[Chris J]

THere's no need to post examples, this is his problem

That is so sweet of you!
XX OO

 

[aangen]

I guess we need to re-title this thread "Help Skerry figure out why".

 

[uzi2]

That is so sweet of you!
XX OO

So why does highlighting a selection of poorly recorded material merit such a sarcastic response?

 

[aangen]

And of course the answer is "A balanced cable".

 

[uzi2]

  And of course the answer is "A balanced cable".

No no no, you'll be banished to the off-topic thread - X5 is single ended only...

 
 
Edit: I'm over my limit for giving a thumbs up to your post - hence the smiley...

 

[JaZZ]

I just listened to the linked tracks – with Foobar, via Toslink, 1) through the Corda Opera and its internal DAC, 2) through the Hugo. «Duality» and «End of the line» consist of heavily distorted electrical guitars, apart from that there's no foreign/disturbing distortion with both DACs/amps. «Seed of Gold» and «World painted Blood» have basically the same guitar distortion, but there are distortion components not so clearly attributable to the electric guitars (particularly on «Seed of Gold», although there they appear more clearly separated from the typical guitar distortion), although they may be caused by the guitars nonetheless. None of the recordings sounds like clipping due to too high recording level. What I can say is that with the Hugo the different sounds can be much better differentiated, so the distortion is clearly less irritating, as most of it is typical guitar distortion, whereas with the Opera it's less clear, so with the Opera experience alone I would understand the suspicion that the recordings are distorted – but in my opinion they're not.

 

[Chris J]

Let's try this way 

Track 1: Duality - Slipknot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GWwohI5h1w


Track 2: The End of the Line - Metallica 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT0CNhRuTEY

Track 3: Seeds of Gold - Closure in Moscow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZseL6VyddQ

Track 4: World Painted in Blood - Slayer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_PcXKk0adI


Here's what I got for DR

DR4       -0.29 dB    -6.12 dB      4:13 ?-Duality

DR4        0.00 dB    -5.18 dB      7:52 ?-End of the line

DR5       -0.19 dB    -7.04 dB      3:42 ?-Seed of gold

DR4        0.00 dB    -6.26 dB      5:53 ?-World painted blood

So far they sound fine via my iPad and ATH-ESW9 headphones.
The recordings aren't Hi Fi, but they sound typical for that genre.

 

[aangen]

Everybody knows if you are going to listen to death-metal a Hugo is the minimum requirement.

 

[uzi2]

  Everybody knows if you are going to listen to death-metal a Hugo is the minimum requirement.

Not the silver one,though... black is required

 

[elwappo99]

  I just listened to the linked tracks – with Foobar, via Toslink, 1) through the Corda Opera and its internal DAC, 2) through the Hugo. «Duality» and «End of the line» consist of heavily distorted electrical guitars, apart from that there's no foreign/disturbing distortion with both DACs/amps. «Seed of Gold» and «World painted Blood» have basically the same guitar distortion, but there are distortion components not so clearly attributable to the electric guitars (particularly on «Seed of Gold», although there they appear more clearly separated from the typical guitar distortion), although they may be caused by the guitars nonetheless. None of the recordings sounds like clipping due to too high recording level. What I can say is that with the Hugo the different sounds can be much better differentiated, so the distortion is clearly less irritating, as most of it is typical guitar distortion, whereas with the Opera it's less clear, so with the Opera experience alone I would understand the suspicion that the recordings are distorted – but in my opinion they're not.

 
 

So far they sound fine via my iPad and ATH-ESW9 headphones.
The recordings aren't Hi Fi, but they sound typical for that genre.

 
 
I also found close to no clipping on these songs. Listening  via Audio-GD Reference 1 --> Matrix M-stage / Burson Solosit --> Ultimate ears reference monitors at close to 90dB. Sorry, I'm out of ideas at the moment as to what is going on that you're getting so much clipping, @skerry2006aj.

 

[x RELIC x]

A few others have mentioned this and I thought I'd add to the fray. [flame suit on]

I like the sound of FW2.5. Seems to be less grain, clearer, faster. Never thought I'd say this. :eek:

 

[nmatheis]

  Everybody knows if you are going to listen to death-metal a Hugo is the minimum requirement.

No, no, no aangen.  I'm pretty sure you meant blackened melodic death prog metal, lol...

 

[Stratos24]

A few others have mentioned this and I thought I'd add to the fray. [flame suit on]

I like the sound of FW2.5. Seems to be less grain, clearer, faster. Never thought I'd say this.

Yep.  FW2.5 Sounds quite a bit better to my ears as well including better instrument separation.  The wheel also moves snappier and more precisely.  Well done, FiiO! 

 

[Koolpep]

Yep.  FW2.5 Sounds quite a bit better to my ears as well including better instrument separation.  The wheel also moves snappier and more precisely.  Well done, FiiO! 

The scratches on my X5 disappeared. The FW rocks.

 

[aangen]

I am listening to FW2.5 as I type this and it sounds really really swell.
I fear it makes my butt look larger than previous releases did. Sigh.