You don't like the X5's sound? I think other than the narrower sound stage than I'd prefer it's pretty perfect for the headphones I'm using (Baldoor E100). Wish I knew of something that had the same signature but was just more open. Stacking it with a FiiO E12A IEM Edition now to open her up but wouldn't mind have a single unit.
As for the drivers go is there a specific reason why you're using the new drivers? Why not just revert back to the older version since it worked? I HIGHLY doubt there's any noticeable difference (if any at all!).
Also, please update the thread with your findings with the 2.7 firmware in case someone has the same problem in the future. I will also try the DAC with the latest drivers and post my results later.
Back! And have some interesting observations to report. Just installed new 2.7 FW and..NOTHING! Red light again. COnnected it to laptop and everything is fine. Then I made an interesting discovery - I was using unthinkably old USB hub (like 2003). That last discovery actually solved another mystery that was annoying me for some time. To that hub I have successfully connected Hifiman EF2A (in DAC mode) and Meridian Explorer but for some extremely strange reason Dragonfly V1.2 was causing virus-like problems (exiting full screen mode and re-entering it and interfering with keyboard...weirdest thing ever). Now I checked it without the HUB - all normal with X5 and DF1.2!!
About not liking the X5´s sound. To be honest my opinion is a product of unfulfilled expectations and impressions after comparing it to other DAPs and DACs. And interestingly my disappointment lies in the price/performance ratio. Before my last statement raises red flags and "what-the-f...this guy doesn't know what he´s talking about"-like thoughts, I paid a lot for it ($470). Currently I live in Mexico and here prices are sometimes absurdly high (or very low if very very lucky). For example, HD 800 (in the official Mexican Sennhheiser site) costs $1726 without shipping, Hifiman HE-400s lowest price is $411, HifiMan Focus pads are sold for $115, Sony Walkman ZX2 goes for $1880 and so on..so you get the idea. Before purchasing X5 I researched a lot about it (including the 1st reviews when it was on world-tour) for 7 months and convinced myself that it will be like all-in-one end-game for my needs or something like that. Then I saw that it was finally available and purchased it for the lowest possible price at that time. I waited, unboxed it slowly paying attention to every detail, enjoying the feeling of such a fine piece of technology in my hands, put the SD cards loaded with lots of FLAC files and some 320k MP3s, upgraded FW, left EQ flat, pushed play on my favorite test songs and...was hit in the face by the understanding of what the "underwhelmed" mean (for the price I paid). Do I really need to burn it in? Perhaps headphones are the worst pairing for this device? I have to EQ it? Then I remembered the reason I got the X5 - to be direct upgrade for the Walkman F806. To my surprise it was not even close to be even a side-grade. I couldn't believe it and was having hard time getting myself to enjoy the SQ of X5, I always had that annoying feeling that something is missing. That feeling (something is not right or missing) started my head-fi journey for the perfect headphones and IEMs in the first place.Every time I compared X5 to F806 the conclusion was obvious. Even all flat, no EQ or sound enhancements on the F806 I always preferred Sony. With sound enhancements such as DSEE, Dynamic Normalizer and Clear stereo enabled, difference grow bigger. Also you can use Poweramp app on Walkmans with Android. But my internal conflict was that I paid only $95 for the brand new F806 (it was clearance sale or something like that) and it sounded undeniably better (for me) than the well-acclaimed X5 for which I paid more than I wanted to. Then I tried to use it as a DAC and I liked it considerably more than the on board sound card of PC or Laptop. Interestingly I had no DACs when I bought X5 and was thinking that investing in one was a waste of money and desk space. Then I got good deal on the Meridian Explorer and it was a "eye" opening experience - suddenly X5 sounded very unrefined, laid back and dirty (muddy) and for me it was impossible to go back to X5 after ME (for which I paid 138 NEW and shipped), then I got Hifiman EF2A and Dragonfly 1.2 for VERY cheap and every single of them outperforms X5 easily in terms of SQ (EF2A also have lots of power and can be used as an amp with X5 as source..and I paid only $94 for it with extra pair of Sylvania tubes).
It may seem that I think X5 is not good at all but it is not true. After expanding my headphone collection I made a very interesting discovery about synergy. The polarizing Denon AH-D600 which sounded somewhat artificial with the Walkman, resulted to be very good with X5 - I liked the combination a lot, it sounded natural (which is far from the first word that comes to mind when I think about D600´s sound signature). Another good match were the Shure SE535. For some reason SE535 sounded very good, especially for vocal and acoustic, the sound was engaging but clean and somewhat a little bit dry. The worst pairing ever for X5 were the Senns HD700 - I could not believe how bad they sounded compared to D600. I even did some "blind" (never told the real price) tests with some friends and every single one of them was convinced that D600 sounded better and they assumed that Denons were probably more expensive!. Furthermore, when I did the same with SE535 everyone but two of my friends (n=6) said that SE535 had its EQ second to Denons having more clarity/transparency but being somewhat "dry" and "shallow". When I repeated the tests (using X5 as source) but adding Fiio E11 into the mix, opinions/preferences shifted to HD700 then SE535 and then Denon D600 (side note: *29April 2016*: all of them preferred modded Hifiman He-400 over HD700 and every other headphone except SE846). However, when I did the same little experiment using Walkman F806 and Fiio E11 all preferred Senns HD700/SE846 then Hifiman HE-400 and Shure SE535. Using Meridian Explorer as source/DAC and Fiio E11 as AMP results were more interesting: every one agreed that SE846 destroyed everything except HE-400 which sounded more engaging, fun and expansive/3d (!!!) than HD700 (but much worse than SE846) which was extremely much better sounding than Denon D600.
Sorry for the long post.
Do you have any idea what has been changed because the ZIP file doesn't contain any release notes
