[mbyrnes]

Sparkos replacement SS3602 arrived today! Back in business and really pumped to get gaming again. I plan on reviewing a lot of my newer gear.

Definitely selling my Sennheiser/Massdrop HD6XX. I am not a fan of Sennheiser at all for music. The only headphone from them I want to hear is the HD800 S. I highly doubt I'll like it from my impressions of the regular HD800. I wish I knew when the replacement cable is coming for the HD6XX, so I can include it. Maybe just agree to mail it to the buyer if they pay for shipping.

I'm still looking forward to getting my PC37X, but it's strictly for gaming in a secondary setup.

 

[VeerK]

Sparkos replacement SS3602 arrived today! Back in business and really pumped to get gaming again. I plan on reviewing a lot of my newer gear.

Definitely selling my Sennheiser/Massdrop HD6XX. I am not a fan of Sennheiser at all for music. The only headphone from them I want to hear is the HD800 S. I highly doubt I'll like it from my impressions of the regular HD800. I wish I knew when the replacement cable is coming for the HD6XX, so I can include it. Maybe just agree to mail it to the buyer if they pay for shipping.

I'm still looking forward to getting my PC37X, but it's strictly for gaming in a secondary setup.

How's the mimby

 

[Sonic Defender]

Direct Mode bypasses the mixer, only USB is active in Direct Mode. Use Direct Mode S/PDIF to hear the xbox audio.

Do you know if the mixer is bypassed with Bluetooth? I'm considering the X7 as a transportable amp for my Z1R so I'm primarily interested in the audio quality and the Bluetooth. I already use apt x Bluetooth and like it, but ideally the X7 Mixer can be bypassed with Bluetooth. Thanks.

 

[Yethal]

  Do you know if the mixer is bypassed with Bluetooth? I'm considering the X7 as a transportable amp for my Z1R so I'm primarily interested in the audio quality and the Bluetooth. I already use apt x Bluetooth and like it, but ideally the X7 Mixer can be bypassed with Bluetooth. Thanks.

Direct Mode can only be used with USB or S/PDIF inputs. It cannot be used with Bluetooth.

 

[Sonic Defender]

 
Direct Mode can only be used with USB or S/PDIF inputs. It cannot be used with Bluetooth.

Bummer, nail in the X7 coffin for me. If I needed more of what it brings to the table I would feel differently, but in general I don't like forced processing. I owned the E5 and I did very much enjoy it, but it had a little edge to the sound that seemed to be the processing DSP engine at work. It wasn't bad, in fact the E5 was rather nice overall, but on principle alone I just can't stand when a processing decision is made for me, even if the impact is minimal. Cheers and thank you.

 

[Yethal]

  Bummer, nail in the X7 coffin for me. If I needed more of what it brings to the table I would feel differently, but in general I don't like forced processing. I owned the E5 and I did very much enjoy it, but it had a little edge to the sound that seemed to be the processing DSP engine at work. It wasn't bad, in fact the E5 was rather nice overall, but on principle alone I just can't stand when a processing decision is made for me, even if the impact is minimal. Cheers and thank you.

You can always use USB. Creative has a dedicated system-wide driver for Android.

 

[Sonic Defender]

 
You can always use USB. Creative has a dedicated system-wide driver for Android.

I prefer Bluetooth as I hate cables so the less of them the better. I do have a USB OTG for my phone (the source I would use with the X7). The X7 would have been for the few times I wanted to listen to the Z1R outside of my small music room. The FiiO Q5 will suffice, as would the Mojo with the Bluetooth option, or even the E5 again for that matter. I have always been attracted to the X7 and my positive experience with the E5 made me consider it seriously. Thanks again for the thoughts, much appreciated.

 

[kellte2]

Folks using headphone surround via line out: what position do you leave the impedance switch on the back?

Also, when I run the speaker test pattern, I get static. Is that normal?

 

[Digitalis]

  Bummer, nail in the X7 coffin for me. If I needed more of what it brings to the table I would feel differently, but in general I don't like forced processing. I owned the E5 and I did very much enjoy it, but it had a little edge to the sound that seemed to be the processing DSP engine at work. It wasn't bad, in fact the E5 was rather nice overall, but on principle alone I just can't stand when a processing decision is made for me, even if the impact is minimal. Cheers and thank you.

You don't have to use SBX processing, you can turn it off all processing on the X7 through the control panel[or smartphone app]. Besides, bluetooth audio isn't at a high enough quality where direct mode would make any difference in fidelity, the Optical and USB inputs certainly warrant it.
 
The maximum bandwidth bluetooth can handle is completely dwarfed by USB and TOSLINK.

 

[Sonic Defender]

 
The maximum bandwidth bluetooth can handle is completely dwarfed by USB and TOSLINK.

Apt X can exceed a 320 sample rate and I, and I'll bet everybody else in blind listening tests can't tell a 320mp3 file from the lossless master so Bluetooth is plenty good enough. I hosted a head-fi meet three years ago now. I had a well controlled experiment with 7 subjects doing 5 trials each, trying to pick out the 320mp3 file from the lossless master it was made from. Five young university aged men and one young woman plus a middle aged man were the subjects.
 
Three of the participants assured me before the testing they had conducted their own sighted comparisons and they guaranteed they could tell the difference. Not one of the subjects did better than 50%, so in other words pure guessing. If I had 20 subjects the results would have been the same. My point is you don't actually need that much bandwidth for high quality audio. By the way, my results are far from unique. Go to the sound science forum and ask people who have performed proper blind listening tests and you will not find anybody who could tell reliably the difference over multiple trials.
 
I'm not trying to get any debate going about this, just demonstrating that I have conducted well controlled testing to back up my claims and it is because of this that I actually feel Bluetooth is capable of really good quality audio. Sorry if I'm coming across as pompous or argumentative, I hope I'm not as I don't mean to for sure.

 

[Yethal]

Folks using headphone surround via line out: what position do you leave the impedance switch on the back?

Also, when I run the speaker test pattern, I get static. Is that normal?

Doesn't matter, the impedance switch only affects speaker taps.
Yes it's normal if You didn't hear anything then it would be a problem.
 

  Apt X can exceed a 320 sample rate and I, and I'll bet everybody else in blind listening tests can't tell a 320mp3 file from the lossless master so Bluetooth is plenty good enough. I hosted a head-fi meet three years ago now. I had a well controlled experiment with 7 subjects doing 5 trials each, trying to pick out the 320mp3 file from the lossless master it was made from. Five young university aged men and one young woman plus a middle aged man were the subjects.
 
Three of the participants assured me before the testing they had conducted their own sighted comparisons and they guaranteed they could tell the difference. Not one of the subjects did better than 50%, so in other words pure guessing. If I had 20 subjects the results would have been the same. My point is you don't actually need that much bandwidth for high quality audio. By the way, my results are far from unique. Go to the sound science forum and ask people who have performed proper blind listening tests and you will not find anybody who could tell reliably the difference over multiple trials.
 
I'm not trying to get any debate going about this, just demonstrating that I have conducted well controlled testing to back up my claims and it is because of this that I actually feel Bluetooth is capable of really good quality audio. Sorry if I'm coming across as pompous or argumentative, I hope I'm not as I don't mean to for sure.

Lemme get this straight. You don't mind the Bluetooth compression but You do mind the DSP? The difference between DIrect Mode and DSP Mode (over USB) is much smaller than the difference between USB Host and Bluetooth.

 

[kellte2]

Doesn't matter, the impedance switch only affects speaker taps.

With it the x7 configured to use RCA out, the switch operates almost like a gain setting. Volume is louder with 8 ohms selected.

The reason that I ask is because, as only a source, the X7 volume output is relatively low. I have it set to full volume for the speakers line out, but my recently acquired Liquid Carbon needs almost the 3/4 volume on 1x gain. The headphones in question are sensitive so they are not the likely culprit.

 

[Sonic Defender]

 
Doesn't matter, the impedance switch only affects speaker taps.
Yes it's normal if You didn't hear anything then it would be a problem.
 

Lemme get this straight. You don't mind the Bluetooth compression but You do mind the DSP? The difference between DIrect Mode and DSP Mode (over USB) is much smaller than the difference between USB Host and Bluetooth.

I don't hear the compression, and evidence would suggest that nobody can whereas with the E5 that I had I could hear the DSP effects. I found the DSP with the E5 made the sound a little toward edgy, not very bad, but enough that the sound could get somewhat fatiguing. Again, the E5 was very nice, and I'm not trying to imply the sound was bad, not at all, but I do prefer to not have any DSP forced on me. With Bluetooth, if you assume there is a sound quality trade-off which we will for arguments sake, at least it provides a MAJOR benefit, no cables. With the DSP engine in play, for regular music listening, well, it won't be universal that people like the effect, plus if I want to shape the sound I have the ability to EQ so the implied benefit of DSP isn't really compelling. Now maybe for games and movies it is a different story, that I don't know, but those aren't my uses.

 

[Yethal]

With it the x7 configured to use RCA out, the switch operates almost like a gain setting. Volume is louder with 8 ohms selected.

The reason that I ask is because, as only a source, the X7 volume output is relatively low. I have it set to full volume for the speakers line out, but my recently acquired Liquid Carbon needs almost the 3/4 volume on 1x gain. The headphones in question are sensitive so they are not the likely culprit.

That is a bit unsettling. The impedance switch was supposed to affect only speaker taps. I'll experiment with this today, maybe the impedance switch affects the headphone output too.
 
As for the output, a regular line-out signal is 2V RMS. X7 achieves that voltage when the volume control is set to 100% so just set it to 100% and adjust volume using the Liquid Carbon.

 

[Yethal]

Just ordered a pair of SS3602. Time to push the X7 to its limits.