We all fell in the W7 pitfall

[GerardA]

Chriss, your first link says:

Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}\0000
Right-click in right pane > Select New > DWORD > Rename to 'IdleEnable' > Set value to 1
Repeat for each subkey \0000, \0001 ... that has the 'Controller' key

Do you set it to 6 in stead of 1?

The usbport.sys trick only works for mice like they say on your second link, if I understand it correctly...

[Chriss]

Do you set it to 6 in stead of 1?

Yes but you can try other values like 3, 4 and 5(I recommended to try with 1 and then with 3-6 and Engine#3!)

quote:
The usbport.sys trick only works for mice like they say on your second link, if I understand it correctly...


Well it's an USBPORT so I think it's working for Ports no matter which device we use. I did not receive any positive impression yet from this usbport.sys. So still testing.
Regards, Criss.

[Bernie]

Hi all,
I'm following this discussion for some days now and I have also "downgraded" to Windows Vista, same result as for you all, sound is so much better now. I always thought that we are talking about software induced jitter, but I'm using an Apogee Big Ben reclocker that should eliminate all jitter so that the resulting sound should be the same regardless of the input. But the difference in SQ is still so big that I don't believe that the bits coming out of Vista and W7 are really the same. W7 sounds more like XP, as if everything is resampled.
Can we exclude this possibility ? And if yes how can the difference in SQ be explained ?

regards,
Bernd

[JohanZ]

.....and I have also "downgraded" to Windows Vista, same result as.... 

What version do I need the Vista 32 or the Vista 64 bit?

[Bernie]

I'm using my old 32 bit home edition. Windows 7 was 64 bit. If that makes a difference is another question for me, I will try Vista 64 in the next weeks...

[Josef]

W7 sounds more like XP, as if everything is resampled.
Can we exclude this possibility ?

It does seem so, yes.

In principle, W7 _will_ resample as needed if you are not in KS or WASAPI exclusive mode but XX or even Foobar are both using those modes. However, if you select DirectSound in e.g. Foobar, all bets are off and chances are your bits might get resampled depending on your sound card. (BTW it would still sound drastically bettter than XP as resampling is done in 32-bit float as opposed to int16 in XP)

The difference in SQ is coming from somewhere else - I have tried compiling official Microsoft sample source code for WASAPI exclusive mode and while they report same latencies in both W7 & Vista the music is completely unlistenable in W7 due to glitches & skips! (not to mention SQ).

Why is there such a difference between W7 & Vista I'm afraid nobody here could explain....

Maybe it is related to drastic changes in W7 scheduling algorithm (AFAIK MS completely rewrote that part), maybe not... But you can try one thing which may make W7 more bearable: Try changing 'processor scheduling' to 'Background' as opposed to default 'Programs' in Control Panel - System - Advanced system setting - tab Advanced. Let us know if you perceive any difference!

[Bernie]

Yes, I tried that option, but there is not a big difference (if at all). Another problem that is also solved in Vista is movie sound. In PowerDVD and Arcsoft player I always had short breaks with Hiface, even with 48khz setting (same problem on 2 PC's). In Vista this is completly gone, even 44.1 khz is working.
So it seems as if W7 is really doing some bad things that results in a change to the signal. If this would only be jitter then my Big Ben should be able to fix that, it is recreating the complete digital signal with its own clock, but there is still a big difference in SQ...

[PeterSt]

my Big Ben should be able to fix that, it is recreating the complete digital signal with its own clock,

Hi Bernie,

There is really nothing new here, if you'd only know what I have been undertaking to create a DAC which would be immune to this all (and eliminate XXHighEnd's virtues with that). But it doesn't work.
I started this (DAC project) two years ago now, the sound has become the best there is, but the influence from "software" never disappeared. It didn't even get less from it all.

Peter

[Josef]

Another problem that is also solved in Vista is movie sound. In PowerDVD and Arcsoft player I always had short breaks with Hiface, even with 48khz setting (same problem on 2 PC's). In Vista this is completly gone, even 44.1 khz is working.

Ah, HiFace - so you're in USB camp....
Are you saying 44.1 does not work in W7? That would be interesting....

In meantime, couple ideas you probably tried but just to make sure - Have you:
- manually turned off Power Management for every USB Hub in your system? (see picture - by default it's on in W7)
- made sure you don't use any software that dynamically manages your CPU speed (e.g. RightMark) i.e. Power Plan = High Performance?
- tried disabling SpeedStep in BIOS?
- tried 'USB polling' tweak from couple posts above? (I'm a bit skeptical on that one but you never know....)

[Bernie]

For audio 44.1 is working fine, only for video (blu-ray) it is not perfectly smooth with W7. With my old USB1.1 adapter it is working, but not with hiface. Vista and Hiface work perfectly together.
I have already tried to deactivate Speedstep (bios and energy settings in W7), but without big success. I will try your suggestion to disable the powermanagement for the USB hub, but I have the feeling that all these options will not give the Vista SQ from W7.
Or is there anybody who managed to tweak W7 so that it really sounds like Vista ?

[Josef]

I will try your suggestion to disable the powermanagement for the USB hub, but I have the feeling that all these options will not give the Vista SQ from W7.

Oh, your feeling is right: you will not be able to get 'Vista sound' - I'm just curious whether it helps resolve glitches. (BTW when you mention BluRay that may be related to having proper codec: I had extreme stuttering until I got a proper one....)

Or is there anybody who managed to tweak W7 so that it really sounds like Vista ?

I'm afraid not...

[Bernie]

Hi Josef,
I'm using PowerDVD, so the codec is not a problem. It's not a problem at all, I simply use my old USB-SPDIF interface which is working fine on W7. Only the fact that Vista does not have these problems seems to be an indicator for me that W7 is suboptimal for audio processing.
So I give up tweaking my 2nd W7 PC and go back to Vista. This solves all my problems and obviously sounds much better.
Maybe all these W7 tweaks can also improve Vista.... an endless story 

best regards,
Bernd

[Marcin_gps]

Hello everybody,

I think I'm gonna try XP one more time - slimmed&tweaked, minlogon etc. I remember I didn't like it some time ago, but now with new version of XXHE, Ramdisk and CPU affinity masks, it could be interesting... Maybe it's not too late and not everyone switched to Vista... haha

XP has one (among others) interesting option - it's called timeres and it allows to decrease 'waitable timer' from default's 7.8ms to 0.98 ms

Anyone using XP and Vista on the same machine?

Greets,
Marcin

[Chriss]

I think I'm gonna try XP one more time - slimmed&tweaked, minlogon etc. I remember I didn't like it some time ago, but now with new version of XXHE, Ramdisk and CPU affinity masks, it could be interesting...

I'll wait for your report Marcin! And what do you think about trying Win98 to?
Regards. Criss.

[Marcin_gps]

I'm sorry but Win98 is cr*p