[ucan]

I have never seen the need for the crossfeed option (there's one on my FIIO E12), but recently I purchased a FIIO X5iii DAP and began to notice that the vocals always seem to be coming from somewhere slightly left of centre instead of, as is usual, dead centre. This started to annoy me. I switched headphones--same thing, so they are not the issue. I listened again to music from the computer (JRiver) through my iFi iGalvanic 3.0 > IDAC2 > ICAN and sure enough vocals are dead centre there. Now, is this a fault with the X5iii? Anyway, lo and behold, the crossfeed switch on the E12 eliminates the problem...shifts the vocals from 30-40 degrees left of centre to the centre position, same as you would get from listening to speakers. Anyone shed any light on this? It's not so much a crossfeed question...more of a why is this DAP doing this? And, I note that the crossfeed option somewhat degrades the clarity of the music being played, or changes it in some way that is hard to describe...some might say 'less fatiguing' but I am not sure what that is really.

P.S. I haven't had the DAP for very long, so maybe it's an adjustment phase for my ears...who knows.

 

[Rhamnetin]

I don't like it. It centers the sound stage more but I hear degradation in sound quality with my Hugo 2.

 

[ucan]

Ha! Fixed the problem with the left of centre vocals... I had 'Differential Surround' ticked in Viper effects. Whew! It was neither my ears or my DAP, but the damn Viper. Maybe snake oil after all (joke..ha ha)

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I have never seen the need for the crossfeed option (there's one on my FIIO E12), but recently I purchased a FIIO X5iii DAP and began to notice that the vocals always seem to be coming from somewhere slightly left of centre instead of, as is usual, dead centre. This started to annoy me. I switched headphones--same thing, so they are not the issue. I listened again to music from the computer (JRiver) through my iFi iGalvanic 3.0 > IDAC2 > ICAN and sure enough vocals are dead centre there. Now, is this a fault with the X5iii? Anyway, lo and behold, the crossfeed switch on the E12 eliminates the problem...shifts the vocals from 30-40 degrees left of centre to the centre position, same as you would get from listening to speakers. Anyone shed any light on this? It's not so much a crossfeed question...more of a why is this DAP doing this? And, I note that the crossfeed option somewhat degrades the clarity of the music being played, or changes it in some way that is hard to describe...some might say 'less fatiguing' but I am not sure what that is really.

P.S. I haven't had the DAP for very long, so maybe it's an adjustment phase for my ears...who knows.

There's something wrong with the X5III. Crossfeed isn't supposed to correct off-center vocals, it just filters sound across both channels so everything will spaced out proportionally relative to each other, unlike having it implied that the drummer has ridiculously long arms to hit cymbals that are where the guitars are, while also creating some sense of depth so it sounds a lot less like the vocalist and drummer are phase-shifted to occupy the same space on this plane.