If you use a bit of flux, it would be very easy for a novice solderer to flush a bit of solder over a twisted pair of wires like that, before wrapping some tape over them, separately of course. Heat wouldn't be an issue then, even if it would have been without the solder, but that's doubtful too.

When I switch from my Graham Slee Solo to the C5 I hear something very different that's not just a tonality change. I HAVE to ask, is there a DSP (or otherwise) processing thing going on in the C5. E.g., stereo widening ?

Avoiding introducing DSP ( or poor analog ) EQ is an objective worth keeping central to the whole idea, I think. Even inductance, capacitance and resistance must be handled very preciously, but at least they are in the analog realm.

I like Picard. I only discovered it last year so I'm probably not using it correctly yet. It has one 'fault' that annoys me greatly, at least when I use it as it comes, perhaps there are settings/tweaks that will stop it doing it. It often identifies a track as belonging to a different album to...

Most of the other software for CD ripping will take care of artwork and track info too. The one I use uses the freedb on line database to get the info ( using the embedded ID code on every factory made CD ). It almost never fails to find the right info. Artwork too. Sometimes it fails but...

I've never used WMP for CD ripping so I can't advise you about the possibilties in the options, if it has any. I use 'Exact Audio Copy' but there are loads of others to choose from.

The files you have already made from CD rips that are WMA or whatever other lossy format are what they are and don't even think of converting them UP to a higher resolution. If you still have all the CDs, you can start from scratch and make higher resolution format files from them. Remember that...

errr, perhaps I'm confusing you with the concept of high power delivery ? POWER = volts X current. ( current is what exhausts the battery, by the way ) Percieved volume is volts. If those volts ( or millivolts ) are not backed up by high current delivery capability in the circuit, those...

The NX1 output is a headphone out ( low impedance, high power delivery ). In lowfi situations, that probably doesn't make a noticable difference to the tonality of the sound but will usually be noticable with high end kit at the back end of the chain. The 'hi-fi' line in is a high impedance...

Line out is a high impedance, low power delivery circuit. You can't draw much power from a line out.

I hope someone with experience of large numbers of files can help you with that. I really only use the player to pop a small card in with a few fresh files.

No, I think it was hardware, but Vortex did a software adjustment. That might have something to do with why the rockbox sound is not as nice as the the original. Only a guess tho'. Didn't I read here somewhere that rockbox uses the battery up faster than the original ? If Xduoo only had to fix...

Are you guys really sure you can't hear the slow down-paced "sleepy" sound of the 44.1k files ? It drove me nuts. :) It seems VERY unlikely that XDUOO fixed it. They just abandoned it and moved on, as far as I could see. They'd have to re design the board and set the clock multipliers (or...

You've got the right idea. It's a good sounding player and the rockboxed version doesn't have that same good sound. If they hadn't screwed up the speed of 44.1k files it was a genius player. I know it plays DSD files perfectly because I managed to test that before I got locked into rockbox.