We all fell in the W7 pitfall

[manisandher]

So... I finally got around to installing Vista (thanks Peter) optimized for audio (thanks Nick + others), with XX installed on RAMDisk (thanks Marcin).  Oh, it's nice to have a digital sound that can match my vinyl for 'sweetness'.

I've been thinking that my Weiss AFI1 interface is just too bright and edgy, and hence it's been gathering dust for the last 12 months or so. Only now do I realise that it's been W7, and not the Weiss, that's been at fault. I've also been mildly critical of QAP for a short while and again, I now blame W7 for this criticism.

I really don't know where we could take the SQ from here... Of course, that's been said many times before on this forum, I know...

A very happy Mani.

[PeterSt]

Ha ! Good !! But count me out for thanking; Instead count everybody in extra for judgeing and confirning it. This includes yourself. Well, you know ...
At the time we must play Take5 again, just let it know; only I try to avoid it for the nest couple of years. Haha.

But man, ain't it complicated; I really hope we're on the right track again.

By now I'm interested what "Moritz" has to say about this; He's a paying member, MS associate, and has been around for a short while only; quite knowledgeable IMO (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?action=profile;u=752;sa=showPosts).

Peter

[manisandher]

Just a point of clarification on my part - I'm actually running W2008 SP1 and not Vista, though I'm not sure whether there's any difference in SQ.

Mani.

[Leo]

Hello Peter,

recently you gave an overview of the steps to install Vista as the second OS. But however hard I search I can not find it again.  Or was this just my imagination again ? Could you enlighten me?
Leo
ps
XX on RAMDISK is very nice

[PeterSt]

Hi Leo. That was here : Re: cannot run as administrator anymore.

[boleary]

Hi Marcin, from the quote below, how does one add the new DWORD, IRQ8PRIOITY? Not sure what you mean by this. I've also attached a screenshot of the Priority Control you point to in REGEDIT. Maybe a screenshot back showing what you mean might be helpful.

Thanks!

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.

[PeterSt]

Allow me ...

RighClick on empty space (at the right side), and choose New. Next choose DWORD Value, fill the name of the "attribute" (IRQ8Priority) and next change the value (RightClick on the new item and choose Modify). Change the value (from 0) to 1.

HTH,
Peter

[boleary]

Thanks Peter, will post results on whether I remain educable.......

[boleary]

Use REGEDIT to change;
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile there is a key “SystemResponsiveness” set this to “0”.
Don’t worry this value defaults to give all Low priority processes 10% of CPU time.

Here is a bit more information on what is going off. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684247.aspx

Again I hope this works well on other peoples systems, I am dreading Peter saying that they have nothing to do with how XX works, if so it’s quite a placebo  !

Need to do more listening, but this tweak is no placebo, immediatly even more refined than what Ramdisk alone brings. Thanks Nick!

[Nick]

Bolero,

Glad you like it, thanks for the confirmation.

Best,

Nick

[PeterSt]

To turn DEP off “bcdedit.exe /set nx {current} AlwaysOff” then reboot
To turn DEP on again “bcdedit.exe /set nx {current} AlwaysOn” then reboot

I think the nx should be behind {current}. Thus :
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff


Now let's see whether I can still boot.

[PeterSt]

For those who turned off DEP, you might check whether SFS still matters. DEP seems a reasonable reason to me that may influence this.
(I can't check this "really" anymore because I've implemented another means of "SFS", while I didn't apply the parameters yet I promised elsewhere (like for still being able to use the old method)).

Peter

[manisandher]

I've turned DEP off, and implemented most of the tweaks in this thread, and the SFS still has an affect on the sound! When someone can explain why this is the case, I'll be happy.

I've also been comparing Engine#3, Engine#4(Adaptive) and Engine#4(Special) to a vinyl source and... Engine#4(Adaptive) comes closest in my setup. There is a quality that vinyl has (mine at least) which I call 'sweetness' that my digital playback is getting closer to, but still isn't quite recreating. Vista (W2008) has helped, but I'm still not there. The sound of my vinyl is both totally organic and yet ultra detailed. With my digital playback I can get one or the other, but I'm finding it very difficult to get both to the same degree as the vinyl. Oh, and the DAC is totally out of the equation - I'm feeding the vinyl through the ADC/DAC for all listening. When you do this with a good ADC/DAC, you realise one thing very quickly - PCM digital itself is very, very good.

Mani.

[boleary]

To turn DEP off “bcdedit.exe /set nx {current} AlwaysOff” then reboot
To turn DEP on again “bcdedit.exe /set nx {current} AlwaysOn” then reboot

I think the nx should be behind {current}. Thus :
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff


Now let's see whether I can still boot.

Well I tried it the way Nick suggested and it didn't work; I then tried Peter's suggestion and I can't get the computer to boot. Each time I end up with the "Safe Mode" screen and I can't get it to boot from there either, it just goes into a loop. Have put the installation disk in and booted from the disk. The start up repair utility is unable to fix the problem and when I attemp to use System Restore, it tells me that its  already running???? Any suggestions?

Damn, I was having such fun! Let me know if a reinstall is what must be done.....

[manisandher]

Sorry Boleary, can't help. I hope you get it sorted though.

For others who are thinking of doing this, Telstar's suggestion worked for me - "bcdedit.exe /set nx AlwaysOff”

Mani.