Hi,

You can count me in for not being a happy camper with WIN8. Though the IMDISK improved the sound over plain playing. I did also switch off unused devices in device manager. Maybe I need to revisit the BIOS settings....

The w8 sound is very dense and still alittle "mechanical" especially in the bass. Unconsiously I still start up win7 for ultimate listening.

Regards, Coen

Hi Arvind,

I have to agree with you, again! 

Regards, Coen

Juan,

We're going slightly off topic here. I'll give it a shot.
Just think of it as three different drives (SATA, USB, whatever). The mobo and OS do not really matter where and what they are.

With IMdisk you can create in windows an extra A:\ and B:\ disk in your memory (provided that you have enough PCmemory to spare). I just created a 3Gig IMDISK as A:\ for use as Playbackdrive. No sweat. The OS shows in (file)explorer that a new disk appeared and you can explore it with windows (nothing in there). XX now can use this disc as playbackdrive.
So you create another IM Drive B:\ (or the other way around) and install XX in there (last time a new activation was required). Note that XX can be installed in and run from (almost?) any drive.

The playbackdrive and XX are now on disks in RAM having the fastest possible read and write performance.

Of course you first have to make a bootable USB disk (flash or HDD) with WIN8 on it to get the OS out of the PC. This is somewhat tougher and trickier. If you tell the BIOS of your mobo to boot from this disk then it will automatically boot from there when you turn on the pc.

Let's first have some fun with the IMDISKS.

regards, Coen

p.s. pm me if you need help with the IMDISKS

Juan,

De IMdisk drives are not external they are in RAM.
The corresponding files that store the data when the computer is off (and RAM empty) are most likely on an external harddrive.

You can boot the OS from a bootable usb and even from an ethernet connection afaik.

The IMDISK program seems quite simple to deploy. Let's give that a shot first.

regards, Coen

Those are hopefull replies!

But where to start to "fix" it.

Did I read correctly that Peter uses no drives in the pc? So no SATA connections, only USBx, even for the OS?

Do you still use the win7 Shell?

Regards, Coen

Well,

I had this same feeling yesterday. I heard unbelievably NHB clear and realistic guitars, voices, pianos and synths and fantastic rich instrument bodies (however only at an almost uncomfortable listening level), yet the music left me cold.
Another bad sign was that I found myself very selective in the playlist material.

I revisited my report on my unease with WIN8 with a previous XX version, and I found my objections to still stand. Those are a lack of connecting of the instrument melodies and some tension/stress in the presentation making it all somewhat mechanical. Also voices are still less intelligible than I am used to.
Switching back to WIN7 with 8e immediately made these points very clear: back was the relaxed, open and dynamic sound with every note in its right place. A delight for the tired late evening mind. Yes, on the downside way less of the WIN8 "realism". A nasty trade off.....?

regards, Coen

No cracking and stopping this morning....
Just an ordinary reboot.

I could swaer it sounded different from yesterdayevening. Same volume settings.

Win 8 seems a little inconsistent...

Regards, Coen

Hi,

Thanks for the tip. I really didn't do much with win8 expept for installing the win7 shell and xx98 something before. Didn't like the sound back then and never returned until this week with 9v9. Maybe I just don't have had enough boots up till now!

The associated sounds I hear are very "analog" like a cracking on a record with needle full of dust .

Regards, Coen

Just for the record I'm running into this problem as well in win 8. The sound stops periodically with some cracking. Just moving the mouse seems to be enough to continue the music.

Should I mess with powersettings?

I have only a couple of hours musicplaying on Win8 with 9z9b...

regards, Coen

Hi,

Due to a fierce flu I've not been listening to my system for a week. Today I was recovered enough and in the mood for some healing tunes, and switched the lot on.

Well, the first tunes were somewhat of a disappointment. Where was before last week's airy soundstage and musical fluency? The sound was way to rough and dry for what I've been accustomed too. The word irritating comes to mind.

I played a little with the 09v9b settings, but could not find a satisfying combination. With my reference 09-8e the same nuisances displayed. Then I remembered boleary's cardexperience and removed it.

Well, the card IS the culprit for this issue, now it sounds familiar again and finally I can listen to music for healing purposes again!

I have to say that when the card "worked" it worked very well here and was a worthwile addition. Maybe I will find a way to reinstall it in "working" order again... I'll let you know.
OTOH 9z9b is supposed to sound good without it anyway, so let's focus there first.

regards, Coen

That's the way I was successfull too. My music PC has no optical storage devcies.
I keep the install-usb for mobo and OS drive updates. I store the motherboard drivers in a separate driver directory.

Easy as pie, even I can do it!

regards, Coen
regards, Coen

Win7 or Win8?

regards, Coen

I just recently inserted the pro card in the pc. I used the pci slot nearest to the processor.
My first impressions are that bass quality improved significantly as well that the sound seemed clearer and slightly better (more naturally) organised. Another good sign is that there is no shrinking of sound "image size".
Otoh on the downside I've got some sharp silibants on some recordings. These are fortunately rendered very fine and less obtrusive than those of a regular cd player for instance. Maybe some burn in will make a difference later.

For now I consider the card a worthwile addition in my system.

Regards, Coen

The popping you describe sounds like some kind of oscillation. Could be a malfunctioning capacitor or resistor though.

Anyway are the any psu wires in the vicinity of the card?

Regards, Coen

Did you try different PCI or PCI-E slots?

Renards, Coen