Go back few posts and you will know. I wrote that I flashed my Cantatis with ESI's firmware and used their drivers as well. What I didn't write is that I 'unlocked' the second core and increase CPU frequency. 1.4GHz dual-core is enough to provide fluent playback of 16/44 material with 1 sample latency. What else didn't you understand?

Maybe so or maybe not, check the bottom of this page - http://lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/behringer/Behringer.html Maybe blue PCB on his Lampizator DAC is just a coincidence. Also, put attention to his entries, each one of them has in title adjectives like: best, ultimate, ultra etc. It's to enthusiastic imho, but maybe I'm wrong.

I checked X3B log and... Samples of latency (Q1) : 1

No cracks, no crashes and I found a workaround for memory playback. I 'cut' my albums to separate tracks, never load a single track-album. This way I can set split size to 1024 even and no problems at all. Peter, is this full memory playback?

I'll check that tomorrow, but most probably it's the same as Calibrator's (the same drivers), so that would be 2 samples, but finally I can relax on my couch and listen to music 

Lampizator aka Łukasz Fikus is Polish guy (same as me). 'The best DAC' of his is highly tuned, lampized Behringer DAC, which is available for everyone. I'm going to try his DAC soon, so I'll let you know how it performs. That is if you trust my judgement haha :D

I've flashed my Cantatis with ESI firmware again in order to try Special mode with low buffer sizes. Encouraged by Calibrator, I switched from my 'reference' settings (see signature) to DAP instead of QAP and KS Special Mode with Q1=-1 and buffer size at 48 samples - yep, it's possible, these drivers are awesome and I don't need ESI card to use them, great. After play button was hit, I heard not only 'more' but in a more realistic way. Then I figured, what the hell, QAP is 'supposedly' better than DAP, but no, at least not with my card and my system. Next thing I've done was going to redbook - 16/44 (DAC set to 16 bit as well) with intert ticked. Now that I've played couple of albums and compare it A/B with DAP and QAP, it's the best sound I've heard so far. I don't know if it's due to ultra low latency (2 samples?), because I can't play QAP with these settings (have to increase Q1 to 5 - 48 samples) or simply upsamling doesn't go along with my card and DAC on it (delta sigma), don't have a clue. I'm 100% sure that it sounds better though - I am able to hear more details and it's so realistic that I get a goose skin over my head. So I have a hint for you guys, if you don't have a NOS DAC, just stop for a moment, don't pursue this 'upsampling' journey, try good, old 16/44 with following settings (if your drivers allow it):

Engine#4 *Special Mode* / Q1/2/3/4/5 = *-1*/0/0/0/0 / *Invert* /  Playerprio = Low / ThreadPrio = Realtime / Scheme = 1 @ UnAttended / Services Off / No Upsampling / *1024 samples* / DAC set to 16 bit !

Roy, there is no rule, believe me. I've flashed my Cantatis to ESI firmware again and here I can say without any doubts that it sounds better on 2 cores. With native Cantatis firmware and VIA drivers, the sound is better on 1 core, it's like they programmed em to work on a single core computers, very strange. I wouldn't have thought that drivers matter this much...

OK, let's assume that my PC is low, but these "revelations" don't pop up all the time and I don't use the PC for anything else than playback, I don't even move my mouse :D But you're probably right, it should be gone once I upgrade my computer.

PS
You should precise XXHE minimal requirements for smooth playback in your release notes, that would help newbies and prevent such topics. And I'm not trying to be picky, just want to help you improve your software and grow awareness of rest of the users.

Cheers,
Marcin

Peter, from time to time I get "No Track given" during playback and I have to click OK on a message box for playback to continue. Very annoying. Sometimes it skips track.

Maybe because z2 crashes / stops playback very often :D

Why don't you share your thoughts about the latest version of XXHE? Personally I prefer z1.

Looking forward to "official" photos of ready-to-ship product.

It's ok, the dropouts are not common, only with few of my albums and I'm gonna upgrade my audio PC in few months, that will solve the problem. Out of curiosity - what split size value do you use? There is very noticeable difference between e.g. 32 MB and 64 MB. The latter sounds fuller.

But hold on a second. Isn't the split size parameter supposed to adjust equal portion of data being read regardless of input? I'm confused.

Your modest machine is  still 8x faster than mine :D I'll decrease split size and everything should be fine. Thanks for your explanation