I didn't describe it correctly. It's a constant, soft  clicking sound like a record with one very small scratch. I think it goes away with a SFS of 30 or higher. A SFS of 2 is unlistenable cause it seems to get louder or more intense the lower the SFS. With Z8 the lower SFS's continue to sound better here and, man, the sound is like never before. Talk about shivers with female vocals..........give Eva or the Wailing Jenny's another go.

Peter, hats off to you!

With SFS's below around 12, I get a skipping sound or repeated tick, very soft, with sustained notes. Too early to tell what SFS is "best" here. Other values used are in my signature. Again, thank you, the sound is great.

Does it matter whether the HPET timer is enabled in BIOS when installing Z8? Just wondering. It was enabled here when i installed Z8.

Ditto to what Nick said. The sound is fantastic. Geeze I was just kidding yesterday about a present under the tree!

Thank you so very much.

Merry Christmas

Thanks to all and Merry Christmas!

The answer better be yes. 

Lets just say, for too many reasons to name, we over here are a bit slow, and at times, more so than others. 

Just reread the HPET timer thread; it looks like there will be some more significant tweeks coming our way....perhaps wrapped in a bow under the tree????

Not sure why my last post here didn't get a response but that's okay, went to the doc and, despite what you may think, he said I don't have the coodies!

Anyway , yesterday I had the time to sort this out, I enabled all devices in my bios and ,voila, all the devices talked about before (LAN, Serial Port, etc.) suddenly appeared in Device Manager. The SATA controllers were a bit un-nerving cause I was afraid I might disable my OS drive! However I managed to discover the "location" tab for the drive which identified the SATA controller # it's connected to. After enabling the devices in the bios I disabled them in Device Manager. I got what appears to be a nice bump in SQ. Seems to have a blacker backround, more relaxed highs. Will give it a week or so of listening to be sure. Again, thanks Nick!

My computer knowledge is limited. Where in device manager do I turn off, "serial port, additional SATA controller and Lan cards." There is nothing in my "System Devices" in Device Manager that identifies these. Thanks.

I've "wished" this before and I'm still wishing: Prior to playing a playlist or at the time of creating a playlist, it would be great if one could manually set the volume level for each track. No more fiddling with volume while the playlist is "on." Volume Normalization works okay, but it's not perfect, especially in a list where tracks span the last 6 decades. Then at a party or when showing off the "XX System" or whatever, you could "set it and forget it."

Bob Backert, the tech who turned my integrated amp into just an amp, received a patent for his power supply:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/preamp-mods/prweb10177011.htm

He will be adding the new design to my amp in February.

Hey Nick, was traveling all week and will give your latest suggestion a try today or tomorrow. I know I have just about every device shut off in my bios. Should I turn everything back on?

Right now I cannot imagine my system sounding better.
But I've been here before only to be amazed "again" hanging out with you guys......!

Brian

Well, after a week of increasingly feeling that something wasn't right, I re-enabled the timer. I spent an hour or so A-Bing and I think I'm back to liking the sound with the timer enabled. Though each has its own sound I found myself playing a bit louder with the timer disabled and over time it just felt like there was a weird distortion that was related to the volume. With the timer enabled and the volume down 1.5 db there is a  clarity and presence without distortion that I was trying to get by turning up the volume with the timer disabled. Hope this makes sense!

Me too. Hey, I know its a little late, but you guys are all invited over next week for the Thanksgiving holiday......tip a glass to Obama's re-election. Oh, wait, maybe I need to talk to my wife first.....

Brian