XXHighEnd - The Ultra HighEnd Audio Player
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241  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Bert von Orelo? on: May 20, 2014, 10:22:54 pm
These speakers looks somewhat familiar:

http://vinylsavor.blogspot.com/2014/05/high-end-2014-room.html

Regards,  coen
242  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Upsampling Internet Radio ? on: May 14, 2014, 01:21:03 pm
Hi Mani,

that's the point. With another DAC (Weiss) I had the impression that XXH sounds at -3dB superior than at - 24dB.

As far as I remember CoenP wrote the same a couple of month (>12) ago.

Joachim

That wasn't me (afaicr).

I once took the NOS1 to a local audio friends gathering and I had to play XX real loud because there was no preamp available for the low gain amplifiers. The sound definitively changed for the worse between 0 and -6dB. This was so clear that everybody noticed it (without me paying attention to it).

With my own high gain amps I usually play between -48 and -24dB and that sounds just fine. No apparent change in SQ in this range for my system.

regards, Coen

/edit/ Other dacs may be more sensitive to volumechanges of XX, I experienced that with my M-Audio in the early days. I actually preferred the build in volume control (on chip) back then with XX full out -or was it -3dB?!-.
243  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Upsampling Internet Radio ? on: May 14, 2014, 01:14:26 pm
I'm currently using my new iFi Nano iDSD DAC for internet radio and streaming and it does a great job. (It's actually a great DAC for the money.)

I totally agree, unbelievable quality for the money. Finally now the USB compatability with my MBPro has been solved it can even enjoy HiRes source material. It also sings with XXHighEnd as player (better than I've managed with Audirvana/Izotope). Anyway I purchased it for quality sound on the move and it does just that!

Quote
So why don't I just use the Nano for internet stuff and the NOS1 for >16/44.1 files? Well because this requires some sort of source switching device and I really want to feed the NOS1 directly into the active speakers. I'm currently using my old Pass Labs X1 - it's a good preamp, but it's obvious that even at this level, preamps are not totally transparent.

What you need is a good selector, not a preamp. Something with a "direct-out" function like on HT amplifiers. I guess in the end no switch is always optimal (no extra switching contacts, no soldering, no different cables, etc) but convenience also counts.

Maybe Peter can solve this riddle...

regards, Coen

244  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Upsampling Internet Radio ? on: May 14, 2014, 09:16:28 am
I thought these steaming sites were offering only low resolution feeds. Is this not right? If so why upsample? If they offer high resolution files/feeds that would be interesting


Imho this OS question is specific for the NOS1(a).

The NOS1(a) is a NOS or Non-OverSampling DAC. So it does NOT Oversample itself to push the DAC-Aliasses starting at 22.2KHz to much higher frequencies. NOS at 16/44.1 produces a LOT of HF for any system and requires serious analog filtering (not present in NOS1), but it may work though especially in low bandwidth tube setups.

So some oversampling would be better, I used to wire the streaming outputs via the program "Virtual Cable" to a DSP program that did the DSP and OS and wire its output to the DAC driver. This was before the NOS1 entered my system.

I wonder if Spotify allows for such a setup. Afaik it has some protection against tapping the bits for rights protection.

Anyway as should be clear by now the OS algorithm matters for SQ so we really would like Peter to take care of that!

regards, Coen
245  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: XXHighEnd Eliminated ? on: May 11, 2014, 11:42:04 pm
Hi Peter,

i love it when a plan comes together. yahoo

Now I understand your interest in digital filtering lately. We will still need XX for the ArcPrediction algorithm don't we?

Anyway this developement is somewhat of a dream come true. I guess we are now unchained from Windows and their future plans compromising the sound quality of our favourite OSses. No more lusting after expensive usb cables. We could have OS-X and Ubuntu NOS1 drivers and AP plugins. Man, I could be streaming music from the cloud directly to my NOS1 or have a NUC do the job. Etc, etc, etc.
This is all great stuff!

Regards, Coen
246  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: I2S Bridge between PC and DAC on: April 29, 2014, 09:33:23 pm
But might Coen read this ... I wonder what happened to his endeavors in this regard. But this belongs in another topic ...

Nothing more than plans here and I don't feel the urge to experiment with stuff now.

maybe later Wink.

<close off topic>

regards, Coen
247  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: USB to PC chassis ground ? (noise) - The biggest change ever ! on: April 03, 2014, 09:44:55 pm
Fyi:

I double checked with some powercables in and out the strip, but with the black usb wire connected there are never any plops when usb cable is pulled out of the usb3 card.

Regards, Coen
248  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: SQ of 1.186, best ever! (Again) on: April 03, 2014, 12:58:43 pm
As a coincidence I also had a very good evening last night. Actually the best in three month time.
What did I do: I went the other direction: I fired up the old v9-8e on win 7 and just play what's in the list. It was an excellent experince.

I know I start to sound like a broken record, but I cannot share any enthousiasm for windows 8. Even 1.168 fully tweaked on win7 (definitely better than on windows 8 )  doesn't provide for the same soul and music that 8e magically ejects in my system.
The circle is allways the same. At first I am impressed by 1.168 on windows7 or 8, then I somehow loose interest in the music and start to tweak for more impressiveness, and tweak, and tweak, etc, then I only listen to music casually. Then I remember the good times with 8e, start it up and before I know it I am 1,5 hours further without stopping the music.

I am shure this is a system synergy and personal listening prference thing and likely it does not apply to anyone who has a different setup or priorities (and vice versa). Nevertheless i have yet  to hear another digital component that provides for the same experience, so even being stuck in the past the NOS1 rocks with XXHE!

Regards, Coen

249  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: EMI susceptibility of audio and USB clocks on: April 02, 2014, 09:30:12 am
Hi Nick,

I don't really understand what you have been doing to get it right. Are you saying that the absolute value of 24Mhz is of importance?

Regards, Coen
250  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: So now I'm even shocked myself on: April 01, 2014, 11:29:11 pm
This is a great idea, I step in the trap that I think I've reproduced settings while I don't all the time!

Maybe add a copy of the BIOS settings  Wink?!

regards, Coen
251  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: USB to PC chassis ground ? (noise) - The biggest change ever ! on: March 31, 2014, 01:52:40 pm
Hi Peter,

Thanks for the elaboration.

I've never noticed this rhythmic plopping before when changing or rerouting the USB cable. In the course of time things have changed, some of which I already forgot and there are unconnected cables in the powerstrips... Maybe the isolated usb card is part of this phenomena.

regards, Coen

252  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: USB to PC chassis ground ? (noise) - The biggest change ever ! on: March 30, 2014, 11:01:25 pm
A little usb isolation tweak update that I like to share:

I reconnected the "black wire from the USB connector" to the groundingpoint of the NOS1 powersupply for two reasons:

First I have been missing some subtlety in the 'reference' sound of familiar tracks lately. I've been undoing a number of tweaks to get back to the sound of the 8e setting. Though not ultimaltely the best its the one I remember well. The ground connection brought a lot of the realness back that was also noticable on 1.168 at the expense of a little liveliness. That last might very well have been a synthetic effect of noise, anyway I like the original connected setup soundwise better.

Secondly I disconnected the NOS1 USB cable from the pc while the whole system was powered like I am used to (in order to reorganise cables). The NOS produced a rythm of loud pops that scared the hell out of me. Reconnecting the usb cable made them disappear instantly. I am glad everything seems still to work well but I am rather 'safe than sorry' with the wire connected.

Regards, Coen
253  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Is Windows 8 worth it? on: March 29, 2014, 08:10:22 pm
Hi,

It takes some pretty extreme tweaking commitment to make win 8 to sound good. I never succeeded in making it work; traces of my dispair can be found in the various and long win8 related threads. Dispite the work Peter did on several versions to "fix" it, I never enjoyed the sound of win8. Actually I've allways been playing win7 for enjoyment, my win8 time was all spend on attempts to "dial it in". So from my viewpoint: no need to spent your precious listening time on a (likely) frustating experience.

Regards, Coen
254  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: SQ of 1.186, best ever! (Again) on: March 28, 2014, 02:15:42 pm
Hi,

I think minimised os is essential to the forum opinion. Now you have to get a licence to use that. My advice is that you save some money the coming weeks/month and purchase a licence. It one of the best audio buys you will ever do and one of the cheapest too.

Regards, Coen
255  Ultimate Audio Playback / Orelino / Orelo MKII Loudspeakers / Re: Orelino / Orelo MKII Fletcher-Munson Curves on: March 25, 2014, 10:34:16 am
Gain, attenuation whatever you use, I still see only moderate corrections that can be done digitally without a big loss of bits.

If the passive components are more 'transparent' than the 1 bit digital eq loss (for selected frequencies) the hassle would make sense. And of course for the speaker users that have no interest in computer audio/XXHE/dsp.

Anyway it is a perfect candidate for another unique feature of the XX player!

regards, Coen 

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