[Marleybob217]

  Please forgive my ignorance—I'm new to the audiophile world.  How can I tell whether they do or not?

No problem I'm not even sure if I'm using the right terminology here. 
 
You can hope that someone measured this for you like tyll: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/HiFiMANIE400.pdf
 
The electrical impedance thingy is almost linear. But dynamics usually don't have as much impedance issues as BAs.

 

[borrego]

  Did you get the pause on both FW's?

 As I recall, yes.
 
All the "1 second pause/resume" was on 16/44 FLAC files (with 20-40MB FLAC file per track). I have Gapless playback turned off
 
It seems that the DX90 will either have the "1 second pause/resume" or the "2 second cut off" issue but not both in one's player setup...

 

[Marleybob217]

 
 As I recall, yes.
 
All the "1 second pause/resume" was on 16/44 FLAC files (with 20-40MB FLAC file per track). I have Gapless playback turned off
 
It seems that the DX90 will either have the "1 second pause/resume" or the "2 second cut off" issue but not both in one's player setup...

1 Second pause/resume reporting in! 

 

[headwhacker]

  Wow, your customs sounds like bastards. They actually devalued your product.
But I'm glad everything remained intact. 
 
I was also quite surprised of the slightly warmer sound the DX90 produces. It's not warm in any way though, it's just not cold like the DX50's sound.
I'm not sure if it's the added opamps, or indeed the dual Sabre dacs, but my god, do my cIEMs suddenly sound good. 
 
My only gripe with this player is the sensitivity of the touch screen. The DX50 definitely seemed to do this a heck of a lot better.
Everytime I scroll through my artists it selects an artist...

 
First time I see someone saying DX50 is cold. I actually find it warmer than DX90 on 1.2.8 (1.2.3 was the warmest). But flat/neutral on Rockbox.

 

[Marleybob217]

   
First time I see someone saying DX50 is cold. I actually find it warmer than DX90 on 1.2.8 (1.2.3 was the warmest). But flat/neutral on Rockbox.

I never BA-ed the DX50 and DX90 but the lineout of the DX50 sure was a heck of a lot colder than my audinst hud-mx1. And there are a lot of people saying that the DX50 is cold sounding.

 

[headwhacker]

I never BA-ed the DX50 and DX90 but the lineout of the DX50 sure was a heck of a lot colder than my audinst hud-mx1. And there are a lot of people saying that the DX50 is cold sounding.

Is that LO straight to. headphone? Then it will definitely sound cold almost no bass because of high output impedance. If it's through an external amp then you must be hearing the amp most likely and not DX50

 

[goodvibes]

Wont matter with the DX-90. It won't crank certain full size cans but that's about it's only pairing limitation.

 

[musicheaven]

The DX50 is far from being cold, it's somewhat more tilted towards the bass, its strength. The DX90 is strong across, no weak points anywhere. If you are purely looking for sq and close your eyes for anything else, the DX90 is very difficult to beat unless you plow lots a money towards an higher end player.

 

[jamato8]

I have the Hugo here and while sounding different and doing some things better, the DX90 is no less enjoyable. Granted the Hugo is not a DAP, but for comparisons sake, a well burnt in DX90 has surprised me.  Most all the headphones I have are powered fine with the DX90 and for me, that makes it an easy pick to use much of the time. 

 

[headwhacker]

I just spent the last 4 hours listening with DX90 and JH16. I kinda taking JH16 for granted lately because of Roxanne and I know that JH16 is inferior against Roxanne on my DX50. But on DX90, JH16 sounded a lot better than on DX50. In some ways better than Roxanne. The excellent instrument separation, detail and clarity the DX90 provides is being resolved by JH16 in very precise but natural sound. The bass is well controlled, detailed and well extended. the mids are very clear and instruments blend in very well with still very distinct separation. Every element just sounded very natural.
 
I used to find JH16 to have a very electronic, highly sharp, vivid but artificial details on DX50. But on DX90 it sounded completely different. It just feels like listening to a new CIEM.
 
The sound stage is also noticeably wider on DX90. While it sounded very compressed on DX50. Now my problem is how do I allocate time rotating between phones. (T1, Roxanne, JH16, DT235) Each phones give different and unique experience and I like them all. My dilemma.

 

[Marleybob217]

Is that LO straight to. headphone? Then it will definitely sound cold almost no bass because of high output impedance. If it's through an external amp then you must be hearing the amp most likely and not DX50

Obviously I would be using an external amp, when using headphones atleast.
 
DX50 LO -> O2 -> headphones = cold
hud-mx1 -> O2 -> headphones = warmish
 
DX50 LO -> monitors = cold
hud-mx1 LO -> monitors = warmish
 
I really don't give d*mn if you think the DX50 is cold or warm sounding. I thought they were cold sounding, many other people thought the same. And I liked the sound anyway.

 

[headwhacker]

  Obviously I would be using an external amp, when using headphones atleast.
 
DX50 LO -> O2 -> headphones = cold
hud-mx1 -> O2 -> headphones = warmish
 
DX50 LO -> monitors = cold
hud-mx1 LO -> monitors = warmish
 
I really don't give d*mn if you think the DX50 is cold or warm sounding. I thought they were cold sounding, many other people thought the same. And I liked the sound anyway.

 
Obviously, we hear differently. I just want to make sure I got your setup straight. But you don't need to be frisky. After all we are giving impressions but it does hurt to get the setup straight for better reference. It's rather useless if someone just say something is colder or warmer without being clear with their setup.

 

[Marleybob217]

   
Obviously, we hear differently. I just want to make sure I got your setup straight. But you don't need to be frisky. After all we are giving impressions but it does hurt to get the setup straight for better reference. It's rather useless if someone just say something is colder or warmer without being clear with their setup.

Alright true, but it seemed like such a useless discussion.
 
I was using a new firmware, not sure which one though. Did the sound became warmer after the last firmware update?
I see you do own both the DX50 and DX90, when AB-ing, can you hear a clear difference between the two players?
 
Edit: I just remembered that there was a suggested difference between the DX50 batches. I think I owned the second batch as an early adapter.
And everyone at that time seemed to agree that it was a slightly colder sounding player.

 

[musicheaven]

I have both and with the same setup, it's night and day, of course I can hear a difference.

DX50 1.2.8 is the latest and to my personal opinion the best you can currently get, although pretty sure someone likes earlier versions.

Honestly though DX50 and DX90 are in a different league. I do enjoy both but the one I'd be missing is the DX90, it's just that good.

 

[headwhacker]

  Alright true, but it seemed like such a useless discussion.
 
I was using a new firmware, not sure which one though. Did the sound became warmer after the last firmware update?
I see you do own both the DX50 and DX90, when AB-ing, can you hear a clear difference between the two players?

 
Yup there are definitely differences. How much exactly is dependent on which phones.
 
But the common differences DX90 has over DX50 is the better depth/soundstage. DX90 clear resolves more details and better instrument separation and imaging.
 
Of all the phones I used, JH16 benefits the most going to DX90. But DX50 is no slouch at all. Especially with Rockbox it certainly has a neutral SQ which I like about. DX90 especially on 2.0.5 is almost neutral with just a tiny bit more bass.