To me the difference was not significant, but I did not spend as much time fine tuning SC as I have MC, cause SC was too cumbersome, too much rebooting, etc.

Thanks Peter, not sure what direction 9z4-1 is going but if 32 bit OS is inadequate for SC and SC is the preferred mode of most users, then we (32 bit OS users) will just have to figure out a way to upgrade, unless you come up with some other magic for MC that satisfies all! If that magic can't be found, it is what it is and we'll (32 bit OS users) have to deal with it.

No, man, but I did wonder if it would save me that trip to the back alley every Wednesday evening.....Ha!

Hey GerardA, what SFS are you using in Z2? Just wondering.

The largest SFS I could get was 10, with ramdisc.

I'll give "Don't start Playback " a try. I don't use "Start During Conversion" at all.


I've generally had a problem with folder structure since I started using ramdisc. First I manually copy/past albums into ramdisc. Using the "copy to XX drive" just doesn't sound as good here. About half the time I get an error when I then try to play the album. However by creating an empty folder on the ramdisc drive and pasting the album into this empty folder I don't get any errors.

Update: So I deleted the SACD version of the Highway 61 album from ramdisc and loaded the red book version of the album. The redbook version of Like a rolling Stone  now played fine! ( I think it sounded better than the SACD version). I  then copied the SCAD version of the song into the Redbook Highway 61 folder that was on the ramdisc. Now the SACD version played fine but the redbook version was back to clicks and ticks! I then deleted the SACD vesion and am currently listening to the redbook version again   All with the below settings.

Another weird happening. I just played an SACD version of Dylan's Highway 61 version of "Like a Rolling Stone (It sounded great). I then tried playing the red book version to see if there was a difference in the sound but was greeted by the clicking and ticking phenomenon described above. I then switched back to the sacd version and all is well. All was done with the below settings.

I've been very pleased with the JKenny MK2 modified Hiface. Has anyone compared this to any of the other offerings named in this thread?

No, I didn't change it back. I increased the ramdisc from 750 mb to 2 gigs. All seems to be working again with the changed buffer size and sample rate.

Yes, before it worked, for about the last four days. I changed albums and suddenly I just had those noises. Retried the music I had just played and still no music. Changed the settings above and all was fine. The only change I made was earlier in the day I increased the size of my ramdisc. I had reduced it  a couple of weeks ago trying to get Strauight Continuous to work.

Last night I suddenly had no music, just clicks and ticks that occurred about every ten seconds or so with silence in between; it was very weird, never heard before. Bumped up my buffer size to 48 and my latency sampling to 6 (Q1 @ 2) and it went away. The only time I perceive clicks, and they are not loud, is between tracks. Am I using a buffer size or sampling that is too low? How do we decide what's safest? Sure don't want to stop using Special mode. 

When I switched back to Z2 after a month of Z3 I was really glad for the less forward and less, somewhat harsh sound, though z3 still sounds really good. But z2 has an overall less articulate sound in all ranges that changes dramatically with changing the SFS. One can make Z2 "sparkle" with lower SFS but not, on my system, in a smooth, pleasing way. Large SFS in z2 just make all frequencies more softer and more muted; I would always look for the balance between the two for the best sound, which changes a lot with different albums. I'm afraid I probably erred on the more muted side, keeping SFS between 95-115 but that also allowed playing music a lot louder. With Z2 my focus was to eliminate harshness, which I was able to do, but I'm pretty sure the sound was still not "right".

Z4 with my current settings is head and shoulders above z2 for clarity, richness and smoothness; I'm amazed at just how much more layered the sound has become. And, as someone posted before, I can play with around 10% less volume.

Sometimes I'm not sure how Peter moves forward with such very different experiences of XX!

Well, I didn't think it was possible with the hiface, but I'm currently playing in Special Mode, buffer 32 with 1 sample of latency (Q1 @-3), per the X3b lof file. This is by far the most amazing sound I've ever gotten from XX. Its as though there a several layers of mid range that now accompany the treble like never before. Last night I was playing Bonnie Raitt's, "Love Me Like a Man", the live version from her "Road Tested" album, when my wife walked into the room. She amazed me when she said it was the best sound she's heard. According to her, " Its doesn't hurt my brain, though it still hurts my ears cause you play it way too loud." Go figure......

Am still playing in Mixed Continuous cause straight is just too finicky here. All my current settings are below.

I use Home Premium and was able to get jplay working.