The Good and the Bad ...

[PeterSt]

Oh my. I have made a kind of terrible mistake in the 0.9s-0/-1 versions ...

First the bad news about this :

99% sure in your versions, the Processor Appointment Schemes did not work.
The 1% is about the possibility that your settings weren't renewed at the first startup of 0.9s-0 (or -1 when you skipped -0), which is about that message you receive "Set your settings !" at startup. Of course nobody recalls whether he had that message or not, but when everything is normal, you should.
Anyway, today you can check things, by choosing Scheme-1 (not the others !), start Playback, and look for the Processor Affinity for a few random processes (Taskmanager, Processes tab, rightclick on a process, choose Set Affinity -> is only there when you have more cores !). When only one core is ticked (not by you), you have it working.

Then the good news :

When you don't have it, there's always the opportunity to improve sound again with the upcoming version (most probably today) by means of changing the schemes.


How did this happen ?

The "Set your settings" message, hence the resetting of it, occurs after a certain number of days (3 or so) *and* a new version. So for me, at a kind of continues change of (trial) verions, this never occurs. Now, in the 0.9r version there was a checkbox for Core Appointment, and in 0.9s this was changed into a combobox for the Schemes. But, the checkbox was still active under the hood, had a "ticked" situation stored in the "settings" (on hdd), and in the program the fact to change Affinity or not kept on working with this checkbox. So for me it just worked ... (as well as for everybody who did not receive the "Change your settings !" message who also had the checkbox ticked before running 0.9s for the first time).

As said, most probably you don't have it active, with the factual result of having chosen "No Appointment" in the combobox.
I think you *must* check it out, just to get to know what you have been listening to in the past week; is it ok then you don't have to start finding the best SQ for Schemes in the next version, and is it not ok, then you may have wasted your time on finding "no differences", and you'd have to do it again with the next version (for the good cause ).

I am *very* sorry for the inconvenience.
Peter


PS: If you don't have it running but found the SQ to be improved over 0.9r, then your observations can/will still be correct because of the priority schemes changed, Unattended Playback (when applicable to you), *OR* (so careful here) without Core Appointment it works out better for SQ.
On the last matter, please remember that I said that Scheme-1 was the same as the checkbox from before, and that to my findings Scheme-1 is not good and instead Scheme-3 does the job. So what actually happened in your systems is that you switched off the checkbox from 0.9r.
Add to this, that I said (elsewhere) that I expect Scheme-3 to be rather similar to "No Appointment".

[Gerard]

Peter,

In my case i have two cores checked...... But i did not receive a message (Set your settings)...

[PeterSt]

Gerard, you mean at the first install of a 0.9s version ? (so, probably last Sunday)

[Gerard]

Gerard, you mean at the first install of a 0.9s version ? (so, probably last Sunday)

Well after the install i did not and also not in the last day's.... I did the install again now and than it did not... or am i reading it wrong? And yes last sunday was the day....

[JohanZ]

Anyway, today you can check things, by choosing Scheme-1 (not the others !), start Playback, and look for the Processor Affinity for a few random processes (Taskmanager, Processes tab, rightclick on a process, choose Set Affinity -> is only there when you have more cores !). When only one core is ticked (not by you), you have it working.

A random process gives, two cores checked see screen 1
XXHighEnd gives the message "No access" see screen 2

[Gerard]

Anyway, today you can check things, by choosing Scheme-1 (not the others !), start Playback, and look for the Processor Affinity for a few random processes (Taskmanager, Processes tab, rightclick on a process, choose Set Affinity -> is only there when you have more cores !). When only one core is ticked (not by you), you have it working.

A random process gives, two cores checked see screen 1
XXHighEnd gives the message "No access" see screen 2

When i do XX it shows the cores....

[JohanZ]

A random process gives, two cores checked see screen 1 (version 09s-1)

After a reboot and playing XX version 09pd, Set Affinity gives:

• for Process XXHighEnd, still no access;
  
• for a random Process, see attachment

[Gerard]

• for Process XXHighEnd, still no access;
  
  

Does that have anything to do with administrator rights?

[Leo]

Well I had the message about the settings when I installed S-1. And now with the Affinity check I found that other processes have two CPU's. So for me it is solved, and I will wait for the next version to see what leaps in SQ I will experience once again.

[pedal]

Dear PeterSt:

I appointed core sucessfully when installing M-1.
Then I downloaded S-1 a week ago (installed all the files from the new folder) and applied same settings and startet playing, with better SQ as a result. I also checked with Taskmanager and it was working similar as before (as with M-1), with a lot of activity in core one, and minimum activity in core two. See photo. It is taken when Engine 3 is playing a playlist in unattended mode, while I am keeping the PC busy with other tasks.

What do you think is the situation now? Should I download new version again, or is eveything OK?

Please advice.

EDIT: Just downloaded S-2 and all is OK!

[Gerard]

Peter,

Maybe you said it before but why only 1 core when playing schema 1 and not when playing 2 , 3, 4?

Gerard

[PeterSt]

Dear PeterSt:

I appointed core sucessfully when installing M-1.
Then I downloaded S-1 a week ago (installed all the files from the new folder) and applied same settings and startet playing, with better SQ as a result. I also checked with Taskmanager and it was working similar as before (as with M-1), with a lot of activity in core one, and minimum activity in core two. See photo. It is taken when Engine 3 is playing a playlist in unattended mode, while I am keeping the PC busy with other tasks.

What do you think is the situation now? Should I download new version again, or is eveything OK?

Please advice.

EDIT: Just downloaded S-2 and all is OK!

Hi Pedal,

According to your "EDIT", you're okay I think. But, according to your earlier descriptions of SQ and your picture above, it seems that you were okay already.
If you are not sure, or you think SQ has degraded with 0.9-s2, set the Scheme to No Appointment and you should (no, may in your case) have the same as before (0.9s-1).

[PeterSt]

Maybe you said it before but why only 1 core when playing schema 1 and not when playing 2 , 3, 4?

Gerard,

2, 3 and 4 just approach another strategy of spreading/dedicating tasks to cores. The Affinity can be checked by means of Windows properties, the other things just can't. Just try what works best for you, although the differences may be delicate.

If you can't find SQ differences between No Appointment and Scheme-1, the others probably won't show differences either. BUT :

Just those others (2, 3, 4) then might help with avoiding crackles.
Nothing different from what was mentioned in the release notes of 0.9s-0, but (so) sadly I made a programming mistake in that version. Thus, not only all could not help removing crackles, but at the same time they just re-occurred while the latest XX versions took them away.

[Gerard]

Maybe you said it before but why only 1 core when playing schema 1 and not when playing 2 , 3, 4?

Gerard,

2, 3 and 4 just approach another strategy of spreading/dedicating tasks to cores. The Affinity can be checked by means of Windows properties, the other things just can't. Just try what works best for you, although the differences may be delicate.

If you can't find SQ differences between No Appointment and Scheme-1, the others probably won't show differences either. BUT :

Just those others (2, 3, 4) then might help with avoiding crackles.
Nothing different from what was mentioned in the release notes of 0.9s-0, but (so) sadly I made a programming mistake in that version. Thus, not only all could not help removing crackles, but at the same time they just re-occurred while the latest XX versions took them away.

Peter but is there a difference between this version and the one before playing schema 3? That was the one we thougt was the best.

[PeterSt]

Well, Gerard, that's the big difficulty ...
If you can't prove to yourself Processor Appointment was working for you with 0.9s-1 (and I don't think you could), then you now should select No Appointment and it's the same.

If you think it worked afterall, just select Scheme-3 again (like you did with 0.9-s1. And I know about the PMs Gerard ... sadly all is rather confusing right now. Just let your heart/ears speak ... Also, I am thinking about the explanation of the PM subject ...)

Edit : But suppose a kind of placebo thing has been happening, and your selection of Scheme-3 actually did not do anything (which I do not believe in your situation Gerard), then still Scheme-3 should be the best because with me all the time it just *was* (is) working out the best. Careful though, because I operate with just one Q1 setting, *not* Invert, and with my DAC ...