Introducing ONIX Waltz XM10 Ltd - First Standalone Portable Android Player by ONIX

Apr 26, 2025 at 5:43 AM Post #151 of 158
Is the hiss just like waterfall, I mean present but in the background not high noise?
For me Clara has like waterfall noise when connected to PB5 but only if music is paused and the AMP is still engaged. When music is playing I don’r hear it anymore. Is that your case as well on XM10?

Correct. It's perceptually masked by pretty much anything that's playing at the moment, but it's audible if your rig is powered on and you have nothing playing.

The Dunu one was SA6EST.

I've heard that one is pretty good, but I've never tried it personally.

Yeah, I really like how it looks + the slimness of it is a huge factor and selling point for me.

Right, that's what sold me on it, the thinness of it.

I actually use it without the case just to keep it as thin as possible. I don't plan on selling it, so I'm not terribly concerned about protecting its resale value. And even if I were open to selling it someday, I'm not about to bork portability during my ownership period, just so the next owner can enjoy its thinness at a discount.

Here's a fun fact: at its thickest point, my iPhone 16 Pro Max + case is thicker than the XM10.

Curious how it stacks up against other DAPs and even AMPs.
My reference setup is DX340 w/AMP14 LO -> Penon Totem IC 4.4mm -> PB5 -> Penon Adapter 4.4M to 4.4F
It may be a lot but it sounds terrific, I also hooked it up to the recently received AK CA1000T and it also soungs great.
On some songs it’s really hard to tell them apart.

lol, I'm going to imagine that your reference rig eclipses the XM10 sonically. :smile: But as you said, it's quite a lot, volumetrically. I can't imagine that stack fitting in any pockets soon?

Trying the L&P W4, it does bring it down in SQ, it is less open but sound is still very close, like 89% or more? For a highly portable setup it’s awesome!
Curious how XM10 sounds directly, hopefully better than DX180 which seems not enough in comparison with the above.

Haha, I couldn't tell ya, haven't tried the DX180.

Of course plan is to be able to listen directly via 4.4mm upcoming adapter (@Shanling please provide update and details) and via external DAC/AMP dongles for change in flavor.

Honestly, I'm not that crazy about the new adapter. It just seems like another hardpoint that can get snagged on something. I'm fine with the included adapter for now,
 
Apr 26, 2025 at 5:57 AM Post #152 of 158
Correct. It's perceptually masked by pretty much anything that's playing at the moment, but it's audible if your rig is powered on and you have nothing playing.
Exactly!
I've heard that one is pretty good, but I've never tried it personally.
Me neither, heard it from a fellow AG that has this XM10 and Dunu combo about the noise.
Right, that's what sold me on it, the thinness of it.
Ditto!
I actually use it without the case just to keep it as thin as possible. I don't plan on selling it, so I'm not terribly concerned about protecting its resale value. And even if I were open to selling it someday, I'm not about to bork portability during my ownership period, just so the next owner can enjoy its thinness at a discount.
Hmm I do really love cases :))
It’s enticing to use it without, however glass front and back are not safe :))
Here's a fun fact: at its thickest point, my iPhone 16 Pro Max + case is thicker than the XM10.
Ehe, you added the case on the iPhone, not fair!
Add it on the XM10 and it’s just about milimetrically thicker.
lol, I'm going to imagine that your reference rig eclipses the XM10 sonically. :smile: But as you said, it's quite a lot, volumetrically. I can't imagine that stack fitting in any pockets soon?
Indeed, not that portable, but rather transportable!
Haha, I couldn't tell ya, haven't tried the DX180.
When playing a TOTL reference one such as Letshuoer Cadenza 12 one can immediately tell the difference and DX180 simply put doesn’t do it justice.
Honestly, I'm not that crazy about the new adapter. It just seems like another hardpoint that can get snagged on something. I'm fine with the included adapter for now,
I honestly kind of am?
Mainly due to the compactness plus reposition of the jack from the IEM cables, for L shaped ones it makes a lot of sense come to think about it.
Also ONIX doesn’t sell replacements for the dongle cable :(
Shanling has 1 cable adapter they made for the M0 or M0 plus that has the same function but different material look and probably sound as well.
 
Apr 27, 2025 at 11:25 PM Post #153 of 158
Is this a 4.4mm Pentaconn adapter?

3.5mm to 4.4mm Adapter, allowing for the use of the balanced circuit on XM10 Waltz.

Of course plan is to be able to listen directly via 4.4mm upcoming adapter (@Shanling please provide update and details) and via external DAC/AMP dongles for change in flavor.
Releasing in May, MSRP 30 USD, but some dealers might be including it alongside the unit.
 
Shanling Have any question about our players? Just PM me or send me email. Stay updated on Shanling at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/Shanling-Audio-603230783166845/ https://twitter.com/ShanlingAudio https://www.instagram.com/shanlingaudio/ http://en.shanling.com/ frankie@shanling.com
Apr 30, 2025 at 6:34 PM Post #154 of 158
Finally received the Onix Waltz XM10 LTD…what a mouthful of a name :ksc75smile:

It’s got an outstanding build quality, as expected, and it has some heft to it, as expected as well, due to its stainless steel chassis + front & back glass.

Sound is really strong, bodied, resolute, full range, punchy bass, it’s actually not that far off from my regular stack (DX340 + PB5 with Totem IC + adapter), I’d say like probably ~90% there?

The cable dongle is not ideal, but it’s functional, the drawback I sensed is that it can pull the IEM’s cable due to its own weight, but one can work around that - not a make or break. I can’t hardly wait for @Shanling to release their 3.5mm TRSS to 4.4mm balanced adapter 😍 - it’s going to be really well receive I believe - it also looks like the build quality is on par with the XM10 as well. Curious which retailers are going to have the adapter in stock, AliExpress, some from Europe as well I hope?

Its screen is really lovely, I sensed a little bit of lag in the user experience in direct comparison with DX180 4GB RAM vs 6GB RAM in XM10, same process QC 665 and Android 13 on both. I’ll be doing some under the hood tweaks on XM10 like I did for DX180 and will probably be able to make it faster and smoother 🤞

Side buttons should have been a little bit bigger and more proeminent, mostly because it’s harder to press them with the leather case on, and even with the case off, it’s easier to find them if they’re just a bit bigger - clickness factor is 1000% due to them not having any wiggle room in their slots - perfect build quality.

I would have liked the unit to have an accelerometer so it would allow for the screen to rotate, and there’s also no application pinning, which allows a user to lock a single app on the screen until the unit is unlocked via passcode/pin/gesture/etc. @Shanling please enable the "Application pinning" functionality, it's baked into Android 13 but it's missing from the Settings submenu, and also please add the battery charging limit saving option, so we can prolong the battery lifespan by not fully charging the device and letting the battery float while it's plugged in, sort-of-like "desktop mode" when plugged in, all other Android 12 and 13 DAPs have it, even older ones.

It’s interesting that XM10 does have double tap to wake though, which is a really great thing to have 😀

Oh yeah, and it does heat up pretty well on my end, with LOW GAIN and 35 volume out of 100 for Letshuoer Cadenza 12, while constantly playing back music from the card and doing a little bit of streaming via Tidal, I’ve taken it from 100% to 66% with some short breaks in about 5-6 hours. Happy to report that the XM10 does rise to do justice for the C12!

But…I haven’t been able to hear any background noise of any kind (waterfall, hiss, etc) when testing Campfire Audio Clara which are known to be sensitive, nor the C12 or Elysian Pilgrim Noir. So big thumbs up from me 👍

I haven’t yet heard my Audeze LCD-X on the XM10 yet, so really looking forward to see how well they perform.

The device is really great, wonderful build quality and design. It’s really close to the “phone” slab design, if it had a smaller chin and no "annoying" notch (which I disable immediately) it would have been better but hey, one can’t simply have it all 😀
Still the notch logo lights up when the device is charging and pulsating in red, however the pulsation doesn't seem synchronous, sometimes it speeds up then slows down and the logo isn't uniformly illuminated, instead the intensity is higher on the left side and fades away to the right side of the logo.

@warrenpchi Thank you very much for your responses and support, much appreciated!
 
Last edited:
May 1, 2025 at 6:53 AM Post #155 of 158
I am a drummer. But, wait, it's worse than you think; when I listen to music, I listen to primarily, and care most about, ...the drums. This is my main focus when I audition hifi gear. I listen to the drums, then the bass guitar, then guitar guitars, then synths/pianos, etc., and vocals last. I'm telling you this as it really colours my view of gear. I care about staging and imaging a lot, because, done well, it sounds like I'm sitting in front of the drum kit. How punchy/tactile gear is is another aspect of sound I find very engaging as if you are sitting in front of a drum kit, you can feel it. If I refer to how accurate or not timbre is, I am really focussing on the timbre of snare drums, cymbals, toms, etc.. So, if I rate a piece of gear, it is likely because it reproduces drums well. Although I have an ear for if vocals sound off, this aspect of music gets the least of my focus. Please bare this in mind when reading my impressions of the below gear.

Secondly, I studied sound engineering at university. Why does this matter? Well, it doesn't does it? However, it does mean that I have a preference for "studio neutral" tunings. For me, the most "correct" sounding IEM I have heard is Let Shuoer's Cadenza 12. I like other tunings, but my preference is for studio neutral. Do I have any hearing quirks? I don't know, but I don't think I do. My preference for neutral tunings is because they sound "correct", i.e., more natural/true to life. So I likely have a-typical hearing. I listen fairly loud (in the high 80 bB range) and, although love all music, listen mostly to rock/prog rock/good metal. I have included screenshots of the tracks from my test playlist for reference.

Thirdly, I have lots of tips, but don't really tip roll. I do all of my listen with bog-standard Amazon foam tips as I find them to fit me well, be comfortable and sound good with most IEMs. I have lots of different tips, but I tend to only roll tips if I have a lot of time on my hands or my standard foams don't fit; and even then, I usually just pick a different shape/size Comply set. So, almost all of my listening is done with narrow bore foam tips.

Also, I am a headphone/speaker guy. I'm not even sure this is relevant, but I feel that I am always drawn to presentations that are out in front of me and spacious-sounding. So while I may critique gear for staging in a certain way, it may just be my bias for headphone/speaker presentations.

Lastly, I am not a reviewer. I do not consider my evaluations of gear to be detailed enough to be considered as reviews. Nor do I consider my experience of other gear to be wide enough to pass judgement on what is on my desk this week. I wish to speak about how I find gear to sound to me. In the following impressions, I will only really discuss what jumps out to me about gear, rather than going through every detail of it's sound or function. So, if you think your sonic preferences are similar to mine, then maybe me posting my impressions will help you focus in on where to spend your hard earned cash.


FLAC / WAV / Qobuz > Node Nano > SU-1 / U2 Pro > Exogal Comet+ / Mojo / Onix XM10 / Hiby R4 > Taurus mk. II / WA6 / LD mk. II / LB B4-X / Earman Eagle

I do most of my listening on my desktop rig. This overkill for many of the IEMs I have auditioned, but outside of a synergy issue, I find that using my desktop chain really allows me to hear what an IEM/headphone is truly capable of as there's no shortage of power or resolution.

This is my primary chain - FLAC / WAV / Qobuz > Node Nano > SU-1 > Exogal Comet+ > Taurus mk. II

For IEMs, I justify whether they're going to stay or not based on their performance on my DAP. This has been the Hiby R4 since it's release, but I have now upgraded to Onix's XM10.


My impressions of Onix's XM10:

Prior to XM10, my reference DAP was Hiby's R4. It was my portable reference, not because of its technical prowess, but it's tonality. R4 is on the warmer side of neutral, it is dynamic, punchy and meaty - very engaging. I lean toward more neutrally tuned IEMs/headphones, sometimes grabbing something Harman-ish. I have found R4's tonality to suit my IEM preferences well. So, why am I talking about R4 in an XM10 impressions post? It is because XM10, to me, sounds like a straight upgrade from R4.

PXL_20250415_124831115.jpg


Now, XM10 isn't the priciest DAP I've owned. I have tried to "upgrade" past R4 a few times, but I have been unsuccessful, until now. I bought Fiio's M23. I heard that it had a similar gutsy presentation to R4. However, I found it to sound soulless, albeit technically capable. I purchased a Hiby R8ii. This was another miss for me as, although I found the staging to be very detailed and well-defined, it's image placement sounded unnatural to me. So, I keep going back to my R4... until the moment I started listening to XM10.

Having previously heard Onix's XM5 and been impressed but not liked the form factor, I was immediately interested when I came across XM10. I'm glad that I took a chance on it. I have now sold my R4 as I am satisfied that the XM10 is a sonic upgrade in every manner.

For reference, I have done most of my listening via the balanced 3.5 to 4.4 adapter. I have also tested the dual purpose 3.5 mm output and ran one or two IEMs single ended. Most devices sound better through their balanced outputs because they are designed to be balanced devices - XM10 is no different.

To discern what, if anything, was better when comparing XM10 to R4, I had to break out the big hitters that I had on hand, HifiMan's HE1000se. I am happy to say that both powered this can well, and allowed me to distinguish the sonic differences.

PXL_20250418_131800311.jpg


So, XM10 vs R4. XM10 is more detailed, airier/more spacious-sounding, depth is much better but it has similar width. It is also more dynamic, even more engaging and renders meatier, weightier bass guitars and meatier toms.

I have previously had experience of R4 not having good synergy, or potentially enough power, to drive high-end IEMs, such as Let Shuoer's brilliant Cadenza 12; this is one of the reasons why I wished to upgrade. Unfortunately, I no longer have that IEM on hand to test XM10 with and thus cannot speak to it but I have however been impressed with how XM10 has powered everything currently in my stable - even my HE-500. I am also happy to report that XM10 makes a wonderful DAC. I used it to feed my range of desktop amps, but I found particular enjoyment with my WA6 and HE-500.

I do somewhat miss the system-wide PEQ as an option for experimentation in the R4, but I'm not an EQer. However, I have gained a very capable transport in the XM10; I use this DAP now to stream Qobuz, replacing my Node Nano, whilst also gaining the ability to more easily play local files, through my desktop rig, connecting the XM10 to my DDC.

Do I have any gripes with the XM10? As mentioned above, system-wide PEQ would be nice. A slightly better user guide/support from Shanling to understand the nuisances of using it as a transport maybe? I wish that the battery would last a little longer, but I've only been caught out once so far in the month that I've owned this device, and that was an unusual use case that caught me out. I had heard some concerns from others about the noise floor of XM10. I auditioned a SA6EST when the XM10 first arrived and did find the noise floor to be audible when not playing music. However, with everything thing else that I have on hand, even low impedance, high sensitivity IEMs, such as Simgot’s EM10, assuaged my concerns - but it may be worth cautioning others who have well-known IEMs able to easily highlight such flaws, CA Andromeda , etc.. But after that? Nope. I think Onix/Shanling did a great job on this device. It is a great formfactor and it feels robust and well made. In my opinion, they got the balance of features just right, and, while I haven't been able to do direct comparisons in performance against all of the DAPs that I've mentioned, I feel that XM10 offers good performance for the price asked. As soon as I started to listen to XM10, I knew that I had made the right choice.

I think many will enjoy the listening to music off the XM10. I find it hard to fault for my use case. And fundamentally, to my ears, it sounds brilliant. If your ears and musical preferences are similar to mine - I highly recommend this device.

PXL_20250409_105530521.jpg
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20250408_194351712.jpg
    PXL_20250408_194351712.jpg
    792.2 KB · Views: 0
  • PXL_20250408_194727176.jpg
    PXL_20250408_194727176.jpg
    968.1 KB · Views: 0
  • PXL_20250408_194917860.jpg
    PXL_20250408_194917860.jpg
    1.2 MB · Views: 0
  • Screenshot_20250409-1845463.png
    Screenshot_20250409-1845463.png
    416 KB · Views: 0
  • Screenshot_20250409-1846522.png
    Screenshot_20250409-1846522.png
    433 KB · Views: 0
  • Screenshot_20250409-1847022.png
    Screenshot_20250409-1847022.png
    202.3 KB · Views: 0
May 5, 2025 at 10:05 PM Post #156 of 158
I can’t hardly wait for @Shanling to release their 3.5mm TRSS to 4.4mm balanced adapter 😍 - it’s going to be really well receive I believe - it also looks like the build quality is on par with the XM10 as well. Curious which retailers are going to have the adapter in stock, AliExpress, some from Europe as well I hope?

@Shanling please enable the "Application pinning" functionality, it's baked into Android 13 but it's missing from the Settings submenu, and also please add the battery charging limit saving option, so we can prolong the battery lifespan by not fully charging the device and letting the battery float while it's plugged in, sort-of-like "desktop mode" when plugged in, all other Android 12 and 13 DAPs have it, even older ones.

The adapter is now shipping, available to all our distributors. You can either check with your dealer from which you purchased XM10 or wait for it to show up on Aliexpress.

For App pinning, it was currently hidden from the settings, as it was not working correctly on our system (Unable to exit it due to our custom navigation mode). We hope to have it re-enabled in the future.

For battery charging optimization, we requested that from our software team over the years, but so far it's not supported on any of our devices (Apart from the special case of M30)
 
Shanling Have any question about our players? Just PM me or send me email. Stay updated on Shanling at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/Shanling-Audio-603230783166845/ https://twitter.com/ShanlingAudio https://www.instagram.com/shanlingaudio/ http://en.shanling.com/ frankie@shanling.com
May 5, 2025 at 10:53 PM Post #157 of 158
The adapter is now shipping, available to all our distributors. You can either check with your dealer from which you purchased XM10 or wait for it to show up on Aliexpress.

For App pinning, it was currently hidden from the settings, as it was not working correctly on our system (Unable to exit it due to our custom navigation mode). We hope to have it re-enabled in the future.

For battery charging optimization, we requested that from our software team over the years, but so far it's not supported on any of our devices (Apart from the special case of M30)
Do you have a link to an online store that I can buy the adapter?
 
May 6, 2025 at 1:03 AM Post #158 of 158
The adapter is now shipping, available to all our distributors. You can either check with your dealer from which you purchased XM10 or wait for it to show up on Aliexpress.
Sounds great, looking forward to seeing it available so I can grab it sooner rather than later :)
For App pinning, it was currently hidden from the settings, as it was not working correctly on our system (Unable to exit it due to our custom navigation mode). We hope to have it re-enabled in the future.
Sad to hear that. Curious though, why was the native Android navigation mode changed and not left as OEM? It hinders the normal navigation by a lot, especially for Android users who are by now far accustomed to the gesture navigation system/patterns.
I’d definitely suggest to leave the original intended navigation system of Android intact and remove the mods, it doesn’t bring any value the way it is right now and it just makes things harder while operating.
I almost get with 100% reproduction rate back gesture navigation errors and unwanted triggers plus trying to fast switch between apps is missing/broken altogether and it’s causing a lot of friction.
For battery charging optimization, we requested that from our software team over the years, but so far it's not supported on any of our devices (Apart from the special case of M30)
Now this is such a big miss because it hurts the plugged in devices badly. Why not leave what Android built in place if one doesn’t want to work on optimizing it further? I mean it comes for free already built into the OS…
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top