[glynnw]

Seriously, I hear no improvement when I turn Fidelizer on.  I am using JRiver on a NUC, Uptone Regen, Brooklyn DAC, Tortuga Volume, custom 1 tube line stage and several decent tube and solid state amps.  Speakers are Spatial Audio M3TMs and a pair of GR Research dual 12" OB subs - all siver interconnects and Auditorium 23 spkr cables.  Have had other speakers, preamps, amps, including Shindo, First Watt, Music Reference etc. and I never hear an improvement with it.  I also hear little difference between analog and good digital, if that helps.  Yet I hear differences in some interconnects, spkr cables, etc, so I am not deaf.  I believe I just don't process certain types of sound changes, because people I trust do hear differences in almost everything. Been doing this hobby (lifestyle?) over 40 years, so my hearing is diminishing, but I still hear the differences I noted above, but never hear Fidelizer do anything.  Anyone else have this issue or care to comment?  Be kind.

[Mike B.]

I use the lower pay to own version. I use the audiophile setting. I do notice a worthwhile improvement. I use a dedicated I-5 Dell laptop, Shunyata USB cable, Regan, Wyred4Sound DAC 2 DSD SE dac. 

[WGH]

I never heard a change in sound quality either when I tried it. The best I can figure out is Fidelizer came out in January 2015 (or earlier) so maybe it did something good with Windows Vista or 7 or 8.1. Windows 10 came out at the end of July 2015 with a much bigger improvement in sound quality than I got with Fidelizer (which was nothing).

Interested to hear why people still use it and what improvements they hear. What computer Fidelizer is used on is always helpful, a Best Buy laptop with all sorts of pre-installed crap still running in the background or a dedicated music server with Windows 10 and JRiver (nothing else), an audiophile approved USB card and linear power supplies.

[dB Cooper]

I'd never heard of it so I looked it up. I'm a Mac user so I can't run it but there are similar applications for Mac. There is even a version of Linux with many of the same stated design goals.

The central idea seems to be conserving system resources. Any remotely recent/decent computer with a reasonable amount of RAM isn't going to break a sweat playing audio, even high-res files, at least in a dedicated-machine situation. I mean, there are people running $35 Raspberry Pi's as audio servers. Those have ~1 gHz CPUs and ~1-2 gigs of RAM.

Don't some of these applications have ABX capability? Has anyone tried such a test on this software? Many 'night and day' differences vanish when subjected to rigorous testing. Not saying that's the case here but it wouldn't be the first time. And maybe there is a difference but it has been exaggerated in reviews etc. Another interesting 'what do we hear' topic.

[jseymour]

I use the Pro version on Audiophile and I hear a subtle improvement in clarity. It has been improved since it first came out.  I have been using it for several years and upgraded to the Pro version two years ago.

C.A.P.S. Ver. 2 PC, W10 Pro running MusicBee (tried JRiver, did not like UI and too much of a resource hog), Straightwire USBF-Link, fully upgraded Schiit Yggy, Schiit Freya (NOS tubes), 2 X Vidars, Spatial M3TM.  Interconnects are all Signal Silver Resolution XLR.  Speaker wire is Western Electric 10 Ga.

glynnw, we do agree on speakers.