[autoexec]

Really no disrespect to ppl who love to listen their music on Apple devices, and for those who still talking about the "godly" Gen 3 iPod with Lineout blah blah blah BS... is the biggest joke ever.

I bought iPod once, and I owned it for like 15 mins, worst purchase of my life ever!!!!

I think you're a bit exaggerating here. iPods sound at least decent to me (I was actually referring to iPod touch 4 and up). They only start to sound bad when compared to the hires DAPs like the X5 using revealing 'phones.

 

[issachar1943]

I think you're a bit exaggerating here. iPods sound at least decent to me (I was actually referring to iPod touch 4 and up). They only start to sound bad when compared to the hires DAPs like the X5 using revealing 'phones.

 
No, I mean it. I bought it and listened to it for 15 mins, and I sold it to my friend.

 

[sandalaudio]

   
ClieOS, you are right, it's EVIL.
 
I just figured the answer myself and I was hoping I was wrong before I tested it. 
 
As the available adjustment for Custom EQ is 6db, it looks like a very reasonable answer to my question. So I simply turn the all bands up to +6db. BANG, it now sounds just like Normal.
 
Which means, there's no EQ on X5 at all. This is a HUGE disappointment. 

 
This 6dB drop is standard for digital EQ.
 
The alternative is to have no dB drop, like the EQ on iTunes, where the signal clips as soon as you bump up any of the frequencies.
 
A few years ago there was a hype called "perfect EQ" setting on iTunes that makes everything sound magically better (lots of hits if you search on Google). It turned out that the signal was saturated causing digital clip, which made the music sound edgy and "exciting". This is not Hi-Fi.

 

[sandalaudio]

  A friend gave me some DSD to try but they wont play. They are .dsf but got a feeling I read here that X5 plays .dff with the latest beta s/w.  Any idea if I can convert or what the difference is? Will X5 ever play .dsf?  Really out of curiosity just to give them a go.

 
Did you try playing the same files on a PC with a DSD player (Foobar, JRiver, Audirvana, etc)?
I have about 100 albums on both DSF and DFF64 and they play fine on my X5.

 

[CH23]

Really no disrespect to ppl who love to listen their music on Apple devices, and for those who still talking about the "godly" Gen 3 iPod with Lineout blah blah blah BS... is the biggest joke ever.

I bought iPod once, and I owned it for like 15 mins, worst purchase of my life ever!!!!

There's your problem. You can't possibly get to know any device within 15 minutes.

This is why i don't make any real judgement towards new albums/devices/etc. before having had had it for a few days.

On topic:

Is there a way to reset the custom EQ to it's "unset" levels?

 

[MickeyVee]

Not sure abut dissing Apple products.  I've been living with an iPod Classic U2 edition for about 6 years and it's been decent.  I'm now running it with Grado RS1i and it's time to upgrade.  I do have an X5 on order and should have it by the end of the month. Really looking forward to it.
Remeber that we're a niche and the general populus is pretty happy with the various iDevices.

 

[ptravel]

  Not sure abut dissing Apple products.  I've been living with an iPod Classic U2 edition for about 6 years and it's been decent.  I'm now running it with Grado RS1i and it's time to upgrade.  I do have an X5 on order and should have it by the end of the month. Really looking forward to it.
Remeber that we're a niche and the general populus is pretty happy with the various iDevices.

I have been happy with my iPod Classic, as well.  However, since getting my X5, I haven't touched the iPod.  It's a good little device.  The X5 is just better.

 

[robm321]

How about compared to iMod? 

 

[ptravel]

  How about compared to iMod? 

I don't know what that is.

 

[angeche]

I wouldn't mind reading your explanation as to why you think you know more about audio signal processing than a telecom engineer.

I'm a power engineer, a lot of this is out of my field of expertise.
But then, most of this is far outside anyone else here's field of expertise.

Somewhere along the line, everyone started to think they were experts.
What the hell happened to civilization?
Respect for the skill of specialized trades?
Respect for craftsmen?

Well, I almost feel guilty of having iniciated such a fire with my rather innocent comment....

My friend, he is brilliant, a science mind, and his statement is based on factual science (as many people have argued).

Me, not a scientist, but someone who has been raised with audio gear around. My father owned a bit of hi fi gear:thorens turntabler, sm tonearm, Shure magnetic coils, Nakamichi, Stax headphones, etc..... That was forty years ago....I had myself bought the best audio I could afford:Stax SR-5 headphones, Harman Kardon hifi gear, mission speakers, I even had a baby stax and a high end sony portable cd player....

Lately I had lost the interest in music. I had an ipad classic but I was missing the sounds from the cds.....although. I was not aware of this...
Then I stepped by chance on the issue of Flac files and DAPs like fiio. I gave it a try and I was shocked to see the difference between the X3 and the ipod classic. I could see (read hear) the difference, it was shouting at me....

So although my brain tells me my friend is right, my heart/ear tells me he is wrong....

But the only way to know it for sure is trying a blind taste of mp3 vs flac, hd tracks vs cds, ipods vs fiios, etc.......

 

[Canaudio]

Well, I almost feel guilty of having iniciated such a fire with my rather innocent comment....

I think the word you're groping for is "initiated".  I'll be back when this OT virus has burned itself out.

 

[schwim]

Two questions:

1. Does anyone know when the next "batch" of X5s is coming down the pike here is the US? I don't want to pay the $65 premium currently being charged at the only place I can find it online.

2. Has anyone experienced the X5 with the Shure SRH1540? I'm getting this as my first quality set of headphones and should have them in hand tomorrow. Very exciting... let the addiction begin.

Thanks

 

[AndrewH13]

  I have about 10 albums in .dsf format and the X5 plays them with no problem.

 
 

  All my DSD file are .dsf and play fine except for a small pop/click between song on X5. If you want to convert .dsf to .dff AudioGate software by KORG does it very well, you must have a Twitter account if you don't own one of their players.

 
 

The X5 plays both DSF and DFF but it has to be DSD64 not DSD128.

 
 

   
Did you try playing the same files on a PC with a DSD player (Foobar, JRiver, Audirvana, etc)?
I have about 100 albums on both DSF and DFF64 and they play fine on my X5.

 
Thanks guys, its prompted me to load then again, and they are all playing now, and sounding rather nice

.  Sounds like Steve Howe and Jon Anderson are in the room with me!

 

[M-13]

I upgraded to the Beta 1.23, and found that the X5 just turns off randomnly after it's done playing a track. This is normal? Again, I'm not complaining I'm just wondering if I'm doing something wrong.
 
*btw where can I get firmware 1.20 if I want to regress back to it? This turning off thing is kind of getting annoying.

 

[fleasbaby]

I upgraded to the Beta 1.23, and found that the X5 just turns off randomnly after it's done playing a track. This is normal? Again, I'm not complaining I'm just wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

*btw where can I get firmware 1.20 if I want to regress back to it? This turning off thing is kind of getting annoying.

Odd...I upgraded to 1.23 almost 2 weeks ago, no problems like that at all...is it something in the settings?