[cj3209]

Listening to XB10 via balanced to Angies, source is LG V20 via aptX HD and Spotify at extreme streaming.

I'm impressed, mightily impressed.

 

[Amacbrown]

Just got mine yesterday, Iphone 7+.  I had been using a Mojo for commuting which was lovely but very cumbersome.  Changed that to a Dragonfly Red about a week ago and initially was super impressed, that was until the CCK Audio bug was noticed.  So annoying that there is no solution for this, AudioQuest suggested buying the USB3 cable but that thing is not neat and I would be embarrassed having it on view when traveling around London....I digress .... So far the XB10 is performing really well.  I had also tried the Creative E3 and Sony SBH54 both Bluetooth and they were noticeably worse than the DFR.  The XB10 is not noticeable as worse just yet, its shortcomings will present themselves I suspect but this is nothing compared to the incessant clicks you get from the DFR.  No one has so far mentioned the DCT filter option in the XB10 ?  There is a slight diff with it and perhaps this is aiding the naturalness of the XB10 vs the slightly unnaturalness of the E3 and SBH54.  I have IE800 and what annoyed me a bit was that the clip is orientated upside down, I had hoped to have a very tight solution clipped to the shirt and then to the IE800 directly via a short 2.5mm to 3.5mm.  The only cable I can find that will allow for this is 10cm on Amazon, 5cm would be perfect!.  On another note I had a quick test last night on the IMAC via forced APTX and then XB10 vs DFR (no clicks on IMAC) and Mojo was really quite close.  My choice of music undoubtedly had something to do with that, for me 90% is Apple music and so 256AAC playback quality is what is important and the XB10 does that very well!.  This weekend I will have more time to assess and firm up my view

 

[cj3209]

 No one has so far mentioned the DCT filter option in the XB10 ?

 
What is this DCT filter option in the XB10?  It doesn't google...

 

[Amacbrown]

Radsone DCT (Distinctive Clear Technology™)

You can turn it on and off, it's something that LG also uses. The company is called Radstone

 

[jonstatt]

Radsone DCT (Distinctive Clear Technology™)

You can turn it on and off, it's something that LG also uses. The company is called Radstone

I think that you overlooked the fact that most people had not read the impossibly small instruction book. This is a Korean originated technology, DCT that AK had already licensed some time ago but to my knowledge not used until now. This mode is enabled by holding down the play button on the XB10 for 5 seconds. The LED will show a green indication.

 

[k4syx]

Yes you're right about reading the manuals - thanks for the tip!


Also, on a bit different subject but it maybe usefull to XB10 owners.

Recently I've tried XB10 with Windows10 notebook (as W10 is supposed to support AptX) and though the setup was working fine the sound was flat and lifeless. I was suspecting that there is no aptx codec in use and I was right. After some googling I've found that if you have Intel bluetooth card/solution/all-in-one in order to be able to use AptX you HAVE to use Intel provided bluetooth stack - basically you need to install Intel drivers from their site replacing Windows10 defaults.

The change is very real, now foobar2000 on my Revolve sounds exactly like Neutron on my S7Edge. Foot tapping factor: present

 

[rptlead]

Listening to XB10 via balanced to Angies, source is LG V20 via aptX HD and Spotify at extreme streaming.

I'm impressed, mightily impressed.

i bought the sony 1000x to pair it with my lgv20.. if this combo is that good with tidal, I am doing a 1 day shipping and returning the sony now and will try this with my layla and ether c 1.1. lol

 

[cj3209]

  i bought the sony 1000x to pair it with my lgv20.. if this combo is that good with tidal, I am doing a 1 day shipping and returning the sony now and will try this with my layla and ether c 1.1. lol

Does the 1000x have aptX HD?  I think it only has LDAC so you're only getting 'regular BT' with the V20  - which doesn't sound great.

 

[jonstatt]

Does the 1000x have aptX HD?  I think it only has LDAC so you're only getting 'regular BT' with the V20  - which doesn't sound great.

It has aptX

 

[cj3209]

It has aptX

Very surprised.  I wish SONY would allow more companies to license their LDAC codec for BT but I forget this is sony.

 

[Traveller]

To start things on-topic I find it very interesting that many of you bought the XB10 to use to connect with your portable DAPs. Sure, I can imagine that being "tied to" a 23g puck is a lot easier than to a +300g AK380Cu 

My personal quest is to connect any of my Headphones / IEMs to my "PC Tower" which is essentially my multimedia center. When I'm not gaming on that beast, I am watching a DVD/BluRay via 5.1 setup. However, on those occasional late nights when my lady falls asleep next to me and I want to watch something, I go BT. For now, I'm limited to my non-audiophile Phiaton PS210BTNCs; Works, but no where nearly as good as my audiophile gear. Then I thought about going with B&W's P7Ws... until the XB10 and tbh more importantly, AptX HD came on to the scene 

Granted, I'm not sure how necessary 24-bit connectivity is given the goal is DVD/BluRay but now my goal is to see if I can get my hands on an AptX HD capable BT dongle for my PC on one end and the XB10 in the other end. This will allow me to at least enjoy my HP/IEMs, selecting the ones which best fit the situation (if she starts to snore, I'll have to go with more isolation, etc...

)
Ultimately, it will be a question of XB10's flexibility vs. [perhaps] a dedicated BT headphone with a better DAC (or even a pure digital solution).
 
If anyone here (*cough* @Giogio *cough*) owns both the XB10 and a pair of "TOTL" BT headphones (P7Ws, Senn Momentums, etc.) your comparison would be most insightful, even if it means 16bit AptX vs. 24bit AptX-HD pairings!

 
 
Quote:

My review is finally of the XB10 is up....

Thanks for a very informative review. It could be coincidence but the timing of A&K's new AK3xx FW (with AptX HD support) is uncanny...

 
OT:

AptX HD is useless on AK players. Max 1 metre, with cutouts. 20cm with no signal cut outs, but only if you have no other wireless things around, and you don't move too much flesh around the device.

Based on your review(s) as well as posts in this thread, it's clear that your AK70 has major issues with BT connectivity-quality. I have to say that either you're unlucky, or I'm the lucky one, because I have no trouble with BT connectivity and my AK320. Works as good as any other BT "source". 10M without an major issues, even through standard office walls (the "hollow" ones

).
 

...Apt-x HD requires a specific chipset (CSR8675) which is why most older apt-x only devices can't be upgraded...

@WAS55 mentioned your post in another thread which raised my interest in terms of the AK3xx / AK370's own BT chipset. I assumed that A&K had older chipsets but was surprised when they recently changed their website's specifications for these DAPs from "AptX" to "AptX HD". So I went to their FB site and simply asked if the AK3xxs have the 8675 chipset. They replied with a "yes". Due to the official release from Qualcomm and the release dates of the AK3xx's I found it hard to believe and I will take their confirmation with a grain of salt. The only way to confirm is listen for differences I guess. @jonstatt below showed that the new AK3xx FW "confirms" an AptX HD connection ...when A&K's own device (XB10) is connected. I'd like to see someone connect anything other than the XB10 to an AK3xx and also see it return an "AptX HD" confirmation. That or if anyone wants to open up their AK3xx to confirm the chipset in use...

 
 

...With their latest firmware update AK has made the AK3xx series units unable to stream Bluetooth to any device that does not have aptX HD capability....

Hmm....I have tried an AptX Sony headset, the MDR-1000X with the AK380 with 1.40 firmware and it's fine. On the AK380 screen aptX appears. I then try the XB10 and aptX HD appears on the AK380 screen.
I also have no issues with range with the AK380 being on one side of the room and the XB10 on the other, 20 feet away...no break-ups.

Just to reiterate that along with WAS55 we managed to clarify on the 320 thread that this is not [always] the case as my really old BT 3.x AptX headset connects to my AK320 w/latest FW just fine:
 

 

...Recently I've tried XB10 with Windows10 notebook (as W10 is supposed to support AptX) and though the setup was working fine the sound was flat and lifeless. I was suspecting that there is no aptx codec in use and I was right. After some googling I've found that if you have Intel bluetooth card/solution/all-in-one in order to be able to use AptX you HAVE to use Intel provided bluetooth stack - basically you need to install Intel drivers from their site replacing Windows10 defaults...

 
So your post got me thinking ... have I been working with AptX on my Android phone and W10 platforms...

[read ...CAN OF WORMS

]
First thing I did was to check out my drivers and I have been indeed using Intel's drivers all along. I'm not sure what HW you have or how it is you were not using Intel's drivers... .
Here are some screens (although I updated the drivers to the latest 19.x.x after taking the shots, but with the same "results" as the older drivers). The 2nd screen is of my headset, as "defined" by W10. There's the A2DP entry - but this says little about the actual codec in use, which could be AptX or SBC... .
 

 

 
Long-story-short, I simply connected my headset to my Notebook, my Android-based LG G4 and finally my AK320. Result... no [significant] sonic difference noted with all three giving decent* results for 16b44K material. I couldn't test any higher-res media because Foobar (in bit-perfect mode) "complained" when I tried to send anything higher, as expected.
*Phiaton's PS210BTNC is quite good for its intended purpose but by no means qualifies as audiophile and hence not the best subject for such a test...

 

[k4syx]

If you're unable to tell the difference then your PC is already using AptX

I had no separate Intel drivers installed as all of internals of my Elitebook 810 G1 (Revolve) were autodetected by Windows 10 installer and I had no reason to look for any specific driver - everything was working fine.

The fine print was that default Windows 10 bluetooth stack was not using AptX for A2DP connections, the Intel one got it right.

Interesting thing is that windows driver was also identified as provided by Intel - I think it was just bare driver for the device while the one that can be downloaded from their support site installs complete stack.

On android you can check if aptx is in use by using logcat, on windows - I have no idea if it is possible in any way.

My old (now sold) AudioTechnica AT-PHA50BT unit (same type of device as XB10) was displaing an additional AptX splashscreen when connecting to AptX capable device.

 

[gr8soundz]

...Apt-x HD requires a specific chipset (CSR8675) which is why most older apt-x only devices can't be upgraded...

 

@WAS55 mentioned your post in another thread which raised my interest in terms of the AK3xx / AK370's own BT chipset. I assumed that A&K had older chipsets but was surprised when they recently changed their website's specifications for these DAPs from "AptX" to "AptX HD". So I went to their FB site and simply asked if the AK3xxs have the 8675 chipset. They replied with a "yes". Due to the official release from Qualcomm and the release dates of the AK3xx's I found it hard to believe and I will take their confirmation with a grain of salt. The only way to confirm is listen for differences I guess. @jonstatt below showed that the new AK3xx FW "confirms" an AptX HD connection ...when A&K's own device (XB10) is connected. I'd like to see someone connect anything other than the XB10 to an AK3xx and also see it return an "AptX HD" confirmation. That or if anyone wants to open up their AK3xx to confirm the chipset in use...

 
Just to reiterate that along with WAS55 we managed to clarify on the 320 thread that this is not [always] the case as my really old BT 3.x AptX headset connects to my AK320 w/latest FW just fine:

 
Afaik, the AK3xx devices are among the only portables that confirm whether apt-x (incl. HD) is active. Last time I tried confirming aptx activity on my phone it involved checking logs from the phone's bluetooth stack.
 
Hopefully, when aptx HD headphones (not earphones) arrive they will have clear indicators of which bluetooth protocol is in use.
 
If I go wireless again it may be with Sony LDAC devices. More proprietary than Qualcomm's codec but LDAC has almost twice the bandwidth of aptx hd (990kbps vs 576kbps).
 

 

[Traveller]

...On android you can check if aptx is in use by using logcat...

Downloading / Installing Logcat was easy; trying to give it root access is not - something about having to install SDK on my Notebook, running ADB, granting read_logs permission...

 

Afaik, the AK3xx devices are among the only portables that confirm whether apt-x (incl. HD) is active. Last time I tried confirming aptx activity on my phone it involved checking logs from the phone's bluetooth stack...

 
what's this, everyone around here Android experts, Lol. BT-Stack logs... yikes.

 
It's all good and well that the AK3xx can "identify" a call from a AptX HD device, but this alone in no way guarantees that the AK3xx will actually operate in AptX HD mode... . As you (and many others on the Internet) pointed out, the CSR8675 is a requirement for AptX-HD support...

 

[jonstatt]

   
 
It's all good and well that the AK3xx can "identify" a call from a AptX HD device, but this alone in no way guarantees that the AK3xx will actually operate in AptX HD mode... . As you (and many others on the Internet) pointed out, the CSR8675 is a requirement for AptX-HD support...

 
Are you suggesting the AK380 displays AptX HD and then actually goes ahead and just uses AptX? Surely that would be illegal? OTOH Korean companies have done this kind of thing before.
 
I agree that it seems very unlikely the CSR8675 can be in the AK380 unless they had early access to the chips which DOES happen in the industry. The only other possibility is that they used an FPGA in association with the Bluetooth chip that allowed them to still upgrade to AptX HD.