9Z-8e

[boleary]

Finally no ticks with "sustained" notes. And , here, the mid and high frequences sound less airy, more focused, like a crystal clear glass of water but completely musical sounding. Nice!

[PeterSt]

... with the notice that by now this is the same as 0.9z-8e for SQ.

Ok, I will have to admit something;
When two evenings back I had the ticks out, it must have been the first time that I had some sort of tear in my eye just because an album had finished.
Right now I'm at the start of Bill Frisel's Gost Town and it sounds like I'm happy that it's just the second track I'm at. What about a crystal clear slow-motion waterfall ? It's eerie.

This two evenings back it was Concierto de Stonehenge from Hatfield's End. I played it numerous times before but day before yesterday it was an all new album with a clarity unheard, details unheard and with skills unheard (Hatfield's end is a Mike Oldfield kind of guy).

Of course I shouldn't admit that this was (and still is) with an SFS of 2. But it really is so that with SFS=2 things come alive and albums "perform" while otherwise you don't know why you selected them in the first place for your "Nice Stuff" gallery. So with my higher SFS of 270 or whatever it was this occurred to me; why did I like this before ? Things just don't work out there. This, while SFS=2 brings super magic.

But I really must add that indeed all must be right. And this was not the case with 0.9z-8a. It really really matters.

Those who think to stick with 0.9z-7 (or even earlier) ... you don't know what you're missing. It's the G.D. best I ever heard myself.
Ok, I hope I am allowed to say this from my own stuff.

Yes, Bill Frisel is the most special too with this album and his mystique speed guitar riffs. Heck, the man can never have heard this himself I reckon. Hires ? why ??

Ok, done.
Peter

[Eric]

Peter,
this is a real TOP achievement!!
Total black background, which allows the music to dance in the room.
I now become aware that previously the artefacts had more influence on my experience than I was willing to admit. And now we are free (again) to enjoy the artists and their great creations.
Thank you very much........

Cheers
Eric

[Scroobius]

Hi Peter - the experiences you describe match mine but I just wondered do you have a DVD player connected in your PC? because in my system the DVD has to be completely disconnected or it adds a hard edge to the sound especially noticeable at SFS2. We had exactly the same experience at Mani's and when his DVD was disconnected it really does improve things.

But anyway all is sounding great here and no ticks with Bach organ works any longer.

Thanks for all your hard work as always.

Paul

[PeterSt]

Paul,

Sometimes it is confusing for you all;
I use two PCs for audio playback : one which is fully loaded with an uncountable number of HDDs and external USB disks (this is what I call my "Audio PC") and one which is made for the job but which I hardly use because I dedicate it to get Windows 8 working hence are working with to get the NOS1 driver going (this is the "XXHighEnd PC" as people can buy it).

The "XXHighEnd PC" still has its DVD connected, and it is the first PC which won't allow for SFS=2. BUT, I never tested music through it anymore since 0.9z-8 - somewhat earlier actually. It may make a difference.

My "Audio PC" is what I always will indirectly refer to, until the moment I definitely swapped to the "XXHighEnd PC" (but then it will be in my sig).

I have talked about it before ... from my Audio PC could be said that it somewhat explicitly goes the other way around; it will mix so many frequencies of "noise" that it should present a smooth "white noise". This is merely determined in aftermath because I use this PC for 3 years now I think, and obviously back then we thought somewhat different about how to get things right. Still that theory of "more noise" is as explicit as the one about "no noise". This is, and I talked about it before, because the "no noise" is not achievable and any of the few remaining noise sources will exhibit about single frequencies which I regard worse than dozens of them mixed which makes it white.

Notice that what it comes down to is randomizing higher jitter (Audio PC) vs having lower jitter with alternating frequencies of it (XXHighEnd PC).

It will be no coincidence that when or while you guys were starting to disconnect devices, I started 0.9z-8; if you closely watch the sequence of happenings this went the other way around. But mind you, in the end we do it together. So anyway (and (as) always) when you come up with something like disconnecting a device for the better, I will try to work this out in the software realm. So with 0.9z-8 the path of addressing the hardware was taken and while the actual "tweaks" are fairly easy for me to try manually, it needed a month of creating general routines and getting them to work in the environment of "protection by the OS" and for which no (internet) examples exist. I only want to say : now these routines work, it only needs to find the tweakable stuff and address it by these routines. Right now a few tweaks are there only, but spades of them can be found and can be implemented the most easy now.
But it's also time to take some breath here.

What I'm actually saying is that maybe I don't *want* to use this potentially better PC (XXHighEnd PC) because all should be possible to apply on my Audio PC just the same. And, it works so far. I must add though that I'm in a sort of pain, knowing the potential of Windows 8 which I can't use because of the NOS1 driver. And if it weren't enough, it is me who must make that going, which first needed finalizing Windows 8 and which you saw happening with 0.9z-8 also.
What about too many things at hand for the one purpose ?

Lastly, *because* of the Windows 8 potential, I myself see no use in working out the XXHighEnd PC for the better sound with Windows 7. I want to do that afterwards. If needed at all (because by then I suppose everybody will be on W8).

I have the hunch that I will have the first sound from the NOS1 through Windows 8 today ...

Peter

[PeterSt]

A bit following up my story from yesterday, and to me a kind of new phenomenon :

After Bill Frisell I tried one of my favorites subject to improvement (as it seems forever) : Get yer Ya-Ya's out (Stones). Talked about this one many times before and each time I see some real improvement I will try that one too ("all that poorly recorded albums should the heck play !").

As said in the first paragraph : something fairly new occurred to me;

At really the very first notes of it (this is a live album where some speaker announces the Stones at the start of the album) my wife here says "hey, couldn't they remove that curtain they are playing behind ?". Well, nothing really played much at that moment yet, but I readily recognized the far far away "playing" of this album. So, I just know that - it most often sounds "flat as hell". Not always hence not with all XXHighEnd versions, but inherently it is just that flat I guess.

Because I started some discussion like "no it is not that", well into Jumping Jackflash (first track) we were still talking about it, and it became clear that no such thing as a (thick) curtain could be in order. Way too fresh cymbals for that. Btw, way too many cymbal hits as well, which I did not recall from earlier playing of this album.

Somehow the combination of perceiving this far in the back and the freshness of it, did not fit. Judging it precisely, it sure was all far in the back. At the same time though I couldn't help that my mind told me that the drum kit was upfront, which it wasn't because it was as far in the back as everything;

Completely unlike I have heard it ever before, it now was totally clear that someone had dialed the recording volume of the cymbals way too high. It just didn't fit.
Earlier on (this may be 3 years ago by now) I already told that I saw Charlie Watts suddenly being alive while I never saw the guy alive in my life. Now I know why, because now I "saw" that he smashed all his life out of him over the cymbals just for this one recording.

Again earlier on I talked about seeing the guys having a real show on the stage. This, while ever back the album came across as rather saltless, never mind it is music which will last forever (form my younger times).

Whether it was the upfront cymbals or whether it's the so well performing two guitars playing along with well timed touched strings in the finest detail - I could not see that jumping on stage performing anymore. My helicopter view from earlier had changed into the focus on artists creating the harmony of music, and all I could see was a zoomed in picture of two guys holding a plectrum and creating that detailed fine "play" which in the end can make you hallucinate.

Exactly the 100% happened with the Hatfield's End I talked about as well as with Bill Frisell. I used similar words there.

But this is totally new.

For this Stones album I again tried to focus on the jumping on stage performance I encountered earlier - did not work.I regarded the album less good were it for net result; earlier XXHighEnd versions did better on it. But wait, no, there is this low key distortion guitar and *again* I could only envision something like how the guy(s) are able to fine tune a sound so well going along with the lyrics. This is not about a guitar fitting in the play, but it far more is about the proper guitar for the job and the distortion means for the job. And again I saw this one guy with the guitar in front of him swinging the guitar from bottom to top to have it produced its sound (which btw it all about (feedback) interaction with the speaker).

Trying to describe this in one sentence I'd say something like :

While previously I could see a bunch of artists on stage having fun and produce fine music, now I can't see that overview anymore but see the individual efforts of the players with a switching back and forth a 100 times per second in my mind between them and where the elements of ARTISTS create that beautiful music.

And apparently this also applies to the Rolling Stones.


I thought I was finished with this post. But suddenly a big bang occurs to me. Look again at this :

my wife here says "hey, couldn't they remove that curtain they are playing behind ?"

Read back on how I found this not to be true. We did not solve the issue. She sustained in her description and I, from a mere technical point of view, pointed at the feshness of the cymbals which out of everything could not be behind curtains.

But isn't my description as of now not fitting fairly much hers ?

No stage visible ?

Btw, how did I ever select that "Ghost Town" from Bill Frisell yesterday and talked about that one as a first ? I never even played the album before.
I like to see ghosts ?

Peter

[AlainGr]

Peter, if I use my words to describe things... A lot has happened since 6c... I felt as if some front instruments were not as prominent as they were, but on the other hand, there are more individual details, more tones, more of many things I never heard before ?

[juanpmar]

The sound is cleaner and smoother than with previous versions, so clean that sometimes it looks like it lacks some weight, but listening carefully this sound has it all. Congratulations once more Peter.
No more ticks except when changing format in the Playlist from 44100/705600 to 96000/768000, then I have to stop and replay the first 96000/768000 track again and the ticks are gone.

Juan

[Stanray]

Last night I finally had time to listen more closely. I planned to listen to a new album, but ended up listening to 3 albums, untill late (Psycedellic Pill-Neil Young, Ulf Wakenius-Vagabond, Tonbruket-Dig it to the end).

For me the music has become more engaging, sweeter, yet more detailed. It has become "foot tapping" and "head nodding". Great!

No ticks or cracks.

Thanks Peter!

Stanley

[Telstar]

Amazingly transparent, I love it.

[Gerard]

Also like it very much!!! And no errors in any way!   

[Scroobius]

When I asked the DVD question I did have a feeling that the answer was not going to be straightforward. Peter you did not disappoint.

Seriously though the SQ now is sublime. Stay up all night sound.

P

[CoenP]

After fiddling around with the settings and ultimately disabeling the RAMdisk playbackdrive the sound is now super musical and devoid of any hardness. All instruments play their tune without disturbing the whole

Me like very much !

regards, Coen

[Jud]

*Much* better now.  Others say it lacks hardness, I say with my little rig it lacks the merest edge of "fuzz" or "sizzle" that was still hanging around with -8c.  (It was there I first heard its real potential, though, with SFS=2).  On "Dream of the Drowned Submariner" (beautiful song) from Mark Knopfler's latest, Privateering, the cymbals, bass, and acoustic guitar are now perfectly in time and complementing each other.  Before it was difficult to tell at low volume whether that was cymbals or sizzle.

Also, the very good Lindsey Geyer cables from the Dragonfly to my amp have now been replaced with better 20 year vintage Omega Mikros (since I got a new pair of Omega Mikros for the main rig), which allows the very welcome clean clear sound to come through, even with things turned down so my wife can sleep.

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Great job with the 0.9z-8e, the SQ truly is several notch higher than the previous versions. Congratulations on this achievement.

Best regards,

Arvind