MQN

[sbgk]

uploaded mqncontrol.exe 2 core v3 which allows the x to be used in ws 2012 audiophil mode

[Aleg]

uploaded mqncontrol.exe 2 core v3 which allows the x to be used in ws 2012 audiophil mode

Thx, that was fast :-)

Cheers

Aleg

[sbgk]

am going through my record collection using 2.68, so far so good, very enjoyable. sweet without being overly smooth and very detailed and dynamic, have even removed the HF attenuator as think it was having an effect on the SQ where it was difficult to tell the versions apart. Not looking at any further improvements, which is saying something, just need to work out how to do 24 bit.

+1 SSE2 2.68

It is definitely the new yardstick. Lovely combo of detail, dynamics, but with rich harmonic overtones.

How 24 bit will sound based on 2.68 is very exciting to contemplate.

Jonathan

had a 5 mins listening on 2.68 sse4. another breakthrough! best of all versions is coming. this is the first time i hear mellow, airy, micro-detail, deep, full all in one version.

will test more later.

tried the 2.68 sse4 intel and dqa, but still prefer the 2.68 sse2 intel version

[erin]

Again, just my opinion.

2.68 sse2 intel - has excellent mid and HF clarity. A little bit light on the bass. Sound seems to come from the speakers. A bit dry and controlled sounding for my liking.

In comparison-
2.66 sse2 intel dqa dqa 2cl mfence, good projection of vocals, still clear, perhaps not as clear as 2.68 sse2 intel, much stronger bass, sound is more 3 dimensional, sound is more liquid and organic. - bit more "poision gas" going on.

My preference is still for 2.66 sse2 intel dqa dqa 2cl mfence.

I wont comment on the sse4 version.

[adolfo.a.aguiar]

Has anyone applied Audiophil's optimizations to the latest MQn versions?
I have and could not detect a clear improvement in SQ as I have experienced with JPlay.
I tried it with R1 and the provisional license which supports only minimal mode.
I would appreciate to have some feedback before I spend 30 CHF for the full license without being sure it improves MQn.

Adolfo

[Sligolad]

OK a day later and I went back to trying to identify differences in playback between wav files played back through MQN favourite versions and the same wav files played through Lister in Total Commander thus bypassing MQN and sorry to say I am struggling to hear a difference.
I am still in shock that I can not differentiate the difference easily....keep thinking I have done something wrong somewhere and it will suddenly occur to me and I will click on something that will make a difference but so far nothing.

I think the best option open to me right now is to hold off on commenting further on MQN until I get together with some fellow TirNaHiFiers to see if I have lost the run of myself, or not by having a group listen and maybe those with better ears than mine will be able to tell me it is time to retire my reviewing cap and just go back to enjoying the music.

Some thoughts from this experience leads me to ask if the following has eaten into what can be achieved using JPlay and MQN, etc.
Have all the hardware improvements, good cables, CF drive, clean linear power, dedicated PC, etc. brought us closer to clean digital output?
Has Windows Server R2 so improved the audio implementation that it is easier now to get clean digital output from windows based audio?
Has all the trimming down of the Operating System and various optimisations made the improvements available to MQN and JPlay much smaller and harder to define?
Have modern well capable DACS reduced the difference once we hit a threshold in the quality of the digital stream supplied to them?

I hope there are others out there who have Total Commander available to them and can test if they can hear a difference between tracks played back with Lister and MQN, maybe if you do hear an easily distinguishable difference then it will be time for me to go back and rebuild my installation again!
If nothing else it may be useful to have a benchmark in Lister to use for further development of MQN.
Strange days indeed, feels like I have spoiled my own party but I got to call it as I hear it and would be more than happy to be shown the error of my ways. Cheers, Pearse.

[jkeny]

Pearse, I had an experience a while back during testing MQN when my batteries that powered my amp lost their charge & I had to swap back to a bench supply while I charged them.
I could no longer tell one version of MQN from another which I had been able to do when running on batteries.
When the batteries went back in, I was back to hearing the sound stage differences as before.

In the same way that a loss in resolution can mask these audible differences, I could well imagine that all the treatments to your audio PC have resulted in it being immune to the further noise-reduction improvements of MQN (if this is it's primary effect?).

Why not try taking off some of your most effective noise reductions tweaks & see if you can then hear any differences?

[nige2000]

OK a day later and I went back to trying to identify differences in playback between wav files played back through MQN favourite versions and the same wav files played through Lister in Total Commander thus bypassing MQN and sorry to say I am struggling to hear a difference.
I am still in shock that I can not differentiate the difference easily....keep thinking I have done something wrong somewhere and it will suddenly occur to me and I will click on something that will make a difference but so far nothing.

I think the best option open to me right now is to hold off on commenting further on MQN until I get together with some fellow TirNaHiFiers to see if I have lost the run of myself, or not by having a group listen and maybe those with better ears than mine will be able to tell me it is time to retire my reviewing cap and just go back to enjoying the music.

Some thoughts from this experience leads me to ask if the following has eaten into what can be achieved using JPlay and MQN, etc.
Have all the hardware improvements, good cables, CF drive, clean linear power, dedicated PC, etc. brought us closer to clean digital output?
Has Windows Server R2 so improved the audio implementation that it is easier now to get clean digital output from windows based audio?
Has all the trimming down of the Operating System and various optimisations made the improvements available to MQN and JPlay much smaller and harder to define?
Have modern well capable DACS reduced the difference once we hit a threshold in the quality of the digital stream supplied to them?

I hope there are others out there who have Total Commander available to them and can test if they can hear a difference between tracks played back with Lister and MQN, maybe if you do hear an easily distinguishable difference then it will be time for me to go back and rebuild my installation again!
If nothing else it may be useful to have a benchmark in Lister to use for further development of MQN.
Strange days indeed, feels like I have spoiled my own party but I got to call it as I hear it and would be more than happy to be shown the error of my ways. Cheers, Pearse.

R2 and 8.1 alone brought a great lift in audio which is really great for everybody,
i dont think its surprising that on a very heavily optimized pc with a heavily optimized os on an off day, one could get confused.

i find myself it takes challenging tracks to find a good difference in sq between versions

i do my audio os installs on a relatively ordinary desktop i noticed the gap in SQ between ordinary and dedicated audio pc had been closing the first time i installed r2

often thought we should be using more ordinary gear for testing player software as its more sensitive

try MQn and lister on your laptop it will be easier to test

[Sligolad]

Ya still scratching my head on this one John.
Had a similar experience some time back with JPlay which shocked me at the time.

Seb had come around with his new Eximus DAC and his optimised PC and we setup a comparison run against the Meitner, both were switched through my preamp very quickly on the same tracks.
We were hearing very little difference with my streaming setup against his single PC setup both on JPlay or so we thought!!
We discovered that Sebs PC had defaulted to Foobar playback and I could not hear a difference of any significance but Seb thought my setup with the Meitner and streaming JPlay sounded a little better.

Really surprised me as I had thought JPlay was well ahead back then, this was before all the Linear power improvements and Server 2012 and so on.
It tells me we really need some benchmark to compare against along the way as it is easy to loose track of where we really are in this game given all the changes this past year.
The improvement of MQN against JPlay was an easy one to pick the last night at Tony's but since then we have been on a real roller coaster.

Not sure if I want to downgrade my system just yet to see if I can hear differences, will wait until the next get together to see if I have lost my marbles, I expect you guys will tell me pretty quickly which might be good as I can then retire and just listen to music :-))
Cheers, Pearse.

[Sligolad]

The laptop test sounds like a good idea Nige, will plan for that test in the coming days.
In the meantime going to enjoy some good music as it all sounds really good now both on Lister and MQN!!!
Cheers,
Pearse.