Computer Audio and Tweaks

[Damhooligan]

Here is how to auto login

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324737

 

If you have set up your power button configuration you will no longer need a keyboard or mouse after your setup is working.

I haven't thought of that.

My approach was different.

I changed the password security settings, from 'password needs to contain' to 'whatever'.

I then made the password 'blank' or 'empty'.

I then removed the 'mandatory' ctrl/alt/delete combo.

And now all I have to do is press power, It wont ask for "ctrl/alt/delete" ,and as the password is blank it will automatically complete the start up ,

and goes straight to Jriver .

:-)

(this config is for windows 2012 r2)

[LogicprObe]

Due to a lack of IT skills I went the easy route and downloaded a free optimizer which runs on computer boot up.

 

http://www.windowsxlive.net/livetuner-2-0-improved-optimizations-with-more-features/

 

It works really well with my older computer and with the exception of background fan noise (which no optimizer can fix) I am pretty happy with the SQ.

 

We can fix the background fan noise easy enough.

Post a couple of pics of the guts and I'll offer some suggestions.

[acg]

You mean by assigning programs/services to use, or not to use, certain cores?

I haven't played around with it to much, mainly because I haven't found a way yet to automate this.

 

 

You can do this with XXHighEnd software

[Primare Knob]

There is one thing I don't get.I don't understand , Why don't you just buy AO

It is all about the hunt and the journey. My main interest in Phill's AO script is to hear what is possible since this is the benchmark at the moment. Buying his script would be like buying all the answers for an exam. It would feel like cheating.

For me this is just the beginning of the journey. In my opinion using a PC for audio playback is kind of an overkill. The PC is easy accessible but you are trying to get a machine build for multitasking to do one thing. I think that for example the squeeze box light has a better approach in this.

What I ultimately would like to see is programs like JRiver, running inside a hifi source player, like a BD player. Or a hifi source player on which you can install a custom OS. Windows RT might have a future there.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Primare Knob

[Primare Knob]

You can do this with XXHighEnd software

I cannot seem to find that feature in the feature list for this player.

[acg]

I cannot seem to find that feature in the feature list for this player.

 

It is in the "Processor Settings" part of the settings tab.  You can choose one of 5 "Processor Core Appointment Schemes" that manage which core/s handle track loading and playback respectively, as well as how hyper-threading is used when it is enabled.  These Core Appointment Schemes are specific for Intel and AMD processors.  In addition the priority of the Player and the Thread can be set relative to other windows processes and the clock resolution of the CPU can be changed.

 

Then in the "Xtweaks" section there are ways to influence the cpu and try for a "balanced" or "constant" processor load during playback i.e. lower average energy use (eg. underclocking) as well as eliminate "spikes" in processor load and energy use.  To give you an example at how successful this is, I have reduced the processor power draw during playback from an unstable rollercoaster of between 1.2A and 3.3A to a constant 0.5A without any spikes.  This influences the sound.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

[LogicprObe]

You can do this with XXHighEnd software

 

I'm going to try it with my next reformat.

Are you using Windows 8?

[acg]

I'm going to try it with my next reformat.

Are you using Windows 8?

 

I am using both w7 and w8.  w8.1 is not recommended though.

[LogicprObe]

I am using both w7 and w8.  w8.1 is not recommended though.

 

Cheers.

I'm running 8 with the 7 shell.

[Primare Knob]

@@acg

Does XXhighend have a remote control app like JRiver?

I'll give it a try once I have tweaked the server core. It sounds a bit like JPlay and AO combined.

That 0.5A "sounds" good. My first impression was that this player will eat your PC alive.

[acg]

Cheers.

I'm running 8 with the 7 shell.

 

There is a w7 shell that comes with XXHE for use in w8.

 

LP, when and if you do have a go at XXHE you could start a topic here and I could help you out with a few things.  For instance, XXHE will manage RAMdisks (which do improve the sound in many instances - they certainly did here) and I could talk you through setting those up with IMDisk (which is free software) and a very simple and short script that runs automatically at windows logon.

 

 

@@acg

Does XXhighend have a remote control app like JRiver?

I'll give it a try once I have tweaked the server core. It sounds a bit like JPlay and AO combined.

That 0.5A "sounds" good. My first impression was that this player will eat your PC alive.

 

There are remote control options, but none are as pretty as say JRemote for JRiver (which is spectacular in my opinion).  I've never used any of the remote options but the easiest is probably to run RDP on your tablet to control the XXHE PC from the network.  I will look into that in the next day or two to see just how useful that is, but I concur that JRemote is excellent.

 

Anthony

[Primare Knob]

Cheers.

I'm running 8 with the 7 shell.

It says that is the recommended way to go when using Win8 in the info.

[Damhooligan]

It is all about the hunt and the journey. My main interest in Phill's AO script is to hear what is possible since this is the benchmark at the moment. Buying his script would be like buying all the answers for an exam. It would feel like cheating.

Stil confused..

You acknowledge AO as a benchmark.

And a benchmark for testing and compairing is an important element.

Yet you don't have that benchmark , so testing resuts wil be 'minimal'.

I understand the hunt and the journey element.

But knowing how it sounds and knowing how it works are two different things.

I wouldn't go so far and call it cheating.

I also understand you want to achieve what AO can do , but via your own way.

And I respect that very much !!

But how would you know if you achieved that , without being able to compare ?

[Primare Knob]

There is a w7 shell that comes with XXHE for use in w8.

LP, when and if you do have a go at XXHE you could start a topic here and I could help you out with a few things. For instance, XXHE will manage RAMdisks (which do improve the sound in many instances - they certainly did here) and I could talk you through setting those up with IMDisk (which is free software) and a very simple and short script that runs automatically at windows logon.

Anthony

What would the benefit be of using a RAMdisk? The program will load itself in RAM and it also loads all the music into RAM. ASRock motherboards come with a utillity to setup RAMdisk. Edited April 23, 2014 by Primare Knob

[ThirdDrawerDown]

Please keep the reports coming, this helps me sort out the next steps.

 

As for benchmarks and comparisons I'm happy to trust my ears.

[Primare Knob]

But how would you know if you achieved that , without being able to compare ?

AO is build around two things. Activating Kernel streaming in Core mode and tuning down services to the bare minimum. (There is some read up that it also applies digital filters, but I am not after that)

Activating kernel streaming is a simple yes or no question. It works or it doesn't.

Tuning down services is information that is retrievable by using the powershell. The same goes for memory and CPU load.

In a comparison I can retrieve and store that information and set it as a target.

[acg]

What would the benefit be of using a RAMdisk? The program will load itself in RAM and it also loads all the music into RAM. ASRock motherboards come with a utillity to setup RAMdisk.

 

There are memory players and there are memory players.  JRiver is not a true memory player because it converts the playlist piece by piece so it engages the cpu and drives in a relatively random manner to do that.  XXHE can be set to convert/upsample the entire playlist before play starts so it does not engage the cpu for those purposes when the music is playing (think about the aim of a low and constant cpu load) and the _entire_ playlist sits in a drive (in my case a RAMdrive) which is the lowest noise place to store the files before they are sent to the dac (see the enormous threads on CA about this - works for the mac also).  So while JRiver and others will piece by piece load the music file into ram thus engaging the cpu and ssd/hdd/lan with XXHE it is already sitting there in full, including the software itself, and is ready to go without the need to unnecessarily engage the SSD/HDD or LAN or external drives or whatever else.  That is a true memory player.  That is also one way how I suspect the RAMdrive works to reduce noise...by eliminating the operation of other noise producing parts of the computer.

[roh008]

There are memory players and there are memory players. JRiver is not a true memory player because it converts the playlist piece by piece so it engages the cpu and drives in a relatively random manner to do that. XXHE can be set to convert/upsample the entire playlist before play starts so it does not engage the cpu for those purposes when the music is playing (think about the aim of a low and constant cpu load) and the _entire_ playlist sits in a drive (in my case a RAMdrive) which is the lowest noise place to store the files before they are sent to the dac (see the enormous threads on CA about this - works for the mac also). So while JRiver and others will piece by piece load the music file into ram thus engaging the cpu and ssd/hdd/lan with XXHE it is already sitting there in full, including the software itself, and is ready to go without the need to unnecessarily engage the SSD/HDD or LAN or external drives or whatever else. That is a true memory player. That is also one way how I suspect the RAMdrive works to reduce noise...by eliminating the operation of other noise producing parts of the computer.

That sounds good on the XXHE converting the playlist. However, what limits would playlists have?

How long would it take to say put 500 or 1000 songs into the playlist? Which components limit this speed?

How big would the RAM drive need to be?

Thanks

Roh

[nik.d]

... Does XXhighend have a remote control app like JRiver? ... 

 

This was question for acg but pls let me answer on that one: yes it does.

Does this looks good?

 

 

It is a bit unusual connection - you need one more PC (any old laptop, just bluetooth capable) between audio PC and tablet of your choice.

And two bluetooth dongles. But there is absolutely no influence on SQ ! Here is the original topic

Edited April 23, 2014 by nik.d

[LogicprObe]

That's a big glass for not much Campari.

 

I hope you have another bottle!

[nik.d]

Ah no, actually that's my beer glass...

'Darling, as promised, I'll have only one glass of beer'

 

 

 

[Primare Knob]

Is there a benefit to tweak the OS, or is this done through XXhighend?

[nik.d]

Almost everything is done by XXHE - licensed (activated) version of course. What's left for user(s) are some minor BIOS adjustments, like turning off unused MBD devices, lowering

the CPU clock to lowest figure BIOS accepts, lowering the MEM clock etc. But XXHE will lower the CPU clock down further. If you look at PeterSt's signature: Core i7-3930K is running

at 0.43GHz only. I don't know how. But we have more interesting riddle to solve - finding the best possible settings in XXHE for your DAC. Not cryptic like that Japanese guy's but similar

 

Edit: 'Japanese guy' is mentioned in another thread: http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/64468-file-compression-and-sound-quality/#entry1093726

I find Bug Head Emperor very good sounding. Still learning - found some Russian forum discussing it whole year already.

Edited April 23, 2014 by nik.d

[acg]

Yes, the BIOS adjustments are simple and quick and covered in a topic on the XXHighEnd forum.

 

PK, XXHE handles all of the o/s optimisations apart from a few things like setting your "windows power scheme" and turning off Windows Defender and Windows Firewall (both of which should be disabled prior to installing XXHE).

[acg]

That sounds good on the XXHE converting the playlist. However, what limits would playlists have?

How long would it take to say put 500 or 1000 songs into the playlist? Which components limit this speed?

How big would the RAM drive need to be?

Thanks

Roh

 

Hi Roh,

 

Aha, the big questions.  Ok.  I run 16GB of ram, which contains two RAMdisks:  5Gb is allocated to the playback drive; 2Gb is allocated to running a copy of XXHE; which leaves about 9Gb for windows.  I just made a 10 hour Redbook playlist and it was 35 seconds between when I pressed play and the music came out (including 16 x upsampling and applying a digital filter - neither of which you may need/want to do).  A one hour playlist took 12 seconds.  This includes the time it takes XXHE to shut down the library software (the frontend that we see), release it from memory, turn off the final windows services that are necessary for the library to run and engage the playback engine.  Things do not happen instantly like they do in JRiver, but XXHE is a true memory player.

 

My understanding of the RAMdrive situation is that you should leave about 8GB for the o/s and use the rest.  So if you run 16GB that leaves 8GB for RAMdisks, 32GB of ram would leave 24GB for RAMdisks and XXHE is never going to need more than 2GB (you probably could run it on much less).

 

I think that the thing that influences the number of songs you can fit in a playlist is simply the size of the playback drive and the size of the music files (hi-res and 24 bit are going to take a lot more space than Redbook).  In my case this is a 5Gb ramdrive but it could just as easily be a 2TB HDD if you wished.  The speed at which things operate is linked to the speed of the cpu and ram and then the degree to which they are underclocked.  I think that my cpu cores are running at less than 500Mhz (0.5GHz) once XXHE compliments the 1.2GHz cpu speed that I have set in the BIOS.  So, the faster you let the computer run, or the less you underclock, the faster things will happen in XXHE, but this cpu speed is at odds with getting it to operate with a low and constant amperage draw as discussed earlier.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

Edited April 24, 2014 by acg