Fidelizer will instantly turn your Windows Vista/7 computer to audiophile workstation for sophisticated audiophile player like J River, XXHighEnd, HQPlayer, foobar, etc. It involves no permanent modifications so system will remain safe and sound after restart so even system with normal Windows installation can experience better sound quality when needed. Backgrounds behind the optimizations is far advanced for someone daring to make free software so grab it while it lasts.
Fidelizer has 3 optimization levels. They’re all for the same goal to sonic improvements. I’ll leave them all to your judge whether they’re subtle or big difference. At any rate, you should leave your ears with it for at least week if it doesn’t hurt your computer. Some people need time to adapt to changes.
The first ones is ‘Professional’. This will optimize system to the extend that it won’t significantly affect overall system performance. You can work as usual while enjoying improved multimedia experiences.
The next ones is ‘Audiophile’. This is quite dedicated ones for those who pursue higher fidelity. It will lower system/network performance so audio can gain more priority to access to resources at time. It will also lower most processes including system ones to lowest level so you need to close your audiophile player before using it.
The last ones is ‘Extremist’. As the name say, this isn’t risk-free feature to try. It will stop most bundled system services leaving only important ones for audio. Yes, it will stop network services and such too. You may not know but Windows Audio and DHCP share the same process in service host provider so disabling network can significantly improve sonic performance. I also add some options to keep network and user experiences (HID,Tablet,Themes) working for some applications.
For general use, you should stick with ‘Professional’ level but computer in today’s market should be able to use ‘Audiophile’ without hassle about system/network performance. I use ‘Audiophile’ level on AMD Phenom X2 550 BE machine and ended up running fine for 24/7 usage…..ya it’s old and cheap unlike i7 or Athlon II X6 but it still works.
Why stopping services? Aren’t my specs are good enough to handle them all?
-Although you might have decent CPU, tons of RAM or even with SSD drive. However, these services are fighting each other to get processor resources and many of them relies on fixed hardware connections which have limited capacity to make solid performance. Stopping services will minimize work-load of svchost controllers, freeing more resources for allocation and improve system responsiveness. If stopping services sounds little too scary, you can skip this process as it’s not the most important features after all.
It seems some features like stopping services are missing in this version. Are you trying to reduce features?
-From what I’ve seen in concepts, I thought it should be 100% safe for any machine to use it. However, stopping most system services can cause unexpected problems in some machines. I got reports about Fidelizer breaking some applications and services, heavily slow down system because of recent updates in 1.2, etc. So I decided to take them off to ensure this program will 100% safe for yourself. However, I added something new that can be very effective in return and no one ever make it this far before too. Anyway, it’s back now in 1.5 so use it at your own risk.
What does Fidelizer do in optimizing threads, I/O and random stuff like priorities and resources scheduling? Are they just made up for placebo effects?
-Since Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced Multimedia Class Scheduler for thread and I/O priority optimization for processor resource scheduling. Most dedicated audio/video applications will benefit from this and it also affect overall system/network performance too. Default configuration are quite terribly optimized and not enough people going to take this feature serious enough to findout how I can get better sound through this. Fidelizer will do it for you without affecting real configuration so everything will still work fine after system restart.
I saw system thread priorities and clock resolution in another option. Aren’t they the same to ones in resource scheduler?
-Although Microsoft made pretty good resource management tool like that. However, it couldn’t controll the whole system down to specific process and thread. This program will do additional works to ensure best sound reproduction with lowest possible latency in software and hardware I/O which can loosen up the continuity of bit-stream though it’s performing bit-perfect. It’ll enforce audio thread to highest level possible and reduce non-important processes and threads to lowest possible level for more throughput to audio thread. It also adjusts system clock resolution (NT Timer) down to lowest possible level for most accurate timing reference to improve stability of audio playback at lower latency.
I use DPC Latency Checker but Fidelizer doesn’t improve system latency at all. Isn’t it scam?
-Graph in system latency shows latency of hardware I/O meaning you’re checking hardware latency. Fidelizer will decrease software latency in operating system so DPC Latency Checker isn’t capable of checking software latency. You need to test it with other methods. If you want to decrease hardware latency in DPC Latency Checker, try disabling drivers like networking for example.
If DPC Latency Checker is out of the game, how can I measure the difference in scientific way then?
-You’d need high quality hardware and intensive measurement methods to make clear cut. Let’s just believe in Microsoft that they didn’t make stuff like Multimedia Class Scheduler just to fool pro audio market. If you’re really desperate to do so, just try it with your ears, if you’re unsatisfied or can’t hear the difference, just delete it since it won’t cause any changes to your system anyway.
Features
-Stop most system services leaving only audio-related ones
-Optimize audio thread, I/O priorities, clock rate in resource scheduler
-Optimize process thread priorities and system clock resolution
-Configure Fidelizer to run automatically on system startup
Changelog
Version 2.1
-Fixed bugs in process optimizations (wrong condition causing whole option malfunction)
-Fixed multi-core optimizations performance and stability (and fixed veiled/duller sound quality)
-Updated some notes to make sure people closing audiophile player before performing optimizations.
Version 2.0
-Added processor core resource assignment for multi-core optimizations
-Fixed process priority optimizations so that new process like audiophile player won’t start with lowest priority
-Redesigned UI with selectable features list controlled by optimization level
Version 1.6
-Added realtime priority booster for Windows Audio in Windows XP to compensate missing features
-Improved priority optimizations since Audiophile level
-Changed run level to require Administrator rights on execution
-Removed autorun features as some users finding it confusing to handle
Version 1.5
-Features in State-of-art are merged into Audiophile
-Fixed saving configuration to save all options
-Improved system process optimizations stability
-Improved Windows XP and 64-bit compatibilities
-Restored stopping services feature in Extremist level
Version 1.4
-Improved multi-level service priorities optimization for better system stability and more natural sounding harmonics
Version 1.3
-Changed optimization group options to optimization level selection for better use and understanding
-Improved processor resource scheduler’s customization capabilities
-Removed all features that might cause system problems such as stopping services and processor core resource assignment
-Updated system thread priorities optimization with multi-level service priorities optimization
Version 1.2
-Added Keep services for themes running without Aero option
-Extended thread priority optimization to other system processes improving audio thread performance
-Introduced processer core resource assignment for multi-core system
Version 1.1
-Added autorun support (can be disabled by running program again without autorun)
-Added believable selectable features instead of advertising features comment
-Allowed user to keep specific services like networking and related interface controllers like HID and touch support
