Hi there Barry,
Well, all the good guys are named Peter. Didn't you know ? haha
Now let's see …
I am a total GEEK
Well, out of all you're at the good address here. I guess you knew that in advance. So go ahead and get mad of all the SQ influencing settings.
That was an easy one …
all being run from an I7 Acer Ultra Portable via HDMI out normally using WASAPI
Okay, try to postpone your judgment of me being ignorant, but here all goes wrong for starters. HDMI is no audio interface hence it will never bring you the best sound.
A laptop is never up to the job. Never, but certainly not for XXHighEnd. Sound killing so to speak.
WASAPI is a bit up to you (because you easily could have chosen KS assuming the sound device in there allows for that), but you can easily see that in here nobody uses it. I think literally nobody. And this is not because someone told them not to. It's just to sterile or something. But you can easily try for yourself of course. One thing : by now WASAPI is not much further developed so to speak, just because all happens within KS. More possibilities to tweak.
I also use the IZotope Ozone 4 to tweak the sound to the room.
Since it is you who mentions it, it will be me to sort of "state" you shouldn't. Of course this is up to you again, but such a thing would undo all what XXHE tries to create for you. Just try it without, and, for example, see your standing waves being disappeared to begin with. You'll see …
So based on my proclivities will I hear cleaner sound from this player?
Eh, tough to say. Maybe not when you let all go as you do it now. Well, see above. But it still should workout to some extend. But mind you, a first thing noticeable will be the slugginess at preparing the tracks for playback. This is not a SQ thing but a convenience matter. Also important. Remember, XXHE is a pure memory player.
If so, please explain why.
Haha, now you go too far. So, maybe drop a bit of Hydrogen mentality and listen first. Oh please, I don't say you per se will have that mentality, but chances are fair you have, being a Foobar user. And why not. But still things don't work like that, where science is only science by means of "what counts most" is true and science (about abx stuff and the like). Anyway, be my guest and try *not* to hear the difference. No DSP is applied (but stay out of Phase Alignment because that is) and count out the digital volume which is lossless (and therefore no DSP). Of course you should be using Arc Prediction Filtering which sure can be called DSP, BUT which is only a replacement for what happens in your DAC otherwise. So, a necessity in general, but when you leave it off you will be listening merely to the filtering of your DAC which is so-so. Here too, everybody uses it while it was made for the NOS1 D/A converter and even when I told NOT to use it. It just works.
Will I be able to move over my playing history from FB2K?
Not by standard. But if it is important to you I can squeeze it in I guess (no guarantees) because here too playing history is maintained (in XML).
I hope I didn't steer you away right from the start !
Regards,
Peter
