Hi Peter,

It works with DAC set on 2fs/44.1. Thanks.

Another question what is Q1/2/3/4/5? What should the setting be?

Arvind

Hi Peter,

My audio files are 16/44.1 WAV. Setting on XX are DAC is 24/96/Bit Depth is 24/Upsample is ticked/Engine # 3 is used.

Vista is set on 24/96 (though it doesnt matter as I am using Engine #3)

On EMM DAC I switch to 2FS/48KHz.

With these settings XX is upsampling to 24/96 & feeding to the Off Ramp & EMM, which both like. But I am not getting any sound. Why is this?

Arvind

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the input. I guess I still need to still familiarise myself with all the operational features of XX. Then I would be able to come up with issues I havent been able to deal with.
Peter- give me some time to get my bearings, then I wil be able to answer your questions better. Thanks for the support.

Arvind

Hi again Peter,

I have trial ordered the Empirical DAC (Overdrive). Now my connections would be Laptop to Off Ramp (via USB) to Empirical DAC (via I2S). The I2S input of the DAC accepts 24/192. How would I ensure that Vista does not interfere with the audio quality?

Arvind

Hi Peter,

Let me explain the reason I wish to shift from CD's to Computer Audio.

First & foremost the sound quality should not be inferior in any way to original CD. With Foobar I wasnt entirely happy but I realised the potential of this concept & wanted to progress with better software's, like XX for example.

Secondly the convenience factor of not having to listen to a complete CD but tracks from a CD which I like (rarely a CD has all good tracks).

Thirdly the convenience of listening to any track, of my choice, simply by clicking a few buttons, rather than getting up every now & then & changing CD's. Hence my earlier question on "how to locate a particular track".

Now with this in mind I bought the Empirical Audio Off Ramp to be an interface between the Laptop & my EMM DAC. The EMM does not have USB input. Incidentally I have trial ordered the Empirical NOS DAC... more about it later.
Secondly I ripped tracks from my CD's which I liked & would like to listen to & created them as my library & Playlist too.
Thirdly I wanted them in random order so I can listen to random Artist's rather than tracks from one Artist at a time. You could call it personal preference.

I agree with you that one cannot listen to 2000 tracks in a day...probably not even in a month. But when I sit to listen to music, which is everyday, I like to put on my system, click on play, pour a glass of single malt & hear tracks which I like & in a random order. Repeat this the next day & the software should take care of playing different tracks (preferably not ones played yesterday).

You may think this is coming from an I Pod world, but in no way I want IPod quality of sound... I couldnt stand it.

Am I really being too demanding??? I really dont know!!

Arvind

Hi Peter,

All my audio files (about 2000+ tracks) are Wav 16/44.1 (ripped from my CD's) using dBpoweramp. These are loaded in the Library & the same are loaded on a single Playlist. Hence practically my Library & Playlist are the same.
What am I doing wrong? I just love all the tracks that I have ripped!!!

Arvind

Hi Peter,

Assuming I have a playlist containing 2000 tracks. Now I need to play a particular track from this playlist; how do I locate this particular track in the Playlist.

Arvind

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the encouragement... getting used to XX more & more as I use it. What I meant by fun was that you didnt know which track would play next, but even if I check unattended & didnt see the GUI; by memory I would eventually know which track will play next. This makes you lose the element of surprise.

Which is the best way to locate a particular track to be played from the Playlist?

Arvind

Hi Peter,

I get it now. Thanks.

Arvind

Hi Peter,

My audio files are constructed & stored in my external hard drive (Z:) as follows:
Z:\My Music\Artist\Album\Track. The library on XX shows the list Artist wise with subfolder for each Album & within the Album are the individual tracks. To get the tracks randomly in the Playlist, I highlighted all the Albums/right clicked & loaded the playlist giving random command. Now the playlist has the tracks in a random order.  However when I play with this playlist it will always play the tracks in the order as it is in the Playlist. But it always much more fun listening if the programme picks up the tracks randomly (check out this facility on Foobar or I Tunes). Are you going to be working on this soon?

Have I created the Playlist correctly or is there a better way?

Arvind

Hi Peter,

I checked the setting of the sound device & it is on exclusive; since the begining. By default it is on this setting.

Arvind

Hi Peter,

Being new to XX, I needed some help on the operational issues of XX.
How does one automatically play random tracks from the playlist?
How does one change tracks? I can see only play/pause/stop buttons.
Is there a method to select a track or album to be played other than scrolling down the playlist?

Arvind

Hi Peter,

I would like to go back to the situation while I was playing with Foobar.
The audio files were 16/44.1
Output bit depth was set on 16 bit.
Resampler was off; so no upsampling.
DAC was set on 2FS & 48KHz.

With this I was getting sound; now this goes against the theory that the Off Ramp does not accept 16 bit data & the EMM DAC was playing on 48KHz when the files are 44.1KHz? Could you pls explain this?

Since I have the trial XX, I could hear it for a short while before it switched off automatically, but I must say that the sound was significantly better than Foobar. Foobar sounds dull/veiled, the Bass is not tight in comparison to XX & the highs of XX are much more clear. Congratulations.

I have some questions on the operation of XX which I will put them in the appropriate place.

Arvind

HI Peter,

Well some encouragement at last: Got sound from Engine #3 finally. Let me mention the settings on XX & DAC.
Audio files are 16/44.1
XX is set on 24/96, with bit depth at 24.
DAC was changed from 48 KHz to 44.1KHz & I got sound.

Now where does this leave me, in terms of optimum sound quality from XX?

Arvind

Hi Peter,

It shows 24/96.

Arvind