SQ of 0.9z

[listening]

I know that I'm hearing with a very good loudspeaker. Until version 9z I didn't know that I own a little gem! The main change from my point of view is exceptional coherency of the music. Playing quiet or loud - the air is full of flageolet, breathing of the musicians, noises of live performances (moving chairs, scrabble of shoes), plucking with the plectrums and much more. I disconnected the bass horn for a lot of music because it isn't necessary anymore!

Georg

[ivo]

Hi,

Have not yet updated my sig, but here is how I do it:

Windows7 HP, C2D E6300, HiFace USB device, KS mode, Special mode, Dev buffer = 32, All Qs=0 (the upper 2 values show 0 and 32), QAP:
The sound is amazing, there is bigger bass than before, more details and more space. The room is fuller than ever. Even my wife noticed that quality has grown since before versions. Have not yet tried Adaptive mode. Will report for sure.

One question: if I load in XX the FLAC file which is not from HDCD, should I still use Peak extension feature?

Ivo

[PeterSt]

Hi there Ronald. A warm here !

Arc Prediction works on 16 bits allright.

I am afraid I can't advice you about the best settings for your DAC, which merely is because I don't know how exactly it works for when does it upsample to what etc. The thing I can tell you is that Arc Prediction was made for NOS DACs (taking 24 bit input), but that it for most of the DACs works for the better anyway. Best would be if you could tell your DAC not to upsample, so you will be sure it doesn't REsample. Thus, if you output 24/176.4 from XXHighEnd (with 16/44.1 source material) it will remain untouched in the DAC. There will still be filtering going on, and if you can switch that off too, it will be the best. Notice : if your DAC is a Sigma-Delta type, don't look for any filtering to shut off (it needs it).

For the remainder it is a matter of trying what sounds best to you ...
Kind regards,
Peter

[ELFUEGO]

Peter,

Thanks for your prompt answer!

My DAC is an upsample Dac and I cannot shut this off. Only to choose  96 or 192 /24Bits, but actually a very good sound from a reasonable priced Chinese DAC (899,00).
I havo to convince some High-end friends of the quality getting from a pc/Dac route (W&W audio Enschede) together with XXHIGHEND :-) I think from now an easy job. I will install my HP laptop together wit the Xindak DAC-9 on a very good system available over there and show them that they do not longer need a CD-player!!!
And I will try if I can get a NOS Dac from them to see if it's a better solution!



I will keep you posted about this!!


Best regards,


Ronald

[PeterSt]

And I will try if I can get a NOS Dac from them to see if it's a better solution!

I don't give you much hope for that !
And they are not so digital minded either. Or at least a year ago or so there weren't.

And be careful with porting all to your laptop, while apparently now you don't have it on a laptop. Chances are fairly high it won't sound, or you won't be able to achieve the settings you are used to now. No big problem maybe, but don't think you can put it all on it, and switch it on overthere for the first time ...

Peter

[arvind]

Hi Guys downloaded 0.9z today & got it working. My impression of the SQ, in my set up, is that it is much more dynamic than the previous version. SQ is almost the same, maybe a bit cleaner in the top end, but nothing significant.

In short it sounds really good, as it always has & with a new GUI.

Arvind

[Telstar]

The more i listen to it and the more it sounds "right".
My most sincere compliments, Peter. It's since 0.5y that I dont feel such kind of improvement. And this is with an OS dac of average quality.
Got the goosebumps since I dont remember when.

 

[wimck]

After some listening and fine tuning of 0.9z I also have to give a reaction.

sound is AMAZING!! 

I use Adaptive mode in this version.
In the previous version I used Special Mode but that mode now gives a too hard, sharp high/midrange on my system.
One thing I don't understand is the higher buffer setting, with 2048 I have "too much buffer errors"  resulting in not recognizing my Hiface anymore!
Only a restart of the PC could solve it.  After setting the buffer size to 4096 I have had no problems anymore. 

Thanks Peter, for all the support and the great times we have with perfect sounding music

[PeterSt]

Thank you Telstar, this is very nice of you to say. I also know what it is worth if you say it.


And Arvind,

My impression of the SQ, in my set up, is that it is much more dynamic than the previous version.

I doubt it whether others know what you mean, but I do (unless I am wrong of course) : The very most strange (and apparant !) thing which happened to this version, is the difference between loud and soft passages. It keeps on appearing to me while listening to known music. I actually can't understand how*that* in the world is possible. Unless everybody's "bit perfect" light turned black now ...

So, more dynamic indeed, but at the global level.
I know what I did of course (besides it stops Engine#3 from working haha), but I am totally clueless where this phenomenon comes from. I mean, I didn't even know it existed as something which can be variable from (CD)player to (CD)player.

Anyway Arvind, we know how your judgements are always correct, and of course it had to be you to come up with this strange change as the first person.

Peter

[AUDIODIDAKT]

Hi All,

Same here, sound is really amazing.

Special mode is to hard and direct, resulting in listen fatiqueness after some albums or even tracks. (got even as low as 32 samples at Q1=-3)

Adaptive mode is REALLY REALLY great at 1024 samples, lower as 1024 samples will result in lesser bass, soundstage becomes smaller.

1024 Samples = ANALOG

Never heard such dynamics ever before, anywhere !

  Thnx Peter

[Marcin_gps]

It's all system dependent. E.g. my amp has a little laid back mids and I think that special version adds colour in this range, but I don't like general presence of Special mode, especially top end. Like you said - adaptive feels organic and that's what I like about it.

PS
I've been experimenting a lot with hardware recently, I connected second PSU to 4PIN socket, which feeds CPU mostly, and connected drives to it as well. My primary, better PSU, feeds only 24PIN socket. Very nice improvement! I think I'm gonna try linear PSU

[AUDIODIDAKT]

Although,

I think with such dynamics, speed and precision becomes much more important.
Precision by means of word-clock and speed by decent (enough) dacs.
Because sounds/samples are much loooooonger they can only get better and smoother by means of upsampling. (AP)

I think I run into my system (dac) limits,

Roy

[manisandher]

I agree that I think a lot has to do with the rest of your system.

In my case, there is just a certain 'magic' at buffer=32 that gets lost for larger buffers. I think I can attribute this to 3 main reasons:

1. My RME card really seems to be happier at 32 samples than anywhere else. I'm not sure if anyone has tried KS Normal mode (why would you?), but my RME almost refuses to play without clicks and pops unless it's set to 32 samples.
2. I'm currenly using my old Pass Labs Aleph 4 amp - 100wpc, class-A and single-ended (not push/pull like 99.9% of amps). This is a seriously (too?) laid back amp.
3. I'm currently using Quad electrostatic speakers, which are nowhere near as dynamic as more conventional speakers.

For these reasons, Adaptive, Q1=1, buffer=32 seems to work well. Yes, not as full or rich as higher buffer settings, but then again, I just don't need more fullness or richness. A little more of the gorgeous, taut and rounded bottom end that I'm currently getting would be very welcome though

As for my DAC, well it just seems to provide an open window to whatever is fed to it.

Mani.

[Flecko]

After some days of listening I can repeat my first statement. I like special mode more than adaptive. I first used scheme3. Here adaptive has more hf-detail and better resolution in the highs than special. I changed to scheme 2. Here special gains hf-resolution and it sounds cleaner with better seperation. It keeps it's dynamics and the sound is balanced. Adaptive has not this overall punch and there is too much focus on the highs (with scheme 2 and 3).
With special (Q1=2) and scheme 2 the sound is realy amazing!

[Flecko]

Is it possible that arcPred has an invfluence to the sound even if no doubling(upsampling whatever...) is used? I feel it cleans things up a little bit but don't know if this is possible.
@Peter: Is there a "manual" for all the functions of XXHE? Some are not explained by the tooltips.