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Practical Devices XM6 (Overview and First Impressions) - Head-Fi TV, Episode 002 - Page 3

post #31 of 51
4/7/11 at 7:14am
Thread Starter 

Quote:
Originally Posted by chinesekiwi View Post

XM6 is insanely feature pack, maybe even too feature packed that it might confuse the user. Definitely like some of the features though, must say. Yeah early days yet on this vlog, needs editing Jude! :P


Yes, I know.  Most of all, conciseness needs improvement--I knew this one ran too long, but we went with it, rather than re-shoot it.  I'll get better at that.

 

And we also need to improve on proper camera focus, especially for closeups.  The camera we've been using has a very small viewfinder, and we're running its iris at f/2.6, so we have pretty thin DOF on closeups.  We're changing cameras soon, so that should help with that.

 

But, yes, that XM6 has a lot of features--a lot.  Once you get used to them, though, they're very easy to use.  And, when I switch to another portable amp, I find myself still reaching behind it for the media controller.

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post #32 of 51
4/7/11 at 7:53pm

oh man...xm6 looks soooo ugly... but the features seem really nice.

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post #33 of 51
4/8/11 at 9:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by KuKuBuKu View Post

oh man...xm6 looks soooo ugly... but the features seem really nice.


Beauty is in the eye's of the beholder, it's what's inside that count's!
 

 

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post #34 of 51
4/8/11 at 10:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frankie K View Post




Beauty is in the eye's of the beholder, it's what's inside that count's!
 

 

can't disagree with that.
 

 

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post #35 of 51
4/8/11 at 11:18am

It's awesome to be able to get a visual in-depth review-- amps and DAC sizes can be very misleading in photographs, not to mention a lot of reviews won't go over every single feature and what the actual function is.

After a few more episodes I say you pitch the podcast to a webTV site like Revision3.

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post #36 of 51
4/12/11 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by KuKuBuKu View Post

oh man...xm6 looks soooo ugly... but the features seem really nice.



get the color besides black might help tho wink_face.gif

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post #37 of 51
4/12/11 at 5:05pm

A thing to mention - the XM6 runs warm if you're using USB input. Not hot - I can still hold it and such like without discomfort - but I don't remember the XM5 ever getting warm running from USB.

 

-- Griffinhart

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post #38 of 51
4/12/11 at 11:44pm

Maybe the Wolfson dac runs hotter?

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post #39 of 51
4/12/11 at 11:55pm

Its more like the Wolfson DAC is extra.  The XM6 actually has the same TI DAC chip as the XM5 but the XM6 doesn't use the TI's DAC function.  The TI is an all-in-one USB transceiver, DAC, and amp on a chip.  The XM5 bypasses the amp functionality and uses its own much better amp circuit.  The XM6 bypasses the TI DAC as well.  It takes the the digital I2S stream from that TI USB chip and sends it to the SRC192 upsampler and then on to the WM847X for conversion into audio.  That's the conclusion I came to after studying the circuit board and the datasheets from TI and Wolfson anyway.

 

Long story, short.  The XM6 has way more crap packed into it so it makes sense that it would run warmer.

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post #40 of 51
4/13/11 at 12:10am

I'm curious then, wouldn't it make more sense to use just a dedicated usb transceiver chip rather than the all-in-one chip?

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post #41 of 51
4/13/11 at 1:17am
It might. I'd assume he went with it for reasons based on tooling and what there were already stocks of. It must have worked out cheaper to use that TI chip for some reason or else why would he have picked one with extra features that aren't needed in this application? Since that SRC192 is in the middle of the transceiver and the DAC, and (I think) reclocking everything, it shouldn't have any effect on SQ.

But then I'm not actually an expert, even if I do play one on the internet, so I could be wrong.
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post #42 of 51
9/19/11 at 4:47am

Hi Jude,

 

Any chance of doing a shootout between device alike, iBasso D4 & D12, RSA predator, headamp pico slim etc.SUBMIT Thank for the lovely video review btw!

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post #43 of 51
12/8/12 at 6:47am

Jude, thanks for your reviewing  work . Any chance of you posting a comparison, soundwise, of XM6 to the heavyweights of the portable amp world like Alo Audio National or Continental ? Or possibly Lisa L3 or SR-71A ?

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post #44 of 51
12/9/12 at 2:53pm

I owned a XM6 and i thought it sounded horrible. Might have been a faulty unit, but maybe not.

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post #45 of 51
12/10/12 at 7:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by zorin View Post

Jude, thanks for your reviewing  work . Any chance of you posting a comparison, soundwise, of XM6 to the heavyweights of the portable amp world like Alo Audio National or Continental ? Or possibly Lisa L3 or SR-71A ?

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by travisg View Post

I owned a XM6 and i thought it sounded horrible. Might have been a faulty unit, but maybe not.

Yea who knows... sound is subjective but here I am again looking up a prodcut because the add was catchy [well that womens face was pretty so...]

 

Non the less... don't think I'll ever own one so long as the O2 Dac exists. Although the combo feature is neat... off to other threads to read more about it :D 

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Head-Fi.org › Forums › Head-Fi Network & Industry News › Practical Devices XM6 (Overview and First Impressions) - Head-Fi TV, Episode 002