JC Audiophile optimization on win7, 2012, and R2.

[jesuscheung]

when jplay streaming i had a notion that a win 7 control and win 8/server 2012 r1 for audio pc was the best combination
veered off to MQn before i got to test

i assume XA needs all these win 7 tweaks to sound good, ive never tried it

For those that arent worried about XA is there any point dragging win 7 win 8 and r1 with us, should we not keep up to date as long as the results are still good

sometimes i think DOS is the best OS for audio. in 7,8,2012, everything must go through the OS. in DOS, you can directly read disk, directly read memory, directly access DAC, what can be better than that?

[wushuliu]

Hm, played with reclock some time back with different players. It does improve SQ of average player but it was outclassed by StealthAudioPlayer and Jplay in my setup.

I could maybe see (well, hear) how W7 would sound better to some people than W8. W7 to me had a warmer slightly fuzzy presentation like a tube amp. W8 sound like much lower noise floor and cleaner delivery to me. Add MQN on top of that and the music sounds more 'pure'.

So much is dependent on setup though. It's hard to judge other people's experiences without knowing their gear. A lot of commercial speakers for instance have a midrange peak around 1k and rising treble. Not many speakers have flat response. Then the amp will contribute its own signature depending on its distortion profile. All this will influence perception of a music player's performance.

[sbgk]

when jplay streaming i had a notion that a win 7 control and win 8/server 2012 r1 for audio pc was the best combination
veered off to MQn before i got to test

i assume XA needs all these win 7 tweaks to sound good, ive never tried it

For those that arent worried about XA is there any point dragging win 7 win 8 and r1 with us, should we not keep up to date as long as the results are still good

sometimes i think DOS is the best OS for audio. in 7,8,2012, everything must go through the OS. in DOS, you can directly read disk, directly read memory, directly access DAC, what can be better than that?

get me 64 bit dos that can address 6 gb, or is that linux

[jesuscheung]

when jplay streaming i had a notion that a win 7 control and win 8/server 2012 r1 for audio pc was the best combination
veered off to MQn before i got to test

i assume XA needs all these win 7 tweaks to sound good, ive never tried it

For those that arent worried about XA is there any point dragging win 7 win 8 and r1 with us, should we not keep up to date as long as the results are still good

sometimes i think DOS is the best OS for audio. in 7,8,2012, everything must go through the OS. in DOS, you can directly read disk, directly read memory, directly access DAC, what can be better than that?

get me 64 bit dos that can address 6 gb, or is that linux

forgotten DOS was 16bits. damn...

[jesuscheung]

Hm, played with reclock some time back with different players. It does improve SQ of average player but it was outclassed by StealthAudioPlayer and Jplay in my setup.

I could maybe see (well, hear) how W7 would sound better to some people than W8. W7 to me had a warmer slightly fuzzy presentation like a tube amp. W8 sound like much lower noise floor and cleaner delivery to me. Add MQN on top of that and the music sounds more 'pure'.

So much is dependent on setup though. It's hard to judge other people's experiences without knowing their gear. A lot of commercial speakers for instance have a midrange peak around 1k and rising treble. Not many speakers have flat response. Then the amp will contribute its own signature depending on its distortion profile. All this will influence perception of a music player's performance.

can't play youtube in jplay. need reclock for better SQ in youtube. also need reclock to help video playback SQ.

have enjoyed stealthAudioPlayer until think it was XA400 and kicked its ass. after that switched to win8 and MQn came along and kicked XA's ass. after that i switched to 2012, it was the same as 8. now using R2, XA sounds good again. MQn is still superior in many things. and now this XA customized win7 comes along, XA sounds more correct than ever. i am now confused the about the max achievable SQ from OS+player.

what OS, player you like best?

[sbgk]

Hm, played with reclock some time back with different players. It does improve SQ of average player but it was outclassed by StealthAudioPlayer and Jplay in my setup.

I could maybe see (well, hear) how W7 would sound better to some people than W8. W7 to me had a warmer slightly fuzzy presentation like a tube amp. W8 sound like much lower noise floor and cleaner delivery to me. Add MQN on top of that and the music sounds more 'pure'.

So much is dependent on setup though. It's hard to judge other people's experiences without knowing their gear. A lot of commercial speakers for instance have a midrange peak around 1k and rising treble. Not many speakers have flat response. Then the amp will contribute its own signature depending on its distortion profile. All this will influence perception of a music player's performance.

can't play youtube in jplay. need reclock for better SQ in youtube. also need reclock to help video playback SQ.

have enjoyed stealthAudioPlayer until think it was XA400 and kicked its ass. after that switched to win8 and MQn came along and kicked XA's ass. after that i switched to 2012, it was the same as 8. now using R2, XA sounds good again. MQn is still superior in many things. and now this XA customized win7 comes along, XA sounds more correct than ever. i am now confused the about the max achievable SQ from OS+player.

what OS, player you like best?

XA is still converting everything to 24/44100 ? Have you tried it with the dac it was designed for ?

[jesuscheung]

Hm, played with reclock some time back with different players. It does improve SQ of average player but it was outclassed by StealthAudioPlayer and Jplay in my setup.

I could maybe see (well, hear) how W7 would sound better to some people than W8. W7 to me had a warmer slightly fuzzy presentation like a tube amp. W8 sound like much lower noise floor and cleaner delivery to me. Add MQN on top of that and the music sounds more 'pure'.

So much is dependent on setup though. It's hard to judge other people's experiences without knowing their gear. A lot of commercial speakers for instance have a midrange peak around 1k and rising treble. Not many speakers have flat response. Then the amp will contribute its own signature depending on its distortion profile. All this will influence perception of a music player's performance.

can't play youtube in jplay. need reclock for better SQ in youtube. also need reclock to help video playback SQ.

have enjoyed stealthAudioPlayer until think it was XA400 and kicked its ass. after that switched to win8 and MQn came along and kicked XA's ass. after that i switched to 2012, it was the same as 8. now using R2, XA sounds good again. MQn is still superior in many things. and now this XA customized win7 comes along, XA sounds more correct than ever. i am now confused the about the max achievable SQ from OS+player.

what OS, player you like best?

XA is still converting everything to 24/44100 ? Have you tried it with the dac it was designed for ?

no, never tried.

everything is 44100. not sure about the bits.

i don't get it. let's say play a 16/44100 file, first converts to 24/44100 in waveout version, and then reclock to 32/44100? asio version already is 32bits.

how much worse can 24/96k sound when down-sampled? still waiting for your 24/96k MQn version! hehe

[nige2000]

jc have you tried 5 5 5 9 ram timings @ 800mhz?

[jesuscheung]

jc have you tried 5 5 5 9 ram timings @ 800mhz?

----TWEAK NUMBER 7----
yes. for my 1600Mhz RAM rated at CR9
800 5-5-5-9. timing is too tight. sound is compressed. you might feel music is more focus, more smooth. all FALSE-POSITIVE.
800 7-7-7-13. timing is too loose. sound is totally uncompressed. having troubles with things going really fast.
800 6-6-6-11. best SQ.
voltage used=1.495

i have tried a lot of combination of ram frequency and timing above 1600Mhz.
1. given whatever timing, the higher the frequency, the more the earaches and the tune starts to get colder and colder.
2. in general, loosening the timing are more revealing upto a point where SQ gets worse.
3. in general, tightening the timing are more smooth more compressed to the sound.

4. tightening timing is overclocking!
5. i have not found an overclocking setting that bests 800-6-6-6-9. for example, best SQ at 2000MHz is 12-12-12-21, 1.5v ISN'T BETTER.
6. no point to OC for better SQ for my consair ram CR9.

7. for most RAM, best timing is one of these considering you are DOWNCLOCKING THE FREQUENCY.
3-3-3-5
4-4-4-7
5-5-5-9
6-6-6-11
7-7-7-13

8. for most RAM, OVERCLOCKING THE FREQUENCY doesn't have timings like point 7. so, you cannot just use 9-9-9-17. THIS IS USUALLY INCORRECT. i cannot be bothered to explain because i already have said, OVERCLOCKING FREQUENCY adds earaches.

9. bad timings
3-4-3
3-3-4
5-6-6

10. timing a-b-c-d
d depends on your RAM timing table.
d runs in cycle. for example:
6-6-6-11
6-6-6-17
6-6-6-23
etc... the sound gets richer and richer

10. there is only one correct d:
if 6-6-6-11 is correct. 6-6-6-12 will sound wrong. 6-6-6-10 will also sound wrong.

11. if 6-6-6-12 is wrong
6-6-6-18 is also wrong
6-6-6-24 is also wrong
6-6-6-30 is also wrong

[nige2000]

tried 5 5 5 9 t2
last night thought it was good but wasnt sure if it was better than 6 6 6 11 2t
need more listening time

testing is a slow process as can only change one thing at a time and then test it

easy to get confused by changing too much at a time

still think installing VS13 had a positive effect.