[jbr1971]

Slow reply....
Been away from this thread for awhile and now just catching up again.

Ay advice ... Look up something called the K10 from Noble Audio. Easy to drive directly from the X5 (also from any other portable source I've tried), much more portable than full sized cans aaaaand most importantly ... eargasm!

 
I received the Noble K10 Universals I won at RMAF CanJam yesterday & with everything I have had a chance to put through them they sound amazing.
 
As expected (given the number of drivers & price) the sound is worlds above my Westone W4r's. The differences in clarity, soundstage, & fullness of sound when playing from the X5 & my desktop system are astounding. I am hearing things in songs that I have never heard before. I would dare to compare them to many of the higher end cans I listened to at CanJam.
 
As monkeybone mentioned, the X5 drives them easily in low gain mode. I currently have the volume at 65 & they are plenty loud. I would imagine an external amp would yield some slight gains, but I think it would be hard pressed to beat the stock sound by a large margin.

 

[Retrias]

X5 for me won mostly on the front of being well better, the stuff you cant EQ or DSP is better , while the stuff you can DSP is either the same or more correct

 

[62ohm]

 

  I have a loaner FiiO X5 (thanks, Paul!) coming in today, really excited to see how it sounds with the K812, and to see if I'm going to go with a dac/amp for an android phone or the DAP route instead. 

When I was at TAVES a few weeks ago I went into the Woo audio room and there was a person listening to a pair of Audeze headphones. On a rack at the back of the chair he was sitting in was a pair of K812's. I picked them up to have a look, with the thought of trying them with my X5, when the man in the chair turned around and said,"Those are mine." I apologized, and he said, " No problem you can look at them." After that I didn't have the gall to ask if I could try them out with my X5. I'm sure they would have sounded great even though that is most likely not the application a set of headphones like that were designed for. They appear very well built.
 
BTW, the gentleman in the chair was listening to the Audeze's through a pair of $15,000 Woo Audio mono block headphone amplifiers. Hey, they had them on special for the show at just $11,000. I didn't get a chance to hear them either as there was quite the lineup, although one person I asked said they were by far the best sounding headphone amp he has ever heard. They had better be for that price.

 
I'd be sure to post how the X5 perform with the K812, how it performs as a DAC for the HDVA600, and how it does as a transport/USB-COAX converter for my DAC1.

 

[elwappo99]

I don't recall this being discussed, and I don't see a lot of comments so I thought I'd ask if anyone has had much luck / improvement using the drivers here:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/729521/fiio-x3-x5-usb-drivers-for-windows-only

 

[BubbaBob]

...

 

[Brooko]

  I don't recall this being discussed, and I don't see a lot of comments so I thought I'd ask if anyone has had much luck / improvement using the drivers here:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/729521/fiio-x3-x5-usb-drivers-for-windows-only

 
X5 drivers worked perfectly on both my Netbook and home PC.  Just note that for Win 8/8.1 you need to force the install (UAC tries to block it).

 

[nothing4me]

I know you can use the X5 as a USB DAC for your computer. How much of a delay is there though? I'd like to use this for gaming as well. Thank you.

 

[Brooko]

  I know you can use the X5 as a USB DAC for your computer. How much of a delay is there though? I'd like to use this for gaming as well. Thank you.

 
No DSP - so why would you want to use it for gaming?  I can't really see the point.  For gaming I still use my Titanium X-fi.

 

[nothing4me]

   
No DSP - so why would you want to use it for gaming?  I can't really see the point.  For gaming I still use my Titanium X-fi.

I kinda wanted just one DAC+amp device for everything (desktop + portable). Currently have an O2 + ODAC for desktop use.

 

[62ohm]

 

   
No DSP - so why would you want to use it for gaming?  I can't really see the point.  For gaming I still use my Titanium X-fi.

I kinda wanted just one DAC+amp device for everything (desktop + portable). Currently have an O2 + ODAC for desktop use.

 
What about the Centrance HiFi-M8? Balanced portable amp/dac good enough for desktop use, can be plugged to iDevice & android to create a portable setup (according to them, I'm a bit skeptical on its android compatibility).

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

 
Can this be considered the same way (on the pc to the SD) of a firmware upgrade? I know the UI and stuff are different but as far as dragging and dropping is this pretty much the way?
 
Mine should be in hand in the next couple days and after update firmware I am throwing one of those custom themes (Matrix) at it

 
Thanks in advance for any help/confirmation

 

[Dobrescu George]

yes, it is pretty much similar... just drag and drop on root of 1st card, left one, and that is pretty much it.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  I don't recall this being discussed, and I don't see a lot of comments so I thought I'd ask if anyone has had much luck / improvement using the drivers here:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/729521/fiio-x3-x5-usb-drivers-for-windows-only

I am testing right now, it sounds better overall, especially lower distorsions with minimum latency settings. 
 
It seems improoved, will post updates if i observe them.

 

[Loquah]

   
I received the Noble K10 Universals I won at RMAF CanJam yesterday & with everything I have had a chance to put through them they sound amazing.
 
As expected (given the number of drivers & price) the sound is worlds above my Westone W4r's. The differences in clarity, soundstage, & fullness of sound when playing from the X5 & my desktop system are astounding. I am hearing things in songs that I have never heard before. I would dare to compare them to many of the higher end cans I listened to at CanJam.
 
As monkeybone mentioned, the X5 drives them easily in low gain mode. I currently have the volume at 65 & they are plenty loud. I would imagine an external amp would yield some slight gains, but I think it would be hard pressed to beat the stock sound by a large margin.

 
Congrats!
 
Don't be so sure about not beating the stock sound by much - the K10s scale incredibly well (more so than even some other TOTL IEMs like SE846s)

 

[Dobrescu George]

how has everyone got the settings for x5 usb DAC mode?... i mean, what buffer and what USB streaming mode works best?... everyone uses wasapi with foobar?