XXHighEnd Model 0.9u-4 (with Crack Detection and support for more Formats)

[PeterSt]

It is strongly advised to not use your system without a preamp (or the pre-amp at max volume for that matter) if you or your speakers won't be able to handle a situation that e.g. the file contains wrongly formatted data or otherwise - because of which cracks may emerge with an energy beyond imagination.

Engine#3 only, unless otherwise indicated.

The following changes have been applied :

• Crack Detection.
  
  This is about way loud cracks that can occur when a format is not understood by the soundcard/DAC.
  It can't be guaranteed that the detection trips in 100 % of cases (because : how to find hence test all cases) but in those cases I mangled the format such that loud cracks would occur, it tripped.
  Note that there's a difference between "way loud cracks" and rather plain distortion, which is *also* a means of a wrong format accepted by (sent to) the DAC. But this distortion won't break your windows, and the way it expresses can't be captured (ok, maybe it can, but it doesn't). So this is about the prevention from real damage.
  
  
• Better checking for unallowed Format Changes.
  
  This was in the previous version as well, but it was wrongly applied;
  A parallel process was could switch from e.g. 24 bits to 16 bits (because the next file just did relatively), but it set a "global" setting, and the playback would suddenly switch from 24 to 16 bits with actually 24 but data in there (which would cause random loud cracks).
  This was tested in the before version, but what was tested was (apparently) from 24 to 16 bits which technically lowers the volume, and the cracks could not be heard. ...
  All variations have been tested now, and if it would fail, above Crack Detection is *also* there, and which is even earlier applied than this check.
  Should be waterproof, but please be careful.
  
  Btw note that in one Playlist no different formats are allowed to appear (e.g. 96/24 and 96/16). Attended Playback could cope with it, but anyway Unattended can not. In the end this is a technical issue with Exclusive Mode, which allows for *one* setting only during continues playback.
  All in all where it is not allowed, you could do it by accident, and this is where these checking functions are for.
  
  Please note that the message "Format Change is not allowed !!" - if it appears- stays there for 20 seconds, then disappears, and 10 seconds after that "Engine3 did not start withing the expected time" appears. So, if the latter message appears, be sure you didn't miss the first.
  
  
• Newly allowed formats.
  
  44.1/24
  48.0/24
  44.1/24 to 44.1/16
  48.0/24 to 48.0 /16
  
  These formats are UNtested. So be careful please.
  Also note that it was reported that 44.1/24 and 48/24 already worked, but which was unofficialy. Here again, please be careful, because now it could just be wrong.
  
  
• Improvement in SQ for 96/24.
  
  Whether this is audible or not is up to you. But for technical reasons it should be better.
  Recheck the difference withe 96/24 played as 96/16 ! (set "DAC is" to 16 bits).
  
  
• The normally allowed formats are allowed from within FLAC as well (same as MP3, although I don't know others than 44/16 (originals), so this was not tested).
  
  The dreaded "Length error in FLAC" message cannot appear anymore, BUT, this does not imply that all can be decoded to WAV properly now. This is up to the FLAC decorder itself ...
  
  
• Faster loading of MP3 in the Playlist Area.
  
  This comes together with more accurate tracklength calculation (note that before all MP3's were rounded at .00 fractions of a second). This applies for Engine#1 and Engine#2 as well.
  
  
• The Tooltip on the "V" for Volume (so, above the slider) showed a wrong value once the Volume had been changed after startup. Now the Volume itself doesn't show anymore on that Tooltip (and so isn't wrong either ).
  
  
• The No Track Given message could appear when first something else was rejecting the track for reasons. This will not happen anymore, and when the message appears now it will be more genuine.
  
  
• The file length is now taken from the physical length of the file instead from the header data. This kind of guarantees that when the header data is wrong according to this (which often just is true), playback isn't interrupted early (hence before the end of the track), or the other way around : Engine#3 errors out because it expects more data while there's nothing left.
  This has not been explicitly tested, apart from playing numerous tracks the last days, without showed anomalies to this matter.
  
  

Again, be careful please.