Paul, does this mean you installed SP1 and all the subsequent updates? I know when I first tried W7 with all updates it sounded terrible until I deleted them, including SP1. Maybe "they" heard us and have now included an update that tweaked the sound?

Great fricken' album. Thanks Paul!

Hey Juan, thanks for the acknowledgement! Just so you guys know, I do some other things pretty well too--like driving cars. So, if anyone ever needs to know the best line or entrance speed into your favorite twisties, I'd be happy to show you how to drive a Blue (NOS 1) NSX or Ferarri! Ha!

On a more serious note, here's my initial thoughts that I posted on SFS back in August of 2010:


Peter has dramatically changed XX since this post and SFS's are much larger and need to be changed (here) way less often, but I agree with Juan that it is very much like tube rolling when you get the itch to play with XX settings!

Hi Peter, just noticed in your signature that you are listing  windows 7, "sp1". Are you using SP1 and not "vanilla"? Just wondering.

There are some other things I'd like to say in this thread but I stop myself..... I know I' not crazy....well, maybe a little. 

Okay, on my system, while playing music in unattended,  an attempt to connect to the internet (circle runs over the network icon) is made every time I alt X to bring up the gui. Is this normal?

Well I guess what's annoying is that some unnecessary process for achieving great SQ and smooth gui operation is "also" attempting to "work". In the XX world of less operating system the better, it just seems "not right" to have all these attempts at connecting to the internet every time I "altX" to bring up the gui. However; just because it "seems" not right doesn't make it so.   

When I have all network adapters disabled in device manager, windows 7 still attempts to connect to the internet on boot up and, while playing XX in unattended, whenever I "Alt X" to bring the gui back up. Its more than a bit annoying. Can this be stopped?

When I was changing settings in my BIOS this happened to me too: though the Minimize OS button would cause a reboot the sytem would not be minimized. Changing the BIOS settings back to default didn't help. "System Restore" to a time immediately prior to when "Minimize OS" quit working fixed it. Just an FYI should yours quit working.

A rhetorical question of course... What can I say? The sound is the sound. I sent you some pics in case they offer any clues.

Well Z6-1 works as described: changing SFS restarts the sound engine. The result is that I can't get a SFS larger than 200, so I'll be using Z6 instead. Call me crazy, but I get a much less "articulated" sound with a SFS of 400 which I can get with Z6. 

Perhaps someday the Maestro will figure this out. 

Sounds good Boss. (If you haven't seen Zorba the Greek, you should.)

Well, still can't find "remapping of PCI memory". In fact, there is no option whatsoever for "chipset", though it is shown in the BIOS system information screen, but its grayed out which I believe just means it's stating the info regarding the chipset.

 Anyway, in the "Advanced" tab I selected the "Integrated Graphics Config" and changed the "DVMT/Fixed Memory" from 256 to 128. That resulted in my being able to select any SFS, even 2000 SC, though I still had to start with the MC 200 SFS first. Clearly these huge SFS's were "fake." After playing around with things to try to get real SFS changes, about 40 minutes (turning off the minimize OS, several reboots, etc.), it started to "work" again: Going above a SFS of 400 resulted in a SFS error message and there was a clear difference in sound between a SFS of 200 and 400.  What's really strange though is that XX now acts like the OS is not minimized:  the first time playing XX after a reboot, with the OS minimized, the stop services screen takes forever to disappear, just like it did before the "Minimize" feature. BUT, I am able to get a SFS of 400 (anything larger gives an error) which I could only get with the OS minimized. Not sure what's going on.... Though I do have my good sound back.

Learn something new every day around here....

Hi Peter, I guess what I was thinking in response to Bigear's question about whether a 64 bit OS impacts the sound, was that with a 64 bit OS one can generally use higher SFS's (more memory) and that highers SFS's are "generally" better sounding. Even with Z6 I am experiencing changes in SQ with changes in SFS after minimizing the OS.

Maybe I've been prefacing my listening sessions with too much herbal inhalation...... Though Z6  locks engine 3 into memory, am I the only one experiencing changes in SQ when changing SFS? (and not clearing Engine 3 from memory prior to changing the SFS) Hope this makes sense 

let me just say one more time that Z6 is the VERY BEST iteration of XX. The balance is just unbelievable, no more "forward" females! But that's probably not a good thing in the non-audio world