XXHighEnd

Hi Experts,

My Config :

Dell Latitude D630 with XP Professional + SP3
4 GB of RAM
Trends UD-10 used as a transport from USB to SPDIF/AES
AQVOX 1.02 ASIO USB Driver (doesn't work with the standard USB DAC XP driver)
Micromega tweaked Duetto DAC (plugged with SPDIF) or/and Micromega Duo Pro (Plugged with AES/EBU)
XXhighEnd 0.9y-500 with DAC settings set to DAC 16 bit, 48 kHz; Processor settings set to No Appointment, BelowNormal, High

I use wav or flac files (standard 16 bit, 44.1 kHz) extracted from the original CDs with Exact Audio Copy and some mp3 files (from 128 to 320).

Return about usage of  0.9y-500 : 

On wav files : doesn't work with error message : "Failed write to pin"
On flac and mp3 files :  partially work, but not enable to naturally skip to next track.

When it works, transparency and coherency are better than the last stable XP version of XXhighEnd (0.9x-4;engine 2)  with a huge gap.

Any idea will be welcome.

Hope patch could be possible.

Best regards,
Christophe

G'day Christophe,

When I got the same error message initially, Peter suggested lowering the file split size until it worked, which it eventually did.

It also wouldn't harm in grabbing the 0.9y-5-01 update while you are at it and give it a try. Probably won't help for your particular errors but ya never know.

When you have a moment, may I suggest you copy your system text as you described, and paste it into the signature area in your profile. Makes it easier for diagnosis in the future if hardware and signal paths are laid out for all to see.

Cheers,

Russ

Christophe,

Also :


Are you sure about this ? I mean, I wouldn't know of anything that makes a difference between these two groups. If you are sure indeed, please make sure all lead to the same "native" bit depth and sample rate (and it is allowed to assume MP3 is 16/44.1; this does not count for wav and flac -> could be anything).

About the other things I don't know (yet). :sorry:
Peter

Hi Experts,

Installing 0.9y-502 release, XXhighEnd works perfectly now for every formats and seems to be stable.

Congratulations, sound is incredible !

Like my vinyles !  To compare it, I chose Pink Floyd The Wall ripped with Exact Audio Copy in 16 bit, 44 KHz from the original CDs and the original vinyle LPs read with the double MM Audio-Technica AT-440 MLa cartridge mounted on a tweaked Thorens TD-160 with SME arm, the bandwith is larger than XXHighend in the upper part of the spectrum; but XXHighEnd is really really really good.

Very good work !

Best regards,
Christophe.

Hey Christophe, great to hear !

Very funny ... I perceived the "vinyl" sound from The Wall first, but that's probably because it's a nice test album for gapless (and not too long tracks). But in addition to that, I kind of explicitly did not like the album anymore (lately), while now it's there again (and I found many more of such examples).

Another small story (and some may have heard it before) :

150 or so meters from my house lives mr Van den Hul (you may Google for him, or add "frog" to his name);
Two years ago I made the appointment with him that I would convince him that vinly doesn't cut it anymore. This big meet never happened because I felt not ready for it. I was never sure why, but after hearing Engine#4 for the first time I suddenly recognized what vinyl crazies always rave about (and what I sure know from quite some years ago BUT I was always glad to return to "digital" after listening for a couple of hours to analogue).

So, the last few weeks I'm really thinking about inviting mr Van den Hul over for the big test. Of course I am not about to loose, and there's kind of no second chance.

Now, if I carefully read your "description", it's all not up to it. Or at least not for the "higher bandwidth" in the highs. Ok, I can't imagine this (at all), but if you say so, I will believe it. But then there is the DAC you use;
I am not sure how you (by now) use it, and whether it is possible for you to squeeze (at least Double) Arc Prediction through it. Maybe it's not even good for Engine#4 (like some already expressed), but it should matter in "some" direction anyway.

So, how do you use it ?

Also, do you use that special USB driver you mentioned to me by email (I seem not to be able to email you back about this subject, because each email is bounced back after some 24 hours) ?
Or can you use the legacy USB driver now ?

Thank you,
Peter

Hi Peter,

I posted to you a personal mail. But for the web site, I used the XXHighEnd 0.9y-502 as follow :

Music files are wav, flac and mp3 (all in 16 bit, 44.1 kHz)

Trends UD-10 used as Transport Converter from USB to SPDIF/AES/EBU. Careful Trends are used with external loadable Ni-Cd batteries (4*1.2V) and not with USB power.
1) Micromega Duetto DAC (2 x TDA1541) tweaked to be used in NOS mode, connected to the Trends with a RCA Cardas wire in SPDIF mode
2) Micromega Duo Pro (Bit Stream) connected to the Trends with a XLR Cardas in AES/EBU mode
AQVOX Universal USB DAC Driver Full Use (bought for 99 € !) huge better than the native XP USB Driver (USB DAC) which do not work
DAC Settings : 16 Bit, 48kHz
Processor Settings : No Appointment, BelowNormal, High
Memory And Disk Utilization : Split file at Size set to 50 vs 100
DACs are plugged to amp using Cardas wires

About feeling using this equipment :

Natural and very warm sound. For me it is the first time, from my numerical sources experiment, that I heard a sound equivalent to LP vinyle.

Hope it will be useful.

So I am very   :)

Best regards,
Christophe

Thank you very much Christophe;

I will read your email with interest, but I think I'll respond to it (also) by a PM in here (the forum); just in case it will bounce again (which I will notice only 24 hours afterwards).

I sure hope you spent your money well on the USB driver, because I just found my own doesn't even work (read : I will solve that because I can test that myself).

Again, thanks,
Peter