[Chrono251]

I've used the X7ii for a couple of weeks now and the last weekend I was away and I extensively used it (6+6 hours in the plane, plus where I was).
I'm really happy with the device! After getting used to it I think it is the right DAP for me. I happen to use the DAC feature from time to time and it works great.
I was surprised by the temperature the X7ii reached during the flights and I'm not sure if that was caused by the leather cover. I changed it back to the transparent plastic one and I will try the next weekend, as I'm going away again.

Funny story: when I was walking to my seat on the first flight I took I noticed a guy with a nice set of IEMs. I'm not sure what model of IEMs he had, but it was connected to a X7ii! I though "give me the time to reach my seat and there will be 2x X7ii delivering high quality music in this plane".

 

[Paulo Abreu]

... Funny story: when I was walking to my seat on the first flight I took I noticed a guy with a nice set of IEMs. I'm not sure what model of IEMs he had, but it was connected to a X7ii! I though "give me the time to reach my seat and there will be 2x X7ii delivering high quality music in this plane".

What a coincidence, on my last flight I noticed a guy with a cheap set of IEMs and thought the same ... ... ROFL, just kiding.
Great you're enjoying your X7ii, a great device indeed. I'm just hopping for a new FW that may fix the small quirks (very annoying IMO) it still has, namely the abnormal behaviour of play/pause button - either pauses and resumes instantly having to press again, then resuming in the beggining of the song or elsewhere, sometimes working normally - its like if it had a will of its own...

 

[dsrk]

Kids these days!!

Apart from blind argument, it's actually good education for kids

 

[Dobrescu George]

George - this sort of generalisation

is about as accurate as yours suggesting:

And me saying most Death Metal is mastered incredibly poorly (which unfortunately in my experience it is)

I have some Krall in 24/96 which is incredibly well mastered, and I guarantee could be used as reference.

But Lets look at the facts.

Because the Bluetooth (regardless of compression) uses the Q5's DAC, you are not going to hear huge differences. AAC256 and AptX are high enough resolution that having someone tell the difference between wired and Bluetooth (remember they are using the same DAC) would be limited to the top 1 or 2 % (if they are lucky). Even tests properly conducted between MP3 320 and FLAC show that differentiation is only possible on very few tracks (do some research on HydrogenAudio). Given both aptX and AAC are arguably superior to MP3 320 - and I have not met a single person who can discern aac256 from FLAC in a blind volume matched test - then I think we can draw some conclusions here.

For you to say you can do it, and whats more, you can tell the difference easily, leads me to believe:
- you are the 1-2%, and the track you are using is one of these killer tracks
- you are normal human being, and your tests were not conducted properly
- you did not do the tests

If you are indeed one of the "privileged few" golden-ears, I actually feel sorry for you. They sound the same to me. Everyone I've discussed this with concurs

The generalisation is because it stands true for most of the part, Death Metal, badly mastered, noisy, aggressive, tends to be where I stopped using MP3s after many tests. Try some Siernia, some Haggard, some Ecape The Fate, some Wintersun. Those bands have a lot of things going on in the background. Even Sonata arctica has a lot of background instruments, synths, guitars, and such, that are erased by MP3 compression algorithms

I found OGG -Q10 to be virtually identical to FLAC to my ears, but on many metal and death metal bands, MP3 simply isn't.

BTW, Krall is well mastered and most of the things are like that, well nuanced and well expressed, this might be why MP3 algorithms don't erase much of the data in it, I find it simple in terms of instruments used, compared to tens of layers in metal, but then again, this is how what I listen to sounds like...


[This song in particular is less affected by MP3 algorithsm than say something like Wintersun, but Wintersun on Youtube is at MP3 quality already...]


Wintersun - This is Youtube Quality, but you might be able to find them to listen in lossless somewhere, maybe Tidal?



Also, Obscurcis Romancia

Those guys are on lossless streaming services for sure and really showcase how MP3 algos erase data

 

[FiiO]

I've used the X7ii for a couple of weeks now and the last weekend I was away and I extensively used it (6+6 hours in the plane, plus where I was).
I'm really happy with the device! After getting used to it I think it is the right DAP for me. I happen to use the DAC feature from time to time and it works great.
I was surprised by the temperature the X7ii reached during the flights and I'm not sure if that was caused by the leather cover. I changed it back to the transparent plastic one and I will try the next weekend, as I'm going away again.

Funny story: when I was walking to my seat on the first flight I took I noticed a guy with a nice set of IEMs. I'm not sure what model of IEMs he had, but it was connected to a X7ii! I though "give me the time to reach my seat and there will be 2x X7ii delivering high quality music in this plane".

Dear friend,

Glad to hear that you have enjoyed the X7MKII. The X7MKII is a high resolution music player. And many chips will work at the same time when it's playing music, which will consume a lot of power and also release heat.But you don't need to worry about any safety issues with the heating, because there's temperature protecting circuit inside the player.

Best regards

 

[Brooko]

The generalisation is because it stands true for most of the part, Death Metal, badly mastered, noisy, aggressive, tends to be where I stopped using MP3s after many tests. Try some Siernia, some Haggard, some Ecape The Fate, some Wintersun. Those bands have a lot of things going on in the background. Even Sonata arctica has a lot of background instruments, synths, guitars, and such, that are erased by MP3 compression algorithms

I found OGG -Q10 to be virtually identical to FLAC to my ears, but on many metal and death metal bands, MP3 simply isn't.

BTW, Krall is well mastered and most of the things are like that, well nuanced and well expressed, this might be why MP3 algorithms don't erase much of the data in it, I find it simple in terms of instruments used, compared to tens of layers in metal, but then again, this is how what I listen to sounds like...


[This song in particular is less affected by MP3 algorithsm than say something like Wintersun, but Wintersun on Youtube is at MP3 quality already...]


Wintersun - This is Youtube Quality, but you might be able to find them to listen in lossless somewhere, maybe Tidal?



Also, Obscurcis Romancia

Those guys are on lossless streaming services for sure and really showcase how MP3 algos erase data

Sorry George - this might be a blow to you. DR (Dynamic Range) database. First up Haggard - terribly over-compressed.
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/18309
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/18310
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/29545
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/29544
One track on the last album linked is mastered OK. Most of these are lossless BTW.

Escape the fate - one word re mastering comes to mind - terrible
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Escape+The+Fate&album=

Some Wintersun on Vinyl is OK (impossible to over compress vinyl - but then you have other issues with vinyl noise
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Wintersun&album=

For ref (because you mentioned it) here is Krall
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=diana+krall&album=
The version I have of "The Girl In the Other Room" is the 24/96 from HD Tracks - 11-14 on the DR meter. Not the best, but off the charts compare to the other recordings you linked.

Like I said earlier - I am extremely sceptical you can tell wired from Bluetooth (in a volume matched blind test) and especially with those artists - but hey if you insist you can, I won't argue. I'll just remind you of what you said though :

What makes a difference is Bluetooth, it is really easy to tell apart APT-X from cable, from normal BT, that is a no-brainer, cabled connection is much much more detailed, more layers of sound, just uncomparable, but then again, APT-X means even more convenience, tho at that point I think that I wouldn';t sacrifice sonics for using APT-X

In my experience anyone stating that with the Q5 (same DAC), especially saying its easy, just lets say my BS meter starts to go nuts

Lets leave it at that.

 

[lantian]

The generalisation is because it stands true for most of the part, Death Metal, badly mastered, noisy, aggressive, tends to be where I stopped using MP3s after many tests. Try some Siernia, some Haggard, some Ecape The Fate, some Wintersun. Those bands have a lot of things going on in the background. Even Sonata arctica has a lot of background instruments, synths, guitars, and such, that are erased by MP3 compression algorithms

I found OGG -Q10 to be virtually identical to FLAC to my ears, but on many metal and death metal bands, MP3 simply isn't.

BTW, Krall is well mastered and most of the things are like that, well nuanced and well expressed, this might be why MP3 algorithms don't erase much of the data in it, I find it simple in terms of instruments used, compared to tens of layers in metal, but then again, this is how what I listen to sounds like...


[This song in particular is less affected by MP3 algorithsm than say something like Wintersun, but Wintersun on Youtube is at MP3 quality already...]


Wintersun - This is Youtube Quality, but you might be able to find them to listen in lossless somewhere, maybe Tidal?



Also, Obscurcis Romancia

Those guys are on lossless streaming services for sure and really showcase how MP3 algos erase data

Found the same to be true for Tool, A Perfect Circle, puscifer,Daft Punk and especially the Beatles. .Flac or .Wav for pcm, nothing less is acceptable.

 

[Dobrescu George]

Found the same to be true for Tool, A Perfect Circle, puscifer,Daft Punk and especially the Beatles. .Flac or .Wav for pcm, nothing less is acceptable.

Exactly

I love those bands

I really understand how MP3 is not enough for metal.

Sorry George - this might be a blow to you. DR (Dynamic Range) database. First up Haggard - terribly over-compressed.
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/18309
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/18310
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/29545
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/29544
One track on the last album linked is mastered OK. Most of these are lossless BTW.

Escape the fate - one word re mastering comes to mind - terrible
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Escape+The+Fate&album=

Some Wintersun on Vinyl is OK (impossible to over compress vinyl - but then you have other issues with vinyl noise
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Wintersun&album=

For ref (because you mentioned it) here is Krall
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=diana+krall&album=
The version I have of "The Girl In the Other Room" is the 24/96 from HD Tracks - 11-14 on the DR meter. Not the best, but off the charts compare to the other recordings you linked.

Like I said earlier - I am extremely sceptical you can tell wired from Bluetooth (in a volume matched blind test) and especially with those artists - but hey if you insist you can, I won't argue. I'll just remind you of what you said though :

In my experience anyone stating that with the Q5 (same DAC), especially saying its easy, just lets say my BS meter starts to go nuts

Lets leave it at that.

Paul, Think about it the logical way.

First, I was very aware that all the music I listen to has little to no dynamic range. This is what I was implying and trying to say. Stuff that is dynamically compressed is harder to play well, thus requires better equipment.

Krall has a good dynamic range. This means that what is loud is loud, what is quiet is quiet. Things are not sang at the same loduness, so they aren't hard to reproduce.

Just think about it

Low dynamic range means compression., This means lots of things played at the same time, at the same loudness.

What is harder to reproduce, a guitar and a cymbal, each at their own loduness, or 5 guitars and an entire array of drums played at the same loudness, at the same time. The thing is that this poor mastering requires better equipment.

With Jazz, Classical, and Vocal-centric music, except for tonality, things sound too similar. The detail retrieval doesn't help something where details are presented well, and where details stand out a lot.

Now for Wintersun, for example, or Brain Drill, or even softer stuff like Incubus, you get a rain of stuff, energy, life, it doesn't wait for your brain to process it, that is where you'll feel MP3 vs FLAC, as well as APT-X vs normal BT. Try sirenia for example, lots of cymbals over each other, loud noise, no dynamic range, that is where having better equipment helps.

You don't listen to distortion. Metal is mostly distortion, the guitars are based on levels of distortion, this is why I insist on reviewing PRaT and such.

If you have synths, guitars, bass, drums and voices played at the same loudness, at the same time, you're going to have a hard time processing it. MP3 algos erases the synths (usually), along with certain rythm guitars and background voices.

In all fairness, you are a good reviewer, and I don't contradict you. I just am going to hold my position, it really depends on the music you listen to when assessing something.

I volume match and have my girl help me do tests so I can only focus on the differences.

 

[Brooko]

George - please stop digging the hole any further.

Here - - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Read it and understand what I was saying. All of that music you quoted could have very good dynamic range (if allowed to), but the mastering engineers and producers decided to brickwall it. It has nothing to do with lossy vs lossless - 80%+ of that music is lossless and horribly compressed/brickwalled.

I would suggest we carry on this discussion - but do it via PM.

 

[Dobrescu George]

George - please stop digging the hole any further.

Here - - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Read it and understand what I was saying. All of that music you quoted could have very good dynamic range (if allowed to), but the mastering engineers and producers decided to brickwall it. It has nothing to do with lossy vs lossless - 80%+ of that music is lossless and horribly compressed/brickwalled.

I would suggest we carry on this discussion - but do it via PM.

No worries, we are probably going off-thread here anyways

The main thing that people should probably take in form our debate is that X7mkii and Q5 both sound great with all kinds of music, that is pretty clear by now

 

[Brooko]

Found the same to be true for Tool, A Perfect Circle, puscifer,Daft Punk and especially the Beatles. .Flac or .Wav for pcm, nothing less is acceptable.

Actually the bands you just quoted nicely show my point. It (again) has nothing to do with container (PCM lossless) and everything to do with mastering.

Here is Daft Punk, vinyl is is good, other lossless is mostly a mixture of OK and quite bad - http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=daft+punk&album=

Tool for the most part has great mastering engineers - http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=tool&album=

The Beatles are a perfect example - early recordings pretty good. Later remasters often brickwalled to heck. - http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=the+beatles&album=

If you want to I'm more than happy to take this discussion also to PM - or to a different thread But lets close it and the one with George down from the X7ii thread.

 

[Slim1970]

Loving the AM3B. I can easily tell the difference in power. I don't have to crank up the volume nearly as high to get to good sound out of the X7 MKII. It's almost like FiiO was listening to some of the complaints with the AM3A, mainly the lack of power, and incorporated it in the AM3B. I for one had no issue with the AM3A module. I liked the black background and the warm nature of this amp module. With that said, I do appreciate the bump in power that the AM3B provides. Sound wise it is not as smooth or musical as the AM3A. Instead you get a bit more dynamics, edge and punch with the AM3B. To my ears it has more in common with the AM05 sound and that's not a bad thing.

The BL44 is another nice addition. It's well built and serves as a nice bridge from a 2.5mm to a 4.4mm pentaconn connection.Using the BL44 I don't detect any sound loss with the BL44 adapter and that's a plus. Once again I love the interchangeable amp modules that FiiO offers. To my ears, the AM3B makes a worthy addition to your collection.


(AM3B attached to BL44, AM3A top right, AM05 bottom right, SE846 with pure silver cable)

 

[397324]

Hi

How do you find the SE846 with the X7ii and apart from power, what is the difference between the AM3A, AM3B and AM5?

Regards

Darren

 

[sandy1010]

Hey everyone, desperately searching for a new DAP, have a few questions if anyone can help.

1. Do third party apps access the same DACs as the Fiio music app?

2. Does OTG always work? Saw a review that said it won’t play nice with a iDSD black label via USB, is this correct?

3. Has anyone tried 2 x 400gb Micro SD’s? Work ok? And do they work with 3rd party apps?

4. Does it output bit perfect?

Thanks.

 

[Bluess]

Does anybody hear a pop noise when turning the music on after turning on the player in music mode?