyback--had to give it a try. Twelve weeks to shipping. Will give an impression in January.

http://www.decware.com/newsite/TORII.htm

At what SPL? Presence here "blossoms" between 88-92 db. If I had more presence, it would be surreal. Then again, I may be "curing" a problem with volume but the blossoming so increases SQ that I don't think so.

Hey Nick, pardon me if this is overly simplistic and is something you've already done, but have you tried enabling and using one of the mb usb3 ports? Additionally, I disable the Renesias pcie card in device manager. For me it significantly reduces hash.

Here's another take by NOS 1 users: http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2701.0

XTweaks on Ice? I'm going to have to give that a try!

Nope, just not audiophools like some that I know.