XXHighEnd

Hi all,

So, I am still on W7 and decided to try out some tests with file location. See the picture.
The winner mode is when XX and music are both  in ramdisk. However, USB flash is also not that bad for music holding.
The way I do is I copy the album into ramdisk manually before playback. I usually listen to one particular music not many different.

When xx and music are in ramdisk, e.g., RAM - this is something different coming out of my system. Extra smooth and detailed. I love it. Thanks Peter and thanks the one who came up with ramdisk idea.

Ivo

Wow Ivo, Great !

Did you incorporate Copy to XX Drive explicitly in your tests ?
Notice that this will only play a role with native .WAV files; Otherwise it goes to the "XX Drive" anyway (as the result from conversions).
IOW, do you think it differs if you copy "yourself" to the XX Drive ? Also if it's FLAC (all but .WAV) you are copying to there ?

Really great and sincere thanks.
Peter

If 'Copy to XX-drive' is selected, then surely there is absolutely no point in copying the music files manually to RAM. This is exactly what 'Copy to XX-drive' will do... if XX sits in RAM.

Am I missing something?

Mani.

I play only FLACs. All tests done with FLACs. "Copy to XX..." is selected.

Yes, of course XX takes files and converts in its own folder before playback which is actually the same RAM where XX resides.
My idea was to eliminate as much as possible music travel across PC before playback. All is in RAM and there it stays - that is my rule.
And I feel difference when music is in RAM vs being on HDD.

I guess most of us feel better sound when using SSDs - the drive with no spinning stuff. USB flash and RAM are of the same sort as SSD.

Maybe I am missing also something here, but I hear what I hear.

Ivo

Just try this yourself and let us know what you here...

Would be nice to include SSD and eSATA drive in the test.
And to repeat the test with .WAV tracks.
Unfortunately I will be traveling for the next 10 days, but when I am back........
Cheers,
Eric

Hi, coming out from lurking in the corner..

I dont whether XX+music in ramdisk is the winner or not, but it is a very good improvement in my system over [music being on a NAS and copy to XX set]. With the latter, I was getting dropouts at the track end, presumeable when XX was copying in the next track? Now the music is cleaner, more dynamic and less resistable to getting up and dancing. :yahoo:

Peter: can we have a copy all tracks to XX disk before play option please?

Yes you can. Use Unattended and activate "Copy to XX Drive".

:)

Hi

I tried this yesterday with two wavs I know very well. I made a new folder on the ramdisc 'music' and selected the tracks in XX (on the ramdisc XX folder).

Believe it or not the sound appeared a tad more subtile and was easier to enjoy. Below are the setiing I used.

Pretty strange since copy to xx disc was ticked and the file would be loaded to ramdisc anyway.

I don't know how SFS works, but its effect is immediately apparent. Maybe there is still a lot of IO going on with the drive...

regards, Coen

Hi,

After my initial excitement I tried to figure out if some settings could yield the same sound I heard from storing the stuff on my (limited) Ramdisc. No Luck for me, nothing I did could lead the way in the direction I wanted it to go (SFS settings, Q sliders, cardlatency).

Thats real bad, since I believe the ramdisc/ramdisc combi is exactly where I want my sound to be (or to baldly move from there into the unknown). Besides that the music is more focussed and playfull it's also like a subliminal door opens to let the music flow straight into my brain. A trick my deceised NOS TDA1541 Dac could also pull off.

Still with me :scratching:  ?

In a desperate attempt to understand what's going on here I cleared the playlist and selected the same tracks from my HDD. Good sound but no magic here. Note that the very files did allready reside in the XX folder of Ramdisc (since copy to... was ticked).

To mess things up I cleared the playlist, unticked 'copy to...' (files still in XX folder) and played again: still nothing happening here, maybe a little less than before.

My conclusion: the space occupied by the files on the ramdisc makes no difference to the sound, no matter how many times the files are copied to whatever folder.
The magic is only 'there' when the playlist is selected from Ramdisc. It is there rather regardless of (SFS) settings....

What is going on here?????

regards, Coen

p.s. used vintage hardware does not allow for special mode

As far as I know, that's impossible  :clever: How could it be, since XXHE copies the files itself? How could it be different from manual copying? It can't, but I'm 'stupid enough' to give it a try, haha

I guess this answer was too simple. :yes:
I will make something for this.

Peter

That would be real nice!!! :goodjob:

That's a very good question, because it's beyond my comprehension. I've just had a jawdrop, had to try few tracks this way, because I couldn't believe my ears. Previous the sound was good, great even, but now it's like Coen said - magic! But again, how? The size for both files is identical...

For those of you who are thinking of going the route of copying music to your ram disk before playing it, here's a tiny free program that will make it quick and relatively painless. http://www.mtg.sk/rva/ (http://www.mtg.sk/rva/) It's called Cathy.

Even if you don't use it for that, it's a veritable gem (I've wanted a reason to tell people about it for a while--I love great little functional programs from folks who just seem to care but don't want anything in return). If you do use this program, send a post card of your area to Robert's (I think that's his name) daughter, that's all he asks for.

Cathy almost instantly catalogs whatever you give it, say your music directory(s). Then you can search them and instantly come up with relevant files which among other things you can print out (the complete directory with filenames if you like, just the folders, or portions thereof, and for our purposes drag and drop files to your ram disk. 

So what I do is have the Ramdisk music dir open, and the Cathy program search open, you can start them both with a batch file. Then search for Stevie Winwood, drag the album, or files, or whole dir to the ramdisk music dir and your set. Takes no longer than searching in XX and for me is less frustrating.

Chris

No need for this in 0.9z-3.

Maybe my ears are getting old but I hear a little more distortion when I manually copy music to RAMDisk, though it is a tad more clear sounding. To me its very much like lowering the SFS, first impression is great but after a while its sounds a little thin.

I read Marcins reaction and had to have a go as well. I tried Music + XX on RAMDisk last night. To rebalance sound presentation I had to increase SFS from 75 to 85 MB. What a result ! even smoother, larger stage, macro and micro dynamic improvements, bass and treble extension.

IMHO this is defiantly worth doing, I hope you can incorporate a way of exploiting this is 09z-03 Peter.

Great find Ivo.

Nick.

Just wait ... I have the bugger on the tail now ...

:yes:

Sounds like we could be in for some surprises Peter,
Good luck
 :)

My ears must be getting as old as Boleary's...  :scratching:

The "soulful" feeling is lost in my system when played with the music files stored directly in the Ramdisk.
Hopefully 09-z3 gives the flexibilty to stay with the current method of file handling...

Raj

For choices it won't get easier, but "good old" method is still there. The default actually. :yes:

At last someone with some sense. Haha.

Different set-ups, different results. Different people, different preferences.

I am still amazed how much similarity there is between posters when it comes down to discribing their XX experience.
Luckily Peter does his stinkin' best to please us all and guys like Ivo have the right amount of curiosity to discover great new tweaks!

I am for one thing very much looking out to v03, for the superior sound and dealing with the limited RAMresources I have. Playlists are awfully short these days :smile:

Again, the more I listen to it, the more I am of the opinion that this is a must have option. Almost even before the first note of a music track strikes I sense that my attention is drawn into the music and I am much less bothered by imperfections in my reproductionchain. I can tell ramdisc immediately by this trait. Maybe people with rather up to date systems and stripped Vistas are used to this kind of sound, I have no reference to that.

Keeping my eye on this forum!

regards, Coen

Again someone with sense !

Ehhm, who hasn't ?

Try to please you all. But wait 'till you heard what I found. hehe

:toomuch:

Oh Peter, always teasing us  :prankster: At least give us something, so we wouldn't have to refresh the site every 5 minutes  :grin:

Ok, I will. Somewhere in between 5 minutes from now and the end of the day.

:swoon:

So, it is very interesting to read what you all hear when music is in RamDisk.
I ve been listening to some albums which I know well for last several days - and I just cannot stop keeping my mouth open when I hear this music. It is like listening for it for the first time.
My characteristic of the sound would be as follows:
- soundstage is even more 3D, highs are much clearer + bass is more sophisticated (before bass was kind of heavier, but not so aristocratic)
- voices are so in my room that I think the singer stands in front of me
- the details: I hear things that were not there before, the resolution is fantastic
- overall the sound is fresher

And all of the above I hear in Windows7 + default Hiface.
I am planning to buy the latest modded Hiface converter (mk2), but I am afraid loosing my mind with it. :)

Ivo

Just a small request:

In your signatures, could you include whether you listen to XX in 'Attended' or 'Unattended' mode please? This is important in a thread such as this one...

Mani.

Yeah, I have also switched to unattended at last!
Need it until i can get install Vista (getting a Revodrive :D).