ONKYO DP-X1 | Dual Sabre Dacs | Balanced | Sabre BTL Amp | MQA | DSD 256 | Android 5 |

[AzureBlue]

I use a 5000mah battery pack to recharge dpx1 occasionally. No noise and can play normally while charging. FYI the brand is XiaoMi.

 
Are you not able to play the DP-X1 while charging it using an Anker?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Neutron has such a terrible interface and has trouble with tags and album art. It isn't worth the slightly better audio quality than stock players. Just install Poweramp Alpha v3. It's UI is actually operable, has excellent tag and album art support, and has a hi res mode and a new audio engine. It basically stumps Neutron in every way imo.

There is no "slightly better audio quality" at work. If you don't use any of Neutron's processing options it's just a player with a clunky interface. Where Neutron shines is in its 20-band parametric EQ and advanced crossfeed, processing features that will transform the tonality and soundstage of your system for the better if you know how to use them.

 

[Larethio]

To me it all is just slightly better sound. That's because I find that sound processing such as equalizers warps the music beyond what you want to hear. Neutron's sound processing is pointless if you want your sound to be as true to the original recording as possible. If you want truly better sound then invest in good transducers, lossless files, and a better amp/dac.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

To me it all is just slightly better sound. That's because I find that sound processing such as equalizers warps the music beyond what you want to hear. Neutron's sound processing is pointless if you want your sound to be as true to the original recording as possible. If you want truly better sound then invest in good transducers, lossless files, and a better amp/dac.

Firstly, I'd agree, go further and say there is "no" better sound if you just use Neutron as a stock music player--feel free to abandon it in favor of something with a preferred UI. With that out of the way--

There are aberrations in current music recording and reproduction technology that simply cannot be fixed with "good transducers, lossless files, and better amp/dacs".

For a start, 99% of music are mastered for loudspeakers not headphones.
On the other hand, it's quite impossible to master all that well for headphones, because headphone listening is a moving target, with wild variations in the results among different headphones and different listeners.

All the processing I do is about transcending the physical limits imposed by my already quite excellent audio hardware, and my personal head/ear physiology (which although not aberrantly extraordinary, have enough normal variation from the norm to make generic mass market headphone tuning a hit-or-miss affair--as usual).

While we're at it, there is no "the sound as the artist / producer / sound engineer / whatever intended" in any commercial recording played back through any stock home system, least of all an audiophile headphone rig. The ones producing the music know that their target audience / listening devices is a wild mishmash from Earpods and car radios to Martin Logan towers (or what-have-you) in billion-dollar listening rooms. The produced recording is full of compromises, designed to offend as little as possible in all setups, rather than to amaze anybody on a particular setup. Audiophiles don't even take the studio listening setup on which the music was mastered to be the goal for their audio systems, and they may even be right, because the studio setup may have been designed to reveal as many potential flaws in the recording as possible rather than to present the music as best it can.

But that means that NOBODY has ever heard the produced music at its best even in the studio, and it is up to YOU to find / create the setup that pleases you the most!

It's high time audiophiles took responsibility for creating the ultimate sound into their own hands.

 

[majid]

  1. What are the voltage and amperage requirements for the DP-X1 when using a portable external battery charger? I'm looking at an Anker PowerCore 20100 and want to confirm that it has the proper output for the player before purchasing.
 
3. How are you guys connecting your DP-X1s while in your cars? Wired aux in, or Bluetooth? Is wi-fi even an in-car option yet?

 
1) Anker battery packs are among the better ones, and should do fine. I use an ASUS ZenPower 10050mAh which is a bit nicer (aluminum case) and conveniently sized ($20 from B&H Photo).
 
3) I tried connecting it to my 2013 BMW 335i's infotainment system via USB, and it wouldn't work properly. It sees one ALAC track I loaded into device storage, but can't play it (perhaps because it is a 192/24 track). It doesn't see a FLAC album I loaded onto device storage, or anything on the MicroSD card. Your mileage may vary. Bluetooth works, but is obviously low-quality (what's the point of a High-Res player?), you are probably better off using line-in. Kind of a bummer - I use an iPod Classic at the moment but I've reached capacity and it crashes often with the BMW iPod app, unlike an iOS device.

 

[Johnny Woody]

Recently switched to JH Angie from W60
 
What gain should I use to pair it with this DAP?
 
I am using high gain with 120-130 volume right now

 

[Eide]

Thanks for all the tips regarding Neutron. I´v managed to clean up the sound a bit, but there´s still a lot of artifacts in the music. There´s a ton of adjustments to be made, so I guess there´s a perfect setting buried in there. A pity Neutron doesn´t play clean without heavy tampering. I guess my quest for a good app with crossfeed and parametric EQ goes on.

 

[NPWS]

  Recently switched to JH Angie from W60
 
What gain should I use to pair it with this DAP?
 
I am using high gain with 120-130 volume right now

WOW! 

that's a lot of huge amount difference volume with me
I use normal gain volume 80-86, with my angie too.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Thanks for all the tips regarding Neutron. I´v managed to clean up the sound a bit, but there´s still a lot of artifacts in the music. There´s a ton of adjustments to be made, so I guess there´s a perfect setting buried in there. A pity Neutron doesn´t play clean without heavy tampering. I guess my quest for a good app with crossfeed and parametric EQ goes on.

Try finding the switch to "use generic driver" in audio settings.

 

[Sonic Defender]

There are aberrations in current music recording and reproduction technology that simply cannot be fixed with "good transducers, lossless files, and better amp/dacs".

... there is no "the sound as the artist / producer / sound engineer / whatever intended" in any commercial recording played back through any stock home system, least of all an audiophile headphone rig.

But that means that NOBODY has ever heard the produced music at its best even in the studio, and it is up to YOU to find / create the setup that pleases you the most!

It's high time audiophiles took responsibility for creating the ultimate sound into their own hands.

Couldn't agree more with you Joe. I always cringe inside when I hear people throw about the idea of "hearing the music as it was intended" - there is no such intent, they don't assume much about how we consume music, that is left up to us. And I also love the point about people most likely not wanting to have the studio sound in the final product. They master for listenability after the studio style of monitoring/inspecting has helped to determine where the issues they intend to correct are.
 
Joe, you should start a thread or propose a series of articles like Jason from Schiit has done that goes into detailed explanations of how to use a parametric EQ and provide real examples such as in song X there is a problem with Y. Through my HD 800 (for example) I needed to correct things and here is how I did it, and the theory behind what the correction is doing. Hell you might even be able to make a guide that people could purchase for say $9.99. I would be quite interested in either scenario. Even though the information is already around for free, it is all over the Internet and it can take many hours of searching and reading. Some of the resources I find are good, most are poor and few do even a reasonable job explaining the theory of signal processing in such a way that a non audio/electrical engineer can understand.

 

[MadDane]

Are you not able to play the DP-X1 while charging it using an Anker?

Yes I play mine all the time while its charging to keep battery full. Only problem I have is in my car. If I try to charge the battery pack while listening I get SEVERE noise/hum. That's fine I charge the battery pack when listening to the radio or at home.

 

[tonehk]

Regarding Tidal offline playback (not wifi streaming)
 
There were a few posts in Feb that some users experienced stutter/break up even on offline playback.  There didn’t seem to be any resolution to this problem.  I still experience this issue. Anybody still have this problem on the DPX1?

 

[Larethio]

To each his own. To me and A LOT of other people on this forum we have a purist view of things and the equalizers make the music sound like ****. This is assuming you gave good equipment. I'm not into this "equalization" crap unless you have a terrible setup.

 

[ReizeiMako]

EQ vs Non EQ strike here again? I just saw this event in X7 forum. lol

 

[Joe Bloggs]

No strike for me. I surrender to his superior knowledge and long experience (looks at my status badge and join date in shame )

Larethio I just wonder what Viper4Android is even doing, listed in your profile? You do know that digital signal processing is the only purpose it serves, right? I happen to maintain a highly-rated resource for Viper4Android at XDA, headphone correction profiles using its impulse convolution / DDC functions: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2372750 Take a look there if you have any interest. There's a profile for the ER-4--although what aspect of its sound, if any, needs correction almost entirely depends on the fit of the phones in your ear, so if you're really interested, you're better off administering some listening tests with the ER-4 and tuning your own correction impulse for them accordingly. Pm me if interested.