I'm sorry, this is a long thread to wade through. What are the "easy" aftermarket things I can do to the HE-500's besides changing the cable? What are good ear pad I can get and where can I get them? Is removing the foam thingie on the inside something that people do? Thanks

I have a slight hearing imbalance that is a little frequency dependent. For example, centering male vocals vs female vocals can have a slightly different balance setting. I usually just adjust things in software/at the source, but having a knob would make that a lot easier. However, it seems...

Well, the ER-4P's that I've had for 10+ years broke. The plastic that the foam/flange piece slots onto (where you put the filter) snapped off. Now I look at what's available and there are so many more options. It looks like the ER-4P/S got replaced with the 4SR/XR. I have no idea what...

Yes, every other device plays them perfectly: Foobar on PC, Poweramp on phone, FiiO X3, etc. Most of my mp3s are FLAC rips and I could possibly convert them to AAC or something that handles gapless better, but that requires extra work. And I do have some mp3s that I purchased as mp3s (couldn't...

I'm sure this has been asked a million times, but I'm looking for a budget android phone ($200) to use as a DAP with bluetooth in my car in a pretty decent tuned system. The phone needs microSD. I'll be using Poweramp and just want something that transmits bluetooth 4.1 with aptx. I'm not...

I'm sure this has been covered, but are there any suggestions for improving gapless playback? I still get gaps when I play lame mp3s at alt-preset-insane or 320kbps. It's quite the dealbreaker for me and I'm considering returning the unit, which I otherwise quite like.

Where did you get the custom 2.0 firmware? Is there a thread somewhere on this site?

I have a couple noob questions... thanks 1) Is there a trick to powering the thing up? Sometimes it powers up easily, sometimes I can't figure out how long to hold the power button to power itu p. 2) What kind of USB cable does it use? I'd like to get a spare one.

I just got this player and I really like it. I think the only thing I wish it had was a way to swap the physical volume buttons with the touch menu buttons. I'd much rather use the volume buttons as menu buttons and the menu buttons as volume, as I'm using the lineout primarily. I seem to...

I have not paid attention to FiiO X3 firmware lately.  Is there an updated firmware that fixes the cropping of the album art issue, or is v2.0 still the most up to date and final?

Is there a consensus on which ModMic is "better"?  Omnidirectional or unidirectional.  It seems like unidirectional would reduce echoes and whatever.   Also, what are people's experiences with dealing with the extra cable from using a ModMic?  I have a couple headphones that I'd like to use as...

Besides PS4-specific headsets with USB dongles/base stations, are there any options for using a headset + mic on a PS4 WITHOUT plugging into the PS4 controller?  I mainly play Street Fighter and I have a custom controller that doesn't have the 3.5mm plug.  It seems like I'd have to get the...

Deng, okay.  Thanks for the info.

Is FW 3.34b still the latest firmware for the original X3?

Does 3.34 not play mono mp3's?  I have audiobooks that aren't playing back properly when they were before.  I think they play because the play timer ticks properly, but the mono channel is not routed to both stereo channels and instead goes... nowhere.  Is this happening to anyone else?

Is there a consensus on the quality of the bass/treble controls on the E17?   Also, does anybody intentionally double-amp?  I've posted in this thread before, but I've been using the E17 as a sort of DAC, but I'm using its amp because it has convenient adjustments for L/R balanc (basically, I...

Thanks.  Are the different gain settings just a change in power drain mostly?

For what it's worth, I was having gapless playback issues with FW3.21b but not with FW3.2, so I'm using that.  Both 3.2 and 3.21b were perfectly stable for me.

Has anyone experimented with the different gain settings?  Is there a recommended one?   Thanks

Hello, I just jumped on the HE-500 bandwagon.  What are the break-in characteristics for it?  I listened for about an hour (straight out of the box) and the treble seemed kinda dead.  Does it open up over time?  Is that something that's amplifier dependent?  I'm hooking it up to a Meier Audio...

Too late for that!

Same.  I haven't run into any issues with fw 3.2 beta.  I'm still waiting for the album art un-cropping fix and playlist support, though.  And replaygain would be nice.

I finally tried 3.21b and gapless playback doesn't work like it's supposed to =(   I was listening to live recording MP3 encoded with lame at V1 or V0   EDIT: I tried 3.2 and had no issues with gapless playback there (with the same files).

  Thanks again for the replies.  I ended up jumping in and am quite happy.  It sounds great and 2 clicks to adjust balance is actually super convenient, probably as convenient as I could reasonably expect.  One more question... it seems that the balance (as well as the treble and the bass)...

  My hearing is ever so slightly worse with right ear, like 1-2 dB but it seems to vary with frequency somewhat.  Then I have allergies that screw up my sinuses and that messes up left/right hearing balance as well (iono if it's sinuses, like how hearing goes weird when ascending/descending in...