0.9y-4 - w00t

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Got hold of an NOS\Filter adjustable DAC & compared with my EMM Labs. The NOS beats the EMM hands down in every way. I tried setting XXHE with no upsampling & surprisingly there is no significant difference between double/Arc Prediction.

Another thing it seems there is a bug in the Cover Art area. Loading 2 albums or more in the playlist in a random manner, while playing the cover art changes with the track being played but the track  name (on the cover art) remains the previous one (sometimes).

Loving the sound of 0.9y-4.

Arvind

[PeterSt]

Thank you Arvind for both mentioning that bug (which I will look into) and you report about the DAC.

Got hold of an NOS\Filter adjustable DAC

But can you also switch off the filtering completely ? And if not, is that just an analogue filter ?

A very general remark : As you will have noticed, the character between OS and NOS is quite different; give yourself some time to get used to NOS; If it is really filterless it should bear loads of harmonic distortion (but remember, NOS lovers don't care about that). Double/Arc removes quite some of that, but officially sure not enough. It may now depend on the music how much the HD still "disturbs".
With Quad the HD is sufficiently removed (but I guess the DAC you now use can't do that).

Anyway, thank you very much for letting know your experiences.
Peter

[arvind]

Hi Peter,

Unfortunately it is not an Analogue Filter but it reduces the filtering quite significantly. Though the DAC is 24/192 the USB limits it to 24/96 hence I cannot go to Quad. I am continuing with Double/Arc Prediction for the present.

Arvind

[PeterSt]

Hi Arvind,

Unfortunately it is not an Analogue Filter

In that case it becomes "logic" that you don't perceive much difference between Arc Upsampling and vanilla. This will work like "the worst will prevail".

Ok, Thanks.
Peter

[werner]

After reading the possitive news about the latest version with upsampling I yesterday installed 09-y4.
My dac is a DDDAC1543. After some tying and looking  I was able to play with double or quad option. Best sound with engine2 and double
Sounding far better than any version I installed before. 
I have a few questions though:
Nowere I find the option Arc Prediction Upsampling. Where should I look
In the settings I must leave the DAC on 16/44,1 any other value gives the message that y DAC can not handle the given value
How can I use the double or quad option is the DAC is on 16/44,1 ?? 
Anyhow, even with the settings as mentioned above the sound comes far more close to that of my analogue inout than ever before

Werner

[PeterSt]

Hey Werner,

I am very sorry, but with a 16 bits DAC it can't be done. However, before anything you have the problem of not being able to use Engine#3, and it only can be done with that (meaning Vista is necessary).

I now actually wonder whether you (outside of Vista) ever see this combobox (see below), because I now realize I never tried it for ... uhm ... Windows2000. Haha.
... which reminds me ... No, I still didn't try Windows2000, although it must have been 2 years ago now that I promised. But I can't imagine it will be on par ever anymore (same for XP which is even worse (we think )). And, since we will be cleaning the room this week where all obsolete audio stuff went to the past 5 years or so, I guess it's never going to happen anymore.
Garage sale !!


Outside of everything I wonder how your DDDac managed to produce a sample rate of 88.2/176.4, assumed it really does it with your tweaks. I know the 1543 can do it, but can the DDDac do it as a consistent whole ?

Kind regards,
Peter

[werner]

Peter,

I have to put some things right here.
By accident I did not download version 0.9y-4 but 0.9y1c. That will explain why there is no checkbox for upsampling
I do run vista and are able to use engine 3
With the bitrate setting 16/44,1 engine 3 XXhigh-end lets me choose double or quad. Also in the 0.9y-4 version I did now install
trying to choose Arc Prediction I receive the message that this will not work with 16 bits dac

I sent a mail to ask Doede Douma wether his DDDAC1543 can do something with upsampled material. He replied that this dac will stop at 16 bit 48K.

To find out how the new options of XXhigh-end sound I switched to the REALTEC prodigy 7.1 soundcard in my computer that has lots op options for upsampling. I prommised Doede to let him know if I prefer DDDAC1543 in 16 bits or the 'cheap' soundcard with high-end upsample options. If you like I will describe that findings here as well

Werner

[JohanZ]

To find out how the new options of XXhigh-end sound I switched to the REALTEC prodigy 7.1 soundcard in my computer that has lots op options for upsampling. I prommised Doede to let him know if I prefer DDDAC1543 in 16 bits or the 'cheap' soundcard with high-end upsample options.  

I have made the switch from DDDAC1543 to the Audiotrak HD2 soundcard with another opamps, to test all options in XX. I don't miss the battery charges for the DDDAC 1543.

http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=801.msg5936#msg5936

[SeVeReD]

still blown away with my 44.1 material
wow, just wow double arc sampling
listening to a new album for me old album; stanley clark, jean luc ponty, al diemeola ... what fun live sounding music.
also an old 1976 Lee Ritenour album First Course ... poppy funky jazz stuff that just bounces.  yea!

[PeterSt]

Good.

Is there anyone out there who wants to come back on his initial impressions ? I mean, I don't for over 6 weeks now, but this should count for everyone. If it is good it is good, and I can continue on it. I never perceived a single downside anywhere, but if anyone of you do, please let me know and try to describe it carefully.

Thank you all.
Peter

[glynnw]

The downside is that I am now spending more time listening and less on my chores

[Tony S]

Hi Peter,

Latest version sounds wonderful! Don't have the ability to use the Arc Prediction since I can only do 16-bit but still getting amazing sound with the other upsampling settings. There is more depth, better clarity in the upper spectrum without being harsh, vocals are almost friggin' scary real! Better mid-bass which I had issues with in my system and room acoustics, music seams a bit more dynamic, soundstage is better and I find now I can use the Q settings at 4/0/0/0/0 to get the most balanced sound where before those settings would sound a bit weak in the bass and little bright in the upper mid-range. I have had thoughts of getting another dac to take advantage of the higher sampling rates and maybe sometime in the near future I will but the current set-up is sounding amazing with your latest version.

Nice Work!

Tony

[PeterSt]

Thank you for sharing this Tony. And nice to hear of course !
Peter

[JohanZ]

Is there anyone out there who wants to come back on his initial impressions ? I mean, I don't for over 6 weeks now, but this should count for everyone. If it is good it is good, and I can continue on it. I never perceived .......

Hi Peter,
......here some remarks about 09y-4. I'm listening via fronthorns. The sound is very direct and a lot of detaills. From the start of using 09y4 with the Quad Arc Prediction Upsampling I have the impression some tones/instruments are to much in front of the ears. Sometimes i have the impression that i hear a sort of resonance in instruments like trompet, vibraphone. When I switch off the quad Arc Pre the sound improves in a more relaxed sound. Less in front and no resonating sound in some instruments. I can't remember that I had the same experience in older versions of XX. I listen today to Mike Mainieri's (vibraphonist) An American Diary (great work!).

I do hear the qualities of the latest version of XX, detaills, a lot of space, quality of instruments........but I get a preference the last days to switch off double/quad Arc Prediction option. 

Johan

[PeterSt]

Hey Johan, great to let this know. And btw, I don't recall you ever expressed anything about the sound quality. I really like you just did now.

I certainly won't dispute what you hear, but I have some remarks that may interest you;

You may have read in my "DAC topic" about the Firewire connection I achieved, and the real alive "jump on your chair" sound. I liked it very much. What I never said is that it didn't last long because me and the family got crazy of it. Too tyering. Very interesting, but tyering. So, I "quit" that connection. But, this was not "the connection" I wanted to achieve anyway, because this was with SPDIF output, while I head for i2s. Now :

My front loaded top horns are loosely "fitted" (read : not fitted at all, but layed upon a holding structure) on top of the base unit, and they have a small downwards angle. What I noticed is that during that period they had come forward 5 cm, just because of vibrations. At first I thought it happened over 6 months or so time without me noticing, but within a few days it had happened again. Now :

What I know of my own horns is that the horns themselves are able to over express when things are not quite right, and trumpets really start to sound like trumpets, but saxes also get a turmpet like sound. The sound actually is too "squary", and the resonances coming from that really resonate inside the horns.
This phenomenon is quite easy to "achieve" when working on a DAC (or really the output stage of it), and while different "sounds" coming from differently setup output stages, the front loaded horns are easy measurement devices because they start to over express the wrong stuff when indeed it is wrong;

Now, at leaving the output stage as it is, there's also the means of connection, and in the setup as I have it now, I just can't use SPDIF when it is compared to i2s. So, SPDIF is way more rough (and so much more it is hard to imagine this would be jitter impeeded only, but I guess it is), and when I use SPDIF I don't want horns. I think Roy may confirm this from an earlier visit, although the DAC was setup completely different back then. But anyway, it is a difference of day and night.

What I try to say is : it is all not one element only, but everything playing together and interacting. This includes the horns themselves, which are nasty beasts to begin with, but beware when you have them right (as a single element) !
I recall Jan Garbarek as a "testing device" you may have read about in the past, and how I could tweak him sounding OK through horns, while at first he would hurt your ears (if he's not doing that in the first place and on purpose ). This was the time when Q1 emerged !!

So ... all I want to say is : I think what you perceive, may be perceived by everybody with horns (to a certain extend), but it will be SPDIF (or maybe USB, I don't know) that pronounces the "accuracy" in a too sharp way.. Also remember what my ever first findings about the i2s connection were, and which up till today never changed : delicacy (up to fragile).

In your case I can imagine that playing the Q1 slider may bring you a new better position opposed to before (without the Arc Prediction). But, I am not sure whether you have to set it lower or higher. Lower will remove micro detail resonances (try Garbarek and you know what I mean), while the higher position smoothens. To be honest I never noticed that Q1 could help for "too much trumpet", but I do recall that during the "jumping on the chair" period I had Q1 at 14 (while normally I use 4 and Garbarek may need 0).

Keep in mind : I am not disputing what you observe, but maybe this can help you ?
Peter


PS: You may, yesterday, have read about Eddie and his reorganized website. In there he talks about an interesting meeting at Bert's. It was exactly that day where Garbarek teared the room down and everybody was sure this was unsolveable for horns ...
haha