sardar17
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2013
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I'm always curious about those file format sounding different. I'm usually known for being a grumpy guy too picky about anything. from signature change with a little impedance on the source, to hiss levels that most people never hear. but anytime I ABx, mp3 or aac at max bitrates, I can't really seem to pass 55-60% accuracy. and I have some experience at doing this and know what to "look for" at least for mp3. meaning a few times, there is a little something I get, and the rest of the time it's just random guess. so I'm really curious how that can translate into someone thinking it's no good while on the move with portable gears, ambient noise, footstep noises, sometimes cable noise?
I'm not saying don't use flac! flac is better, at least measurably better, and that is be more than enough to justify it. but I really wonder how many people saying they can tell mp3 is no good, can actually hear it when it's encoded @320bps with lame?
about atrack, I would convert it back to wave and make some flac with it. it's like alac, it served no purpose except coerce you into buying from the same company again and again from fear of compatibility issues with another brand.
super secret part (you can't read if you don't know the secret password. or just read it):
I've been playing with the X3 for 3days, I'll write something about the X1 next week, but on sound alone, they seem to be a lot alike(no the X1 isn't warmer). making the X1 the best choice if you only consider money/sound.
it's an amazing deal at 100$, but I still think many people would go mad over FIIO's UI, or at least would need to work on their music library(naming/tagging), and I sure won't sell my A15.
also here's a lolilol tests. with recorded noise here is what I read as max volumes(the noise is recorded at -13db on my file):
the values in DB are meaningless by themselves I just set my computer to get a max close to the zero value. what matters is the difference from one measure to another.
X1 -8db @ volume 88(when EQ is ON, that's the max possible volume setting). or -2db @volume100.
clip+ -4db @ volume 6 and -10db vol 0.
A15 -14db @ volume 30 (no DSP no nothing!!). it went to -6db with dynamic normalizer(sony's own replaygain kind of thing)
and it could go to -3db with all EQ sliders maxed out. not that I recommend doing that to go louder at all!!! it's just to show that sony keeps the music at -3db by default just in case you'll use the EQ.
keep in mind that the gain from the normalizer depends on the track loudness itself, that's why I mention the noise being recorded at -13db.
A867 -10db or -2db with dynamic normalizer.
10db louder is what we consider twice as loud. So here you have it. by default the X1 is more than twice as loud, but here we ended up with only 4db louder when the recording level is dealt with by sony's normalizer. so all in all max gains aren't all that different.
ps: why nobody does that for DAPs? instead we're swimming in urban legends and subjective opinions.
now about power itself, my little science for dummies test doesn't say anything about it, so don't misunderstand. at least on paper, the X1 has more power available for headphones(loudness is voltage, power is power). still they also don't recommend using more than 100ohm's headphones, so it's not a X3/X5 kind of monster.
so now you can make predictions if you have any of those 3 about max loudness that almost nobody will ever need.not sure how usefull it is but it was easy enough to test.
@AUDIOBREEDER if you don't see the benefits of a smaller DAP and battery, I also suggest you keep the Z.
truth has been spoken
