9-Z3

[GerardA]

Yes I read this, but if I select the tracks to play in XXHE then what happens after that?
I can only imagine I have to push a button after I finished selecting the tracks...
And then XXHE can do its work..?

[PeterSt]

Aha ... (thanks)

So, assumed "Do not start Playback at all" is active, what you would do is :

1. Get the tracks you want to play in the Playlist Area (no matter how);

2. If you want, select tracks in there you want to play (select nothing, and all will play starting from the (always one) one being selected);

3. Click Play (all tracks will be prepared for playback now) and wait until XXHighEnd disappears;

4. Wait as long as you think is necessary to let things cool down, get voodoo out of the way, or whatever it is which may make you think that copying the files to RAMDisk outside of XXHighEnd will benefit SQ; notice this copying just has been done by XXHighEnd, but only that copying happened. We don't let XXHighEnd play, or otherwise it doesn't mimic the "copying ourselves".

5. Now use Alt-P to start playback.


Now, does this make sense ?
Maybe. It is similar to crazies who perceive different sound from FLAC vs. WAV (with XX !!). This, while the WAV coming from the FLAC is 100% equal to the FLAC not being there in the first place. One difference : it is a "close to playback" process, never mind all is done in advance of playback. But start Resource Monitor and you will see what is all going on just after you finished with #3 above. Really dozens of (I/O) processes are there, but if you wait a minute or two they have all vanished. So, the difference with immediate playback is that those processes will have vanished when Playback starts (at your command).
To be honest : I don't think those processes themselves matter much but the "organization" of the OS around it all does (ok, may).

To keep in mind : At using Alt-P it still be so that many things start to happen in the OS, because it is still XXHighEnd doing it all. But at least the "heavy" processes of conversion, copying, are out of the way now. Later I can make this more lean by means of starting XXEngine3.exe directly. Currently this won't work because of the organization of affinity and all is within XXHighEnd.


Does this help better ?
Peter


PS: I use it all the time.

[GerardA]

Yes, now it is perfectly clear, thanks!
Maybe it's the voodoo that blocks my mind!
Now I wonder if this waiting makes the music sound better for the complete album or only at the beginning when everything is not settled down?
In the latter case I don't mind, but I'll have to try now to hear the difference.

[juanpmar]

Hi Gerard, I do it this way and it works:

In Unattended mode.

Click "Copy to XX-drive by standard", click also "Do not Start Playback at all", then go to the window on the right side and click Explorer, look for the album you want to play and select all the songs or the ones you want to play and click open. Return to the left window and you´ll see the album in the Library. Use Alt-P (previously you have to have AutoHotkey working), then you see that there´s is no sound. Click Alt-X to see again the player. Turn off "Do not Start Playback at all" and click again Alt-P. Now you have your music sounding beautifully.

I read the forum same as you but quite often don´t understand it. We are mostly music lovers, some are computer lovers also but not the majority of us. So please some patience.

[GerardA]

Hi Juan, thanks for the tips.

I read the forum with a lot of interest, but don't have the time to try everything.
Like most of us I'm always happy with a new improved version, but most of the time you have to start all over to find the best settings.
This is part of the hobby and the fun, but when you don't feel like it or don't have the time it's nice to just turn XXHE on and enjoy the music.
I had my ears bugged for the flu for more then three weeks so I need to catch up with the way it sounds too...
Maybe time for an Ipad, read the forum on the Ipad while you're listening to the music and try all the settings.
Then make notes of all the settings and changes.
And maybe for all the users a page where they can put their settings so we can compare easily with each other.

[PeterSt]

Hi Gerard, I do it this way and it works:

In Unattended mode.

Click "Copy to XX-drive by standard", click also "Do not Start Playback at all", then go to the window on the right side and click Explorer, look for the album you want to play and select all the songs or the ones you want to play and click open. Return to the left window and you´ll see the album in the Library. Use Alt-P (previously you have to have AutoHotkey working), then you see that there´s is no sound. Click Alt-X to see again the player. Turn off "Do not Start Playback at all" and click again Alt-P. Now you have your music sounding beautifully.

I'm sure you don't mind :

Let me first notice that you use Alt-X to bring up XX again. That's AutoHotkey, right ? Ok ok ...

So, once you have that going anyway (AutoHotkey), just click Play the first time, and use Alt-P when XX has vanished.

But each his own of course ...

[Telstar]

So, once you have that going anyway (AutoHotkey), just click Play the first time, and use Alt-P when XX has vanished.

But each his own of course ...

Yeah, i dont use autohotkey for instance :D

[Raj.V]

SFS:21 is quite a class!
The sound difference between 09.z2 & 09.z3 (SFS:21) is not subtle.
It is as much as what ramdisk had inroduced.

- 09.z3  (SFS:21) has introduced a level of transparency not in the earlier versions.
It feels like a veil of cloth has been removed from the speakers - Very engaging and the music grips your shoulders.

- The tick at start of playback remains. But it has become a comforting tick to indicate that all is going well.

- 44.1KHz tracks upsampled to 88.2 or 176.4 (PeakEx + AP) need a different device buffer & Q1 setting.
This was not the case in earlier versions.
Track with repetitive drum (bass) was used to check this - whether bass was tight or brrrr...

Native high res. & (88.2/PkEx+AP) - Device setting 256 : Q1:8samples
176.4 PkEx+AP - Device setting 384 : Q1:6 samples
Seems like a tiny change but the SQ difference is not as tiny.

I don't use "Do not start playback" and also high SFS size sounds best e.g. 175 - 220.

Raj

P.S. Installed W2008 for 09.z3. W2008 is rock solid in performance. SQ remains consistent throughout the playlist.
You already anticipate this during setup (very lean) and some of the (Death tweaks) are already done.
Shutoff network, wireless, unshare IRQ etc. and it is what a music machine should be close to.
My Vista setup (non-Vlite) had inconsistentcies in SQ even during one track in the playlist.

[juanpmar]

Hi Gerard, I do it this way and it works:

In Unattended mode.

Click "Copy to XX-drive by standard", click also "Do not Start Playback at all", then go to the window on the right side and click Explorer, look for the album you want to play and select all the songs or the ones you want to play and click open. Return to the left window and you´ll see the album in the Library. Use Alt-P (previously you have to have AutoHotkey working), then you see that there´s is no sound. Click Alt-X to see again the player. Turn off "Do not Start Playback at all" and click again Alt-P. Now you have your music sounding beautifully.

I'm sure you don't mind :

Let me first notice that you use Alt-X to bring up XX again. That's AutoHotkey, right ? Ok ok ...

So, once you have that going anyway (AutoHotkey), just click Play the first time, and use Alt-P when XX has vanished.

But each his own of course ...

Thanks Peter. No I don´t mind. I appreciate your help once more but admit that I was very close, or not?. 

I like a sound as much natural as possible with clear voices, tight and deep bass, piano harmonically rich and some kind of sweetness in the highs but not too much. This is my humble contribution to the best sound found so far for 09-z3:

SFSini-21. Engine 3. Adaptive. Buffer-1024. Scheme 1. Low-Real. SFS-52. Arc Predict. fx x 2. Q1:1 other Qs:0.

[Flecko]

Flecko, I tried RAMdisk (1500mb) in Win7 today with all the same setting in Z3 for both Vista and Win7 (SFS 200, 11) scheme 2, buffer 1024, 4x AP,
Vista is still clearly better. Under Vista, the sound is smoother, more liquid and for a lack of better word, more analog, in my system.
Under Win7, the voice is thinner, a bit more edgy. I used to think that with Win7, the sound is still pretty darn good and already surpass using
CD in my CD Player/DAC a bit, now it is even better.

Thank you very much for checking this! I will try a second Windows install soon.

[manisandher]

I'm continuing to like SFS.ini = 21, Scheme 1 and an SFS size of 200. I'm not sure if the 'extra' dynamics are artificial and the sound a little too forward, but I like it.

However... I really, really like the sound of 21 and Scheme 1 with "Do not Start Playback at all"!!!! I was a total skeptic at first, thinking that "Copy to XX-drive" is all that should be necessary and that any other copying would be a waste of time. But not so! Engaging "Do not Start Playback at all" brings a welcome smoothness to the sound with 21 and Scheme 1. The only downside is that I invariably forget to press alt-P...

As with many of you, I will leave my sig as it is for now, until I'm convinced this is what I like.

Mani.

[Suteetat]

Hmmm, looks like I am the only one who actually prefer 11 over 21 right now for sfs.ini .
I have not really listen to 21 much. The first album I listened to 21 was Mathias Goerne Schubert Heliopolis.
It sounded louder, perhaps but some of the analog like smoothness is gone from the voice.
Switching back to 11, the voice is smoother, creamier, richer, take your pick
Piano sounds less edgy and metalic also.

I'll try 21 on some other types of music and see. I think we need a button in XXHighend
to switch between the two

[manisandher]

This is getting complicated...

I've just switched to listening to my speakers (as opposed to my headphones, with which I've done all my listening recently, because I just love their sound). Through my speakers, I can't listen to SFS.ini = 21, or indeed 11. They're both just too much... too edgy (a bit like having the SFS set too low with earlier XX versions). And taking the SFS value as high as I can doesn't seem to help with 11 or 21.

So, with my speakers, I'm back to SFS.ini = 00 and the SFS value set to ~65. Also, curiously, I quite like the sound of Scheme 4 - very 'organic' and laid back... a bit like vinyl.

But isn't it amazing that we're discussing this at all? I mean, so much affects the sound, even in the 'bit perfect' realm!

Mani.

[Marcin_gps]

Well, this is all system dependant and I mean OS too Now with my slimmed&tweaked W2008 I have the best results with SFS at 12 - nothing edgy, harsh about the sound. That was not the case with 'bare' OS without optimisations, period. It's so good, that my pc-audio with Cantatis sound card sounds better (IMHO) than dCS Elgar Plus DAC... (in my system) This is not a joke. dCS is very detailed, but sounds dry. My server with Cantatis onboard is more lifelike, organic, engaging. I didn't know it's such a freaking good value! The dCS' price 4k EUR (used), the look on my friend's face - priceless.

Greets,
Marcin

[juanpmar]

My new findings:

SFS.ini-11/#4Engine/Special Mode/Buffer 2048/Scheme-3/Low-RealTime/SFS-178/Do not start Playback at all/Copy to XX-drive by standard/Q1=6 (1024)/ArcPredict/fx x 2.

I was using SFS.ini-21 but at the end it´s too rich no matter what you combine it with. On the other hand Scheme 1 makes the sound a little dry and although you can get nice sound after some listening time there is a lack of emotion.

Once all the other parameters are set I´ve made the fine tune with SFS. Surprisingly SFS gets more focus as it goes higher until one point where it starts to be fat and the voices are out of focus. So in my opinion SFS must be as high as possible until the point the sound is blurred, mostly the bass. Higher SFS also gives bigger soundstage. When I reach SFS-178, the balance point in my system, if I change SFS.ini 11 to SFS.ini 21 the voices and the scene gets too close of my listening seat.

I like the 09-z3 sound more than the one I got with 09-z2, bigger soundstage, fuller sound, harder to find a tight bass but possible, on the other hand perhaps a little short of the last word in definition but probably I could work it out a bit more...