FiiO X7 | DXD | DSD | 384K/64B | ESS9018+ Android | WiFi | Bluetooth | 4 AMP modules | Balanced Out |

[Mak0]

  Well a quad core cpu has the potential to be twice as fast as a dual core cpu of same speed, but it's up to the software to utilize the potential, otherwise it's wasted. Multi tasking with 4 cores in use the quad core will be twice as fast, web browsers utilize a separate core per tab open, couple that with listening to the music app while browsing the web, it's easy to see the advantages of quad core performance in multi app use. But a single app can also use all the cores if designed to (web browser, some games etc).
 
Android performance in general can also benefit from quad core. Just go into your phones running apps menu, usually a whole bunch running in the back round, even the keyboard is a separate app that can use a separate core, there are quite a few apps that pile up, quad core will handle normal use better than a dual core, and when pushed can be twice as fast.
 
I personally went from a dual core phone to a quad core, it was night and day difference to me, but obviously there were other factors involved in the performance gap, like android version.

 
That's exactly what I meant by "in theory"
 
Truth is that multi-threading on a given android application is not so common. Android as an OS will of course try to dispatch the load between the cores but it's not as optimized as on the application level, as you have mentionned it.
 
Desktop applications using multi-threading are quite common now but it's far from being perfect. Big application providers that are to be used on very high end work desktop or servers do enable it for performance reasons (obviously). For more simple applications (say, Office suite or most video games), at best dual core is supported and it's not necessarilyfaster than single core due to poor implementation.
 
All in all, yes having twice as many similar cores is better, but it's so far from being "twice as good" that I had to jump in the discussion. Having quad core CPU will be beneficial on the long term as multi-threading will be more and more implemented and perfected by software developers. The bottleneck will more likely be the RAM than the CPU: 1 GB is not an astounding lot, 2 GB would have been probably better for multi-tasking.
 
Therefore, FiiO went for a quad core CPU so they can improve their own implementation of sound drivers to fully use the 4 cores to give as much power as possible for processing data (equalizer, reading large bit-rate files in the player, separating the different pists...) and less on the RAM because multi-tasking is an option. This is a DAP after all, a device to listen to music, not a smartphone.
 
just my 0.02$

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

^ I Agree.

 

[stefzulj]

X7 is dap

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

^ Mind blown, you are a wise man 

 

[interpolate]

Multithreaded applications don't benefit from general applications however it could help with DSD decoding, if splitting the application loads between each core is possible.
 
ARM processors are quite advanced pieces of kit.

 

[AudiophileTL]

Hi Everyone,

Just got a message from Fiio support team telling that they are still trying to implement full SACD support, aka DST support, on the X7.
So all is not lost !
Like we say in chinese : 加油 !! 
It would be the first DAP to support it, I don't think (though I'm not 100% sure) that AK240 can play DST compressed DFF or DSF files.

I'll be in asia for the next month (not in China though), hunting for SACD (have some other things planned as well!), I will keep a close eye to the China release of the X7.

hope battery life can sustain as close to 10h playing DSD/DST as possible.

May not be a zero-day feature, but still, it's good to hear that they are minding this issue.

Cheers

I am new to the DAP game can someone clarify this. So currently there are no DAPs that support direct SACD rips? So the DAPs that support native DSD can play DSD files from somewhere like acousticsounds.com/superhi-rez.com? So SACD files are different?

Hope this isn't a stupid question

 

[interpolate]

Sacd uses dst files which are essentially decoded on the fly with a suitable player. These are kept on special layers of a disk, a bit like a hidden layer which is ignored by conventional players. Image files are used to represent the disc as a virtual entity and therefore emulate the playback through software and sound interface DAC. If it can already play dsd then it should be able to reproduce and SACD audio.

SACD can be multiples of playback rate and surround sound also.Whereas dsd/dsf are stereo only.

 

[D3Seeker]

This is (was?) getting silly. I'm glad to see progress is being made but I seriously may scream if I have to hear that DSD term again. It exists and it would be nice if the folk who have collections of music that was actually recorded/properly trasposed to the format would have their cake and eat it as well >:{ As for the rest of us we'd only be lucky if the guy mastering the latest album would leave the door open so we could sneak in and export the album in the full multichannel full res goodness straight from the DAW itself but that aint happening either now is it.

 

[vilhelm44]

Have just bought the Sony ZX2 due to itchy fingers and getting bored using a Samsung S5. Though I have never had a Fiio product before I can definitely see myself picking up an X7 when it's released. The look and specs suggest a cracking little player and can't wait to hear impressions in the near future.

 

[AudiophileTL]

The fact that so few titles are available in multichannel SACD/DVD-A is a travesty. My Acura TL I bought last year came stock with the ability to play DVD-A, this is the first time I had even heard of multichannel mixes, let alone DVD-A or SACD.

I was completely blown away by the sound quality of 96/24 multichannel DVD-A on my stock system. I then sunk a ton of money into my Car Audio set up, including a DSP that unbeknownst to me didn't allow DVD-A playback in surround or anything above 48/24.

I have been missing that multichannel sound since and until I have the funds for a home audio setup I have no way to listen to them. Think if every player/DAP played SACD/DVD-A and every title was released in that format?

 

[D3Seeker]

If, snd a big if. One I wont hold my breath on. We can't even get these guys to consistently take fill advantage of the red book.

Fine fun for those listening to generas where they'll go through the trouble but no where near wide spread enough yo matter for now [not whole heartedly for me anyway at the moment]

 

[egosumlux]

  dream DAP
 
Storage: 128 or 256gb internal storage with 2 micro sd card slots
OS: Latest version of stock android
CPU: Qualcomm snapdragon 800 or 805 or 810
Size: no thicker than hm901 or dx100
Battery life: at least 6 or 7 hours
coaxial and line out
physical play/pause & forward/backward buttons

This project will fail if you go the DX100 route. It was a great player it also used android and a top of the line sabre chip BUT it was not a real PORTABLE player and I would not like anything that bulky that would not fit in a regular jacket pocket. From the desing standpoint it should be smaller than DX100 or it will not woth making for DX100 already exists so no innovation is done else no benefit. The size is what kills the Colorfly C4 as well no matter how good it sounds it remains a desktop option for nobody is going to carry backpacks for their players all the time.

 

[egosumlux]

  JetAudio is developed by cowon. I think that it is a no-no. 
 
Powermap is half decent, while neutron is half decent too. 
 
I was not very content with any audio app on Android. 

The point here is to bypass android bloatware and use ALSA directly to work with the sabre dac which is a way better option

 

[egosumlux]

Sacd uses dst files which are essentially decoded on the fly with a suitable player. These are kept on special layers of a disk, a bit like a hidden layer which is ignored by conventional players. Image files are used to represent the disc as a virtual entity and therefore emulate the playback through software and sound interface DAC. If it can already play dsd then it should be able to reproduce and SACD audio.

SACD can be multiples of playback rate and surround sound also.Whereas dsd/dsf are stereo only.

How about SACD ISO?

 

[AudiophileTL]

I am also curious about this as many of the SACD and DVD-A rips I have found online are .ISO files. It was a huge pain in the ass to figure out how to burn some DVD-A .ISO files to a disc but we can't burn SACD .ISO files so the ability to play them on a DAP would be huge