Paulus XII
Formerly known as FW214b
I still wonder how would the SQ be compared to Cowon Plenue 1...
Pioneer's first DAP, the XDP-100R announced in IFA
- Thread starter AnakChan
- Start date
Signal2Noise
Headphoneus Supremus
Apparently my XDP from Japan has been delivered! Much faster than expected which is awesome. Now I want to get home to play with it! Does the DAP need a full charge before first use?
No you don't have to, but it is a good idea in order to preserve the long term performance of the battery by fully charging it first...or you can play with it while it is charging (although the charging time will take longer).
Cheers!
-HK sends
Suggestion, it comes with charge. Set it up with your Google account and then go to settings/device information/software and ask it to refresh so it can pick up the firmware update. All of this will slow your charge % but at least you can get ahead
p0mg
New Head-Fier
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will this pioneer dap be a worthy upgrade from a dx90 soundwise? asked a friend in japan to buy it for me
Signal2Noise
Headphoneus Supremus
Well here it is! I was apprehensive on what the size of this DAP was going to be but in hand I am happy with it. Pic is the XDP along side my Lumia 950XL Windows Phone which is slightly larger in area but thinner. First impressions are I am pleased with this purchase since features are tremendous for this level of DAP at this particular pricepoint. Haven't listened to music, let alone loaded the SD cards, yet since there is a currently an update (742MB) happening after the rather lengthy initial boot-up. There also wasn't much a charge in it and after first boot it pretty much died so charging now to do the update. I'm using an AC charger that's used to charge my Android phone which I assume should be okay? I am waiting on screen protector and case but I shall use the player anyway and hope the glass holds up.
Paulus XII
Formerly known as FW214b
Does it have custom EQ? How effective is it? I read somewhere that presets do almost nothing to the sound.
Signal2Noise
Headphoneus Supremus
The EQ can be customized and there are several presets to choose from. I'm normally not one for EQ (usually disabled on all my devices) but I'm curious with these high-res players. With initial listening I played around with some of the presets I could not discern any differences. I've left it on 'Rock' for now and we'll see if there's a 'break in' period for the DAP itself.
I only received the XDP yesterday and am still experimenting. I have more impressions to jot down and will share here soon. I still think for the money the Pioneer is a good buy.
Signal2Noise
Headphoneus Supremus
Some more impressions after a couple of hours of playing around with stuff. Apologies in advance for the long read...
I loaded two 128GB Sandisk SD cards into the XDP. Slot 1 was finicky getting the card to click in and stay in. I ended up having
to use a flat head screwdriver to push it in to click. Slot 2 had no problem.I plan to load one SD card with only FLAC files. The
other will hold purchased music of a variety of file types and podcasts (for when I want a break from music). The onboard 32GB
storage will be kept only for Android OS and apps.
I installed the X-DAP Link software onto a laptop to test out. My music libraries span across a couple of NAS units which also act
as a server to SONOS and iTunes. I have a purchased collection of about 1600 physical CDs (ripped to FLAC & 360kbps MP3) and
purchased digital alboms/songs mostly via iTunes. I mapped three file locations to X-DAP Link which in total equates to about
30000 music tracks. About 25000 are FLAC and the balance is a mixture of MP3, MP4, and AAC files. This took a long time to load
into the software. Unfortunately X-DAP Link doesn't seem to keep a library record of the collection (such as iTunes *.itl for
example) so each time the software is launched it goes through the long process of populating the list. This is all done
wirelessly to laptop so perhaps it will be faster if I do it from a hardwired location like my main desktop.
Once the files are loaded, the X-DAP Link GUI is quirky but works for the most part. Sorting between Albums, Artists, Tracks and
such is kind of goofy. I selected about 5 albums total from Kate Bush, London Grammar, and Nick Cave to try out first and once I
hit the transfer button it took about 10 minutes to load to the XDP. Looks like I'll have to do it in small amounts if I keep the
SD cards in the DAP, otherwise I'll have to insert the SD cards into the laptop and just do a file transfer manually.
Once complete I disconnected XDP from laptop and plugged in my Westone W3's (because they were handier to get to) and powered on
the DAP. The initial boot after first charge and system updates that happened previously was much faster this time around. To me
the power button looks like it has a light in the center of the button but no light came on. Is there a setting? Am I mistaken? Oh
well. I launched the main dedicated music app to get going with some music. I also have the Rocket Player app but haven't tried
that yet. There is also the Onkyo Music app which I've only looked at briefly and will delve into it more later.
At first I was concerned because once the music app launched there was no sight of the albums I had loaded from X-DAP Link. There
was no indication that they were loading or anything. I thought it might take a while but nope. So I went to settings within the music
app and there was a Folder option. I touched on it and then there was some syncing happening and by the time I backed out of the
settings the music files were there! Not exactly sure what I did and will have to investigate.
With music listed I fired up Kate Bush Aerial disc 1 in FLAC. I had to increase the volume of the DAP to about 90 to reach a
comfortable/isolating listening level. Sound was good, but I would not say there was a "wow!" factor at this time. I played around
with the EQ & Filter settings and not sure what I like yet. For the EQ, I could not discern any differences between modes. Maybe
there is a "break in" period that needs to happen? I have not noticed any skipping, dropouts, pops, or what have you when playing
music from the Sandisk SD cards like some people have posted. So far so good.
Anyway, I'm still quite happy about this player and look forward to becoming more familiar with it over the next while. I will also
test out the player connected to my newly acquired Chord Mojo although I doubt I'd regularly be on the go with the two units
connected. It'll either be XDP only or Mojo & phone depending on the 'what' & 'where'.
I loaded two 128GB Sandisk SD cards into the XDP. Slot 1 was finicky getting the card to click in and stay in. I ended up having
to use a flat head screwdriver to push it in to click. Slot 2 had no problem.I plan to load one SD card with only FLAC files. The
other will hold purchased music of a variety of file types and podcasts (for when I want a break from music). The onboard 32GB
storage will be kept only for Android OS and apps.
I installed the X-DAP Link software onto a laptop to test out. My music libraries span across a couple of NAS units which also act
as a server to SONOS and iTunes. I have a purchased collection of about 1600 physical CDs (ripped to FLAC & 360kbps MP3) and
purchased digital alboms/songs mostly via iTunes. I mapped three file locations to X-DAP Link which in total equates to about
30000 music tracks. About 25000 are FLAC and the balance is a mixture of MP3, MP4, and AAC files. This took a long time to load
into the software. Unfortunately X-DAP Link doesn't seem to keep a library record of the collection (such as iTunes *.itl for
example) so each time the software is launched it goes through the long process of populating the list. This is all done
wirelessly to laptop so perhaps it will be faster if I do it from a hardwired location like my main desktop.
Once the files are loaded, the X-DAP Link GUI is quirky but works for the most part. Sorting between Albums, Artists, Tracks and
such is kind of goofy. I selected about 5 albums total from Kate Bush, London Grammar, and Nick Cave to try out first and once I
hit the transfer button it took about 10 minutes to load to the XDP. Looks like I'll have to do it in small amounts if I keep the
SD cards in the DAP, otherwise I'll have to insert the SD cards into the laptop and just do a file transfer manually.
Once complete I disconnected XDP from laptop and plugged in my Westone W3's (because they were handier to get to) and powered on
the DAP. The initial boot after first charge and system updates that happened previously was much faster this time around. To me
the power button looks like it has a light in the center of the button but no light came on. Is there a setting? Am I mistaken? Oh
well. I launched the main dedicated music app to get going with some music. I also have the Rocket Player app but haven't tried
that yet. There is also the Onkyo Music app which I've only looked at briefly and will delve into it more later.
At first I was concerned because once the music app launched there was no sight of the albums I had loaded from X-DAP Link. There
was no indication that they were loading or anything. I thought it might take a while but nope. So I went to settings within the music
app and there was a Folder option. I touched on it and then there was some syncing happening and by the time I backed out of the
settings the music files were there! Not exactly sure what I did and will have to investigate.
With music listed I fired up Kate Bush Aerial disc 1 in FLAC. I had to increase the volume of the DAP to about 90 to reach a
comfortable/isolating listening level. Sound was good, but I would not say there was a "wow!" factor at this time. I played around
with the EQ & Filter settings and not sure what I like yet. For the EQ, I could not discern any differences between modes. Maybe
there is a "break in" period that needs to happen? I have not noticed any skipping, dropouts, pops, or what have you when playing
music from the Sandisk SD cards like some people have posted. So far so good.
Anyway, I'm still quite happy about this player and look forward to becoming more familiar with it over the next while. I will also
test out the player connected to my newly acquired Chord Mojo although I doubt I'd regularly be on the go with the two units
connected. It'll either be XDP only or Mojo & phone depending on the 'what' & 'where'.
browser of hi-fi
New Head-Fier
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Hi all.
What about DSP? Personally, I don't use the equaliser etc, trying to reduce any additional processing, but don't know what the DSP is providing. My immediate thought is to switch it off, but the Pioneer arrived with this ticked ON. I think Sony players tend to use it too.
Thanks.
What about DSP? Personally, I don't use the equaliser etc, trying to reduce any additional processing, but don't know what the DSP is providing. My immediate thought is to switch it off, but the Pioneer arrived with this ticked ON. I think Sony players tend to use it too.
Thanks.
Paulus XII
Formerly known as FW214b
There's no such thing like a "break-in" period for EQ. It's not well implemented unfortunately or I would be getting it.
Paulus XII
Formerly known as FW214b
Yes it could improve, but I think it had been better to implement hardware based EQ rather than software based EQ.
Signal2Noise
Headphoneus Supremus
Slightly OT but since Onkyo Music comes pre-installed on the XDP...
I discovered that Onkyo Music download purchases aren't available to users outside the UK, Germany, Japan, & USA. Bummer! I hope this changes soon, especially if MQA does become a thing eventually.
I discovered that Onkyo Music download purchases aren't available to users outside the UK, Germany, Japan, & USA. Bummer! I hope this changes soon, especially if MQA does become a thing eventually.
Signal2Noise
Headphoneus Supremus
I can confirm that this micro OTG cable works between the XDP & Mojo. Square end gets connected to the dap and round to the Mojo.
Doubt I'll need the Mojo because the XDP sounds absolutely fine on its own with my W4's. However, for those wishing there was more volume headroom then adding the Mojo will do the trick.
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