Interesting. I agree with you on the sound staging and imaging being better at least that is what I've noticed. But I've been using cPlay and I notice more detail throughout when compared to the other players. What I was under the impression is that the other programs do the conversion to WAV on the fly and don't fully expand the file and store it in cache before music playback which is introducing the artifacts. Have you tried cPlay before?
One more question. So you think a file directly ripped from the CD to WAV will be better than a FLAC file expanded back to WAV if they were the same file?
Even though .flac is "lossless" it is still compressed to some greater or lesser degree. Simply reconverting it back to .wav will only convert the already compressed file back to .wav with the .flac compression artifacts still in present.
If you convert an AIFF or WAV file to FLAC and then re-convert it back to an AIFF or WAV file, you'll end up with EXACTLY the same music. There are no "compression artifacts". It's the same as if you zip a text file then un-compress it. You don't get artifacts in your text. That is why it is called lossless compression. If it affected the un-compressed music in any way, it wouldn't be lossless.
If you convert an AIFF or WAV file to FLAC and then re-convert it back to an AIFF or WAV file, you'll end up with EXACTLY the same music. There are no "compression artifacts". It's the same as if you zip a text file then un-compress it. You don't get artifacts in your text. That is why it is called lossless compression. If it affected the un-compressed music in any way, it wouldn't be lossless.
If you convert an AIFF or WAV file to FLAC and then re-convert it back to an AIFF or WAV file, you'll end up with EXACTLY the same music. There are no "compression artifacts". It's the same as if you zip a text file then un-compress it. You don't get artifacts in your text. That is why it is called lossless compression. If it affected the un-compressed music in any way, it wouldn't be lossless.
But what do you think of the process of unzipping these files during music playback? I'm curious if this could be a cause of the discrepancy here as opposed to fully decoding the file and then storing it in memory cache before music playback.
You are both right. The information is exactly the same, but unpacking that information on the fly might lead to performance issues affecting the presentation of said information.
That being said, my DX100 is packed to the brim with FLAC and I have zero intentions of going with .wav. I might do some testing once my Heir 8.A turns up...
I think a few peoples comments about the sound quality not blowing them away, is due to them not listening to the right music!
I haven't listened to that much of my music yet (been too busy ripping), but if you pick songs were the "vocal" is at the forefront of the music then im sure you will be blown away.
Try a few songs from Chris Rea (Looking for the Summer) made my hairs stand on end!
Shirley Bassy (ok stop laughing now).....Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, Never Never Never, all suberb sound, you hear sounds/instruments youve never heard before in the tracks.
Fleetwood Mac (Everywhere, Isn't It Midnight, Little Lies)
George Michael (I can't make you love me, You have been loved)..listen to those cymbals man
Lisa Stansfield (In all the right places)
Sade (Hang on to your love, Smooth Operator)
Seal (Prayer for the Dying)
Sting (Fragile) I mean listen to that guitar being plucked.
All my music is ripped from the original CD's in Flac.
You are both right. The information is exactly the same, but unpacking that information on the fly might lead to performance issues affecting the presentation of said information.
That being said, my DX100 is packed to the brim with FLAC and I have zero intentions of going with .wav. I might do some testing once my Heir 8.A turns up...
Same here. But I can point out even on my Studio V some songs can be troublesome in FLAC format and even present clipping during playback. But converting those files to WAV totally fixes those issues... This generally happens with songs that are very high in dynamics and busy. But for home use cPlay seems to have the issue licked as it completely unpacks the FLAC file to WAV format and stores it in RAM cache before playback so I don't see this causing any issues during playback. If anything I notice the music has more detail, imaging and sound-staging are better. The biggest difference for me though is in the treble. Maybe you guys can give cPlay a shot for yourselves. I use it bit for bit with ASIO with my DACport LX (still smashes the DX100 but that is to be expected I guess).
You are both right. The information is exactly the same, but unpacking that information on the fly might lead to performance issues affecting the presentation of said information.
That being said, my DX100 is packed to the brim with FLAC and I have zero intentions of going with .wav. I might do some testing once my Heir 8.A turns up...
Keep me posted on your Heir 8A. I'm so jealous right now . Hopefully I'll be able to get mine by December. Even the AKG 3003 is temping me right now. It sure is one hell of a good IEM. You have to spend time with it to appreciate it. Many are just trying it out for an hour or less and making impressions which is not enough time IMO to come to a fair assessment. In my experience its not the IEM/Headphone that gives you that immediate WOW factor that matters but rather if it can continue to give you that WOW factor for the long haul. Then again at such a price range it is understandable why many can't and won't.
I have a big problem locating a special song within a vast library: Showing the "folder" listing in poweramp, I´m presented with numerous entries called "Disk1", "Disk2" and so on, as many imports are organized that way. But I do not want to see all "Disk1", then all "Disk2" of different albums. Is there a way to see them hierarchically, e. g. "Vivaldi table music" -> Disk1 -> Disk2 and so on?
I have a big problem locating a special song within a vast library: Showing the "folder" listing in poweramp, I´m presented with numerous entries called "Disk1", "Disk2" and so on, as many imports are organized that way. But I do not want to see all "Disk1", then all "Disk2" of different albums. Is there a way to see them hierarchically, e. g. "Vivaldi table music" -> Disk1 -> Disk2 and so on?
I cant really advise on your problem, but if your using poweramp then your using old firmware, might the new firmware help ?
Poweramp will not work with the current posted firmware, but it has been reported that another update is due next week, and I received confirmation from Ibasso that the next update will bring back 3rd party player support!
If you convert an AIFF or WAV file to FLAC and then re-convert it back to an AIFF or WAV file, you'll end up with EXACTLY the same music. There are no "compression artifacts". It's the same as if you zip a text file then un-compress it. You don't get artifacts in your text. That is why it is called lossless compression. If it affected the un-compressed music in any way, it wouldn't be lossless.
But what do you think of the process of unzipping these files during music playback? I'm curious if this could be a cause of the discrepancy here as opposed to fully decoding the file and then storing it in memory cache before music playback.
You are both right. The information is exactly the same, but unpacking that information on the fly might lead to performance issues affecting the presentation of said information.
That being said, my DX100 is packed to the brim with FLAC and I have zero intentions of going with .wav. I might do some testing once my Heir 8.A turns up...
Keep me posted on your Heir 8A. I'm so jealous right now . Hopefully I'll be able to get mine by December. Even the AKG 3003 is temping me right now. It sure is one hell of a good IEM. You have to spend time with it to appreciate it. Many are just trying it out for an hour or less and making impressions which is not enough time IMO to come to a fair assessment. In my experience its not the IEM/Headphone that gives you that immediate WOW factor that matters but rather if it can continue to give you that WOW factor for the long haul. Then again at such a price range it is understandable why many can't and won't.
The received my impressions tuesday and began work on my 8.A immediately as I opted for the $120 rush order option. We are now 2 days into the "3-5 days" estimate and I can barely sit still... Rest assured I'll keep you all posted on how the 8.A fares with the DX100. In fact, getting me to ever shut up about it will probably be a problem.
A set of UM Merlins are also in the works for me (again - looooong story) and the thought of comparing those to the 8.A with both being powered by the DX100 just has me drooling... The Merlins have a very unique sound, with almost STAX-like mids, extended, yet pleasent highs and a slamming low end served with a very forward presentation. Entertaining, but possibly fatigueing in the long run. The 8.A is supposedly less aggressive in its presentation, but very, very good with just about any genre you throw at it.
Saw a few posts on issues with the track listing order, but couldn't find any resolution. Most (all?) of my albums seem to be loaded in reverse order - last track is listed as 1, first is shown last, etc.
I'm on 1.1.7 and the file data for the music is correct, but seems consistently backwards - a real frustration for concept / story albums.
I'll try and answer this myself as no one else seems to have any ideas. The same issue has been reported a couple of times in the DX100 bug thread without any apparent resolution, so it does appear to be a known issue, although I suspect that not everyone experiences it - guess I'm just 'special'. I can get albums to play in order by going through the albums menu option on the menu above the music menu (same place where you can browse the directory), but that is obviously restricted to one album at a time. If I try to use the main music menu to play (say) an artist then it will play the albums in reverse alphabetical order and the songs in each album from last to first.
Without any indication that I can find of what's causing it I have no idea what to do to try and fix it so will wait and see whether it still happens after next week's firmware update and if it does then I'll contact iBasso and see what they have to say.
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. Hopefully I'll be able to get mine by December. Even the AKG 3003 is temping me right now. It sure is one hell of a good IEM. You have to spend time with it to appreciate it. Many are just trying it out for an hour or less and making impressions which is not enough time IMO to come to a fair assessment. In my experience its not the IEM/Headphone that gives you that immediate WOW factor that matters but rather if it can continue to give you that WOW factor for the long haul. Then again at such a price range it is understandable why many can't and won't.
