Peter, but it's like comparing apples and oranges, you know - to many variables IMHO, but sure everyone can have his own opinion, I didn't mean to criticize or sth. I just wanted to rather point few, in my opinion, important differences:

- Kernel Streaming vs. WASAPI
- double arc prediction vs. native 16/44
- ultra low buffer vs. higher
- and finally Q2, Q3 at 30

I think that a 'fair' comparison would be with XXHE set to Engine#3, the same buffer size and playing native 16/44, but that's my opinion
If Calibrator prefers what he does then good for him! But I can reply to his post, can I?

And you know that I also have dCS Elgar Plus with RME-AES32 in dual AES configuration. The dCS can work in 24/192 in dual AES only, other inputs are limited to 24/96, so I don't think I'm gonna switch to JULI@, which lacks BNC for word clock BTW. I see that you're a bit frustrated that someone could prefer other player? I get it, but you don't have to search for weak points in my system to rationalize my statement, because that what this meant, right - 'of course, if you use the soundcard not to passthrough (but use the analogue outs) it's another matter - and I think you do the latter. Well, *that* would be no sot "valid" I think ... (you will be one out of 100, roughly estimated).'

Cheers,
Marcin

I didn't write that they're not valid, but Q2 and Q3 at 30 changes sound completely Besides special mode is available for limited users (ESI drivers preferable). I haven't been able to play stable with neither RME, Cantatis, M-Audio or Ploytec drivers.

Calibrator, but you're on Special Mode-  that's another tale and very much different from adaptive. And Q2,Q3 at 30, you are aware that it totally changes the presentation towards 'fullness' and makes sound more on 'your face'...

It can be done up to 0.5ms, that's for sure

apple.com ? I use safari browser and that's my start-up page.

I have the same problem on W2008, not on W2008 R2 though...
I kind of agree with boleary regarding 'the weight' or 'body', but I like it better than XXHE anyway at the moment and maybe it's supposed to be this way, I mean - I feel that this is more lifelike and instruments, vocals sound very natural

At this stage I'm sure that 64-bit sounds better than XXHE in any configuration. Sorry Peter, but if you implement Josef's memory management and force 1ms timer, things might be totally different. Can't wait to hear it. Great times are coming for pc audio

Cheers,
Marcin

I'm on Engine#3 anyway and Josef's player - it matters And in Vista you should be able to squeeze 0.5ms.

Have you ever wondered why your PC 'sounds' better one day and worse another and this is without making any changes in player or OS?
Well, here's a clue - ever heard of system timer resolution? The default value is 15.6ms, but some applications can force the windows timer resolution e.g. Media Player, iTunes, WinAmp, Flash all set the timer resolution to 1ms. The interesting thing is that this change is global  so all applications get the new high resolution timer while one of these applications are running. So gentlemen, start your browsers with some lightweight flash content and play some tunes How crazy is that?

You can view your system timer interval with that small tool: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897568.aspx
start it from CMD

Peter, you should be able to set the timer in XXHE as well.

Best regards,
Marcin

8 x 1704, very nice and I wanted to buy Audio-GD
Besides, I understand now how I could play with KS special mode on ESI drivers, while drivers from other vendors failed.
Looking forward  to first reviews.

Good luck,
Marcin

Mani,

XXHE sounds more musical, because you use SFS.ini=21 and larger SFS. Set the SFS.ini to 00, SFS to 12 MB, Scheme-1 and try again You might discover the opposite. And make sure to manually copy the tracks to RAMdisk.

Cheers,
Marcin

I don't know :D I'm used to hexadecimal values as I spent much time with IRQ affinity tool...

Josef,

Don't want to be picky, but shouldn't it be hexadecimal? (affinity)

jplay2 sounds better for sure

Starting playback from CMD, how cool is that?
It's a pity that buffer below 256 samples isn't available. No stability issues so far with both versions.

Josef,

cPlay uses Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) to allocate RAM to music files during playback (Lock pages in memory). I'll try your tiny players later

Cheers,
Marcin

PS
Why did you set affinity to 1?