Minority Clean

[Beauchamp Michel]

Before I join the Phasure Club with the Stealth III and the NOS1a 2 years ago I tried numerous playback software: Pure Music, JRiver, HQPlayer, Euphony, a few others and Bughead. Among all these the one I preferred was Bughead by a good margin. What stopped me from using it on a regular basis was the very long waiting time from the moment I hit play to the time the playback begins. The typical waiting time was 5 minutes. During this time Bughead rewrites the music files, processes it and does all kinds of tweaks to the OS. I won’t go any further in these explanations. In fact, I believe very few people really understand what the author really does with his software. Suffice it to say that the end results were quite good even on a modest Mac mini which was far from the recommended hardware. The author of Bughead is a Japanese guy by the name of Hiroyuki Yokota, aka oryaaaaa on the JPlay forum. In addition to Bughead Mr. Yokota also created software named ‘’All core any cures’’ and ‘’High Grade CPU Any Cures’’. From these 2 software stemmed Minority Clean, the subject of this thread.

A few weeks ago I was curious to see how was Bughead doing so I went on the JPLay forum to get the latest news. It’s there that I learned of the existence of Minority Clean and the fact that this utility software can be added to any Intel Core or AMD Ryzen based computer running audio applications. On the JPlay forum according to everyone who tried this utility in addition to their regular setup, the gain in clarity and definition is significant. So I downloaded and installed it in the Stealth III PC. By the way it’s free. It’s a single 20 MB .exe file. Sorry for the long intro but I felt it was important to put some context to my experience, mostly for the ones not familiar with Bughead.

To run Minority Clean one only has to double clic on the MinorityClean.exe once and it will run as a background process. According to the author the process load on the CPU is almost zero. The Task Manager shows 0% and 0.5MB.

Now the verdict. Given the fact that XXHighEnd in MinOS is already very aggressive in stripping Window 10 of all non-necessary processes and services I was not expecting much. But I was wrong. I very quickly recognized an increase in clarity and definition, as the JPlay members are saying. Fine details are more precise, the whole listening experience is more enjoyable with a better feel of relaxation. This experience has been repeated several times and the result was always the same. Minority Clean gets revised quite often by the author. The current version is #28. So far, I installed versions #24, 27 and 28 and each new version brought an improvement over the previous one.

I’d be curious to know your feedback if some of you decided to give it a try. The procedure couldn’t be simpler. You go to the MinorityClean site and download the Zip file, open it, copy the MinorityClean.exe in your PC and launch it. That’s it. If you don’t like the result, just delete it. 

Impact on XXHighEnd. In my experience there is no impact on the behaviour of XXHighEnd except for the following. When the Play button is hit these 2 messages appear consecutively: ‘’Asked for clock resolution setting wasn’t met. Asked for: 15ms Received: 1.0007ms’’ and '‘You may delete / ….Playback will restart after this message’’. I hit enter for each one and the playback begins. If there are more than 1 track in the playlist these messages don’t show again for the subsequent tracks.

Of course, I’m curious to know Peter’s opinion on the SQ and technical aspects of this addition to XXHighEnd. Are there possible negative impacts that are not obviously apparent?

I also installed MinorityClean 28 on the Music server and the result is similar. The server is an old Mac mini 2011 connected to the house network router/hub. The Mac runs Server 2019, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 8.5 and the MinorityClean 28 is installed in a RAMDISK. Every time MC 28 runs in the server the SQ gains in the same way as with the Audio PC.

If you’re interested to know more or even try it, these are the links to the MC site and download.

MinorityClean web site:  http://www.mics.ne.jp/~coolverse/MinorityClean/
MinorityClean download:  http://www.mics.ne.jp/~coolverse/MinorityClean/MinorityClean_2020_Rev28_x64.zip
JPlay forum:  http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/3063-pink-hq-minorityclean/page-19

Voilà.


Michael

[PeterSt]

Hey Michael, thank you for this great tip (but I did not try it yet).

‘’Asked for clock resolution setting wasn’t met. Asked for: 15ms Received: 1.0007ms’’

You may also set the ClockRes to 1ms to avoid the message (I assume).
Anyway, if you only understand that this overrules the XXHighEnd (same parameter) setting of your 15ms and accept the SQ implication of that parameter alone, then OK.

Again, thank you !
Peter

PS: Yes, I know that Japanese guy from when he had a first version out. All very mystique.

[Scroobius]

Michael,

Thanks for this I have tried it and it definitely removes some low level hash from the sound so its a keeper for me.

Where I find it particularly useful is in Attended at low SFS settings of say 0.69 which I use to preview and not so critical listening.

Its useful to be able to turn MinorityClean on and off for comparison purposes so I use a really simple batch file to kill the process. Text for simple batch file is:

@echo off

taskkill/F /IM MinorityClean.exe

Pause



Cheers

Paul

[Beauchamp Michel]

Hi Paul,

Glad to see that it's working for you too. In fact there was no doubt in my mind. I'm using the same SFS at 0.69. I agree with your description that it removes some hash on the low level details. For examples the shimmer of cymbals are more vibrant, we can better hear the metal hit by the sick. The benefits apply across the spectrum.

I originally used Minority Clean (MC) with 2.10 but it's as much efficient with 2.11. The combination of MC + 2.11 pushes the SQ to a new level in my living room.

I created a shortcut of MC and put it on the Desktop. To start it I simply double clic on it and I stop it with the Task Manager. But in reality once MC is running it stays on.

I'm using MC in Attended mode and I believe that it comes close in SQ to the Unattended mode without MC. I have difficulties running Unattended, it's unstable. Often the RDC link gets lost and can't be recovered. The PC must be rebooted. So I put it on the side for now.

I encourage others to give a try to Minority Clean. It's a good deal.


Michael

[Beauchamp Michel]

And by the way I got rid of the error message ‘’Asked for clock resolution setting wasn’t met. Asked for: 15ms Received: 1.0007ms’’ simply by setting the Clock Resesolution to 1.0ms which doesn't affect the SQ if Minority Clean is running.

Michael

[dsm]

Hi Michael and thanks for the suggestion. I'm giving it a try.

One thing-

 I have difficulties running Unattended, it's unstable. Often the RDC link gets lost and can't be recovered. The PC must be rebooted. So I put it on the side for now.

Do  you have the stop W10 services checked? I always have trouble eventually if I try unattended with that checked.

I have no trouble playing unattended and keeping the remote connection with only Stop Desktop, Stop Remaining, Stop WASAP, Keep LAN and Use Remote checked.

Best,

David

[Beauchamp Michel]

Hi David,

All the parameters you mentioned are checked plus Stop W10 Services. I will try again with Stop W10 Services unchecked. Thanks for the tip.

Michael

[PeterSt]

Don't forget to check/uncheck this "Stop W10 Services" in Normal OS and BASE for those using RAM-OS) (and then go back to MinOS (and RAM).

[Beauchamp Michel]

Thanks for the advice Peter.

[PeterSt]

All right, Michael,

I tested it and it seems to me that indeed it could be for the better. Not sure yet, as at first I had the idea that things possibly became "too white". But, I used the SFS of 10.19 (as I am doing fro a long time), actually being quite sure that making it lower would even worsen that (whiteness). But it did not ! So the last couple of hours in yesterday's session I happily used 0.69 ...

Otherwise things seem not to be right with your setup or (incomplete ?) description. Like for example, that it could well be that you use WASAPI. From there, it could well be that you don't use your NOS1. And from there people could be set on the wrong foot.
Of course this is a bit pretentious, but I derive it from your announcement of running into a few problems (like not being able to use Unattended (duh !)) and more deviates.

Anyway, the most important message I may present is that nothing is wrong with anything that I can see. One quite crucial thing : I never booted into Normal OS from running Minority Clean. And there the problems could start ... Mind you, would I have run it when in the BASE of MinOS. And that I explicitly won't do. Understand ? So when doing it from RAM, then all is and remains harmless because no disk settings will be influenced (except for XXHighEnd settings when saved, but this is harmless).

On another note, and as I just tried to explain in the "RDC" topic, I would be very wary of software which changes things all over, while XXHighEnd also does that, and which could work quite "opposite" up do destructive. But as said, when done in RAM only, nothing can be destructive as such, because "destructive" as such is what I regard unrepairable.

So please be careful,
Peter

[nik.d]

Hi Peter,

Minority Clean does some 'cleaning' or rearranging SSE and MMX processor instructions. There is source code always included in package, it is written in Basic so
for you it is very easy to determine what it actually does. It can be loaded as one of Win processes (using sexe64.exe) or put in startup folder or started manually.
No matter audio player used, it does have positive effect on audio playback.


Rgds,
George

[Beauchamp Michel]

Hi Peter,

I confirm that I don't use WASAPI. I use KS Mode Adaptive with the Buffer size at 4096. The output device selected is KS:Phasure NOS1..., and the box Stop WASAPI Services is checked. I also never used Minority Clean in Base OS, I only listen in RAM OS.

Regarding the issue I have with Unattended, I will give it a try again with the Keep W10 Services unchecked. I will change this parameter in Normal OS and Base. Then I'll go back in MinOS and RAM. I'll report on the outcome.

Thanks,

Michael

[PeterSt]

Michael - well, odd then. So the least what should happen is that all normally works. This, btw, includes that "0.0007" message. This is how I arrived at WASAPI and the rest. However, not sure at all what happens when you're in Normal OS *and thus* WASAPI being active. It's a kind of inconsistent situation (well, not of course, but for what we do with XXHighEnd it is).

I hope you can get it to work normally and otherwise we may be able to work on it.
As said, I have no issues ...

Thanks a lot for this,
Peter

[hwk]

Hi Michael,

this is an older string, but I did a ctr-F on Audiophile Optimizer and Fidelizer on this forum and came here.
I,m using XXHe for a long time. It's the best player imho. But: last week I found some nice music on Bandcamp and wanted it to try via my systems other OS disk. The music sounded dull and considerably less nice than via my phone and buds. So I tried to find a way to upgrade the sq via a search on the net. I stumbled on Fidelizer (Free version) and was so bold to try it on Foobar first (not tried it with Bandcamp yet..)
Foobar sounded suddenly almost as well as well as my XXHe in min OS!
So I tried it also on XXHe (in min OS), at first in Consumer mode..
THAT SOUNDED VERY GOOD INDEED!! Better than before at least
Then in Audiophile mode: THAT SOUNDED LIKE I WAS IN HEAVEN!!
My questions are:
I see you use Audiophile Optimize, Fidelizer Pro and MinorityClean icw XXHe.
Is XXHe then in min OS?
What are your settings for Audiophile Optimizer and Fidelizer? For with me XXHe looses a lot in min OS: gallery- and Cover functions are almost dead then!
How is your start-up procedure with these 3 programs icw XXhe?
Did you write a batch for it?
How is it with the stability of XXHe icw the 3 programs
Pls advice
Best Regards
HW

[tempo]

This is a link to the latest (and possibly final) version of MinorityClean:

http://www.mics.ne.jp/~cdorya/9038/Rewrite_data_4_37_MC282_LE44_x64.7z

He changed the name to MajorityClean, but appears to have misspelled it as "MajiorityClean"

The unlock password for the 7z file = HUSTLER

The 7z file also includes an app called LemonadeElitest. I have not tried either one, so use these at your own risk. I will report back when I do.

Documentation is in Japanese and "broken" English. I'm going to copy the Japanese into Google Translate to see if I can come up with something that's easier to read.

Cheers,
Joseph