NUC/JRiver Optomization.

[zackthedog]

I'm going to add my two cents about optimizing Windows.  I have tried Audiophile Optimizer several times on different machines and different Windows builds, and I have never been happy with what it does to the sound.  To me everything gets very raw and mechanical-sounding.  I have tried the the scripts on the Windows 10 optimization thread and found these to have a much more pleasant effect.  More transparency, sweetness and musicality.  These included running getblackbird (and restoring the LAN function) and running the series of optimizations and scripts provided by the original poster on that thread.  Also the suggestions about stopping logging functions.

 

The problem with AO in my opinion is that even if you restore services with the Service Tool, the initial "optimizations" are not reversible and you have to restore the original system.  That, and the price.

 

Bear in mind that none of the scripts on that thread are reversible, except the ability to restore a few needed services as noted, so you should create a restore point before launching, or be prepared to reinstall if you run into problems.  All that said, those optimizations were pretty straightforward and sound much more musical in my system.

[zackthedog]

1 hour ago, Bullitt5094 said:

Zack, I was reading up on AO and the Win Op thread and couldn't decide if my money or my time was more valuable as to which way to go. I think I'll take your advice and try the free scripts and Blackbird first.

The NUC arrived yesterday. I installed JRiver and Synced it to another Library. I did no modifications to anything and just did a baseline listening session last night. It sounds at least as good or better than my HTPC right out of the box. I don't know if that means my PC is awful or if the NUC is pretty good as-is. I also have to believe the Lyngdorf circuitry/DAC is very good and may be correcting a lot of the "garbage in" too. I'm now putting some hours on it for burn-in and I'll see if that improves anything before I start any modifications of hardware or software.

 

 

I'm glad the NUC is an improvement.  To me it's not as much a question of time or money but rather the sonic results.  I simply don't like what AO does to the sound.  Once I read through that thread carefully and understood it, running a couple of scripts and doing some tweaks took very little time at all.  In fact, if you just ran the first set of scripts you'd still hear a big improvement without losing any functionailty for audio/video, unless you want to restart the Windows Audio Service, which I did (I like WASAPI as an output option).  On the other hand, AO is also irreversible and I've spent more time re-installing my OS as a result of that than anything those scripts did.

 

As Elvia says, if you have the room on your hard drive, shrink the current partition with Disk Manager and install a second version of Win10 to experiment with.  Down the road you can erase the version you don't like and revert to the one you do.

[zackthedog]

25 minutes ago, jcn3 said:

 

my experience with a.o. is different than above -- i'm thrilled with what it does to be sound.  i'm experiencing much blacker backgrounds, and more texture to the sounds of instruments with a.o.

 

it is incorrect to say that the optimizations are not reversible -- they absolutely are  reversible.  what is true is that you can't uninstall a.o., but with the optimizations reversed, it would have no impact on your system. 

 

i'm sure that you can achieve much of the same thing with the various scripts that are available and they give you the opportunity to really dig into and understand what happening in the operating system.

 

A lot of people certainly seem to like it, so I'm probably in the minority.  I will say that, as far as I understand, certain initial changes it makes are NOT reversible, and I think they mention this.  You can restore services and some processes but I believe it makes some system changes that cannot be restored.  But I could be wrong.  But like any tweaking it's always good to have a restore point, backup , or just be prepared to do some reinstalls. ;-)  Also, the scripts on the volunteer thread don't address BIOS issues and certain system things like USB Power Management, etc., which AO does.

[zackthedog]

Page 44 of the manual for Windows 10 says that AO "applies many permanent and deep changes to your Windows installation, so be aware that the AO cannot be uninstalled once applied."

[zackthedog]

26 minutes ago, Bullitt5094 said:

The ISO Regen will be here on Wednesday. Should be interesting.

I just came down from listening to records. I have a Thorens TD-165 I bought new in 1973. It has a Hana SL cartridge. I've upgraded the wiring on the TT. It feeds a WhestTwo.2 Preamp. That is going to the upgrade analog input module on the Lyngdorf. As good as the digial side of my front end sounds, which really-really good. All I can say is the digital side needs to step-up it's game because the analog side is kicking a$$ and taking names right now. I'm sure that is probably not a post that will be looked upon favorably in this forum... but it is absolutely the truth. Certainly that needs to be fixed!

 

You've got your work cut out for you. ;-)  I personally don't try to compare my analogue with my digital.  Hell, I never tried to compare my analogue with my CD player.  The digital setup is for the terrabytes of stuff I have that has never been, and will never be, on vinyl. I just try to get it to sound as good as I can. ;-)

[zackthedog]

19 minutes ago, Bullitt5094 said:

I totally understand. It seems to me the older recordings originally done on analog sound better on records. The newer, digitally recorded stuff sounds better in the digital domain. But that may just me being logical and having nothing to do with reality. Seems pretty consistent though.

The other curve I'll throw you is, the first thing my amp does to any analog input is an A-D conversion. Yet the Lyngdorf still out-preformed an Odyssey Kismet amp and a Linear Tube Audio amp with the same analog input. I know. It makes no sense. But not only did I hear it, but my wife, daughter and her husband, none of which are audiophiles or had ANY idea what they were listening to, came to the same conclusion. And I can tell you my wife and daughter can hear things bats can't hear. 

 

No, I think that's completely logical. ;-)

 

And I long ago learned to defer to my wife on component decisions.

[zackthedog]

Lovely! :-)  Congratulations.  Just this evening my wife passed through the listening room as some Duke Ellington was playing and said, "What the name of that?  I like that a lot."  That only happens when the system is sounding easy and mellow. ;-)

[zackthedog]

Great, glad the upgrade is working for you.  A linear power supply for the ISO will make a big difference, too.