Thanks and Sound Quality

[simpsimon]

Hi Peter, I'm new to your wonderful program.  My son Tony S introduced me to it.  He interceded yesterday in my behalf when I was having trouble getting an activation number from you. Thank you for responding so quickly to his request.  I am now able to log in thanks to him and you as you can tell by this message.

I am a vinylholic, audioholic, audiofool, which means I am addicted by excellent sound quality.  I converted to vinyl playback from CD playback two years ago.  I was a die hard surround sound fan until I rediscovered stereo in the vinyl format.  I modified my old Luxman Brid LV105 (tubed output stage), got a Technics 1400 from KAB, cleaned up all 300 of my old LP's, bought some new remastered virgin vinyl and sat back and was amazed at the warmth, detail and non sibilance vinyl presented.  To make a long story short, I've ripped all my CD's to my hard drive in WAV format using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and when I compare the sound of a certain vinyl LP album to the same ripped album played using XXHighEnd, XXHighEnd comes very, very, very close to achieving vinyl sound quality.  I'm sure that with some practice I'll be able to duplicate vinyl sound.

Do you have any recommendations as far as settings that would help me in this endeavor.

Thanks again
SimpSimon

[Telstar]

I'm sure that with some practice I'll be able to duplicate vinyl sound.

You'll be able to beat that with a good DAC.

[simpsimon]

Presently using a USB powered Musiland Monitor 01 US DAC which is asynchronous, and a 24/192 player.  All I could afford right now.  Looking to get a better one when I'm rich.

[boleary]

Welcome Simpsimon. I have looked long and hard at those Musiland dacs. I asked the producer if they would support XXhighend kernel streaming and was told that it could not. You say, however, that you've already used it with XX so my first question is which sound engine are you using in xx, #3 or #4? I'm pretty sure that the consensus around here is that engine #4, kernel streaming, produces the best sound. Click on your settings tab and the Output section will tell you which engine you are currently using. Also, which version of xx are you using? Makes a difference when trying to explain things.

[PeterSt]

Hey there SimpSimon. At giving you a warm welcome here, I have to say that your little introductionary story shows a warmth which probably comes from the expressed relation with your son. Or let me put it differently : I wish I could have directed my father while he was alive to something like this, with some additional specialty because it is my own.

Yeah, I recall the day, maybe 30 years ago now, that with full enthusiasm I showed my father my first system in my own house, with his response "but son, this isn't even HiFi !". Yes, already back then some people were operating in audio, calling HiFi something of the 70's of the past century, and my father was amongst them.
I never forgot that day, and your post reminded me of it once again.


There is no one answer to your question, but an advice might be to leave Q2/3/4/5 alone (at 0). Indeed try to use Engine#4 or IOW a sound device which pops up prefixed with "KS:", and try to play with the KS (Kernel Streaming) Modes. But do not forget to follow the ToolTip) guides on the Q1 settings per KS Mode setting. Adaptive Mode may be the best sounding, but it depends.
Parallell to this, try which Processor Core Appointment setting sounds best to you. This is unpredictable, and depends very much on your system.
In all cases, avoid ticks, clicks or gaps. This looks like a stupid remark, but actually XXHighEnd Kernel Streaming Special and Adaptive Mode has been created to just reach the (SQ) limits of your system, wich means you have to be able to cross that limit in order to find it. And yes, it could even be so you accept a click here or there while the SQ is much better than without it, but better don't.

I hope this suffices for now,
All the best,
Peter

[simpsimon]

Thanks Peter, great to talk to someone who remembers the good ole days when HiFi was the catchword.  My Dad was a radio repairman and a music enthusiast.  Our first experience with stereo was when he rigged up two radios so that the left channel was AM radio and the right channel was FM radio.  At that time this was jaw dropping amazing.  My first experience with true stereo was when I was going to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in the late 50's.  A couple of guys came in and demonstrated stereo using two turntable with one turntable playing the left track and the other the right track.  I was totally blown away by the separation and sound stage. It took a coordinated effort by the two to synchronize the two turntables.  After graduation I built a Dynaco Stereo 70 valve integrated amp and a turntable to play the new stereo LP's that came out.  It was a blast.  Sold the Dynaco Stereo 70 to build a new technology Heathkit solid state integrated amplifier.  I was always a technoholic and couldn't resist anything new electronics wise. Selling the Dynaco was a big mistake.  Wish I had it now so I could mod it with a state of the art power supply.  But the Luxman BRID sounds great.  Anyway, your program is the balls.  I'm going to A & B the Beatles "Love" album (great sonics) on vinyl versus the same album in a WAV file using XXHE this weekend.  I'll let you know how it works out.  I'm pretty confident XXHE will closely rival the vinyl.

Thanks again,
Simpsimon (Bill)

[simpsimon]

Hi Boleary, Simpsimon (Bill) here.  The Musiland works great with XXHE.  I'm using the 09z version of XXHE with the settings at Device= KS, Engine 4, KS Mode=Adaptive, Q1 at 3, Other Q's at zero, buffer at 1024, and my files play with the Musiland control panel (Musiland uses its own driver, not PlugPlay) indicating 176.4 at very, very near vinyl warmth and detail.  Its a USB DAC and I'm extremely pleased.  Love to A & B it with a Cambridge DACMagic just for Ha! Ha!s. My computer is a VISTA 64 bit with 8 grams of memory and a Quad processor.  That may be why it works so great with the Musiland and XXHE.  Hope this answers your question and thanks for chatting.

Bill

[boleary]

Thanks Bill. Here's a link to a modded Musiland by the DIY guys. Its the Cleo; looks very interesting for the price:
http://show.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/st.pl?DIY%20Digital&1&aline&Diyhifisupply

So you are using quad arc prediction to get the 176. That's great. Can't believe I was told that XX would not work with the Musiland ASIO drivers.

I am wondering what you mean when you say, "and my files play with the Musiland control panel" ? Is this something that you set before using xx or is it open simultaneously with xx?

So, you are beating the pants off the DACMagic?

As you probably know, Peter is developing a dac specifically for XX. I'm sure it will be among the very best, if not the very best. Cost though will probably keep it out of reach here for a while so I keep looking for an affordable alternative to get to quad arc prediction! Thanks for posting.

[simpsimon]

Thanks for the mod link Boleary, I'll have to check it out and see if it's something I can do inexpensively.  In answer to your questions, yes, I am using arc prediction with the 4x setting in 09z(quad in the earlier XXHE version).  The Musiland 01 US DAC is not a plug and play DAC like most of the others.  It is asynchronous so it comes with it's own drivers on a CD, or better yet, downloaded from Musiland's web site. The driver is in the form of a Musiland control panel that pop's up during startup.  The control panel has two pages.  The first is a page of master, wmd, and ASIO volume control sliders, mute buttons and a headphone button (it's actually a pretty decent headphone amp).  The second page contains a list of buffer selections and a Precision Mode which I use per my son's suggestion.  It's pretty cool as it gives you more controls to play with to get the sound quality you prefer.

Check it out,
Bill

[Flecko]

I post here, so I don't have to start a new thread. I feel like I have to say you Peter, I enjoy my hifi-system very much and xx brings a important part to it.
THANX!

[PeterSt]

Thank you very much Adrian. Good to hear, and always willing to improve.
And very nice it worked out for you !

All the best,
Peter

[juanpmar]

Hi, another new one here.

First let me thank you all for your contribution on this forum that helps greatly to deal with XXHighEnd and let me congratulate specially to Peter for the fantastic player. For me, and old music lover, this player is the most important discovery in the last times. Contrary to SimpSimong I used seldom the analogue system and the last years I´ve been heavily in the digital side spending time and money to improve the sound in a way or another with tubes, cables, dacs etc. Now for the first time in the last times I´ve discovered another way to get great sound without spending ridiculous amounts of money. I have the feeling that with the XXHigEnd player we are now working with the future and with first class sound. (Ok, sorry for being a little corny, but I´m quite impressed).

Please let me comment a few things about my experience with the player.

About flac and wave. Last week I bought some 24/96 files from HDTracks (Hiroshima. The Bridge and Rebeca Pidgeon. The Raven). The files came originally as flac and I´ve put it that way in the XXHighEnd disk, I at the same time converted that files with dbpoweramp to wav. I compared the sound of both kind of files and they are very different. I know that the flac is converted to wav by the player but even after that conversion I find the flac more incisive, even harsh, a little forward maybe, on the other hand the wav file is more refined without loosing nothing, more subtle, more ambient. I like more the wav but probably it depends on your system and taste.

Talking about 24bit/96khz files, in my opinion there is no way to compare a 16/44 ripped cd, even if you play it later at 96khz, with the original 24bit/96khz downloaded files. With the original 24bit/96khz files the soundstage is much bigger and the whole sound is easier and fuller. I find this soundstage enormous in the wide and high plane but not in the depth plane which seems a little shorter. Maybe could be my system.

I understand that to get a great sound is a combination of the many parameters the XXHighEnd has. I agree with some other people here, that the parameter with more influence, at least apparently, is the Split file size. I´ve found that in my system 43 is the magic number. Just where the sound starts to be too rich without loosing definition.

Other interesting issue is about InverPh. I don´t see the typical invert phase effect like loosing focus or blurred bass. I´ve found however that the soundstage is bigger with the phase inverted and I don´t feel like loosing any focus. So I keep it on all the time.

Just a final question, could someone tell me how can I get the #4 Engine?. I have two computers, one with Vista and other one with Windows 7. I thought that the engine was system dependent, Vista with #3 and Windows7 with #4 but I have the #3Engine all the time in both systems.

Sorry for such a long post, don´t be afraid the next time I´ll be shorter, being my first post I was eager to share my experiences to learn more about this terrific player.

Thanks in advance and cheers from Madrid.

[PeterSt]

and Great thanks for your kind words.

About Engine#4 : This is available on both Vista and W7. You'll need to select a device that is prefixed with KS: to activate it (and the grayed out field with the Engine# will show it). However, if you don't have any "Kernel Streaming" devices available, well, there won't be any KS: device to select ...
Most probably this will be the case (not available) when you only have the motherboard's HD Audio device available; it just doesn't provide it.

Again, thanks,
Peter

[juanpmar]

I see, a KS device, do you mean the USB interface or the DAC itself?

Thanks

[PeterSt]

Haha, I don't know ! But hopefully you can recognize yourself which is what ? I really can't say that from here.
You can always try and see what happens !
But start with Normal Mode ... that's the least dangerous for hiccups and things.

Peter