AudiophileOptimizer BETA Thread (AO 3.00 beta is closed)

[Quadman]

Soon to be new user here.  I run Windows 10 pro on a dedicated Audio PC.  I currently have installed on this PC Fidelizer pro 8 and Process lasso.  What is the recommended process to install AO over these two programs?  Reduce Fidelizer filtering to consumer level, leave PL as is and run AO and it's optimizations then go back and change Fidelizer filter to Purist after AO is installed and optimized?  or some other method?

 

I also run Roon and HQP on this machine is it best to use both as shell replacements (I think it's an option now) and then have fidelizer start automatically as it does with no AO?

 

Thank you for any insights?

[Quadman]

Another question with the new Fall Creators update (1709).  Is it okay to still use the windows stripping feature?  I thought I read somewhere where Phil told someone not to use the stripping feature on a windows release that was above his posted support level of windows builds?

 

Whoops disregard, I just saw in beta 6 he supports Fall creators update 16299, I was looking at version, not build #.

[Quadman]

So I got 2.20b6 up and running last night, on my win 10 pro single PC with Roon, HQP, Fidelizer pro 8 and Process lasso, I also have get blackbird on there, which I had actually forgot about.  I suspect its features and AO's antispyware feature are duplicate tasks.  Install went perfectly (reading manual and some forum sure helps).  Pc worked fine after install, I used Roon and HQP as shell replacement and Fidelizer starts on reboot (set to purist), So I fired roon up and let my system warm up for about 1 hour before I came down to listen.  First impression was not good at all 4D signature and filter was loose as a goose, floppy rounded leading edges, soft warm and syrupy sound, space between musicians was smaller less defined, or maybe the images were bigger, either way yuk.  This was a huge step back from what I had before AO install.  So I fired up AO -u and tried quite a few combinations of filters it took probably 45 minutes and I seemed to like 3B and 4B the best, I did a quick comparo and settled on 4B for the remainder of the evening.  This was much better than 4D.  I spent the next 5 hours running thru a lot of my most played Roon library, no question the sound now was better than pre-AO.  On the best recordings the stage was the widest and deepest it has ever been, bass and its leading edges was very good, but maybe still not quite, by a whisker, as good as pre-AO.  The central image (I love the human voice, especially when they sing with their soul, not just words) was simply incredible, inner detail was outstanding, presence off the charts.  This is what I was hoping for.  Bottom line after first attempt I got really good sound from AO and I am sure there is more to come.

 

A couple of questions tho, I did not turn off windows defender as I have no other antivirus or 3rd party firewall programs on this PC.  What generally do others use for antivirus or firewall with win 10 or do you just ignore any antivirus and firewall program.  How much of a sonic impact will I gain by turning it off (I know try it and see).

 

I upsample all music to DSD512 and send to my T+A dac, when I went from a 16/44 source to a 24/96 source music started fine but when the song ended and the next song was a 16/44 there would be a 15-20 second delay before music started.  This was new and did not happen pre-AO (processor is Ryzen 1800x).  Last night I used the Poly-sinc-shrt-mp filter in HQP when I first hit play it took almost 50 seconds for music to play, this was about 20 seconds longer that pre-AO, is this normal?

 

Another strange occurrence was my remote control a iPad air 2 was lagging which it did not do pre-AO.  If I added a song to the que for the next 10-15 seconds my screen was unresponsive, if I had touched say the back arrow (during this time) then after the 10-15 second non-response, it would go back.  Do others experience this?  this behavior was new to me.

 

I was kind of surprised on the number of processes and threads  running,  I guess I was expecting more of a reduction.   went from apprx 77 processes and around 900 threads to 65 processes and high 600-low 700 threads, handles went down quit a bit 28000 to 20,xxx.  I realize Phil has stated there is much more to SQ than reducing processes and playing with signatures and filters sure seemed to support this.

 

Looking forward to even better sound.  Thanks Phil for such a product. 

[Quadman]

I found after re-runing AO and not disabling Windows remote management that my remote iPad no longer hangs as it did last night.

[Quadman]

I've noted some strange things that happen to music playback since installing 2.20b6 (I am a new user so this is a first time purchase and install).  My Ryzen 1800x CPU seems to be throttled somewhat with AO running compared to it's performance pre-AO install.  I upsample everything, mostly redbook 16/44.1 to DSD512 via HQPlayer.  My current filter of choice in HQP is poly-sinc-shrt-MP when I first hit play after selecting this filter the PC freezes for a good 45-60 seconds, while the filter builds. Pre-AO install this time was around 15 seconds for the filter to build so the build time has now tripled.  Also now when I play 48K based material and upsample to DSD512 48x512 (autorate family checked) I get a sort of fluttering sound within the music this never happened pre-AO install.  CPU usage doing this with AO is apprx 23% on average and looking at each cores load I never see one core with unusually high usage.  Playing 44K based material also with autorate family checked (44x512) There is no fluttering and CPU usage is also around 23%.  Somehow AO seems to have throttled my CPU and affect its performance with filter building and 48k based output.  Has anyone else noted a performance drop in CPU with AO.  Sonically the sound is the best I have ever gotten from a PC.

 

 

 

 

[Quadman]

Does any hardware change to your PC require you to use a new license for AO.  What hardware is scanned and considered for a license activation?  If I change my OS SSD to a Optane OS drive does that require a new license?  if I change from wifi to Ethernet does that require a new license?  If I change Ram does that require a license?  If I add a video card for Cuda offload does that use a license?  Curious because one can make a lot of subtle changes to their PC and potentially use a lot of AO license and then the day comes you want to get the processor that can do all HQP filters at DSD512 for a reasonable price and more licenses go.  What is the fee for additional licenses?  Just trying to plan ahead.

 

 

[Quadman]

dtb, Thanks I missed the part in the manual about some hardware items that are part of the ID.  I knew we get 5 licenses.  Tweakers can blow thru 5 licenses very easily and still have the same windows software on the machine that activated with the first license.  That changes my plans for next week, I was going to restore my cloned pre-AO SSD to another SSD of same model I now use and then run scripts first before applying AO (and then compare the two), that will cause a second license to be used.  Instead I'll just restore the clone on current SSD and go from there which should allow first license to still be used as no hardware is changed.