Here's another question, if anyone is listening. I had a problem with my home DAC, so I connected my X5 and set it to DAC mode, connected to my headphone amp. The display on the X5 reads 44kHz/24bit for all the files I've tried to play. I'm using Tidal, and have played their "Master" files...

Can't help you with the FH3 question, but perhaps there's something wrong with your X5, or perhaps you're overloading your FH3s. Make sure you have the volume range set to low.

My understanding is that the plastic film wrapping over the stators and drivers is there for two reasons. First is to keep dust out of the drivers. Second is to protect users from electric shock, as the stators are charged to a high voltage.   I believe you'll find that pretty much every...

Redwood would be way to soft to be practical.

Some, including Kevin Gilmore, have reported that the third party Stax plug, which I believe is made by Amphenol, isn't an exact match for the Stax outlets on the Stax-made amps or the outlets that Kevin and Birgir have replicated for the Mjolnir Audio amps.

Yes, well, don't think that hasn't escaped my notice. Waiting for a ship to come in right now, so it's not in the cards at the moment, but it might be in a couple of months.

There certainly are now. I can't say for certain, but I'm pretty sure that when I looked the other night there were only the three of the box available, and no arrows to get to the others, because I looked for them. But you're right, and they headphones look real nice. Wish I could afford 'em...

I'd be very suspicious of headphones offered for sale on eBay where the auction page doesn't include a picture of the actual headphones on offer. Something's fishy.

Are you looking at the ER-4S or ER-4P? I always wonder why people get the ER-4S when they can get the ER-4P, with lower impedance and greater efficiency, and slightly flatter bass to my eyes, and to my ears more neutral sound overall, although I don't think that's Etymotic's claim. And with a...

Yes, that's the one. Subjectively they were about the same level to 15kHz then started appearing to decline with 16kHz. Again, that's to be expected at my age; what's not is that I could hear the 18kHz tone at all, and even the 17kHz one.

I don't know if I buy it. I could hear all the tones on that site--even the 18kHz, albeit very faintly, but the 17kHz was pretty loud and clear. I'm 56 years old and have been listening to rock'n'roll, amplified jazz and orchestral classical music my whole life. My mother, whose degree was in...

'Scuse me, but what could be more Pono-related than this discussion? I generally try to stay out of these often pointless hi-rez vs. redbook and analogue vs. digital discussions, only to find myself drawn in eventually, because they are so often didactic, and characterized by folks arguing past...

Makes the car stereo sound better--by which I mean it's the best input I've yet heard, including the car stereo's own CD player, although I can't compare the two, as the CD player gave out about three years ago. The car is a 2006 Saab, and you don't get rid of those short of 250,000 miles, even...

I have generally decided to stay out of these debates, but I thought I'd stick my nose in just to provide plots of what the interference patterns JaZZ is suggesting you sample would look like. Of course, sampled at 44.1kHz, they'll just look like pure sine waves. But sampled at the higher...

I often use my X5 in the car, and my car has never sounded better. I've been taking lots of moderate to long trips lately, as I have a kid who's doing the college shopping tour, and fortunately he likes a lot of my music.   I've never got along well with Sirius XM. Compressed digital crap. The...

Yes, I should have noted that Comply makes many options for the tips. Indeed, I started using the T-100 model, but then realized, when my son's Etymotics got all clogged with earwax and I had to change his filters (he's 17 and you know how teenagers are), that I hadn't changed my filters in...

H2OFidelity, you might want to try the Comply foam tips for your ER-4Ss. I've been using them for a couple of years and find them to be far more comfortable than any of the three options that Etymotic offers. I can use my ER-4Ps for a whole lot longer with them.

I can't imagine what this "steely" treble he's hearing is all about. I hear no such thing. I usually listen through my Etymotic ER4-Ps straight out of the HO, and occasionally use my son's ATH-M50s or my other son's DT770/250s, and have tried my ESP-950s a couple of times, both during and after...

Aha! I assumed from your original question on this topic that you had made a purchase. Indeed, this is the way I remember it working, with the download manager installing after the first purchase and opening after each subsequent purchase, although the first was quite a while ago, and my memory...

I've always used the download manager. I don't think there's any other way to extract the files. At least no other easy way.   It should work. If you continue to have problems, why don't you try communicating with HDTracks help or customer service. They want you to be able to buy their product.

No, I've used HDTracks on a Mac. I'll get ALAC files and put them into iTunes.

And when you refer to more advanced EQ, do you mean you want Fiio to add some parametric capability? I suspect a lot of headphones could benefit by two or three channels of parametric EQ rather than the kind of broad brush correction that graphic EQ provides, but there aren't very many people...

I'm confused about why some are saying that the line out would be designed to have high, or relatively high, output impedance. On Fiio's listing of specs for the X5, there's only one output impedance listed, and that says <0.26 ohms, which is a perfectly respectable number. What I learned many...

Well, to respond to what Akroma is trying to find out about, the line out should be a little bit cleaner than the headphone out, since there's no volume control in the circuit. There is an amplifier, just no volume control. In the noisy environment of a car, it shouldn't make a big difference...

Not as easy as it sounds. Dave has put up for sale and presumably sold off a significant number of his headphones and, I believe, some of his amps, so he wouldn't even be able to do the comparisons that would be necessary, even if he were both willing and able. And I suspect he is neither, which...