Nah ... it won't be personal ... if we only have consensus what to listen for.
And "verdict" ? ... what about finalizing this super sh*t and have some fun in life instead of installing Operating Systems.
So I don't know about you, but I am done with it.
Does that sound negative ?
No man ... but at some stage we must recognize that a search for better is not an efficient way of living. That is, if the better has already been found, why continue. Because it may get more better ?
I should have listened to myself last May.
So here goes :
Suppose one would like to observe the capabilities of Windows 10 and then specifically Build 10586.0. Notice though that 10565 won't be much different. What you do is this :
Get hold of Blade Runner Trilogy (
http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Runner-Trilogy-25th-Anniversary/dp/B000Z0OX9O ) and pull out CD2 and play Track 03 - Dr. Tyrell's Owl.
If you have a playback system which is a bit like mine, your jaw will drop to the floor as in "is THIS possible ?!??".
IOW, you will hear bells which are so super clear and so crazily loud that at least I myself say that only real bells can do this. It is amazing and possibly the most amazing I ever perceived from music playback.
Btw my tweeters can digest 450W or so, and maybe this helps.
Ok, you have the album and are not even going to try. That is fine. Still you should though, as it is the best track to see through what's all being done to us by an Operating System.
You won't be happy for 30 seconds ...
So a little bit into the track the super clean bells turn into more complex sounds and when it is as loud as we play over here, it soon starts to hurt. The all so interesting bell sounds turn into something which we can literally call
shattering; shattering as shattering is meant to be.
Now THAT is your beautiful Windows 10 Operating System.
No wait, that is all beyond Build 10074.
Let's go back a little;
What did I just say ? ... "if it is as loud as we play over here".
And this is the whole issue ... I wasn't playing loud or louder as usual; instead the balance is so way way way off that things like these bells perceive an emphasis which is out of this world.
I told you : cymbals which lasted longer as ever (10565 that was). But I also told you : commercial music shows a distortion - not normal. Lastly I also told you that it must be my system now which is not good enough.
So I changed that system;
(later and elsewhere more about that)
The possible mistake I made is that after this enormously impacting change, I started out with Windows 8. I forgot a bit, but this was 2.5 - 3 weeks or so ago.
Windows 8 wasn't Windows 8 any more and because of that I kept it like that. It is also the reason why Windows 8 will be on the OS-from-RAM disk. Windows 8 ain't that bad at all. But it requires adjustments "elsewhere".
Btw you need to know me a little, because I like to preserve my birthday present for later opening. All this time I can look forward to it.
And so I think it was last Friday that I finally rebooted into 10565 again from the same disk as the W8, because I planned to get 10586 going in the days to come, and obviously I had to know how 10565 now sounds.
Was I dissappointed !Instead that my new hardware improved 10565 - which I for 100% sure expected - it made something of it that people described from 10586.3 and beyond or whatever (I did not read it from 10586.0 but we "found" that one only two days ago (story is more complicated)).
My next hope was that my system now is so good that it showed better how bad 10565 is.
Always hoping ... haha
So now I was hoping for 10586.0.
I got that running yesterday afternoon - again from RAM.
And now something odd happened - never experienced before;
Already at the first track - just from my Demo Gallery - I soon started to think "can't this finish sooner ?". Well, it just slipped through my mind at that moment.
At the second track I started to explicitly think (and be annoyed) that a third track would follow from this same album, but anyway I waited it out because something was strange really and I was sort of intrigued.
At that third track I was sure : there was no variation to be found anywhere in the ~ 8 minute long tracks. And then 8 minutes is fairly long ...
I played with that situation for 3 hours and nothing changed;
Whatever I played (all my usual stuff) I could recognize all the sounds in there (maybe even more) but very explicitly there was no variation in it anywhere. As if only the bass lines were present and nothing else. 8 minutes of the same bass lines. No.
If you sit that out for 3 hours then you are ready for mental hospital, I can tell you.
On a side note and before I forget :
My main problem with these W10 versions is a kind of lack of dynamics. Stuffed ears feeling. And yes, go figure what actually is lacking, knowing that the highs are only way loud ...
It was 9pm and dinner started to be about ready. It is there where I put up the Blade Runner track, because I played it the day before (10565) and was thrown a "this hurts !". So what about 10586.0 then ?
I started out positively : Listen closely because you never heard anything like it ! (knowing that the issue happens only somewhat later).
True.
But as already unveiled : it lasts no 30 seconds. Even I was surprised. The shattering is more than 10565.
My now audiophile partner started to talk about a balance issue. Well, she must be gifted because of what happened next. Anyway I could only agree, but not really make it up myself in advance. Agree yes. This is how nobody should do this alone ...
So I said "yes; so let's postpone dinner for 90 minutes and experiment a little". I'll put in W8 and then you'll see about your balance; I think you are correct.".
Then I thought that possibly this was not fruitful for anything, because I just listened to W8 for 2.5 - 3 weeks. So could be nice for some confirmation, but what about ... 10074.
At least it was from that one that I recall no anomalies other than "too grey, but W8 is too much of a robot anyway so let's stick to that". ... Which of course I did not because it would expire (which it does not, as we now know) and we searched for something which was there to stay.
Hey, did you try that Blade Runner track already ?
You should. Because :
With 10074 the first remark I received was that I put up the wrong track.
"No my dear".
But you did !
"No ...".
Did I already tell you to listen to that track ?
You should because if you do that one time only, you will get the merit of the paragraph above. It seems impossible with only a few stupid bells sounding. Bells are bells and you'll sure recognize that when played 10 minutes later again with another OS.
So you won't.
Think balance.
There are bells all right, but they are part of something else. What did I say ?
PART of something else. Let's call that music, although this particular track is more about sounds in space or whatever.
But bells ?
What bells.
I actually mean something like : Bells of 100dBSPL ? those bells should be 70dBSPL. Only a small difference.
With 10074, right away you feel that you put up music instead of sounds.
Right away you now know what
balance can mean for being destructive or the opposite. Oh, we knew ... but it is a bit tough to dig that out of the behavior of an Operating System. Crazy stuff.
More on some side notes, but actually as crucial :
When you use W10 - unlike W8 - you are going to play with the SFS. Somehow this is necessary or otherwise you can't find your sound at all. What I did with the above comparison was letting 10074 be as it was from the last time I used it (months ago by now). This implied an SFS of 0.09.
All good.
Do notice that now you must also play Track 05 - Leo's Room, from that same CD. This is space sound and how bass behaves.
Then I turned the SFS to 0.40 - the same as 10586.0 was using. ... All DEAD. Nothing, nada. No space so also no space sound.
Or what happened way earlier, when I started to use 10586.0 :
SFS was at 2.00. Stuffed ears all over. Totally flat far way sound. What to do. Make lower.
0.2 is too low and behavior is the same as with 10565. Then 0.4. Ah, room full with sound. Good.
But not.
Now the important message :
10074 easily *can* be that low. 10240 could not (just does not play), 10565 can not (same) and 10586.0 - honestly I did not try because 0.2 already sounds bad.
All I want to say is that the SFS is completely crucial to begin with and that it can be so that 10074 sounds so good over here because I can get the SFS as low as "she likes it". This, while 10074 at 0.40 (same as I used 10586.0) sounds like "nothing" (which is always different from shattering - just saying).
So for me it will be 10074 and Ground Hog Day will be Sept. 2 for ever. Unless someone else comes up with something better with some general consensus; then I will happily try that too. But for now ? for now I have been installing enough for a while.
Happy listening !
Peter
