[twister6]

  Has anyone tried the X5 with Bowers & Wilkins P7 headphones? I'm wondering how good a pairing that would be.
I'm very impressed by the way these obviously quality-built phones are able to collapse into a very portable condition, while supplying what I have read to be very quality sound and excellent build quality. I am thinking of getting a pair of these after I get my X5 in about a month, so I'd appreciate if anybody here has experience with the phones or the pairing with the X5.
Just as a reminder for those who don't know, I'm quite partial to classical symphony music, though not exclusively.

 
P7 pairs up well with anything, X5 is not an exception.  Hope you had a chance to read Tyll's review: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/sumptuous-and-sonorous-bowers-wilkins-p7 since he really nailed it, especially with "withdrawn mids" comment.  P7 looks very classy, and it has a top notch build and materials.  But the bass is a bit too strong, and overall sound is v-shaped.  I'm EDM semi-basshead, so these were up my valley.  But while using these when watching movies, it wasn't my cup of tea because of bass being a little exaggerated and drowning some speech details.  You might have some issues with classical music using P7 where I would think a preference to have a more balanced sound, maybe with some extra bass.  But v-shaped fun signature might not be as desirable for your style of music, though YMMV.  But hey, paired up with X5 it sound great! 

 

[Brooko]

2) Weird equalizer behaviour. If I use any other eq than normal (flat, no eq), the volume level gets down very noticeably. This is really weird. If I customize the eq, upping all 10 bands, I get a much quieter sound. This doesn't make any sense to me. Is this a bug?
 

 
The EQ is designed to be that way.  As soon as you apply EQ, it automatically adjusts the volume output down by 6dB.  This is to give enough head-room to equalise without clipping.  Most (non-Heaf-Fi) people will EQ up, so this automatically adjusts the level for them to avoid clipping.
 
If you actually raise all 10 bands - you should get the same volume output as the 'normal' (un-EQ'd) output.

 

[ClieOS]

...
 
1) Is the maximum volume still a bit low? I've tried all my headphones with the X5, and I just can't use any volume level south of 65, even with the high gain on. And that happens even with low impedance IEMs. I expected a very powerful amp, but with some headphones such as the Beyers 990 250 Ohms, I have to use the full volume (I'm not deaf, my hearing is fine). Is this normal or I got a lemon?
 
...
 
3) Balance levels. I use the balance to achieve an almost perfectly centric sound, as I hear a bit more on one ear than on the other. The total balance change achievable for either channel appears to be quite low. On my Cowon Z2/J3 or iPhone 5S, the balance levels are much, much more powerful. A lot of people with more serious balance needs would not be able to get them with the small balance control of this 2.0 firmware. Is the balance control really that slight?

 
1) Power comes from two parameters: voltage and current. X5 is very powerful, meaning at a particular voltage (volume), it can deliver a lot of current. However, with a 250ohm headphone with low sensitivity, what you want is actually a lot of voltage with relatively low demand on current. But as a portable player, having a really high gain (max voltage / volume) will result in harder to control volume range and increase hiss, therefore the gain setting need to be reasonable. As such, it is better to use an portable amp with high impedance headphone with low sensitivity if you want better result. After all, most user don't need that high a gain in their portable player.
 
2) If I am not mistaken, it is about 5dB to each side in 0.5dB increment, which is the usual number FiiO used.

 

[SwordAngel]

I just noticed that *sometimes* the X5 automatically resumes playing from the last position after it goes to sleep and I power it back up, without me pressing the "play" button at all. And this happens when I initially started the playback by browsing folders, and not the media library. So the functionality of resuming from last position from browsing folders might already be there; maybe it's just buggy.

 

[Duncan]

Okay, so I ordered this… And will let people know how it works out. It will take about a week to get and a little bit more time to set up. Does anyone know whether I will need to reformat it to fat 32? So, recommendations on how to do this? I assume I cannot rely on the X5 to format something external like this? I'm also assuming that if this can be done, it would be a wise thing to do? Any thoughts or comments?

Peter,

Thank you for your earlier post reaffirming my thoughts re the headphone out quality - looking forward to your thoughts of the E12DIY (Wish I'd have gotten one, silver looks so much nicer than black, and the tweakability....)

Anyhow, to answer your question quoted above, click on this link, click on the image, download the little program, and 'run' (noting what the drive letter is of your USB key)...

I have seen that you need to change the allocation size to 65536, but not sure why - hopefully someone can answer that before your USB key turns up, if no-one does answer, you only need to 'quick format' (full format on a drive that size would take multiple hours, and would not be worth it imo), so only takes a few seconds to do it again with a different figure anyway

Maximum individual file size will be 4GB, but would be hard pushed to think any individual music file would anywhere near that big

 

[Joe Bloggs]

FYI: For those of you looking to format your memory cards to FAT32, you actually can do this in Windows without downloading any software. Just open up the command prompt (DOS) and type in: f[COLOR=333333]ormat /fs:[COLOR=660000]FAT32
http://www.xoomforums.com/forum/#[/color]
 driveletter:[/COLOR] except, of course, replace "driveletter" with the drive letter for your inserted card, and it'll format your card in FAT32. Not sure why this is offered here and not in the GUI, but there you go. For my 64GB card it took about half an hour.

 

[shakur1996]

Sorry for the obvious question (at least for some) - if I'm using low impedance (16 ohms) and high sensitivity (122 dB) CIEMs it is better to use low gain, right?

 

[Loquah]

Sorry for the obvious question (at least for some) - if I'm using low impedance (16 ohms) and high sensitivity (122 dB) CIEMs it is better to use low gain, right?

 
Yes. Definitely. Better to ask than to kill your ears and / or IEMs 

 

[shakur1996]

Actually I'm not afraid of killing my ears or CIEMs (since I'm listening X5 at the volume of approx. 30), but I was curious what is the best for such type of CIEMs from the electrical perspective.

 

[CH23]

Does high or low gain really matter when you fiddle with the volume?

 

[shakur1996]

Does high or low gain really matter when you fiddle with the volume?

I don't know. That is why I'm asking about the high/low gain. I can listen to X5 at the volume of 27 on high gain, but I can listen to it at the volume of 34 on low gain as well (to me those two levels are more or less equal). I don' hear any difference in the presentation of the sound on the high / low gain, but maybe from electrical perspective one of the methods is better for my CIEMs.

 

[Loquah]

The only reason to avoid high gain (if it's not too loud that is) is that it may introduce noise (or at least make existing noise more audible). If it sounds the same and it's preferable to you for any reason then there's no other reason not to use it.

 

[AndrewH13]

   
P7 pairs up well with anything, X5 is not an exception.  Hope you had a chance to read Tyll's review: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/sumptuous-and-sonorous-bowers-wilkins-p7 since he really nailed it, especially with "withdrawn mids" comment.  P7 looks very classy, and it has a top notch build and materials.  But the bass is a bit too strong, and overall sound is v-shaped.  I'm EDM semi-basshead, so these were up my valley.  But while using these when watching movies, it wasn't my cup of tea because of bass being a little exaggerated and drowning some speech details.  You might have some issues with classical music using P7 where I would think a preference to have a more balanced sound, maybe with some extra bass.  But v-shaped fun signature might not be as desirable for your style of music, though YMMV.  But hey, paired up with X5 it sound great! 

 
I'm new to the P7 so had held off giving my views. In a shop demo with the X5 they sounded great, at home I had noticed the exaggerated bass. I wondered if they needed burning in to reach the same sound.
 
The answer seems much simpler. As my first over-ear headphone, I found pushing cup harder against ear produced only bass, and likewise releasing pressure of cup completely produced no bass.
I had read on various forums about the very stiff headband when new, so massaged it more open, and bass immediately came more to my liking as the pressure against my head was less. Now sounds superb and a great X5 match. Is this a general finding on ALL over-ear headphones?

 

[AndrewH13]

 

No error messages, just starts skipping in the middle of the track, then the next 2 or 3 songs will play for a second and then skip also. Restarting it will usually fix the problem but it's still annoying as heck, would like to see it go away. Also, I am not accidentally hitting any buttons or anything as I usually just have it laying flat on a table.

 
GD, I take it you have formatted within X5? I had skipping on some tracks even though I had formatted to FAT32, but none since I formatted in unit. Now working flawlessly. If only I could say same of my DX90, with erroneous Scan Card message every time I turn on, and 2 seconds missing off end of each track!

 

[Sabsjl]

Thinking of getting either a X3 or X5. Am wondering how much of the X5 is worth the extra dollars. Any input from those who upgraded from the X3 or have tried both models?