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my X5L died

post #1 of 6
9/4/10 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 

My X5L stopped turning on a month ago. Cowon's technical service is about 200km from my town. I visited them a few days ago. I was told the mainboard is of no use. They could send it to Korea, but this will probably exceed the player' value. Will it or not, I don't want to wait another 2 months to be able to take my music out. This one month was enough. I decided to buy a new player.

 

First thing that came to my mind was to look for another X5L on ebay. I was very happy with mine. Then I tried to find out if there are other equally well or even better sounding players. I read about portable headphone amlifiers. I haven't used one. There was just X5L and my Sennheiser HD-25 II headphones. Then I came across HiFiMAN HM-801. From what I heard it beats X5L quite badly. It also costs much more (790$). It's too much for me. I've read that there is HiFiMAN HM-602 to be released this month. I think I may be able to afford it (370 - 450$). I understood that the main difference to 801 is that it won't have modular amplifier (one that you can change). It doesn't matter to me as I won't be so keen on replacing it. I don't have funds for that and I don't think even think I need it. I just want to have good natural sounding player. I haven't got yet a gramophone, so I store my music on CDs. What I will have on my player will be 16/44,1 FLACs. And what I want (as I mentioned) is really good and natural (I don't use any equalisers) sounding music that I can take on a walk, to a bus, listen to in a bed at night. Anywhere I like : ) No video playback, FM tuner, anything but playing lossless music (and sometimes lossy for some rare tracks I find on the internet).

 

There is one problem which came to my mind just before writing this post. I am from Poland and even though I speak English really well I have some problems understanding lyrics of songs. I listen mostly to English/American music. What I do is download the lyrics from web and put it in text (.txt) files. RockBox from my X5L had no problem with it. It's quite light and easy to implement function, but I bet 96,343% (or more) of players don't have it. I don't even know if original Cowon firmware could read text files. Does Hifiman's players firmware is able to do it? Are there some alternative firmwares you could install on them? It's of much importance to me, but after a thought I think I can live without it. My old X5 (I had it before X5L) doesn't make a sound anymore, but I can use it to store and read lyrics. It can get funny, but I don't care.

 

Second problem is I live in Poland. What about technical service from Hifiman? I repaired my X5L quite often. It has this stupid mini-jack socket on the side of the player, not on the top. I always wore it in the pockets of my pants (there is even a hole in the back pocket of my jeans just where the Cowon's joystick is located). The socket just tears out once in a few months. If something happens to a player, will I have to send it to US? I think I could do hardly anything with that here in Poland. From what I notice it has sockets on the top of the player. Point for that. What is the difference between that "earphone" and the second one (with this circle thing and an arrow)?

 

I use my player very often. Maybe I'm clumsy, maybe it just happens, but all of my players tend to look USED. Once in few months it falls on the floor. As player's look isn't of any importance to me, so I don't use any cases. It's all scratched. But I want my player to be tough. Have big endurance. Aside from that audio output I was happy with Cowon in that terms.

 

20GB minimum. The one I had was 30GB. SD cards would be perfect.

 

I won't be able to spend more than 500$ (with shipping costs). What do you recommend me? I am considering Hifiman HM-602 and Cowon X5L (Probably used from ebay. I don't know if you can buy somewhere a new one.). But these are just the two I know about. Maybe you know other variants. What about these portable amplifiers? I don't know a thing about them. Is it any good to use one with X5L? With another player?

 

And for the end I have a gift. You all here should like music. It's a song. Not any 96kHz rip, not even a FLAC. Just a YouTube stream. But what's important is music. Isn't it?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUOdoTa4crc


Edited by zodwiertu - 9/4/10 at 2:18pm
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post #2 of 6
9/4/10 at 6:08pm

I have not heard the HifiMan, but when I read what features you want from a DAP, it seems that you should try to find another X5(L) and put Rockbox on it. While the HifiMan 801 might be nice, it is NOT worth $800. The new HifiMan is also overpriced considering its limited features.

 

Rockbox can offer more features than the original firmware in most DAP can, so you could always look for a DAP that supports Rockbox. I know that newer Cowon players  support .txt documents. My Cowon S9 has support for that, although I never use it.

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post #3 of 6
9/5/10 at 12:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danneq View Post
<snip> While the HifiMan 801 might be nice, it is NOT worth $800. The new HifiMan is also overpriced considering its limited features. <snip>


Different strokes for different folks.

 

To the OP. I'll reply when I'm more awake tomorrow.

 

PS: Well written post. Hats off to you. ;)

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post #4 of 6
9/6/10 at 1:59pm
Thread Starter 

Hey! Nobody here knows what are the best portable audio players nowadays? I thought this was the best place to ask. While searching myself, I found many links to this site.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero Kid View Post

To the OP. I'll reply when I'm more awake tomorrow.

 

I wait for you : )
 

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post #5 of 6
9/6/10 at 5:20pm

Ok here I go. Firstly the reason not many people are venturing into your topic could have something to do with the topic title. Something like "My X5L died... help me find a replacement" would probably work better. 

Oh and just so you know where I stand, I'm reluctant to say "A" is the best is because I haven't heard the HM-801, HM-602 (yet), the s:flo2 or the X5L so I can only comment from what I've read.

 

The "best" player will always come down to personal tastes. Many of the "best" players are coming out of China recently and you have to be aware of possible build quality issues, limited UIs and OS support so you'll either love them or hate them.

 

Here's what I consider to be the best players out today;

  • HiFiMan HM-801
  • A Modded iPod (WhipMOD, iMod, DIYMod)
  • HiFiMan HM-602
  • Nationite s:flo2 aka Telecast T51
  • Cowon J3 (Not as good sound wise but is a very polished modern DAP)

 

Out of those 5* players only the iPod can be rockboxed and that makes it the only player that can read text files to my knowledge. So if that's something that really concerns you...

As far as technical support from Head-Direct goes, for international buyers (outside of the US) you would have to send it back to China to be repaired or try and fix it yourself which could void your warranty, I don't know.

Oh and the different sockets on the top of the HM-602 are a normal headphone jack and a direct line out (for adding external amps etc). It's a highly sought after feature on a HQ sounding DAP these days.

 

Now I don't know about the build quality of any of the players but they don't look like a tank (like your old X5L) so if you plan to drop them a lot it could be a problem.

You may wish to consider getting a case for them to add some protection against unwanted sky-dives.

 

I'll give you a quick summary of the players I mentioned above.

 

  • HM-801: 2gb internal memory and SD card slot. Has a direct line out and headphone out. Biggest and heaviest of the lost. Arguably the best sounding portable player on the market today. ~8 hours battery. No gappless playback. Plays 24bit audio. 
  • HM-602: 16gb internal memory and a SD card slot. Same as above, line out and headphone out. Has a added gain switch that allows you to drive sensitive IEMs and Headphones without swapping the amp module (like the HM-801). Has the name of HiFiMan and the little brother of the HM-801 pinned to it. ~10 hours battery. No gapless playback. Downsamples 24bit audio... not sure if it does so to 16/44.1.
  • Modded iPod: Mods an existing iPod (video or older) so it has a true line out through the bottom dock. Can be rockboxed. Requires the use of a external amp which adds size, weight and cost. Used to hold the seat of the best sounding portable player until the HiFiMan came along. ~10 hours battery life again. Gappless playback with Rockbox. Also downsamples 24bit with Rockbox.
  • s:flo2: Touch screen and frustrating UI from what I've read. 2, 8 or 16gb capacity with microSD card slot. Has a line out and headphone out. Amazing sound quality for the price. ~10 hours playback. No gappless.
  • J3: One of the best "mainstream" DAPs on the market today. Nice UI and big touch screen as well as tactile controls. Only a headphone out. Comes in 8, 16 and 32gb capacities with a microSD card slot. Great EQ settings. ~40-50 hours playback. Does gappless playback.

 

I strongly recommend doing your own research - especially about the HiFiMans because their sound is definitely controversial. It doesn't measure well on graphs but most people who have heard it say it blows everything else away - and that way you can make a informed decision. And if at the end of it you think you'd prefer another X5L go for it!


Edited by Hero Kid - 9/6/10 at 5:28pm
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post #6 of 6
9/7/10 at 10:16am
Thread Starter 

Thanks Hero Kid. It really helped me. I will look into those modded iPods and HM-601. Probably leave X5L behind.

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