Yes, the tip to use setup.exe worked. It is installed and showing up.
A little more about my story: I use the RME ADI-2 Pro as the DAC and the DIY F4 amplifier, which is a power buffer and has unity voltage gain. Initially, I was driving it with the RME, providing all the voltage gain and it sounded great. Then I built a DHT preamp to provide about 18 db of gain and the sound became astonishing. An extremely clear understanding of the music and the soundstage was vastly improved too. By traversing the curves of the triode and changing the operating points, you can dial in the proportion and level of different harmonics.
Different level and proportion of harmonics produced different sounds:
1. Just 2nd harmonic at about -60 db with no other harmonics produces a very sweet sound, almost too sweet. The soundstage becomes muddy. Adding a bit of third vastly improves things.
2. Second at -80db, 3rd and 4th below, but higher order also visible above the noise floor. This sounds nice, but gets edgy with complex symphonic pieces.
3. Monotonically reducing second (-70 to -80 db), third, and fourth with no other harmonics. This is simply the best sound. You can keep turning it louder and louder and it becomes bigger and bigger with no perceived distortion.
4. No harmonics above -100 db. With some tube samples, you get very little distortion. I found that once you get below a certain threshold of THD, about 0.01% with no offensive higher order harmonics, you cannot "hear" the piece of equipment. I thought it would be better, but found that it doesn't sound better (even with the DHT pre in there), which was a revelation to me. So, there is nothing magical about tubes; it is the gain device's curves and the harmonics it produces that gives it the sound.
Nelson Pass has been talking about this for a long time. And if you read old Hiraga articles, he mentions that amplifiers with a bit of second and third and low higher order harmonics tend to sound better, even if the THD is higher.
Now, none of these observations are made with double-blind tests. I simply don't have the time for it. But I can tell you that the Hypex amps are not going back in the system and DHT preamp is staying in. I am looking forward to testing out the PKHarmonic plugin. If I don't have to buy tubes from the 1920s and can get the effect in JRiver, then all the better.
A little more about my story: I use the RME ADI-2 Pro as the DAC and the DIY F4 amplifier, which is a power buffer and has unity voltage gain. Initially, I was driving it with the RME, providing all the voltage gain and it sounded great. Then I built a DHT preamp to provide about 18 db of gain and the sound became astonishing. An extremely clear understanding of the music and the soundstage was vastly improved too. By traversing the curves of the triode and changing the operating points, you can dial in the proportion and level of different harmonics.
Different level and proportion of harmonics produced different sounds:
1. Just 2nd harmonic at about -60 db with no other harmonics produces a very sweet sound, almost too sweet. The soundstage becomes muddy. Adding a bit of third vastly improves things.
2. Second at -80db, 3rd and 4th below, but higher order also visible above the noise floor. This sounds nice, but gets edgy with complex symphonic pieces.
3. Monotonically reducing second (-70 to -80 db), third, and fourth with no other harmonics. This is simply the best sound. You can keep turning it louder and louder and it becomes bigger and bigger with no perceived distortion.
4. No harmonics above -100 db. With some tube samples, you get very little distortion. I found that once you get below a certain threshold of THD, about 0.01% with no offensive higher order harmonics, you cannot "hear" the piece of equipment. I thought it would be better, but found that it doesn't sound better (even with the DHT pre in there), which was a revelation to me. So, there is nothing magical about tubes; it is the gain device's curves and the harmonics it produces that gives it the sound.
Nelson Pass has been talking about this for a long time. And if you read old Hiraga articles, he mentions that amplifiers with a bit of second and third and low higher order harmonics tend to sound better, even if the THD is higher.
Now, none of these observations are made with double-blind tests. I simply don't have the time for it. But I can tell you that the Hypex amps are not going back in the system and DHT preamp is staying in. I am looking forward to testing out the PKHarmonic plugin. If I don't have to buy tubes from the 1920s and can get the effect in JRiver, then all the better.