Tír Na HiFi

As the thread seems to have gone rather quiet (except for noises of followers' computers crashing!), I found this article over on CA fascinating -
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-ge ... ers-18108/

Apologies if it is well known already, but Superdad's description of how he judges SQ was one of the best and most comprehensive that I have read.

Also his findings (albeit on a Mac Mini) on the sonic differences between playing music stored on different types of hard drives was fascinating - mainly that there was such a difference even when the track was in full memory play mode (in RAM) and theoretically therefore hard drive storage would not be accessed during play.

Has anyone tried creating a RAMDisk and running MQn and/or the music from RAMDisk - thereby completely enabling powering down of any onboard HDD whilst music is playing?

an oldie, but a goodie

right mouse click on mqnplay2496.exe, select properties, compatibility tab and check boxes for run as administrator and disable display scaling on high dpi settings.

can also do this on the usb driver by renaming from sys to exe, making the changes and renaming back to sys.

eg C:\Windows\System32\drivers\cmb38464.sys for amanero driver

jrling wrote:As the thread seems to have gone rather quiet (except for noises of followers' computers crashing!), I found this article over on CA fascinating -
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-ge ... ers-18108/

Apologies if it is well known already, but Superdad's description of how he judges SQ was one of the best and most comprehensive that I have read.

Also his findings (albeit on a Mac Mini) on the sonic differences between playing music stored on different types of hard drives was fascinating - mainly that there was such a difference even when the track was in full memory play mode (in RAM) and theoretically therefore hard drive storage would not be accessed during play.

Has anyone tried creating a RAMDisk and running MQn and/or the music from RAMDisk - thereby completely enabling powering down of any onboard HDD whilst music is playing?

yes, one of the sane voices out there.

I tried ram disk in the past and JC had a go, just another factor in the equation, can be a bit of a hassle.

How's the new Leonard Cohen album ?

Wonder how Alex didn't dicover how much better windows 8 upward is in comparison to mac
maybe he hasnt tried it

jrling wrote:As the thread seems to have gone rather quiet (except for noises of followers' computers crashing!), I found this article over on CA fascinating -
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-ge ... ers-18108/

Apologies if it is well known already, but Superdad's description of how he judges SQ was one of the best and most comprehensive that I have read.

Also his findings (albeit on a Mac Mini) on the sonic differences between playing music stored on different types of hard drives was fascinating - mainly that there was such a difference even when the track was in full memory play mode (in RAM) and theoretically therefore hard drive storage would not be accessed during play.

Has anyone tried creating a RAMDisk and running MQn and/or the music from RAMDisk - thereby completely enabling powering down of any onboard HDD whilst music is playing?

I had a RAMDISK and I didn't like it! It flattened the sound.
Some people had a different experience so is definitely worth to try!

After a bit of reading of this post, I can't agree that copied files sound the same. Even in the same SSD with clean power, I can still hear the difference between the original and the first copy.

RamDisk definitely worth of experimenting. I've just created it, so more testing required, but first impression is very promising.

sbgk wrote:uploaded 3.40 2496 in various versions, I like the 512 avx2 version, but will crash for some.

read that xxhighend new nos dac has galvanic isolation making it virtually immune to computer/player noise. Hope we see more of that sort of that, though maybe substituting one form of noise for another.

3.40 is a version that will run on my system again.

Highs are good with good resolution.
Deep bass is terrible, it is rendered very high in volume and loose. So much so that tracks with double bass (like piano with double bass or guitar with double bass) have become virtually unlistenable, due to the booming character of this rendition.

nige2000 wrote:Wonder how Alex didn't dicover how much better windows 8 upward is in comparison to mac
maybe he hasnt tried it

Superdad's attention to detail is impressive. It would therefore be difficult to believe that this thought hasn't occurred to him?

Of course, "how much better windows 8 upward is in comparison to mac" is a very wide statement! Have you done your own comparison with your Windows MQn rig to say Audirvana 2.0 + on a tricked up Mac Mini (which it appears is what Superdad is running)? I have an open mind on that result, but don't have the Mac gear to try it myself.

The comparison is essentially Windows v. Linux (OS/X)
I suppose we are deep down really comparing -

• WDM-KS v. Integer / Direct / Exclusive modes all switched on under Linux
  Proprietary UAC2 drivers v. native UAC2 built into Linux kernel
  Render code under Windows v. Linux [MQn v. Audirvana in his case]

The hardware side is all based on Intel CPU architecture so could be having similar effects.

strange enough i tested audirvana 2.0xxxx this morning its certainly better than 1.5xxx
the macs i have are hackintoshes and Macbook Pro and air
if i boot the MacBooks up with windows 2012r2 even using vlc player its miles better than mavericks + audivarna

tony could vouch for it we did a laptop test last time he was down

previously on my msi b85 build i put mavericks on it and audirvarna and had the same disappointing results

daphile was the best alternative to windows that I've tested

how much can you trick out a mac mini, id say bugger all you can do to it besides a linear supply and fan treatment
all these macs are basically laptops they are no longer discrete size, weight and cost are more primary priorities for them now
i still like macs, i use them regular and audirana its just not for critical listening

so like for like comparison win2012/mavericks on the same pc or mac
windows wins every time for audio

so if alex was to try win 2012 on his mac mini i think he would be surprised

seems to be an old thread
macs are very popular in the us its difficult for them to change :)
AUDIRVANA is hard to spell :)

I'll cancel my order of a Mac Mini then!