I am using a Shunyata V-ray for my source components, including the computer, lieanr psu for the sound card, and the dac.  My amps run from a Shunyata Hydra 8, and I am using their power cords on everything.

The Shunyata stuff works so well because it takes power distribution seriously, uses filters which do not harm the sound, and also prevents your components from polluting the ac for your system.

This is with 120v 60 Hz USA power, but I would assume that 220v and 50Hz would work the same.  Clean power is extremely important for good sound.  Once converted to analog, the signal simply modulates the Ac from the wall to drive your speakers -- the AC is in the signal path as far as I am concerned.

Best regards,

Mark

Peter,

Thanks.  I may have mis-typed.  it is 44, 48 96 ans 192, on both the sound card and the dac.

I can't do engine 3 since i am only running xp, not vista or 7- unless I am wrong about engine 3 on xp.

I do not have a problem with whether the light comes on or not on the dac, what i was wondering was whether the fixed rates, and the lack of 88 and 176 on the sound card meant that dual and quad upsampling were then being resampled in the sound card driver, and that the driver may be the bad guy!

I ordered a 2 gig stick of ram (kingston valueram) which should be here today, and I will install it.  As I type this, there are 2-second pauses in playback as xx is loading a large playlist, with constant hard drive activity, and the xx screen not switching over to the wallpaper in unattended.

Do you think the extra ram (2 gig vs 1 gig) will help this out?

Best,

Mark

Peter, et al,

I have done some brief listening with linear, arc prediction, and anti-image at both 2x and 4x settings.  I have had mixed results, and noticed that the driver for my essence stx soundcard has fixed sample rates of only 44, 88, 96, and 192, which matches the indicator lights on my cary xciter dac.  with any of the upsampling settings, the sample rate light on the dac does not light. Any thoughts on whether this is good or bad?  How do you think it will effect the sound?

I switched back to straight 44.1, and the lock light came back on, and the sound is a bit warmer, and there is more precise imaging - no "wandering"

Thanks for reading this and offering any thoughts.

Mark

What are you using, and what are you achieving - anybody done specific comparisons- I would be curious to know your results.  I'm using an asus stx, with outboard linear power supply, but am always looking to improve my sound.

thanks for responding!

Mark

Peter,  regarding ram, what I was asking is whether a single 2 gig ram module would give better performance than a single 1 gig ram module....

Not sure if you have any opinion on whether it would sound any better, but whether the system would respond more quickly, run smoother, allow lower latencies,  etc.


Also, how does q1 and the buffers setting interact with the dual and quad sampling options (sonics, mostly)?  are there specific recommendations, using ks/xp yr7 as in my signature?

Wish I had more time to experiment myself, but would like some guidance so I am not randomly trying every possible permutation!

Best,

Mark

thanks Calibrator!  that's a big help.

From the AKm press release:
High Performance 32-bit Stereo DAC Optimized for Sound Quality
San Jose, CA December 19, 2008 — AKM Semiconductor (AKM), the world’s premier
supplier of audio ICs for professional and consumer markets, today launched the AK4399, a
high performance 32-bit stereo DAC that achieves 123dB dynamic range for stereo and 126db
for mono outputs. It is the newest member of the Audio4proTM family, and it is the highest
performing device in the 32-bit DAC series. An innovative design technique utilizing a
symmetrical layout for the left and right channels prevents signal quality deterioration, and a
32-bit digital operation block provides full 32-bit processing.
Achieving very high dynamic performance, the AK4399 features -105dB THD+N and 123dB
dynamic range in stereo mode. The device features fully differential outputs, digital attenuator,
de-emphasis filter, soft mute circuit and zero detection. The sampling rate ranges from 30kHz
to 216kHz, and the operating voltage is 5V.
Two digital filters are integrated into the AK4399: a sharp roll-off filter for high fidelity audio
and a short delay filter that has no impulse noise pre-ring for live performance applications. In
addition, 32-bit digital audio data can be input directly to the delta-sigma modulator without
passing into the integrated digital filters, allowing for use of an external digital filter.
The AK4399 supports DSD (Direct Stream Digital) or PCM data input. Since the AK4399
contains an integrated low-pass filter only for DSD data, the required performance in the
SACD format book (Scarlet Book) can be easily realized with a simple external analog filter.
The output level is the same for either PCM or DSD input data, as well as external digital filter
input. Volume control is independent of the type of data input.

Peter,

I switched another setting.  I changed my dac is   from 16/44.1  to 24/192.  i am using the Cary xciter dac, which uses the akm 4399 dac chip.  I think a very slight nasal quality in vocals has gone away with this change - does that make sense?  i may tri 32/192, which I believe is the limit for the dac, i will check the spec sheet tomorrow - gonna listen more before bed.

Although I am running y7 on xp, I think that the phrase "black background" can mean either of two things - one good, the other bad!

With a natural sounding recording, you can hear the spaces between the musicians - that is the acoustic of the space is part of the soundstage along with the musicians-- when you hear only the musicians with nothing between them, then a black background is actually missing ambient and low level information

when the black background means that there are no artifacts or distortion, then it is good!

best,

mark

I am still learning, and only have a short time each evening to experiment and listen, and I would much rather listen, as the sound is very captivating now - and i need to do more system tweeking before I do a lot more experimenting with the settings.  But I will keep you posted.

I will add to my signature.  Last night I was able to audition an Audioquest Signature digital cable, with the Boccino rcas.  Unbelieveable how good it is sounding.  The speakers dissapear, tonality is wonderful, very dynamic, and you can hear the spaces between the musicians!

I am liking the software very much, but can;t figure out what all the commands are for the autohotkeys- so far i have found alt-x to start xxhighend, alt-e to exit, and alt-n for next track - i cannot find the command for previous track... 

also, when i set q1 back to 1 (down from 4) the hard drive light came on, and stayed on for a long time even while music had been playing for minutes...  so i put it back to 4.

Peter, I am still using the 1 gig kingston ram chip, and it seems to be playing fine, and responds more quickly with adaptive mode, and unattended.  is there any sonic advantage to switching to a single 2 gig corsair ram module? 

Mark

Peter,
Thanks for the tips.  I have been involved in high end audio for a long time, am a trained musician, and sell high end audio for a living, so i do have a lot of listening experience.  The system I am using is very good, and I have attended to many details of making the computer sound good - plugged into a shunyata v-ray with shunyata power cords, magnan interconnect from dac to sim audio preamp, audioquest digital cable, power supply tweeks in the pc, along with the custom diy linear power supply running the sound card.  The room is acoustically treated, and it is sounding very good indeed.

The computer I am using for audio is not connected to the internet, so has no antivirus running, and has very little software installed on it.  If i buy the software, how would i transfer the "license" to that computer?  would i have to install the xxhighend from scratch, or just copy a file over on a flash drive?

I have .9y6 on this computer, can i pay for that one, and then transfer the payment over to the audio pc running 9v7?

thanks again,

Mark

Peter,

I am running with unattended mode now - I did not notice that the settings tab had a scroll bar, and that there were a number of settings I did not see before.  I am just starting to figure out how to add to the playlist from the library tab.  (is there a link with explicit instructions so I am sure I am doing it corrctly, rather than guessing and trial and error?) Things are a bit slow, but I have not yet put the 2 gig corsair ram in yet, but that is easy enough to do.  I noticed also that autohotkeys crashes winamp, so I have to remember to unload and reload it as needed.

I have also turned q2-q5 down to 0, and have backed q1 down to 4, adaptive mode, with 512 for the buffer....  the sound is getting better, and I am closing in on deciding whether to buy or not.  I switch back to winamp to have a comparison, and because I can run it continuously as I am burning in new dac and cables.

I also switched to unattended mode, and that does seem to sound better as well.

Thank you for all your help- I must say that the feedback and assistance are very valuable, and that you are earning your money.

Best,

Mark

i will try those ideas.  i have been choosing music using the explore button --

i also have 2 2gig ram sticks somewhere, but at one point i listened to the corsair 2g ram vs the 1g kingston, and thought the kingston sounded better, and left it in.