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RE: no SSE on Alix-1D's AMD-CPU,-- A / B CMP vs VoyageMPD

Douwe
OK, I spent an hour or so in an A/B comparison where the only thing I changed was the CAS -- First VoyageMPD/ALIX, then CMP2/XP Home with slim hives. Both are set to use Best sync Secret Rabbit Code.

I must say I'm glad you asked for this compare, because it caused me to sit and really listen to both which was a treat.

I sampled a few cuts - Dianna Krall, Dave Brubeck, Dick Hyman, Patricia Barber, Mdm Butterfly & Yo Yo Ma, all on 44.1. Then a sample of 192kHz sample tracks. All classical.

The two systems are wonderful but quite different.

The CMP/XP HOME has a sweetness that is missing in the ALIX. In some ways there is the sense of more air and low noise floor black background. It is very special and could easily be a winner for many listeners.

The ALIX took a while because I did not want stop listening to each cut. It just has more. Sound stage wider and deeper and fuller. Much more detail and I want to say more sound. It is as if the CMP machine had filtered out a bunch of sound. By comparison as if you are getting the high points but missing the details. Kind of the Coles Notes version.

ALIX is a bit analytical. Not hard or fatiguing. I could listen all day. Quite liquid, but some might find it punishing with detail. As I write this, the ALIX is back in the system. I'm once again hearing my collection for the first time.

I miss the Cplay interface. Simple but so effective. The MPD clients do not like uncompressed WAV files so at this point I just have a long list of files.

A caveat. The CMP system is not fully baked. I am running it on a laptop with a Celeron processor. XP Home/fat32. I found this better than another laptop with dual core and XP Pro. It is nlite minimum with all the file deletions to Steppe 20. Registry slimming not complete. All hives at minimum but system hive still quite fat at 124k. Also on this test machine I have not weeded out all the folders. All CMP optimizations done. And all the dll hacks done. Because I need USB and a WaveIO driver, I can't just put in Jack's ISO and get nirvanna and I ran out of patience with all the work to cut it fully to the bone. WaveIO can really get messed up on a slimmed CMP machine. You will find that you'll need to re-power the WaveIO card just to switch CDs if you go full bore on registry slimming. I am sure this can be sorted out, but not by me. I'm sticking with WaveIO but moving on to Linux which simply has better supported drivers for this card on a slim Linux then the theyscon stuff on a slim windows.

Enjoy the WaveIO .. its worth the long wait. Build it a great power supply and be prepared to smile :)


Edits: 05/05/12
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  • RE: no SSE on Alix-1D's AMD-CPU,-- A / B CMP vs VoyageMPD - wlowes 20:14:09 05/05/12 (0)
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