[SomeGuyDude]

Btr5 LDAC more treble than xdsd, but if you turn on 3d mode, which adds treble, it actually gets very close. Overall better sound though, for SURE. More oomph if you turn on bass boost as well. 60hz and below

Well I'm sold!

EDIT: I am un-sold. I don't like how it caps at AptX. I can live without LDAC but I was at least hoping for AptX-HD.

 

[Devodonaldson]

Well I'm sold!

EDIT: I am un-sold. I don't like how it caps at AptX. I can live without LDAC but I was at least hoping for AptX-HD.

Honestly, I thought I felt the same way, til I listened to the xdsd. I honestly don't really miss it, and this is coming from someone with btr5, and multiple aptx hd cables. XDSD Bluetooth does sound almost as good as wired. Again, the treble extension is what is slightly missing in APTX and the 3d button fixes that. Just like with TWS iems you lose treble extension because of the codec. Noble Falcon Pro have more extended treble, and I don't really miss better codecs due to the compensation. Xdsd sounds better than qudelix, and about every other Bluetooth portable DAC you can think of. Fiio Q5S USB C has LDAC, but I haven't heard it. You also have Sabre vs Burr Brown, and the implementation etc. Honestly the only other consideration, IMO

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Honestly, I thought I felt the same way, til I listened to the xdsd. I honestly don't really miss it, and this is coming from someone with btr5, and multiple aptx hd cables. XDSD Bluetooth does sound almost as good as wired. Again, the treble extension is what is slightly missing in APTX and the 3d button fixes that. Just like with TWS iems you lose treble extension because of the codec. Noble Falcon Pro have more extended treble, and I don't really miss better codecs due to the compensation. Xdsd sounds better than qudelix, and about every other Bluetooth portable DAC you can think of. Fiio Q5S USB C has LDAC, but I haven't heard it. You also have Sabre vs Burr Brown, and the implementation etc. Honestly the only other consideration, IMO

How does the xDSD sound over USB? I'm really thinking of making this my all-in-one. Think it'd be a decent desktop device?

 

[Devodonaldson]

How does the xDSD sound over USB? I'm really thinking of making this my all-in-one. Think it'd be a decent desktop device?

Sounds good over USB for sure. Not quite MOJO good, but good for sure. Took me awhile to really notice the MOJO was definitely better. With the 3d and bass on, these hit harder in the lows and have more treble sparkle than MOJO for sure. Another plus of the 3d, if you have mono recordings, brings it much closer to a stereo presentation. I've used it with older jazz re ordinal to bring the staging closer to normal. It works really well with mono to give a much better presentation. It is a good all-in-one as long as your headphones aren't too power hungry.

 

[Hanesu]

Btr5 LDAC more treble than xdsd, but if you turn on 3d mode, which adds treble, it actually gets very close. Overall better sound though, for SURE. More oomph if you turn on bass boost as well. 60hz and below

I

Hey everyone!

So I'm on the horns of picking up a used xDSD, looking to pair it with my Grado Hemp and Fiio FD5. The question is thusly: what kind of sound sig does this bad boy have? Would it pair well?

The idea is something that I can plug in at the desktop and carry around for wireless. The Fiio BTR5 doesn't feel like it's got enough oomph, and the Aune T1 Mk2 obviously isn't portable. Trying to marry the two.

I own both and agree with Devodonalson`s observation! Me, too, I really enjoy XDSDs 3D and Xbass modes. Both of them are done in a subtle but very effective way: they make the sound a little bit more exiting without overdoing or disturbing the rest of the frequencies...maybe the best "effect switches" I have ever used (usually I find those switches to make the sound signature of a device worse - not the case with the XDSD).
And I absolutely agree that the general SQ of the XDSD for sure is better than the Btr 5! If one listens closely, the XDSD sounds more layered, dynamic and more "velvety". The Btr5 sounds clean, no question, but also a little bit tinny and edgy from my experience.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Honestly, I thought I felt the same way, til I listened to the xdsd. I honestly don't really miss it, and this is coming from someone with btr5, and multiple aptx hd cables. XDSD Bluetooth does sound almost as good as wired. Again, the treble extension is what is slightly missing in APTX and the 3d button fixes that. Just like with TWS iems you lose treble extension because of the codec. Noble Falcon Pro have more extended treble, and I don't really miss better codecs due to the compensation. Xdsd sounds better than qudelix, and about every other Bluetooth portable DAC you can think of. Fiio Q5S USB C has LDAC, but I haven't heard it. You also have Sabre vs Burr Brown, and the implementation etc. Honestly the only other consideration, IMO

I own both and agree with Devodonalson`s observation! Me, too, I really enjoy XDSDs 3D and Xbass modes. Both of them are done in a subtle but very effective way: they make the sound a little bit more exiting without overdoing or disturbing the rest of the frequencies...maybe the best "effect switches" I have ever used (usually I find those switches to make the sound signature of a device worse - not the case with the XDSD).
And I absolutely agree that the general SQ of the XDSD for sure is better than the Btr 5! If one listens closely, the XDSD sounds more layered, dynamic and more "velvety". The Btr5 sounds clean, no question, but also a little bit tinny and edgy from my experience.

And I'm sold again!

Someone on eBay had a perfect condition (save smudges) xDSD for $250, so I grabbed it. I have an Aune T1 Mk2 at my desk but I actually think this might replace that as well. The T1 is nice for a $200 dac/amp combo, but it's also a fake tube amp since the tube isn't connected to the amplifier circuitry. Really excited for this.

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

And I'm sold again!

Someone on eBay had a perfect condition (save smudges) xDSD for $250, so I grabbed it. I have an Aune T1 Mk2 at my desk but I actually think this might replace that as well. The T1 is nice for a $200 dac/amp combo, but it's also a fake tube amp since the tube isn't connected to the amplifier circuitry. Really excited for this.

Let me know what you think of it!

For future reference, USA folks, we do have a few more sealed xDSD units that are the Micro USB version we'd be happy to give a good deal on.

Just PM me if you're interested!

 

[RockStar2005]

Hey everyone!

So I'm on the horns of picking up a used xDSD, looking to pair it with my Grado Hemp and Fiio FD5. The question is thusly: what kind of sound sig does this bad boy have? Would it pair well?

The idea is something that I can plug in at the desktop and carry around for wireless. The Fiio BTR5 doesn't feel like it's got enough oomph, and the Aune T1 Mk2 obviously isn't portable. Trying to marry the two.

Nice!

I've had the xDSD for a few years now, and can say it pairs well with just about anything. It def has added more "oomph" to my music, even if it is semi-wireless in its design, but that doesn't seem to matter at all honestly. In comparing it to my old LG V30's "Quad DAC" (Sabre), it was clearly a notch or two above what the Quad DAC was putting out, and that was fully wired. I couldn't recommend this product more, even if it is kinda pricey (but used obviously would make it even more worth it)!

I use it primarily for home use (with my OTHER pride and joy..........the open-back AKG K702), but I HAVE used it in the past when I take train rides into the city (Chicago) from the nearby suburbs where I live. That was back when I was using wired headphones for travel. But now I just use what I use when I workout, which are the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ BT earphones (tuned by AKG, and sound EXCELLENT, esp with my custom EQ in Poweramp). So b/c they are BT, I can't use the xDSD even if I wanted to. But when traveling with all the distractions and noise, I don't feel you're really gonna catch every detail the way you do when you're in a quiet environment at home with MINIMAL distractions at best. So it's all good!

Hope this helped brotha!

 

[RockStar2005]

Btr5 LDAC more treble than xdsd, but if you turn on 3d mode, which adds treble, it actually gets very close. Overall better sound though, for SURE. More oomph if you turn on bass boost as well. 60hz and below

Hey Devo. Been a while man......................


Interesting. Thx for sharing that info!

Yeah I wish iFi would add LDAC as an option, but that's good to know about 3D mode leveling the treble in that way, b/c I do keep that enabled and in at least SOME cases HAVE noticed an improvement with it on.

I don't feel the need for the Bass Boost though, but I know everyone's very particular about how much bass is ENOUGH bass, so I recommend everyone test it out and see if it's for them or not.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

By and large I'm not a fan of bass boost or the like. I've yet to find a device that didn't end up feeling pretty unnatural. I also don't keep headphones if I feel like they need a device to sound the way I want them to. I'll look for a bit of gentle tweaking from the amp/DAC's natural output, but that's all. The LDAC was a touch brittle at times so if the xDSD isn't as sharp, I'll call that a good thing.

On wireless I'll probably be just using 320kbps files anyway, so AptX gives me enough overhead. LDAC still has to compress for FLAC regardless so the more I think about it the more pointless that seems.

We'll find out how these pair with the Fiio FD5 and Grado Hemp on Monday (provided they don't show up early).

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

We'll find out how these pair with the Fiio FD5 and Grado Hemp on Monday (provided they don't show up early).

Had the Hemp + xDSD pairing for a while on my end. It seemed to pair really well with our house sound! FD5 I don't know much about.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Had the Hemp + xDSD pairing for a while on my end. It seemed to pair really well with our house sound! FD5 I don't know much about.

That's what I was hoping. The Fiio sound seems a bit lean and I'm always kinda suspicious of that Aune T1, meanwhile I had a bad experience with a Mojo so the xDSD seems to have slotted in perfectly.

I'll be giving some in-depth impressions once it arrives with both sets of headphones.

 

[RockStar2005]

By and large I'm not a fan of bass boost or the like. I've yet to find a device that didn't end up feeling pretty unnatural. I also don't keep headphones if I feel like they need a device to sound the way I want them to. I'll look for a bit of gentle tweaking from the amp/DAC's natural output, but that's all. The LDAC was a touch brittle at times so if the xDSD isn't as sharp, I'll call that a good thing.

On wireless I'll probably be just using 320kbps files anyway, so AptX gives me enough overhead. LDAC still has to compress for FLAC regardless so the more I think about it the more pointless that seems.

We'll find out how these pair with the Fiio FD5 and Grado Hemp on Monday (provided they don't show up early).

Yeah LDAC will still compress, but at 990 kbps, that compression is pretty minimal from FLAC's (1411 - 990 = 421 kbps) vs. 320 kbps (1411 - 320 = 1091 kbps).

Having said all that, I still can't say for sure if I could notice a difference though. I downsample ALL my FLAC Hi-Res purchases to 256-320 kbps AAC (never MP3), and 99% of my purchases over the last few years have come from iTunes Store, which offers the same Hi-Res albums (labeled as "Apple Digital Masters", with all others being confirmed by an iTunes Store manager as being CD-Quality) at like half the cost b/c they do the downsampling for me, which saves me time, space (on both my phone and cloud storage), and money! Also battery life too as an extra bonus since FLAC takes more power to play than a 320 kbps AAC file.

I still to this day cannot hear a difference vs. the original FLAC version. But I def can in many cases from 320 kbps AAC and like 192 MP3. I wonder though if somehow using LDAC at 990 kbps would somehow improve the sound in any way vs. aptX at its max, which is 576 kbps?? Prob not lol, but I'm not 100% sure about it. Open to hearing people's opinions though.

 

[Angular Mo]

It seems to want to be in line out mode when I connect spdif cable; any suggestions to get back the volume knob control?

 

[Sphere 57]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of purchasing a DAP to use as a transport with my xDSD. Fiio M6 seems to fit my needs, in that it supports offline Qobuz and Tidal, including MQA to an xDSD, I think?

Does anybody have experience of this pairing, if so, how well does it work?

Or any other other DAP recommendations?