XXHighEnd - The Ultra HighEnd Audio Player
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496  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: WARNING : Degraded SQ from off 0.9n u/i 9.0p on: November 04, 2007, 04:10:17 pm
Thank you guys. Really appreciate it.
Remember, I can't do it all alone ... nea

Peter  whistle

It's in a way fantastic that we either here or through private PM's collects info and beam it up to you.

Beforehead I have pointed out how difficult it must be to define where all those small problems appears from.

Settings?
HW?
SW?

To my big surprise yesterday I heard clicks even with Foobar. Never ever heard it before. And since I bought myself a stacker and threw out my labtop for the sake of storrage capacity, well, the clicking phenomenon appeared. It never happened before. (09m-1)

Now, when I upgraded to 09p yesterday, it started. But now also with both 09m-1 and Foobar. And it is 100% unrelated to Q1 settings. RME settings. One core settings etc. etc......

Must be a busy day today....in the bright CPU you carry on top of your neck...hahaha.  Wink


Gerner

What kind of a brain does it take to determine wether it's a HW or a SW buggy-woggy?

Hoi Peter,

This is excactly one of the reasens i did not tell you in the beginning. If i remember correct i have had this problem also with playing with Mediamonkey. ( Like Gerner has it with Foobar).. That's why i thought it was the Xp driver used in Vista. But i never or less played again with this program. There was also a time that i did not have this problem as much as today. For me it was not a big issue when it was happening once a day. One day i remember i was copying a bunch off music to my externe (usb) harddrive and then the chrackling appears again and again.

I have this crackling sound from the beginning of. But now i will spend more time in testing this problem...

And i think Gerner is right about the way we all are working....  Happy  ( but in this case i had to do it a little bit sooner.)  blush1

succes today....

Grtzzzz

If you have ""Appoint processor core" checked, then shut down XXHE and then start Foobar without rebooting, wouldn't this be a problem?  It takes a reboot to clear "Appoint processor core".  This is a long shot guess, probably not related to what you guys are experiencing.
497  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: WARNING : Degraded SQ from off 0.9n u/i 9.0p on: November 03, 2007, 08:04:00 pm
Ok, thanks for your ears.  This time I've just been waiting.  I have to admit I've been using 0.9m-1... tried O, tried P... went back to M-1.  good call PeterSt.  I didn't do much back and forth.  Was going to go for the full on evaluation at some point.  But I did hear a difference and "felt" M-1 was better... so just been using that.  It must be frustrating for you to try to get everything (mp3 and the like) just right.  But, I think most of us here would chose music quality over convenience or format... there's other players we can go to for that.  How about having different XXHE players for different formats?... don't know what that would look like.

edit
oh, you haven't listened? just heard from others.  I don't get any crackle and can play -3 Q1 fine with M-1 or P... but I still think M-1 sounds "fuller"... but I will put some ear into it soon and tell you more if I can.  But I've mainly just been listening to M-1... it's on right now.

edit/caution
I've also been wondering if switching back and forth (starting up shutting down) M-1 and P, without rebooting between, could start to throw off sound?... I dunno, sometimes I feel that after rebooting both players do their best... heh now that would be a pain to evaluate.

-My CPU is single core,,, should I not have "Appoint processor core" checked... hasn't seemed to hurt with either M-1 or P.
498  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Hypethetical case of losing license... is it? on: November 03, 2007, 03:14:56 am
I thought I'd reply.  But PeterSt take this down if it doesn't help or ....
I have XXHighend 0.9d with activation saved in about 6 different places at this point heh, so, I'm only losing XXHE if my house goes up in smoke... hmm need to get XXHE outta the house.  Anyway, it's a small copy, make sure you back it up on CD and a couple HDDs everyone... I even have a copy on one of my offline backup drives, and because I have a poor memory for ... oh I don't know, various nefarious things I've done... I've made two backups on CD... in about a month I'll probably make a third.
499  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Wav, Flac , Mp3 Problems ? on: October 28, 2007, 11:27:21 pm
Well in just a bit, after I dl the latest ver... I'll get to listen to the one and only mp3 file I have.  Radiohead-In Rainbows... (just released by them over the net ... not buying the expensive cd/album/art package,,,just yet).  So, we'll see,,, but get back to checking on the sound quality of the wav files... eheh does that sound like a demand? oops sorry. thanks
500  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: Interesting read about PC/USB/BitPerfection/Benchmark DAC1 on: October 28, 2007, 11:22:05 pm
- Shaktis on the DACs

Not commenting on the review, which I'm sure you have a good handle on.  I've had 3 of those shaktis stones hanging around for a while now, but I've never found them to do anything but mess up my system, (well I had them on some bass amps where I couldn't really tell if I liked em or not, I thought I did maybe,,,, but I see they're not even there any more).  Y ou tried the dac without I'm guessing?  Anyway, be careful what you throw them on.  I'm still waiting for the component they might help. heh
edit
Only reason I say be careful with those shaktis is because I wasn't.  I put em on a cdp, and two amp transformers and let em sit there for a couple months before I really evaluated what they were doing.  I have to be careful because I can like music coming out of just about anything, and it's not until I go back and forth (which I pretty much don't like to do) that I find one is better than the other.  When I was using em, especially on smaller equipment like dacs, I found them to make the sound uneven,,, messing with dynamics, squelching here, spilling there.
501  Ultimate Audio Playback / Music Storage and convenient playback / Re: Where to get your CoverArt on: October 27, 2007, 10:36:03 am
96dpi is equal to the screen resolution (for most displays). What you get from that is a 1:1 physical equally sized picture (and 460x460 or so size).
I don't JPEG the h*ll out of it (I leave everything at max quality which would be "1:1" for JPEG and the least compression).
24bit colordepth is fine.

This brings 150K-250K files.


Thanks Peter,
Just coming back to see if someone had left more info.  I've been figuring it out now,,, a bit.  Good thing I haven't done too many scanned pics this afternoon, I set the dpi much too high, but that's ok for the few I've done.  I was just looking at the pics I get from walmart, (which look pretty good).  They're at 6.944"X6.944" (500X500 pixels) size, 72X72 pixels/in., ~54KB... so your recommendations will be better quality than that.  I'll work around your numbers when I scan, your pics look great..., but to go at this quicker, I'm still taking a quick look first at walmart/amazon.  Scanning doesn't take too much time, heh, but hunting down the disc from my disorganized (ever since I ripped em all) collection is another thing.  Thanks for the info.  Dave

PS
Listening to my father (Robbie Robinson) on an anthology of his trombone playing I made of him... he's 86 and still plays gigs, but I'm glad to have some recordings of him, a lot were lost over the years :/ but I put some of him with Red Nicoles and also of him playing with the Disneyland Band on my HDD (he worked there many years to get off the road and raise a family).  I'll send pics with.... Man, I never knew how lucky I was to grow up and hear him all the time live, miss though concerts.

edit
what,,, nobodies up with me!  here it is 4am and I'm still adding album art sigh... the good news is I'm finding/scanning all the music I have, the bad news I'm only half way done, and I'm prolly being optimistic

edit...hmm
ok, and why didn't somebody tell me to scan more than one cd cover at a time... i'maidiot hehe oh well first day/time with it
502  Ultimate Audio Playback / Music Storage and convenient playback / Re: Where to get your CoverArt on: October 27, 2007, 01:41:05 am
Use a scanner. Bert does. The coverarts he has are just ...WOW.

Perhaps confusing but...next to a virus scanner I also use another type of scanner to make my own cover arts. I guess this is what Gerner tried to explain... Wink

Bert

Hi Bert,
Yes, I understood Gerner about using a scanner to scan your cd covers.  But, I also wear protection and also did an online virus scan at Trend Micro last night to be sure.  Also cleaned out the registery with Regsupreme... I think things look good.  But anyway...

After spending huge amounts of time looking for a couple of discs last night (why wouldn't there be an album cover for Jack Teagarden? doesn't everyone listen to him?)   I took my neighbor's offer up on borrowing a scanner he has... I woulda bought one after last night but he has a couple, so one to loan.  Now, I'm sure I'm going to go back and redo some stuff :/... I dunno, I have the originals, so I shouldn't obese, but that is me.  I may still look online first, I'm just learning how to do this resolution/dpi/scan/crop/resize/align/save ....and it still takes time to do; any hints there?  What dpi should I scan at, what should I size the cover as?... am I making sense, cause I'm not sure.  Thanks all.  Time to scan in Jan Savitt and his Top Hatters and Psychograss albums... why isn't this stuff on the net? hehe

PS
This looking for album art has taken so much of my time I haven't had time to evaluate the new player 0.9p, I'm still using 0.9m-1.  Now that PeterSt has added all that support for those [strike]cr*ppyworthless[/strike] other formats, I hope all that [strike]nasty[/strike] code hasn't messed up the sound of my [bold]glorious[/bold] WAV files.
503  Ultimate Audio Playback / Music Storage and convenient playback / Re: Where to get your CoverArt on: October 26, 2007, 01:48:15 am
http://www.cover-paradies.to/

may have some things too, there are about 300.000 Covers downloadable. *One* banner/advertisement
getting in the way while you first use it, from then on it's ok.
(and there are absolutely no women with no clothes on appearing on your desktop after you've visited it...)
It's german though, but "Suchbegriff" is the word over the Search Field so it's pretty easy.
Covers are user-scanned and uploaded, quality differs from medium to superb but they really do have some covers that
amazon or walmart i.e. don't have.

Good site that has helped a couple times... I am surprised that on some artists they have nothing? (Cal Tjader) and then on an obscure artist they'll have something ? but glad to have the link... also, when they do have something the album art is big!.. i just dl 1024*1024... only place I've found to do that... usually it's just 500*500

Here's a hint... sometimes Amazon only has a small pic when you click on the cd, but, if they have the album as an MP3 dl, go there and the album art will be 500*500.
edit
Hmm I just dl a 500*500 from regular music area... just for kicks I went to the mp3 area and looked at the art there... also 500*500, BUT much better quality pic from the mp3 dl area... who knew mp3s could be good for something!

Yes Peter... I should get a scanner :/ sigh I hope I don't end up buying one and redoing all this hehe
edit
but everytime I'm just about to give up... I find what I'm looking for in better quality than I thought I could ever hope to find

Who would have thought I could find this 4 cd box set image of Count Basie stuff ?
edit ... again
and then there's this one, which I've spent nearly 45 min :/ trying to find a better pic aarrggg

The above is a great great album too.... someone buy and scan it for me in hirez pls heh... maybe I will have to look into a scanner... but for now, back on the hunt
504  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Flac problems on: October 22, 2007, 02:39:31 am
I'm doing other things right now....ya know (this reorganizing and adding pictures to my files takes a long time...(that program I listed and this place http://www.discogs.com/ have been a help).  Darn you and your cool library function I'm getting hooked on... i like the pictures now.

But this is enough to scare me off from the new player 0.9O for a bit.
From PeterSt download area:
"Actually this is a stupid thing to do, and possibly unknown errors might come from it. Mind you, from normal WAV files. If so indeed, the support for WMP-rips will be removed immediately."

I'm not taking the time to critically listen right now ... so this space reserved.  But I hope someone has the time to compare and see if we've lost anything in terms of WAV playback... I truely don't understand why anyone rips to flac with cheap (and cheaper/bigger on the way) HDD space.   I guess this possible problem is related to WMA files when I reread... but again, I've never used them and so you shouldn't either ... heheh sorry.  Always go back and compare to the greatness of what you have already done.

edit
PeterSt once again holds his customers worrying hand... you can delete this post.
505  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Vista + Engine3 is IT!!! on: October 14, 2007, 10:47:22 pm
Put the Pedal to the Metal!

You're hearing a lot of the same things I'm hearing.  I'm spending lots of time listening the last couple of days and 0.9M-1.. Wow.. I don't know how it can get any better....I'm glad PeterSt thinks it can!  I've been listening to -3 this weekend, but I do like 13 quite a bit... they sure both give a different presentation, but both sound really incredible.  Now that I've got -3 under my belt I'll go back to 13 too... again, maybe it will be recording dependent.  

When you went to -3 did you try inverting phase?... give that a try at -3.  Glad you're enjoying this as much as I am.  I just got back from surfing and as soon as I get the water outta my ears, I'm diving back into the music room!  (edit- doh... I see PeterSt just beat me to it)

I also agree about the value this player has given us... best money, and damn near least amount of money, I've spent in audiophool land.  Some time ago when I had a flurry of expensive transports and dacs in and out of my system (borrowing/buying) I decided that it was on the transport side that I heard the most differences/improvements... (never understood the audio magazines spending so much more time on the dacs and saying transports didn't matter, ha).  I think that's what started me on the road to computers being possibly a better transport... PeterSt proves it to me.  I still want to upgrade my "lowly, $700" Stello usb-dac (possibly Bert's gear), but I really can't believe how good it all sounds right now.
Dave
506  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Prepare for Christmas on: October 14, 2007, 10:24:19 pm
My acouton (sic) super tweeters lie dormant waiting ....
507  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Problem with DDDAC solved with 0.9m-1 on: October 13, 2007, 06:28:35 am
and yippi ki yea
Q1 -4 invert without a hitch... and sounds just a touch better, I think, than -3 (Beethoven piano sonatas & Uncle Earl bluegrass stuff) will listen closer later tonight, but things just keep getting better... is it possible
 yeehaw

EDIT (hmm late at night listening)
hmm went back to -3 for some albums tonight... bass hitting harder/better at -3; dynamics a bit more natural, not exaggerated... probably all album dependent.  went to -2 briefly, then back to -3.... over the long haul here I'll need to venture about the Q1 slider. 
Edit: 10/14/07
I ran XXHE about 12 hours yesterday.  Did some next/prev/seeker bar draging/changing Q1/invert&uninvert (heh, what's the correct term) and never ran into a glitch/stall/freeze... I don't click on things overly fast though.

Is there still talk of adding finer gradations to the 0 to -4 area?  Something like this possible?---> Find an area you like (any area) then click on an option that lets you work in smaller gradations around that area.  Example.  Say you like area Q1 13... click/check mark while at 13 and that would then change things to allow you to move another slider up and down from say 12.0, 12.1, 12.2, .... 13.8, 13.9, 14.0 ?
508  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Problem with DDDAC solved with 0.9m-1 on: October 13, 2007, 04:22:57 am
Well for me 0.9m-1 is better than 0.9m.  For the same albums I would hear "record sounding" pops & clicks when at Q1 -3 invert, I hear none now.  Also, I always used to hear a glitch/tick/crackle when my laptop video display would turn on/off with 0.9m... (again only with Q1 -3 ... not at Q1 13;  only two settings I've played with much) (my display turns off after 1 min of no use): With 0.9m-1 no glitch/tick/crackle when display goes on/off... none at all.

Going to venture back to Q1 -4 (where pops/ticks were even worse with 0.9m) and try that with 0.9m-1.

Dare I say without going back and forth that I think 0.9m-1 sounds better to me than even 0.9m on my setup....haven't had the time but my body tells me so... at least no pops/ticks.
509  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Streamlining ? on: October 11, 2007, 05:51:44 am
Oh help ... is this about the next idea coming up ? too much !
 Happy

Well. . . let's just say I have disabled many unecessary Windows services.

Do you dare venture in to such territory?  Wink

Hi Edward,

I  have a home build pc specially for playing music. So i will be very intrested in shutting down the things i dont need or use.

Can you explain what and how to do that?

Thanxxxx

Gerard...

(Vista premium)


Ya, this is about where I am too.  My laptop pc is dedicated and does nothing more than spit out the digits to the dac...I've shut down some things.. but would be nice to hear from the expert what other things might be done to the pc that just might (magic?) help... everything seems to make a difference in audio whoknows
510  Ultimate Audio Playback / Music Storage and convenient playback / Re: Where to get your CoverArt on: October 09, 2007, 01:39:40 am
I didn't know folder.jpg was a standard.  The program "Album Art Aggregator" starts up with cover.jpg, which seemed to make more sense then folder.jpg... hehe be nice if there was a true standard.  Was going to start trying to collect album art and just don't want to name things over again.
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