V 2.11 an opus magnum

[Nick]

Peter hi,

If you went in for giving versions of HighEnd names like Google does for Android releases, I think for SQ HighEnd V2.11 should be the "Opus Magnum" release 

The thing that hits first (from the very first played notes) is what is no longer part of the sound ! Distortions that hung about all over the spectrum in 2.10 have been banished... gone.

The music just flows so a beautifully, misicians are there in the room, the joy in performances is really captured so well, you can almost see the smiles on the musicians faces as they accompany each other.

Wow I was not expecting that.

Brilliant, really brilliant Peter !!

Thank you.

Nick.

Ps did the cpu setting make it into the build ?
I could not see it but perhaps I need to look harder :-)

[Robert]

Yes I agree with you Nick. It does look like cpu setting didn't make it.
But I'm still running what you did in Bios Nick and this alone was well worth doing.

Nick did you patch over existing Xx version or do a clean install over W10? I just did a patch to to check on everything. I will run with this for now. At some point I will do a whole new install.

Robert

[PeterSt]

Thank you Nick (and Robert).

The CPU setting made it all right. This is the bottom of the Boot Into Menu (RightClick on Stop) :

[Nick]

Thanks Peter,
Im looking forwards to giving it a go 

[KnB]

Peter, with the new possibility with cpu setting in 2.11, should we adjust bios on the stealth lll to “use all core”, or any other adjustments?

and WOW what a BIG upgrade with the 2.11. Thank you!

[PeterSt]

Kjell Narve, Yes, in the BIOS set to ALL now and let the software control the real number. And relatively easy to compare because it only requires a change of that number and a reboot (just from RAM to RAM is fine).

Btw, is *is* allowed to also set the BIOS to a lower cpu amount, but that will lower the "software" possibilities. But, it may change SQ again (I never tried with such combinations). Thus, set in BIOS the 14 native cores to e.g. 12 and then in software try 12, 10, 8 etc. (14 not available now).

Peter

[Robert]

Peter

I've tried changing SFS from .69 to 10.19 and think I prefer it. .69 has a bassy feel about it including vocals. I find 10.69 image better and more balanced sound. Early days yet. I see you use 10.19.

I've also tried setting cores using 2.11 honestly can't tell if its any different to Nick's manual method probably the same or very close.

I only have 4 cores so set it to 3. But on checking Xx is running on 2 with this setting. Is this correct?

Robert

[PeterSt]

Hi Robert,

My 0.69 did not last long (referring to another topic), so back to 10.19 it is.

As far as I remember, 3 cores are only available for older AMD processors, and it is my estimate that you don't have that. So it has to round down to two (which exists for both AMD and Intel).

I've also tried setting cores using 2.11 honestly can't tell if its any different to Nick's manual method probably the same or very close.

Assumed it really is so that Nick's method comes (in effect) down to the same, is thus is the same (haha), but, you can easily change it now.
Btw, I never tried Nick's method, so I don't know for real.

Best regards,
Peter

[manisandher]

I'm obviously late to this party. I'll download 2.11 tomorrow and share my thoughts then...

Peter, thanks so much for all your efforts over the years. I know that many of us wouldn't be having anywhere near as much fun listening to music if we'd never stumbled upon you and XXHE. And your following hardware offerings were the icing on the cake.

For my own part, I've never enjoyed my playback system as much as I do now. But somehow, I feel as though I know even less about what actually determines good sound than I did 12 years ago 

Mani.

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Thank you so much for all your effort in making our music interest more & more enjoyable.

2.11 is indeed amazing especially reducing the distortion levels significantly.

Thank you again.

Best regards,

Arvind

[phantomax]

Hello Peter,

As others have said, the new version represents a great improvement. You can notice right away and especially in passages of great sound density that now sound effortless  with greater clarity and less distortion. And although I've been enjoying a lot all this time the wait was well worth it.

Thank you and Best Regards

Maxi

[Tore]

Hi Peter!

Thanks for XX 2.11 Peter, i`m glad you gave us this now 

Sound is best ever now with my new Phasure Mach 3


Tore

[juanpmar]

Hi,

After a long time away from the forum, although not totally from the music, the forced confinement has seated me in the listening room more frequently.
To my surprise yesterday I found and installed the 2.11a new version. As always there is usually an improvement over the previous version and in my case it is clearly noticeable more detail and finesse. I can´t say more at this moment but I will closely follow the influence of the new possibilities, such as the change in the number of active cores.

Thanks once again Peter!

I wish you all the best
Juan

[juanpmar]

Hi Peter,

I am trying to change the number of cores to see the differences in sound. My music PC has a maximum of 12 cores (6+6) and, if for example I activate 8 cores (4+4), when I click play I see that the album is read by the 12 cores. When I return to the Boot Into... board to check how many cores are active it still say 8. Is it correct or is there some kind of error?

Regards,
Juan

[PeterSt]

Hi Juan,

when I click play I see that the album is read by the 12 cores.

You seem to skip a step there, which is : check by means of TaskManager how many cores are active now. So if you had 12 (hyperthreded) in your example it should show 8. If it still shows 12 *there* something isn't working ... Esepcially not if XXHE=s Boot Menu shows the 8 after a reboot (Reboot is necessary !).

?

Kind regards,
Peter

[juanpmar]

Thanks Peter, now all is ok

Juan

[manisandher]

So, I finally got around to upgrading to 2.11. It's been a while since I've used XX, because I've been playing around with the DSP in Roon. But even so, I'm certain that 2.11 is a step up (again!) from 2.10. It sounds truly amazing.

So much so in fact that I don't have any withdrawal symptoms from having just returned the Taiko Extreme that I had on a week's loan. (You can read about that here: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/60458-taiko-extreme-my-experience/?tab=comments#comment-1081051).

Thanks so much Peter.

Mani.

[acg]

Mani,

Interesting to hear your impressions.  The Taiko Extreme is a seriously priced piece of kit.  Were you trialling to see if you could find something better than the Mach III or was your interest more in the Roon/DSP side of things?  I fear that if I want to do Roon that I will have to get a second (non-Phasure) dac which I am reluctant to do, but sometimes I want something that is just quick and easy with Tidal but still sounds good.

I don't even have the Mach III yet...am waiting for Peter to source the 20/40 core cpus (hurry up Peter!)

Anthony

[manisandher]

Were you trialling to see if you could find something better than the Mach III or was your interest more in the Roon/DSP side of things?

I wanted to know what the generally accepted current SOTA sounds like with Roon and HQPlayer. And yes, how this compares with the Mach III running XX... feeding the NOS1 in both cases.

I fear that if I want to do Roon that I will have to get a second (non-Phasure) dac which I am reluctant to do, but sometimes I want something that is just quick and easy with Tidal but still sounds good.

Roon, Tidal/Qobuz do work with the NOS1. Once all set up, it's "quick and easy". The only thing you'll miss is auto sample rate switching. No big deal really, because you can set Roon to convert to and output a constant SR. It sounds pretty good really. I captured the output of the NOS1 being fed by XX, Roon, HQPlayer and Roon->HQPlayer with my RME ADI-2... and Roon (using its internal filters) stacks up pretty well. (Happy to send you the files if you're interested in taking a listen.)

Edit: Once set up, it's easy to switch between Roon for more general listening and discovering music on Tidal, and XX for more serious listening. No need of a second DAC!

OT. How's your own Opus Magnum coming on?

Mani.

[Robert]

No doubt about it 2.11 its the best.

I think the Taiko engineering wise is excellent that's mechanical, metals etc. You do have to pay lots for precision engineering, machining metals, linear power supplies etc to exacting extremes of tolerance. But in the end its the package versus the money to extract this. The Mach III's are also extremely good with 2.11. If we could put a Mach III in a Taiko case we are at the same price as the Taiko. I'm not in a position or probably never to hear a Taiko so its certainly worth putting your money into a Mach III. This is transforming sound wise. Robert

[manisandher]

I'm not in a position or probably never to hear a Taiko so its certainly worth putting your money into a Mach III.

I still have my Stealth II here too, and the difference between the Stealth II and the Mach III is massive. The Mach III 'sparkles' in comparison.

I really enjoyed having the Extreme here for a week, but can't imagine using anything other than XX for serious listening.

Mani.

[rudolf]

Yes, I agree, soundquality is awesome. Giving me new dimensions... Thank you Peter for your work and support over all those years!!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
XXHighend 2.11a on Windows 8 PC (AMD A6-3650 APU 16 GB RAM)  with 2x Audioquest Jitterbug USB Filter
XXHighend: Adaptive Mode / Q1/-/3/4/5 = 4/-/0/0/0/ Q1Factor = 1 / Dev.Buffer = 256 / ClockRes = 0,5ms / Memory = Mixed/  SFS = 1,02  (max 1,02 / Playerprio = Low / ThreadPrio = Realtime / Scheme = Core 2-3 / not Switch Processors during Playback = Off/ / UnAttended  / /Stop all Services Off / Stop Desktop and Remaining Services ON/ Keep LAN =off/ Not Persist / WallPaper Off/ Minimize OS off
Advance xi-75 Amp/ Audioquest Cinnamon USB Cable/ KORG DSD-DAC 100/ ProAc biwire cables into ProAc Studio 130 Speakers

[Robert]

But this was not all ...

I think that most people will use Q3,4,5 at 1,1,1. Well, a week ago I suddenly heard how that now could go. This too is difficult to explain, but I'd say that everybody who uses 1,1,1, will know why he does that. And I now heard that it was not "necessary" any more.
And THAT beat all ...

This most certainly works in my setup very noticeable. I never would have thought to try this one.

I notice you have also changed some XTweaks : Balanced Load = *68* / Nervous Rate = 10 / Cool when Idle = n.a / Provide Stable Power = *1* / Utilize Cores always = 1 / Time Performance Index = Optimal / Time Stability = Stable.

I've had the Stable power at "0" for some time did you intend to change this?

You are still using Custom filters as well? I'm still with Arc Predict.

Robert

[PeterSt]

I've had the Stable power at "0" for some time did you intend to change this?

Robert, good question !!
I changed that in my Sig yesterday, because, well, I found it in there at checking things (at 1 while my Sig said 0). Maybe that is not good at all ! But ... I suppose I am listening to that for "months" ? ... So I better let it be.

Arc Prediction with the Lush^3 is too much of it. Things are wildly "sharp" (which is good) but also tiring fairly quickly (not good). And with the Blaxius^2.5 that is even more "too much" (I tried Arc Prediction 2 days ago once again, because now Q3,4,5 at 0 but it did not last one track).

Regards,
Peter

[numlog]

I have been in sort of DAC limbo for the last year and hadn't used XXHE  much, but just after trying out 2.11 with some ok gear and gotta say Im really impressed with it. I hadn't used it in so long I forgot how much of an improvement you can get from a player can make (well XXHE at least, not sure about others), It's nearly like changing a piece hardware.

Using KS, High SFS, long buffer and 8x arc predition and it sounds very good.

I am going to pair it with Andrea Mori's (from diyaudio) upcoming NOS R2R DAC, FIFO and clock when it's available.
At least Andrea's goal is to provide a FIFO that completely eliminates influence from the PC, so most of XXHEs ability will probably (but hopefully) will be wasted,
But I do still need a digital volume control and digital filtering, XXHE is still the best choice in this regard, so not completely wasted

[PeterSt]

At least Andrea's goal is to provide a FIFO that completely eliminates influence from the PC, so most of XXHEs ability will probably (but hopefully) will be wasted,

Hahaha, let's see !
I am really curious, so keep us informed, OK ?

Thank you for sharing !
Peter

[numlog]

I was wondering, are xtweaks active always when enabled or only when playing?
So for example they would influence the sound in other programs outside XXHE?

[PeterSt]

Good question ...

You'd have to assume that they change things when playing. This is already so with the processor speed and probably related (because of consistency) more.
Also, when you are not playing, it is the idea that the PC is "workable" for other tasks. This includes the manipulation within XXHighEnd itself too (like it is not really useful to load files per the slowest means possible).

Peter