I have the X5/E12 combo but I don't have the HS6 combo. Is the combo (specifically the cable that comes with it) much of an improvement over the cable/standard equipment that the X5 comes with?
I have the X5/E12 combo but I don't have the HS6 combo. Is the combo (specifically the cable that comes with it) much of an improvement over the cable/standard equipment that the X5 comes with?
I was very surprised to find that it adds a certain amount of clarity to the combo. Duncan also heard this using the same cable. I wasn't a believer in cables making a difference, but there it was, a definite difference in sound quality. The overall SQ is the same just more clarity in the instruments and separation.
As I did´nt get any answer to my question yesterday, I´ll try again if somebody can help me.
As the playing icon with thre horisantally lines just will play all songs in the map directory, how to play all songs in the entire card?
Or do I have to arrange all songs directly in the root with no map directorys? It´s really annoying having to scroll to switch album every time it ends!
I know I had the same issue with my Cowon J3, but found a way to play all songs in a row.
As I did´nt get any answer to my question yesterday, I´ll try again if somebody can help me.
As the playing icon with thre horisantally lines just will play all songs in the map directory, how to play all songs in the entire card?
Or do I have to arrange all songs directly in the root with no map directorys? It´s really annoying having to scroll to switch album every time it ends!
I know I had the same issue with my Cowon J3, but found a way to play all songs in a row.
In the category menu the first option above play by Album and Artist and Genre is All Songs. The organization isn't the best as it lists all songs alphabetically, so if you have track numbers at the beginning of your file names it will list all 01 songs, then all 02 songs, and so on (good enough for shuffle though).
With FW 2.02 beta there is an option that plays all songs by artist grouped by album, and it works perfectly so there is hope they can adjust the behaviour of listing songs. However, the later beta FW versions have regressed to listing the songs alphabetically in the Play All by Artist subcategory.
Just a reminder for anyone searching for firmwares. There's a thread listing available firmwares from FiiO (official) along with mods some of the members put together. We have some awesome re-themes based on the latest stable version (2.0).
Here is the thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/717947/fiio-x5-custom-modded-firmwares
I've never heard the E17, but at the risk of posting like a broken record, the X5's Line Out is so impressive with an external amp and the HD800 that I've spent about four hours today just trying to identify which of the amps I have, both desktop and portable, best allow that detail and transparency to come through to the HD800.
Using a FiiO HS2 headphone switcher to switch the X5's Line Out between each of the following amps, always comparing only two at a time, with the volumes matched using a Bink Audio white noise WAV file and my JL Audio SPL meter (an iOS app)...
...I've ranked the amps, from best to worst,only for detail and transparency into the HD800, across several DSD2.8 and 96/2 WAV files:
I know... This list looks as if it might be upside down, but it's not.
Three years ago, there were some Schiit Lyr fans who were bemused by my having posted that my Stepdance was more detailed into the Audeze LCD-2 than the Lyr, having tried three sets of tubes, including an expensive pair of Mullards, and even with Jason Stoddard (of Schiit) having graciously paid for shipping both ways, so that he could give the Lyr in question a clean bill of health. (He even gave me a pair of tubes for free.) But the fact is, even with the LCD-2 rev.1, which is not known for its resolution, I could discern more detail using the Meier Stepdance, whether using the Line Out from my Sony PCM-M10 Recorder/Player or an April Music DA100 with USB card as my source.
Thinking back, and remembering how "fuzzy" the Schiit Lyr sounded in comparison to the little solid state Stepdance, I can say that the detail and transparency distinctions between the five amps I've listed above are much closer together, even between the 1st and the 5th, and but for using an HD800, and carefully listening to key sections of some favorite test tracks I use for detail and noise floor analysis, I doubt I could tell the difference with the LCD-2 rev.1 or the Oppo PM-1, but I haven't taken the time to find out - these amps are that close in terms of detail.
The original Stepdance is equipped with OPA1611s and I long ago concluded that the iBasso PB2 is at its most analytical and detailed when mimicing the Stepdance by rolling in OPA1612s and dummy buffers. Balanced out, the PB2 has more power than the Stepdance, even with dummy buffers (forfeiting the additional current that could be enjoyed with "real" op-amps as buffers, like the HA5002, but I have yet to find a buffer op-amp that doesn't degrade the PB2's detail and transparency. The HA5002 is just the lesser of several evils, but there's plenty of power for the HD800, on Low Gain, with dummy buffers, so I'm not interested in degrading the transparency for the sake of additional, superfluous power.
On Low Gain, which offers the lowest noise floor, the Stepdance has to run with the volume control nearly all the way up, at about 5 o'clock with the HD800, to match the PB2's balanced out SPL had when its volume is set at 12 o'clock. The little Stepdance is working awfully hard to be driven with a 15V supply voltage, turned nearly all the way up into the HD800's 300-Ohm load, but there's no evidence of clipping and the noise floor is still pitch black. Very, very impressive! The X5 Line Out > 15V Stepdance > HD800 gives me detail and transparency the likes of which I've never heard with any other chain. (More on using different DACs, below...)
The OPA1612-equipped iBasso PB2, by nature of having more power, does a better job than the Stepdance at controlling the HD800 bass and offers more bass energy as well, so I actually prefer the PB2 for use with the X5 Line Out and HD800, especially since it's ever so close in terms of detail, but not quite as good in terms of noise floor - a very dark grey, instead of black - which can only be heard with dead silent gaps in recordings. In fact, with just a little more loss of detail, I prefer the "color" of the LME49990-equipped iBasso PB2, when using the X5 and HD800. The LME49990s are more "musical" and less analytical than the Stepdance or OPA1612-equipped PB2, bringing the HD800 closer to an everyday listening headphone that still has bunches of detail, but which is a little more forgiving with poorly recorded material, especially. But most of the HD800's infamous brightness and harshness is being tamed in these comparisons by the X5's PCM1792A DAC implementation, not by the slight differences between these amps. As I've written before, I would still be using the HD800 only as a piece of test equipment for comparing the detail of upstream components, not for actually enjoying music, if it weren't for having discovered the FiiO X5 Line Out as "the cure" for what ails the HD800.
The big surprise of the day, for me, was that the Oppo HA-1's amp is not as detailed as I had always assumed. I am, however, using a prototype - still waiting for a released version to ship. And again, the HA-1, ranking 5th in my list, is actually quite close to the Stepdance - I'm splitting hairs with the X5 Line Out and HD800 - neither of which are anywhere near being the weakest link in the chain for detail.
I spent another couple of hours today comparing various DACs into the Stepdance > HD800. Again, just looking at detail and transparency, as I weeks ago figured out which DAC pairs best with which headphone, in terms of overall sonics. (The HD800 loves the X5 Line Out, where the LCD-2 rev.1 has enough color on its own, preferring a more neutral DAC, and the Oppo PM-1 can go either way, depending on my mood.)
Here's my ranking of several sources into the 15V Stepdance > HD800 - again, only for detail and transparency, best to worst:
- FiiO X5 Line Out - USB > 5V battery-powered Resonessence Concero S/PDIF Coaxial out > 12V battery-powered Beresford Bushmaster MkII Analog Out - USB > Oppo HA-1 Analog Out - USB > 5V battery-powered Resonessence Concero - USB > CEntrance DACmini CX Analog Out - USB > 5V battery-powered DACport LX - Sony PCM-M10 Line Out
Yes I totally agree. The x5 line out is cheating. It's like having a 1000 dollar tier dac without having to buy one. The amp section is nothing special though.
Yes I totally agree. The x5 line out is cheating. It's like having a 1000 dollar tier dac without having to buy one. The amp section is nothing special though.
Almost... I find it's not quite on par with DACs like the Matrix X-Sabre, but no doubt it's very, very close - just a tiny bit of edge in the treble relative to the very best DACs, but the fact that it takes direct A/B comparisons to spot the difference is REALLY saying something!
I would respectfully disagree that the X5 DAC is more transparent and resolving than the HA-1 DAC. When I listen to the XC using the X5 coaxial out (as a transport) I can hear the details easier than using the X5 line out (as a DAC) to the HA-1. With the X5 line out I detect a very slight veil in comparison. The details are all there from the X5 line out, just not as apparent as the HA-1 to me.
I am still playing directly from the file menu rather than allowing the X5 to build a library. Works fine for me. I do have the following question though:
When organizing files, is there any issue with departing from the standard Artist > Album > Song convention? Can I add other layers into my organization, like: Genre > Main Artist > Artist Pairing\ > Album > Song. An example might be: Acoustic >David_Grisman > Grisman+Garcia > "The Pizza Tapes". I'm kind of anal about organization, and I guess l like things "my way" as long as I'm doing no harm! Are there any problems with this approach that I should be aware of?
I am still playing directly from the file menu rather than allowing the X5 to build a library. Works fine for me. I do have the following question though:
When organizing files, is there any issue with departing from the standard Artist > Album > Song convention? Can I add other layers into my organization, like: Genre > Main Artist > Artist Pairing\ > Album > Song. An example might be: Acoustic >David_Grisman > Grisman+Garcia > "The Pizza Tapes". I'm kind of anal about organization, and I guess l like things "my way" as long as I'm doing no harm! Are there any problems with this approach that I should be aware of?
I would respectfully disagree that the X5 DAC is more transparent and resolving than the HA-1 DAC. When I listen to the XC using the X5 coaxial out (as a transport) I can hear the details easier than using the X5 line out (as a DAC) to the HA-1. With the X5 line out I detect a very slight veil in comparison. The details are all there from the X5 line out, just not as apparent as the HA-1 to me.
Hands down, I respect your observations, as I strongly suspect you've spent many more hours than I have using both the X5 Coaxial Out > HA-1 DAC+Amp and the X5 Line Out > HA-1 amp. I've only briefly performed that comparison, some time ago.
It's kind of an apples and oranges contention, though, as you are comparing an external DAC (X5 Line Out) to a DAC that's integrated with its amp (HA-1 DAC), where my rankings, above, are comparing only the Line Outs of several DACs, none of which are integrated to my Stepdance > HD800.
And that's how I would reconcile the difference between your observations and mine. (We can both be "right.") When I'm using the HA-1's analog output jacks and my RCA-to-mini interconnect cable to drive my Stepdance, I could be corrupting the Line Level signal that's coming from the HA-1's DAC section. You, on the other hand, are comparing the integrated HA-1 DAC to the X5's Line Out, where you could be corrupting the Line Level signal that's coming from the X5 with your choice of interconnects and the HA-1's analog input jacks.
Either way, they are indeed, very close!
On the subject of "integration", I own four different sets of RCA interconnects, including some by Audioquest and AntiCables. No matter which set of cables I use, when I connect the analog outputs of my Beresford Bushmaster MkII to the Stepdance or any other amp, I get a "veil" - much as you've described - that I don't hear when I plug my headphones directly into the Bushmaster's headphone out (using its relatively weak, but very clean integrated amp, instead of an external amp.) My DACmini CX is the same way - it sounds very, very clean when I use the DAC+amp together. And I don't think it's just the interconnect cables that cause problems when we try to use segregated components - it's also the jacks - the lack of soldered connections are at play, here.
Does anyone have any opinion as to whether the "quality" level of the encoding feature has any effect on sound quality. The sliding bar goes from 0 to 8 and is preset at level 5.
I understand that the higher levels, towards 8, result in larger Flac files, but is there any effect on sound quality?
Does anyone have any opinion as to whether the "quality" level of the encoding feature has any effect on sound quality. The sliding bar goes from 0 to 8 and is preset at level 5.
I understand that the higher levels, towards 8, result in larger Flac files, but is there any effect on sound quality?
Flac is a lossless codec, so sound quality will equal the original Wav. The level relates to the number of passes used for compression with 8 resulting in the smallest filesize.
The higher the level the more processing power required for compression, but the design is such that no extra processing power is required for decompression.
I have a reasonably fast PC, so always use level 8.
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