Been listening to the NFP with aptX Adaptive on, determined to test their limits. I'm not going gentle on them, either.
A little bit of Rodrigo y Gabriela's Echoes, because all those percussives on the guitar are bass overload. They're not too shabby here, but I think I'd definitely trade the thump these have with the brighter signature of the Technics for tracks like this. No distortion, at least.
A little bit of 24/96 organ music (Toccata & Fugue in Dm, of course) because I can't think of a better torture test on both the amp and dynamic range of these things. I'm missing a little bit of the wind at the top end of each note and the throat on those low notes. Darn, I really wish that could have been a slam dunk, but I feel like I need a lot more weight on the bottom notes. For full transparency, this is really, really hard for a lot of setups to render correctly. Bar is set intentionally high. Again, no distortion. Interesting.
Even went full bass and threw down with some Kayzo - Wake Up, followed Kendrick Lamar's Backseat Freestyle.
Ah, there it is.
So I think something's probably happening when dealing with dynamically-compressed music either near or at clipping. Dropping the preamp by another couple dB helps, but there's definitely a max volume for these buds on some material. That's on Tidal, by the way.
Now here's the kicker: playing the same exact Kayzo track on Spotify produced no audible distortion, which leads me to think it's still a throughput issue. My phone is about 7 inches from the buds for all of this testing, btw. It should be getting full bandwidth.
A little bit of Rodrigo y Gabriela's Echoes, because all those percussives on the guitar are bass overload. They're not too shabby here, but I think I'd definitely trade the thump these have with the brighter signature of the Technics for tracks like this. No distortion, at least.
A little bit of 24/96 organ music (Toccata & Fugue in Dm, of course) because I can't think of a better torture test on both the amp and dynamic range of these things. I'm missing a little bit of the wind at the top end of each note and the throat on those low notes. Darn, I really wish that could have been a slam dunk, but I feel like I need a lot more weight on the bottom notes. For full transparency, this is really, really hard for a lot of setups to render correctly. Bar is set intentionally high. Again, no distortion. Interesting.
Even went full bass and threw down with some Kayzo - Wake Up, followed Kendrick Lamar's Backseat Freestyle.
Ah, there it is.
So I think something's probably happening when dealing with dynamically-compressed music either near or at clipping. Dropping the preamp by another couple dB helps, but there's definitely a max volume for these buds on some material. That's on Tidal, by the way.
Now here's the kicker: playing the same exact Kayzo track on Spotify produced no audible distortion, which leads me to think it's still a throughput issue. My phone is about 7 inches from the buds for all of this testing, btw. It should be getting full bandwidth.