2.10 sound quality

[dsm]

Hi Peter,

I've been listening to the new settings for  the past day or so and am enjoying them. When  I use unattended with the album art wallpaper, I find that the cover art will change to the next song before the current song stops playing. Maybe about 5 seconds before or so.
I have also noticed that sometimes the last song in a playlist may suddenly stop a couple of seconds before its' correct end.

My balanced load is at 43. Are these events that happen with only about 5 seconds left on a song related to that setting also? Or is it something else?

These issues don't  bother me now, but if I decide to keep this high SFS I may try to find a solution.

Best,

David

[PeterSt]

Hi there David,

Correct - the settings in their combination imply what you observe regarding the Wallpaper. This is also why I lowered the 30 x 40 (Q1) to 30 x 11, so it is "doable".
You will also notice that Alt-n(ext) implies a strange start of the next track, at times. It is all the same thing.

The early stop I never noticed, but this could be a matter of not paying attention (or play music where this is not easily noticable). Anyway, it will be the same thing again; you will notice the maybe even 20 seconds delay on e.g. Alt-n because that is the size of the buffer and that at 768 (705.6). Make that e.g. 192 (176.4) for DACs which won't allow a higher input rate, and the buffer is even 4 times larger - actually not much under control (read : not meant for decent control).

Kind regards,
Peter

PS: No pea soup weather over here, these days !

[BertD]

Hi Peter,

Haven't listened for 3 months (or even more) and thought "why not try those new settings with the high SFS (140.19 instead of 5.19).

Awfull... thought is was burning in all over again because the sound was plain flat (no ambiance, no dynamics), no focus (all over the place), grey, etc...

Turned it back to 5.19 again and guess what! Still not 100% to my liking but much better than the high SFS!

In other words, it does not work on my system at all (non Stealth or other upgrades besides the "B").

Too much to handle for my PC I guess?

Additonal Note: RDC does not work anymore so playing now with video card inserted and monitor connected...

Bert

[PeterSt]

Hey Bert,

As we know, playing with the video card in is killing in itself.

Otherwise, yes, the high SFS normally makes things more flat. But with tweak over tweak (all commercially avaialble so nothing really strange) it now is like this. And for someone like Robert maybe coincidence ?

Btw, it comes to me that the sound with the higher SFS is more robust. I think Robert said something similar (?).

Now (you) on to repairing the RDC (CredSSP policy change - no RDP possible) or else all stays bad ...

Regards,
Peter

[BertD]

I am trying to solve the problem for 4 hours already but nothing seems to work out.

gpedit does not exist and when installed it does not give me the administration tab nor the deeper links to be able to change things as described.

I probably have to install an older W10 version on the tablet (before March 2018) and never update it again...

Not even the mobile phone app (Android) connects! :-(

Stupid stuff...

[juanpmar]

Bert, I had the same problem with the RDC and the CredSSP policy and in the end I was unable to solve it. The solution, for the moment, has been to install again the OS (W10 Pro) on the Music Server. I have allowed the windows updates and so far I have no problems to connect the RDC.

Regards,
Juan

[BertD]

Thanks Juan,

With Music Server you mean server for real or the PC you use to control de Audio PC?

I do not have a server in between the Audio PC and my Main PC. Perhaps I should one day but since my NAS always worked out OK then why change?

Bert

[juanpmar]

Hi Bert,

By Music Server Pc I mean the Pc where I have all the music stored. It has an OS, a monitor and the SSD's with the music. From this Pc I control through remote desktop vía an Ethernet cable the other Pc (Audio Pc). This Audio Pc, once I have removed the ramdisk, has nothing but the memory, it has neither monitor nor graphic card.

Regards,
Juan

[BertD]

Clear! 

Thanks Juan...

Bert

[dsm]

Hi Peter,

This may be a slight exaggeration but here is a quick description of  what is happening for me with the different SFS settings.  Since I listen in my studio and it is not  a nice acoustically set up room, my speakers cannot be placed at an equal distance from my usual listening position. With the SFS set a 5.19,  that doesn't matter, they are close enough. The voice is in the center and everything sounds pretty good and full but maybe a bit like listening with headphones as far as the soundstage is concerned.

With the higher SFS, I noticed  the voice pulls to the closer speaker and the instruments sound as if they are more present within the room. I've had to experiment with the speaker placement so I could get everything to fit back together but it feels like there is more clarity in each individual speaker and less which gets mixed up between them if that makes sense.  I am preferring the higher SFS now.

The early stop I never noticed, but this could be a matter of not paying attention (or play music where this is not easily noticable). Anyway, it will be the same thing again; you will notice the maybe even 20 seconds delay on e.g. Alt-n because that is the size of the buffer and that at 768 (705.6).

I constantly get the early stop if I play one track at a time. On the task manager, I noticed my CPU drops from 12% at .77 GHZ to 0% at about that 5 second mark before the track ending. Any idea why the CPU would just drop to 0% like that?

Best,

David

[PeterSt]

Hi David,

Thank you for this really great elaboration of what you perceive. You couldn't have done it better and of course you (or we !) are lucky that you have this coincidental situation which allows this to occur. Great stuff.

I constantly get the early stop if I play one track at a time. [...] I noticed my CPU drops from 12% at .77 GHZ to 0% at about that 5 second mark before the track ending.

This is the logical result of the sound engine stopping to process the music data.
I assume that when you'd play 2 tracks at a time, the early stop equally occurs at the end of each last (thus the 2nd) track, right ?

I now assume that this is exactly the same as the ("5 second") early Wallpaper Coverart change. I know how weird this looks - as if something knows the future. But say this is about how a buffer gets pre-filled (and given to the Operating System), the software seeing when a new track begins (thus puts out the new Wallpaper), but the previous buffer still needs to play (out). Similar happens at the end, with this difference : instead of putting out a new Wallpaper, the sound engine abrubtly stops, instead of letting this last buffer play out.
Maybe I can solve this, and it should be about the Q1 of 30 x 11 (thus make this e.g. 14 x 1 and you won't see it happen, although there's still the small "14" part (instead of 330).

Thank you David.
Peter

[Robert]

My current settings are SFS 20.19 MAX 140.19, xQ1=40.

I find old settings at SFS 5.19 MAX 120 xQ1=40 have an openness in the treble I like but is brighter, which is subdued with SFS 140.19 MAX 140.19 xQ1=11. I did prefer putting xQ1=11 back to 40 with SFS 140.19 to overcome this. Ran into playback problems at this point.

Due to slowness probably with my PC I've settled at above for now.

I don't know whether MAX SFS has any influence on the sound yet.

Robert

[Robert]

Bert I was interested in this comment you made

Haven't listened for 3 months (or even more) and thought "why not try those new settings with the high SFS (140.19 instead of 5.19).

Does this mean you don't use XXhighend generally for listening or something else?

Robert

[dsm]

Hi Peter,

As a side note, I have always preferred the lower SFS settings so I am surprised that this one holds together for me. I also built a new amp recently and have been adjusting to its sound, so it could be a combination of things. Maybe also the heat. No soup here either.

I assume that when you'd play 2 tracks at a time, the early stop equally occurs at the end of each last (thus the 2nd) track, right ?

Yes, this is correct. The early stop doesn't really bother me now since there are no problems with the rest of the playlist.

Best,

David

[BertD]

Does this mean you don't use XXhighend generally for listening or something else?

Haven't listened seriously at all ... other priorities.

Bert