[rontant]

  Has anyone had problems with the X5 when using a Mac to upload music?
 
I'm having a hell of a time with my Mac Pro (OS 10.7.5) and the X5.  It seems that something is corrupting the memory cards so that they can't be written or reformatted, etc.
 
It has happened twice to two different cards (both Sandisk 128GB cards), and it literally happened the first time I plugged them into the X5 to format and get files uploaded to it.
 
I tried a Windows machine, and a recent MBP as well, but it appears once the card was corrupted, there is nothing I can do to repair it or recover.  Dead, unwriteable card is the result.  The vendor replaced it the first time, as I was thinking it was a bad card, but this happened with the replacement as well.
 
Here's a link to the original post I mad about this:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/737151/has-anyone-had-difficulty-with-corrupted-memory-cards-in-the-x5-when-using-a-mac

Just curious, why not use X5 itself to format the card? 

 

[olddude]

I use a Mac with no issues.  One trick that you need to do is remove the invisible files a Mac will put on your card before you eject it.  I bought BlueHarvest to do this, but there are free ways to do it as well.  
 
If "it literally happened the first time I plugged them into the X5 to format and get files uploaded to it." then it sounds more like the cards got corrupted in the X5.  Are you also using a card reader?  Try reformatting the card in the X5, then load up through the X5 using the USB cord (slower, but if it works....).  
 
Try a smaller card and see if IT works.  If it does, it may be that the 128s have something going on.  

 

[good sound]

  Hello all,
 
I saw somewhere in this thread people complaining about a slight crackling sound from heir X5. I too can hear a slight crackling sound on my X5. Doesn't happen all the time, just randomly. more on the left channel.  I can hear it when using my Beyer T51p's since they are pretty sensitive and revealing.  Could really replicate it on my cheap IEM's (apple, samsung, HTC and Xiaomi piston 2.1), maybe because they cant resolve the sound in the first place. My music is mainly FLAC and WAV. Max 44.1/16 direct CD rips.  I tested the beyers on a different rig and couldn't replicate it - so looks like its not the headphones. [size=13.3333339691162px]Did anyone who suffered from the same issue find a resolution to it? [/size]

I also have this happen occasionally. It is so slight and so far in the background, most of the time, that it is difficult to ascertain with any real consistency that it is indeed occurring. I am reasonably confident that it is not my files as it doesn't occur at the same point in any specific file. The slight crackling, which does not sound unlike the spurious pops and clicks you will sometimes get from vinyl playback, happens during the playback of music and is completely random.

 

[audioxxx]

I did have some music that the x5 wouldn't like much and would pop and click at random times which I found strange, playing the file on my phone or computer would be fine. ( this could be the ripping software causing issues by not following redbook standards while converting the files).

After deleting the suspect songs it's fine, other times the pops and crackles your hearing could be poor mastering, or bad quality mixing, the x5 reveals all, the good the bad the noisy.

 

[greenkomodo1]

I've been through so many headphones and never satisified with the sound quality on my mobile phone, I've tried AMPs and DACs etc...is spending $350 on this really going to change that?

 

[uzi2]

  I've been through so many headphones and never satisified with the sound quality on my mobile phone, I've tried AMPs and DACs etc...is spending $350 on this really going to change that?

I think it will confirm that you will never be satisfied with the SQ on your phone.
X5 + good source + quality IEMs = happiness

 

[Dobrescu George]

  I've been through so many headphones and never satisified with the sound quality on my mobile phone, I've tried AMPs and DACs etc...is spending $350 on this really going to change that?

I tested it against everything i had on the moment. IT won. Now, you could be not satisfied because you have not found your headphones yet. But at this exact moment, it is the best price/quality ratio you could get, and if you don't want to spend more it is the best you can get.  
 
[people that liked better ak devices or ibasso or hifiman have shown, but these compare to x5 and cost more]

 

[greenkomodo1]

Ah okay.

Sorry I know this is getting off topic...

I've been through a lot of headphones... Klipsch X10.. UM pro 10, Shure 215 and now Etymotic ER4s. I actually have to turn down the high frequencies on all of these. The klipsch signature was my favourite. I like the Etymotic but the cabling and actual build of the product sucks (microphonics and they stick out of your eyes, not good for on the move). 

If anyone has any recomendations for a pair of earphones let me know! I like a details thick sound and some bass, don't need big bass but something to just give it depth and thickness. I listen to a lot of rock and there is nothing worse than thin and flat.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

The X5 gains a good memory!

Firmware 2.34Beta--Now Playing now remembers its position in the directory / album structure through exits to main menu and power-offs

http://www.head-fi.org/t/742815/x5-firmware-2-34beta-now-playing-gets-a-good-memory-ape-cuesheets

Have fun and post your feedback in the dedicated thread

Best regards,
Joe

 

[fauxfreshness]

On the stuttering with storage media, it's quite often that the old I/O classification system (such as "Class 10" that a lot are buying) had vendors basically tweaking the media characteristics to support high speed consecutive reads and then writes, while random reads take forever.  Since the FLAC is being decompressed into RAM to start playback, you can get data from all over the card as it's been written and re-written to.  Flash media is also known to have more capacity than what's listed in order to "rotate" bad cells out in place of good cells held in reserve, which can then cause more fragmentation and more random reads and writes.  Lastly, a LOT of 32 and 64 GB counterfeit media was sold through a variety of outlets without the storefronts necessarily even knowing they were fakes.
 
And in case it still isn't widely known, and it probably isn't, a lot of file systems still write last access metadata to the existing file, and some file systems are worse about this than others.  When benchmarking enterprise systems at work, I'll sometimes disable this "extraneous" logging to get a better idea of throughput if those times aren't needed for forensics or snapshot/backup systems.

 

[mjm6]

  Just curious, why not use X5 itself to format the card? 

I did.  That appears to be where the problems started...

 

[mjm6]

  I use a Mac with no issues.  One trick that you need to do is remove the invisible files a Mac will put on your card before you eject it.  I bought BlueHarvest to do this, but there are free ways to do it as well.  
 
If "it literally happened the first time I plugged them into the X5 to format and get files uploaded to it." then it sounds more like the cards got corrupted in the X5.  Are you also using a card reader?  Try reformatting the card in the X5, then load up through the X5 using the USB cord (slower, but if it works....).  
 
Try a smaller card and see if IT works.  If it does, it may be that the 128s have something going on.  

Olddude,
 
I have figured out how to get the Mac hidden files to be removed, so that is all good. I haven't tried BlueHarvest, but may try it the next time.
 
I have tried transferring the files in the X5 and also from a card reader, but once the problems began, nothing seems to work after that, including both Mac and Windows machines,  Basically, the card is destroyed. Nothing that I have tried can repair it.
 
I suspect the X5 still has problems with 128GB cards.
 
I don't have any other micro cards here to try.
 
 
---Michael

 

[mjm6]

 
I don't have any Mac experience so I can't help on that front, but have you tried resurrecting your defunct sd cards with partitioning/formatting software like GParted? Using this to remove the existing partition, then creating a new partition and formatting it may fix your sd card problem.
 
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Canaudio,
 
Thanks. I don't have that on my machine... I can try to get it up on my Windows machine tonight and see if it will do anything for this.
 
I did try a full Erase/Format on both Mac and Windows, so I suspect it will not do anything additional, but I'm willing to try it.
 
---Michael

 

[nmatheis]

Pretty sure aangen is using 128gb cards in his X5 with no issues...

 

[Brooko]

I have a Sandisk 128Gb card.  A lot of us are using them.  Zero problems.