Results are brilliant (soundwise). My only concern are those nasty spikes in CPU usage resulting in small pops. This is happening while XXHE reads data from disk (???) at the end of each track. I wish I could load entire playlist/album to memory. That would be the cure, wouldn't be?

Hmm, even Virtue Sensation? (65W per channel) I guess you know better, I haven't got any contact with electrostatics so far.
I wonder though, how come you prefer the old Pass integrated amp considering what you wrote about Hypex Just curious..

Peter, what about recommended setting for a single core CPU? I suppose I should set "No Appointment"?

You need one Pico PSU (preferably 150xt) and one Peaktech 6080 to power P4 and P24 sockets on your motherboard. Use your old SMPS ATX PSU to feed all the "dirty" components like hard drives and optical drives.

PS
I got response from VirtuaVia. They say that the PCI-E to PCI expansion case isn´t powered anyhow by the pci
extension cable or motherboard's pci slot.

Very interesting. I considered Icepower amplifier from Polish manufacturer Audiomatus. A fellow at hi-fi forum says that Audiomatus humiliated his Bel Canto eVo 4 mk II monoblocks. Here's the review of those audiomatus - http://www.highfidelity.pl/artykuly/0603/audiomatus.html (the editor's reviews are now available on 6moons.)

Mani, did you have a chance to listen to some good quality Tripaths (t-amps)?

A laptop isn't that good solution IMHO. The components inside are very close to each other (noisy environment).

That's great news!!! Update us if you find out more 

pedal,

you could always buy a Pico PSU and feed both, p4 and p24 with the linear psu like Peaktech 6080 through the pico psu. It's very easy to implement and quite cheap as well. I would probably go with Pico+Peaktech combo myself unless Peter reveals some revelations about linear ATX psu available soon 

I try to isolate my sound card as much as possible from PC's noisy environment and came up with an idea to buy sth like this for my Cantatis Overture sound card:

- http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-express-to-pci-expansion-box-p29809.html

OR even better

- http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/pcie-4-x-pci-expansion-atx-kit.html with Pico/linear PSU combo

What do you think about it? I know that Peter considered sth like that...
Greets,
Marcin

Roy, I'm talking about "physical" number of cores running - in BIOS. This has nothing to do with XXHE or OS.

Peter, you know, I've found the culprit of that mysterious buffer problems. Windows changed power settings without a notice although my power plan was still set to performance! I had to change to power saver and then back to performance again. Stupid, but that did the trick.
I've been experimenting more with number of activated cores and discovered another mystery. With 2 cores enabled OS' performance is somewhat better - apps load faster and dpc latency is about 20% lower in comparison to 4 cores. I don't know whether it's a system issue or my platform's rather. Anyway, one core sounds the best and I am able to achieve the same buffer sizes regardless of sample rate used. I also added a second PSU for 4P socket and all the dirty components (hdd's). My primary (better) PSU supplies 24P socket only - very good improvement, but that's just the beggining of my pc-audio trip. Dedicated super efficient audio server with linear power supplies to come...

Peter, I  get your point and totally agree with you, but assuming my PC "lives", I can't control it or predict its behaviour for sure. That's why PC audio is so complicated.

Another funny thing, now that's everything is back to normal (in my opinion), I like invert more. And all my findings are backed up by my girlfriend and she knows when sth is right 

Have a nice weekend!
Marcin

That helped, thank you very much!

This trip never ends..., 

Remember me writing about buffer sizes and losing my rabbit? Guess what? After I deleted XXHE config files, made a clean install, I'm able to listen at 1024 samples again!!! Why? What happened? Peter would probably say - your PC is faster-  but no, it's not faster, I got 4 apps running, 40 tabs in Firefox open and my dpc latency varies from 200-350us. Maybe to low os latency doesn't allow for low buffer sizes with my drivers? That's magic for me. I won't reboot ever, afraid that my rabbit'd run to hole and I won't catch it again... The sound is 100x  better now. Again - why???

I haven't stopped playback nor quit app normally before rebooting my PC and that's what happened after the restart. I am welcomed with these "pleasent" messages. What now? I can't start XXHE, so I can't listen to music ;/ Tried fresh installations (z, za, zb) - nothing changes. Installing elsewhere doesn't help plus I get a "demo version" popup before errors appear.

I'd appreciate your help asap Peter,

Cheers,
Marcin

What's your preference? I know that it depends on album's volume, but do you prefer the sound of XXHE with or without PeakExtend? I like PeakExtend off better in general, because my amp has easier job driving the speakers.