(download is at the very bottom)
Edit : There WAS (see below Edit2) also an XXHighEnd-09-y8b.zip at the bottom, which solves some Wallpaper issues;
The solved issues are :
- When (at Unattended) no OSD Time and OSD Text was asked for, the Wallpaper (when asked for) only appeared at the second track.
- Wen (at Unattended) playback automatically stopped because the Playlist Area finished playing, XXHighEnd was brought up, but the Wallpaper (when asked for in the first place) stayed.
Edit2 : The above is now contained in an XXHighEnd-09-y8c.zip (at the bottom), with these additional adjustments :
- Rips from dBPowerAmp end with tag data; when such a track was started not in the beginning, that data would express as noise of a second or so. This is now solved.
- It was found that at changing the Digital Volume old code was used when Arc Prediction was not used, or DAC Needs was set to "24 bits only". At the ultra low latency settings this may have incurred for an "out of sync" and noise as a result. Notice that the adjustments concerned are theoretical soltutions to this, and it could not be tested.
- After Unattended Playback and the auto-bringup of XXHighEnd, (when asked for in the first place) the Coverart Wallpaper stayed. This is now solved.
- The X3PB log file now shows the set Device Buffer Size and the used Q1 value (in samples for KS Special Mode).
- It was found that the digital Volume Change, used at Attended Playback, used old (slow) code. This has now been changed into the "unattended code".
- It is now possible to use the Digital Volume slider for changing the volume during playback. Notice that this doesn't work for Attended only, but also for Unattended. To let the latter work, bring up XXHighEnd (Alt-X with AutoHotkey properly installed) and just change the slider position.
For those who are new here : do notice that Engine#3 (WASAPI, which only runs on Vista/W2008/W7) is a totally different beast for the character of the sound than Engine#4 (Kernel Streaming, which runs on XP too). Both are in the bit perfect realm, but both sound totally different and also have different capabilities to vary the SQ.
About the title : This should finalize the Kernel Streaming support, and already for 0.9y-7 no devices are reported that won't work. But if you have one, please let it know !
Please notice the following Release Notes, and if nothing is in there you are using, you can just as well stay at 0.9y-7. If you're new, 0.9y-8 is good to do.
- The "Quick Load" for Anti Imaging Upsampling has been reinstalled.
Notice that for Attended this will keep on *not* working, hence Gapless won't be possible there.
Along with this goes the perceived "too much memory usage", as was told in the previous Release Notes. Actually, the before solution (lowering the memory usage) just caused other problems, while the too much memory usage really was caused by a bug, now solved.
- The opposite of "Start During Conversion" - wait until all has been performed, appeared to be partly working in the realm of still running services, that by itself causing ticks and all for the ultra low latency Kernel Streaming (Engine#4) modes. IOW, playback started too soon. This is working as intended now.
- The "ChangeWP Call" X3PB log enstries now carry a date/time, so they can be related to occurring buffer errors (as the possible cause (for KS Normal Mode and Adaptive Mode)).
- A bug was found causing XXEngine3 to consume a lot of cpu for Attended playback and when no Wallpaper Coverart was to show. Solved.
- In one of the later versions the trip limit for Crack Detect has been increased in the case Arc Prediction is used. This appeared to be too low still, and now has been increased once again.
If you receive Crack Detect messages using Arc Prediction, please switch that off and test whether you still receive the message. If not, please report this so the program can be adjusted.
- People have been reporting more instances running of XXEngine3, which in the end appeared to be caused by XXHighEnd running more than once, in a, say, mysterious way. Although this latter still hasn't been solved (and which seems to happen at the start of playback - invisible to everything and all (like TaskManager), the fact that XXEngine3 started again while already running could be detected and solved.
Notice that this most often went along with a "XXEngine3.exe stopped working" while music was just playing ...
- A bug was found in the calculation of the average SPL (part of the Normalized Volume process). The bug caused files (tracks) smaller than 25MB to receive a too low SPL value. No real big deal, but generally it can be said that when all tracks from an album were half of 25MB, the SPL was reported half too low for that album. This is not a real life situation (most files will be larger than 25MB), and thus the probem can't be big. If you're in doubt for an album, just remove the XXAnalysis.dat file via the right pane in XXHighEnd - Rightclick on the file - Delete ...
Notice that a too low reported SPL value, will result in a relative too high output volume during playback.
An additional note :
After extensive testing and analyzing, it was found that the cpu spikes seen in KS Special Mode and Adaptive Mode (both part of Engine#4) are not real spikes as such. Instead the burdon placed on the system by the ultra low latency (which is up to the few samples level) causes the OS not to be able to adjust the cpu used for processes, and waits for that until there's time available. Notice this does not seem to happen on an Atom processor which may be good or bad. Good because it can cope, bad because it may give priority to the activity of maintaining the cpu usage per process in (near) real time.
All 'n all the spikes are no spikes in reality, but merely a (normal) flat(ish) line with a constant usage.
Important : Some experience irresponsive systems since one or two versions back. It (somehow) didn't come forward that this is just because of using the ultra low latency (combined with Attended, which is a no-go !), but *if* you are sure this is NOT because of low latency usage, please post your X3PB file from the situation, and try to explain what you experience. IOW :
Please don't bother "complaining" about a system which doesn't respond well, while you first asked for that, well, explicitly (
).
Thanks.
The usual repeat from earlier Release Notes :
Very important : Only when AutoHotkey has been installed, and is at least working to the extend XXHighEnd can be startup with a hotkey (default is Alt-X), it is allowed to tick the checkbox "Stop Services" in the Settings Area, and use Unattended Playback mode (checkbox at the bottom of the main screen). For AutoHotkey See
AutoHotkey Install. When this is not done, hence XXHighEnd can not be brought up with a hotkey, at Unattended Payback - no desktop icons will be visible, no Taskbar will be there, no Startbutton will be around ... nothing. You might, however, may be able to use the "Windows" key which will bring up the Start Menu and find something in there to find your ways again. So, be careful, or maybe you will not be able to do anything, except for listening out the playlist concerned, and wait until that finishes and XXHighEnd will popup automatically, which by itself will bring back everything.
A reboot is a solution as well.
This all sounds more dangerously than it really is, and with the hotkeys available there is really nothing to fear.
And remember the objective : better Sound Quality.
Edit : See the beginning of these Release Notes for the below XXHighEnd-09-y8c which should also be installed;
After installing the normal 0.9y-8, paste the XXHighEnd.exe and XXEngine3.exe from the zip over the 0.9y-8 install (and only that one).
Edit2 :This version contains a bug causing a "No track given" error in some situations, which can be worked around like this :
The KS Mode and Device Buffer Size (settings Areas) comboboxes will initially show empty. When this is the case, the error message will follow.
To make something show in those boxes, choose a hopefully present KS: device, and next choose something for each of the boxes.
Note : If you want to use Kernel Streaming (Engine#4) you will be doing this automatically anyway. When not (Engine#3 instead) after you made the selections you will want to choose a non-KS: device again.
After this is applied (fill those two boxes), all should play.
