We all fell in the W7 pitfall

[Marcin_gps]

Folks, I'm sure I have similar SQ gain to Mani here, but not with second SSD and puting XXHE on it, but using RAMdisk software instead - http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk. (copy to xx drive by standard ticked). I don't know if it is a matter of different file system (I have my ramdisk formatted to FAT16), but I can't be wrong - sounds better for sure!

[Nick]

Marcin,

I’m defiantly liking the RAM disk idea. I guess that the effect is to exchange music data disk read speed from SATA SSD speeds (already fast) to system RAM access speed (much quicker ?). Provided that the RAM disk driver is well written this could be an interesting solution. I’m going to take a look feed back any results.

I have been looking at how vLite works and getting an install working to have a play. I think my thin Vista build is quite a manual process though, lets see if vLite can help share a good thin build. The vLite experiment it might take a while though as I still have not solved the problem of rolling back the dammed AHCI disk drivers. Some times curiosity can be a real pain.....
Nick.

[christoffe]

Folks, I'm sure I have similar SQ gain to Mani here, but not with second SSD and puting XXHE on it, but using RAMdisk software instead

when we have a look into the Task Manager, we will see, that all processes and wave files necessary for digital replay are already loaded into the RAM.

[AUDIODIDAKT]

I have been looking at how vLite works and getting an install working to have a play. I think my thin Vista build is quite a manual process though, lets see if vLite can help share a good thin build. The vLite experiment it might take a while though as I still have not solved the problem of rolling back the dammed AHCI disk drivers. Some times curiosity can be a real pain.....
Nick.

Nick, why not create a new w7 install ?
Did the ahci-->ide guide not worked for you ?

I will do some work on vLite too, its not that hard actually, but it takes some investigating what to leave out or not. (just work from what we know)
I already managed to make several vLite installs, the program vLite works pretty good.
I also would like to create a .reg or .bat file, for all other tweaks needed (registry, logs, soundcard etc)
With the purpose of making it "all" somewhat easier and less time consuming, also for new members.
a 30 minute unattended OS install, that would be nice 

Roy

[Nick]

Guys,

I think Marcin has come up with something REALLY significant using RAMDisk. I don't want to end up with egg on my face but I have just had an ear opening experience after setting up RAMDisk. I have only had a couple of hours listening but I think RAMDisk may become a fundamental component of the replay platform. Bear in mind that this could be specific to my system (HiFace etc etc) but this is what I am hearing;

Significant lowering of hash, harshness and noise floor, little if any discernable aggressiveness, deeper "blackness" between players and voices, really smooth top end, walk around staging, big improvement in timing and resolution levels. There is a small loss in midrange dynamic but I think this may be the loss of the digital aggressiveness which tends to raise mid to high sibilance and give the impression of more presence in my system.

I had to half my normal SFS from 80 to around 40 to somewhere near the sweet spot and there is more to come I, am sure.
I really could end up looking stupid by raving here but I am trusting my ears. It'a a 10 min install to get RAMDisk setup you REALLY should try it !

Great find Marcin 

[AUDIODIDAKT]

I did setup RAMdisk,

I think I do have Vista sound on w7 now.

???????

I just put in Enya - Watermark (haha, will see)

[Marcin_gps]

Haha, told you

And I'm back to KS Adaptive mode again (Q1=1, 1024 samples) - I don't want that extra details coming from Engine3. I love the organic sound of adaptive mode.

Cheers,
Marcin

PS
I've just installed vLite and I'm on it, so stay tuned

[AUDIODIDAKT]

Marcin,

vLite works very easy and speaks for itself, if you want your drivers installed too, you need to extract the drivers using 7zip, then load the complete folder.
I would first tweak it like we have tweaked vista/w7, then eliminate more.

You can also install vista directly from HDD, no need for burning dvd's

I'am at Peter tomorrow, so we will test RAMdisk too and 10 OS installs or something like that, its good we have 2 whole days.

Try KS special mode too btw, maybe not the best thing on rock music though.

Roy

[Marcin_gps]

Hi Roy,

I'll wait with my modifications until you came back with some results It will be easier this way and we could split some work.
I've experience with nLite (predecessor of vLite, but for XP), so no problems. But I'd like you to check these tweaks:

In Regedit, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl, add a new DWORD, "IRQ8Priority" , and set the value to 1.
In that same key, look for "Win32PrioritySeparation" dword and set the value to 28 (hex). Restart a PC.

Also, make sure to set the "sound card's" PCI latency timer to 128, of course that's if your interface is PCI-based, haha

These are my favourite tweaks

[PeterSt]

Also, make sure to set the "sound card's" PCI latency timer to 128

Marcin, how to to this above XP ? is there a tool for it again ?

Thanks,
Peter

[Marcin_gps]

Sorry, forgot to give the link. Yes, there is a tool, but as far as I know it doesn't work in W7 - Vista/XP only.

http://www.madeinsoftware.it/openlab/Utilities/Schedevideo/LtcyCfg2.3.zip

[PeterSt]

I have that (but a year newer -> end 2005). Doesn't work for Vista either ...

[Marcin_gps]

I does for me 

[Nick]

Peter,

You could also try this for PCI latency setting.

http://www.mark-knutson.com/dawg/index.html

It works for me under vista and helped to reduce levels of agression in music. When run it discovers the PCI attached devices (right down to individual USB ports) then you can then set the individual device you want to tune. When I was using USB for my Transit card I used to set the Transit's USB port to a latency of 248 (max value) and all other devices to 32 (min value).

There is an unusual choice of picture on the site  but the software seems to run fine. In addition to the free version there is a version that will apply auto settings when you boot. I never bothered with this but setting PCI latencies up for each listening session did become a bit of a drag.

I was meaning to ask you if your proprietary L2S interface for the Phasure NOS DAC has a PCI based interface at the PC end ?

Nick.

[manisandher]

I think Marcin has come up with something REALLY significant using RAMDisk.

I'm interested in trying this, having heard the improvement in SQ when I use a fast SSD for XX separate from the SSD the OS resides on. But I'd like to understand it a bit more first.

Now, I have 4GB of RAM on my main machine (8GB on my second machine). So, how much should I allocate to the new RAM partition? I guess this depends on whether I'm using 'Copy to XX-drive'... but also on whether I'm using 'Normalisation of Volume' and whether I'm playing non-wav files that require conversion during pre-processing. I suspect large hires files might prove an issue if the RAM partition is too small.

I'm currently using W7 x64 on both machines. On my second machine, I'm assuming I can create a much larger RAM partition and still have plenty of RAM left for potentially large SFSs in XX.

Hmm... any thoughts?

Mani.