09-z8a Sound Quality

[Scroobius]

Very refined - Nice one Peter!!

[stefanobilliani]

Yes , very .

[Eric]

I would call it: totally in balance.

Cheers
Eric

[Jud]

I find with -8a the types of changes one has the opportunity to make can be less forgiving, at least with my middling setup and my CPU overclocked back up where it's usually been.  My sig has what I've arrived at after some fairly careful listening testing a range of settings from my old ones to Peter's new ones, and many in between.

I found the only setting that caused temps to rise more than I'd like (still well within the safe zone, but 10 deg C more than the usual range) was turning off Cool When Idle.  This was accompanied by an increase in the "sizzle" noise that I must be ever on guard against with -8.  So Cool When Idle is staying on.  (The "sizzle" never occurs when there is otherwise silence, but is present as an edge on upper midrange instruments and vocals.  For lower midrange it is less present, but when audible is a very slight "fuzz.")

The system just doesn't like the "special" Nervous Rate setting of 100, but it's fine with 99, so that's where I've got it for the time being.  For Q1, no multiplier above 2 will allow XXHE to start before I grow impatient, so that is where it stays since I like the sound slightly better than with my old multiplier of 1.  For SFS, things seem just about right halfway between my and Peter's old setting of 60 and his new one of 120.

Balanced Load has been the subject of most of my tweaking tests.  Strange that the degree of "sizzle" that is the penalty for an incorrect setting doesn't seem to rise consistently across the range from 43 to 70, which is as high as I care to go.  Where I've got it now seems to be a sweet spot.  I can still hear the merest edge, but even a single digit lower and it makes things a little too polite and polished, just the slightest bit less real.

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

SQ is similar to the previous versions with the difference that it is clearer, especially in the upper mids & highs.

Best regards,

Arvind

[listening]

Hi Peter,

the improvement is nearly unbelievable in my setup. Seems that the correct use of the HPET timer gives a lot more accuracy to all aspects of the music reproduction: Deeper and more contours in the bass, sweet and bright highs and allover clarity.

Georg

[Scroobius]

After playing with settings I am back at SFS=2 and Q1=14 Qf=1. I have always found the same with SFS when it is set to the higher values I get what sounds like a "smoothing" effect. So if the sound is not quiet right higher SFS makes it sound better. But when everything is working well SFS=2 gives crystal clarity and also easy and relaxing sound. Human voice gives the clearest indication of this with higher SFS settings the voice loses definition those tiny little strands disappear. At SFS=2 the voice is crystal clear all those little strands are there and there is no "smoothing" over.  At SFS=2 human voice cummunicates emotion incredibly well.  There is no way I could describe the sound at SFS=2 as "nasty" or "edgy" it is clear and sooo easy to listen to.

The only problem is that at SFS=2 the ticks are back again or are they? - now they seem to have disappeared having shut XX down and started it up again. How odd!!

Anyway at the end of the day XX is sounding fantastic. My best present easily this Christmas.

Edit: The ticks are back again!!

Dank u Peter

Paul

[PeterSt]

Hey, who says it is allowed to disagree with me ? ha ha

Paul, I can clearly see your intention of the description which would even be in a fashion I would do it to you or others. So, nothing wrong there. Still, a "crystal clarity" does not suffice for me. Or not anymore. It did a small year ago and I would include "infinite highs i.e. you can feel there won't be distortion ever even when you boost the highs with something like 24dB" ... but not anymore.

Not that there now *is* distortion suddenly, but the balance ain't right. Add to that that all you do is drive the PC nuts with such a setting, and I just can't go along with it (anymore).
But merely : no dull sound ANYMORE here at the higher SFS. And *that* is new now (and this is XTweaks stuff).

On a side note : don't underestimate what a horn can incur for opposed to your normal radiating speakers/drivers. Meaning : what can sound nicely clear to you, may sound nasty to me. But remember : all is relative. Relative like switching off PA by now, and not being able to understand how you could ever listen to *that* sound. Also nasty, right ?

All it should tell is that I am able to dial in those not-dull details with the higher SFS. But it also tells that you should be able too. Not that you have too, but when you, unlike me, don't *want* to look for it, you will give up too soon. Still no problem of course, but I think we are all able to perceive the better sound from the higher SFS (well, not that lowest to be honest).

Besides this "clarity" thing, I now also have another indication : coloured bass. So, the low SFS seems to create more firm and profound bass, but it also colours. Not good;
It may not be easy to bring this forward and possibly it needs loud playing and a larger room. But since I hinted you to it, maybe you can hear it.

One last thing which was already said in between the lines :
For almost 100% I work by theories; always did. They always worked. An SFS of 2 would be 180 degrees against my theories. It would even violate "memory playback" or worse : because it still is, it's only doing extra things now. Lots of cpu usage, spades of disk i/o and all what can only be wrong. But if you think that is just right (and still sleep well) then reconnect all the disks and DVD drives you just disconnected. That would belong to the same consistent strategy.
Get it ?

Otherwise of course I don't care. All I try is let us dig deeper in the mysteries of this all and get more (SQ) out of it than we ever could imagine. And we are on the right track anyway of course. It needs that digging into "strange directions" just the same. So (anybody) please don't hesitate to completely disagree and more importantly : let know this. Just like you did Paul, and I hope you keep on doing it. Seriously.

Regards,
Peter

[Scroobius]

Hey Peter - I know low SFS uses big PC resource so low SFS and good SQ should be mutually exclusive - I will play again with settings later. 

All the best

P

[manisandher]

Hey Peter, quick question (not sure where it fits so I'll just ask it here):

Having similar speakers to yours, I just wanted to replicate your XX settings exactly before I start exploring XTweaks stuff. Now, I can get an xQ1 of 27 or 29... but not 28! So how do you get an xQ1 of 28?

BTW, Paul (Scroobius) is coming over to my place tomorrow to have a play. I'm sure a bunch of time will be taken up with XTweaks!

Mani.

[Jud]

Mani: Highlight the rectangle you move or the number field and use the up/down arrow keys to adjust.

[manisandher]

Hey Jud, thanks - will try this later.

Cheers, Mani.

[manisandher]

BTW, Paul (Scroobius) is coming over to my place tomorrow to have a play. I'm sure a bunch of time will be taken up with XTweaks!

I was totally wrong! We spent no time whatsoever playing around with XTweaks -we stuck with Peter's XTweaks settings and my regular XX settings (including SFS=2).

But a couple of simple things that we did try seemed to make quite marked improvements in SQ:

1) I had totally forgotten about Nick's tweak of disconnecting the CD/DVD drive. Paul reminded me of this, and as soon as I tried it, there was a jump in SQ. I currently have a total of 4 hard-drives connected via SATAII/III. Paul believes reducing this to a single drive for OS, XX and music/Gallery duties will bring about additional SQ improvements.

2) We tried some 'secret feet' that Peter had given to Paul to place under the NOS1. I'll refrain from saying much about these until Peter makes it clear that he's happy for me to do so. But I will say that they made a profound improvement to SQ. Feet under the NOS1? Yep, bloody feet under the NOS1... what a hobby!

On a final note, Paul confirmed that the noise I'm experiencing from my 115dB/W speakers at idle is well within the range that he considers acceptable. You can only really hear it with your ears <1m or so from the horns, or further away in the dead of the night. He was concerned about the slight 'hum' from the bass drivers, again with the ear <1m from the bass horn. However, I think this OK - the bass driver is actively driven to match the sensitivity of the mid/treble horn, and one would therefore expect about as much noise from it as from the mid/treble horn, which is pretty much the case albeit at a much lower frequency which makes it sound like hum.

All in all, it was great to catch up with Paul again. If you ever get the chance, 'book' him for a visit - he's full of interesting observations and stories, and a real laugh to boot.

Mani.

[Jud]

2) We tried some 'secret feet' that Peter had given to Paul to place under the NOS1. I'll refrain from saying much about these until Peter makes it clear that he's happy for me to do so. But I will say that they made a profound improvement to SQ. Feet under the NOS1? Yep, bloody feet under the NOS1... what a hobby!

Mani.

One of the two principals in the companies from which I buy all my cables (including an inexpensive USB cable with which I'm quite impressed) has a habit of being especially correct when he says the most outrageous things.

For example: http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/products.asp?dept=1 and http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/departments.asp?dept=96

[PeterSt]

Mani, I somehow missed your post about Paul's visit, yesterday. It's okay to post about those feet, so go ahead with it. Told Paul the same by email yesterday already.
See in Chatter.

Thanks for being cautious,
Peter