[thericochet]

  Just a thought, in situations where you have access to powered external drives doesn't that mean you're very likely to have access to a computer as well? Why not use the USB dac function instead?

It's a locked-down work computer; can't use it for that. Can't even hook up the hard disk to it. Hence the X5 purchase

 

[Mike46]

Hell yeah... Just though I would let you all know....
But I'm not loosening my marbles.. Please see last few posts.
Well I updated my firmware 2.0 about a hour ago and, Boom .
Volume increase by a good 10 to 20% .. I was still on the stock 1.20. Now I'm happy and instead of wingding about the X5 I will start to
Enjoy it and the music...

 

[dulty]

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here...
 
Is it just me or does everything sloooowww waayyyy dowwwwnnn when a DSD file is playing? Maybe a bugzilla entry is warranted?

 

[subver]

Just got Firmware 2.0
Is there really still no way to just play all songs from a single artist? You have to select an album. I would love an "All Albums" option... shuffling all the artists songs would also be nice.
I feel like that is a pretty common request, no?
Are there plans for this in the future?

 

[SpitFir3]

  Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here...
 
Is it just me or does everything sloooowww waayyyy dowwwwnnn when a DSD file is playing? Maybe a bugzilla entry is warranted?

 
Yeah I noticed that it does this for me as well. Even on 2.0

 

[goldendarko]

So just curious, and this is probably a dumb question, but how can a firmware update improve the sound quality? I thought firmware updates just added UI features, squashed bugs, etc. if it doesn't change the actual specs of the X5 how can there be an increase in sound quality?

 

[Man in White]

Joe Bloggs, the version 2.0 was removed from official site. Is it temporary updating the site content or some serious issue was found?
And why in changelog that you was provided not mentioned changes from betas 1.25, 1.26 and 1.27? Some changes was not implemented to 2.0 i.e. 1.27 is "newer" than 2.0?

 

[tjw321]

So just curious, and this is probably a dumb question, but how can a firmware update improve the sound quality? I thought firmware updates just added UI features, squashed bugs, etc. if it doesn't change the actual specs of the X5 how can there be an increase in sound quality?

Fixes to the various format decoders - e.g. better dithering etc.

 

[reihead]

   
Seconded. This already works for the volume control, would love to see it implemented for menus as well!

 
I think there is a bugzilla ticket for this, I was expecting this to be included in version 2.0.
For me, this is one of those details that are important.

 

[dulty]

   
Yeah I noticed that it does this for me as well. Even on 2.0

I opened a bugzilla ticket for this issue. Its number 107 for those interested.

 

[dacari]

Is there any plans to display album art from external .jpg??

 

[Man in White]

dacari, there is a ticket #86 in bugzilla for album art in folder as a separate *.jpg file.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

So just curious, and this is probably a dumb question, but how can a firmware update improve the sound quality? I thought firmware updates just added UI features, squashed bugs, etc. if it doesn't change the actual specs of the X5 how can there be an increase in sound quality?

Well for one thing, it allows you to play formats you couldn't play before, like DSD (vs FW1.20), HE-AAC and 64bit floating point wavs (vs 1.23). The difference between music and no sound is pretty big

Secondly, mp3 and ogg vorbis decoding had bugs which were corrected (audible on quiet tracks for mp3, obvious on all ogg vorbis tracks).

Thirdly, 32 bit floating point decoding was implemented on mp3s from 1.21 onwards, now offering unrivaled detail retrieval on mp3s for mobile DAPs:



From top to bottom:
1. A 1000Hz test signal was generated in Audacity. At -120dB. (where 16bit PCM only has a noise floor of -96dB. This signal was generated in 32bit floating point. The shape of the sine wave is distorted because this was shown in log scale, the only way the signal could be shown (it'd just look like a flat line otherwise))
2. The signal in (1) was encoded to mp3 in foobar using LAME 3.99 and re-imported to audacity. Note that the waveform was reconstructed pretty much 100% by the foobar-LAME output and the Audacity decoder, both of which support floating point decoding of mp3s. With the floating point decoding section of the new X5 firmware, you can get the same level of micro-signal retrieval as shown here in the digital stage. (of course, the DAC and amp still limit the final SNR available.)
3. The signal in (1) was also encoded to 16bit wav in foobar and re-imported to audacity. Note that the waveform cannot be recognized by eye as the noise floor of the 16bit file (-96dB) is above the level of the signal. Using spectrum analysis one could just barely pick out the 1kHz tone from the noise-shaped noise floor. This is the best that previous 16-bit decoding of 16-bit PCM and mp3 had to offer.

Of course, I'm not suggesting here that mp3s are now definitely preferred over 16bit FLACs or WAVs. Mp3 is still a lossy format that depends on psychoacoustic modelling. It's just that in one sense of the term "microdetailing" (picking out a small signal), mp3s encoded from 32bit Hi-Res sources can now be played back in the same Hi-Res on the X5. This could be good news if the day comes when you have so much Hi-Res material that they'd barely compress into 256GB worth of mp3s on the X5. One can dream of having so much hi-res music to listen to

 

[emklap]

Mine arrived from MP4Nation today

 upgraded immediately to FW V 2.0,  inserted both my cards (1x32Gb Samsung, 1x Sandisk 64GB).
Scanning of all my songs (ca 3000) flawless in only a few seconds.
I will need to change some of my ID3 tags, because I prefer that the word "the"(in e.g. The Alan Parsons Project) to be ignored. No big deal, just a few clicks in MP3TAG.
 
 
Inserted my Yamaha EPH-100 EMI's and off I go.

The X5 plays all my files and formats wonderfully, 44/16, 48/24, 88/24 and 96/24. As far as I now can see always showing artwork (embedded in the songs).
Gapless is important to me, so I tested that as well and it is smoooooth

 no sign off switching track, not even for 1/100 of a second Super!!!!!.
 
The equalizer is set to normal (flat) and At first I find the bass to much, but I will not tweak the settings latter after a few hours burn in time.
A pity that the equalizer is not working for high-res files yet, but I'm sure that will be fixed.
 
Is it me or is the EQ setting a bit counterintuitive? On every HIFI system I know, turning a knob clockwise will increase the volume. On the X5 when you set the EQ value for a frequency its the other way around. Turning the rotary dial clockwise will decrease the volume. Again no big deal but quirky.
 
It's time to enjoy

 

[mattius88]

Can anyone point me in the right direction for Beta Firmware. I read that V2.0 is available but then was removed. Can you damage X5 with Beta firmware. Also if I installed V2.0 can I then downgrade to 1.20 if I have problems?