[Blazer39]

  Got a quick question. The X2's are easy to drive, so are there any sound improvements at all if I were to get a better DAC/Amp than my current Fiio E10K? If yes, what could I expect?

i don't think there would be much difference if you upgraded, sound quality gets better from dedicated DAC/Amp vs portable devices.
 
i think your setup probably drive X2 to its fullest potential..however you can always go the tube amp route.

 

[wolfmath]

 
i don't think there would be much difference if you upgraded, sound quality gets better from dedicated DAC/Amp vs portable devices.
 
i think your setup probably drive X2 to its fullest potential..however you can always go the tube amp route.

In terms of tube amps, I would recommend against the Aune T1 for the X2. I love the T1, but it doesn't pair well with the X2. 

 

[Selbi]

i don't think there would be much difference if you upgraded, sound quality gets better from dedicated DAC/Amp vs portable devices.

i think your setup probably drive X2 to its fullest potential..however you can always go the tube amp route.

In terms of tube amps, I would recommend against the Aune T1 for the X2. I love the T1, but it doesn't pair well with the X2. 

I don't have any idea about Tubes except that they supposedly sound warmer and smoother. I also don't know what to pay for a good amp. I see stuff starting at 30 bucks on Amazon.

 

[shinbojan]

Guys, screws on my headphones got loose and I lost one of them.
Can I order replacements somewhere and how tricky is to replace them?
 

 

 

[Mr Trev]

  Guys, screws on my headphones got loose and I lost one of them.
Can I order replacements somewhere and how tricky is to replace them?
 

 

From what I read, those aren't actually screws and I would imagine any proper sized dowel should do the trick

 

[lugnut]

What do you guys think is a fair price for lightly used pair of X2's ?

 

[Selbi]

What do you guys think is a fair price for lightly used pair of X2's ?

Anything below 200€.

 

[wolfmath]

I don't have any idea about Tubes except that they supposedly sound warmer and smoother. I also don't know what to pay for a good amp. I see stuff starting at 30 bucks on Amazon.

Although it's not a tube amp, I'm extremely happy pairing the X2 with the Monoprice DAC/Amp (not monolith). It really brings out the clarity of the music over my onboard audio.

 

[Ultrabrite]

I found this thread when I was waiting for the delivery of my X2 I ordered from Elgiganten online. It made me a bit worried as I have seen Elgiganten selling the newer Gibson version.
So when I was visiting a Mediamarkt store I noticed they had some older X2 boxes marked "Woox". I decided to buy them also to see which of them I preferred.
 
The decision was not so easy as I expected.
 
On the outside they are similar but they have their differences. As mentioned before the Gibson version has the glued ear pads in soft black textile. The Woox version
has removable ear pads in black velvet and has better finnish of the leather headband. The Gibson ear pads are a bit softer so their headphones fits slightly looser.
No major dealbreaker here.
 
After listening to them for a while, I found them both similar but also different. They both share a rich soundstage, deep bass and softer highs. The Woox version has some extra midrange giving them a bit more presence. The Gibson is a bit more relaxed with a slightly deeper bass. To me it is more a matter of taste what is best.
 
I prefer the X2 sound over other brands I listened to lately (such as Sennheiser, Beats, Sony). Even if I just tested some other headphones I must say I have been surprised by the poor audio quality many of them delivered (some 2-3 times the X2 price).
 
So even if there might be some QC issues out there don't let this discussion scare you off. Grab yourself a pair of headphones and judge yourself.
 
Enjoy!

 

 

[Selbi]

Alright, I've been playing around with "recording my headphones" to nail down the balance issues once and for all, because although this third pair I have isn't even close to what the other two ones had, I still sense the slightest imbalance in the treble. I thought my mind was going insane from all this ordeal, but I wanted to let it rest once and for all, and EQ out these subtle differences.
 
So I had to measure them.
 
Using Audacity's built-in sine wave generator:

1. Logarithmic
2. 10-20000 Hz
3. 0.8 amplitude
4. 30 seconds

 
The microphone I've used is the Blue Snowball iCE, which obviously isn't a top-of-the-art microphone, but it certainly is decent enough. Also, it's just barely the size to snuggly fit into the cups of the X2.
 
I've recorded both sides five times, each time taking the microphone out and putting it back in. This was to avoid affecting the results by me improperly placing the microphone. I then visually matched the two most identical ones for each channel.
 
These are the result graphs:
 

 
And this is a difference graph between the two channels:
 

 
 
Analysis:

1. Right off the bat we can see a pretty consistent loudness difference with that white line throughout the graph. But okay, that could be caused by the microphone placement, and even then it would be easy to balance out alone.
2. Otherwise, things are pretty consistent for the two channels for the majority of the bass region.
3. But then it gets weird at around 200-240 Hz, where there's a slight bump on the Left side where there's only a tiny one on the Right side.
4. Then we get a whole bunch of consistency again.
5. When finally, oh god, everything is mismatched in the 4000+ Hz region. The general structure is the same at first glance, but there are artifacts on the left channel where there isn't anything on the right one and vice versa.

 
What can I conclude? Well... the EQ'ing is likely going to be tougher than I thought. Waaay tougher.

 

[wolfmath]

   
 
What can I conclude? Well... the EQ'ing is likely going to be tougher than I thought. Waaay tougher.

This may be a dumb question, so take it with a grain of salt. But is it at all possible that this is due to your source an not your headphones? What would happen if you tried the same experiment on a different pair of headphones?

 

[Selbi]

  This may be a dumb question, so take it with a grain of salt. But is it at all possible that this is due to your source an not your headphones? What would happen if you tried the same experiment on a different pair of headphones?

 
I've already done the opposite experiment, which is plugging my X2's into a difference source device. In this case, my phone and my on-board sound. Both yielded the same subjective imbalance (at the additional cost of some clarity). Unfortunately, I don't have other headphones flying around than my IEMs, and those are impossible to measure with my current setup.
 
However, I've already asked how likely it is that my Fiio E10K is causing the problems and not the headphones, and I've almost universally heard that there are no known cases of imbalance with it.
 
If I get a hold onto my old Sennheiser HD 518, I'll repeat the experiment to verify I'm indeed not placebo'ing all over the place.

 

[TheBigJim]

Hi everyone. I got the QED Performance J2J cable for Christmas, been testing it out with the X2's run from my Ibasso D14, very positive so far. It's a nice think and soft cable with zero microphonics, for £20 well worth a try in my opinion.

 

[MetroBBOY]

Has anyone been able to take these apart? Completely?
I want to give it a full spring clean, especially the 3D mesh headband section.

 

[MisterEwing]

  Got a quick question. The X2's are easy to drive, so are there any sound improvements at all if I were to get a better DAC/Amp than my current Fiio E10K? If yes, what could I expect?

 
I used my X2s with an SMSL SD793 and Google Play Music for almost a year. When I purchased my HD650s I decided it was time to upgrade not only my dac/amp but also my source material. I purchased the Aune X1s and signed up for Tidal HiFi; a combination which worked very well for the HD650s but was a fairly poor pairing with the X2 (specifically the Aune). I did some digging, confused as to why this 'higher end' dac/amp sounded so strange with the X2, and all I could surmise is the high output impedance of the Aune (10 ohms) didn't play nicely with the 32 ohm X2s.
 
I then decided to add a Schiit Fulla 2 into the mix. This worked quite nicely with the X2s (and all my other headphones) and depending on my source material was an improvement over the SD793. That last part is important... using Google Play Music I didn't really notice any difference between the SD793 and the Fulla 2. Both sounded good, but neither really stood out as any better than the other. With Tidal HiFi I noticed a bit more tightness in the bass with the Fulla 2 and a generally 'better' experience, but the difference was certainly minimal.
 
I guess the point I'm making is, had I not upgraded to a lossless streaming service, and had I not added other headphones to the mix I would be equally happy with the SMSL SD793 and the Fulla 2. If your source material is lossless maybe you'd benefit from a higher end dac, but I really don't know where that price point is. The reason I stuck with the Fulla 2 is that it better drives my 650s, it has both line and pre-outs so I an use it control powered monitors and eventually add a better/more powerful amp, and with a secondary power source I can use it directly with my phone/tablet while traveling.