[7S Cameron]

  Just an update and shout out to Ibasso.
 
I had dropped my poor DX50 so many times that on one of the drops, well, the volume up stopped working (the button would push but the receiver inside would move due to a partially broken connection.  So I got hold of Ibasso and they fixed it for free out of warranty - my cost, shipping.
 
Its back, and its just like new (well, ok, mine doesn't look new anymore as I have banged the bejeebers out of the poor thing).
 
Thanks Ibasso!
 
I will more than likely just wave in a DX90 when I really do something bad to this one (I am famous for getting electronics wet and those kind of mishaps are not repairable.).
 
edit - one thing I am curious about is the EQ.  I know for my portable speaker I use on the roof, it benefits from a bit of treble boost (its too bassy).  I notice when the EQ is on in 'custom' with that boost, the volume output is lower than it is with the EQ off.  I would have though EQ on (and flat) and EQ off would be the same output level?

The volume is lowered to prevent clipping.

 

[Howlin Fester]

How are we doing with the sound stuttering on DX50?
With mine, all official firmwares since 1.4 and DOC's final versions and also SU 1.3.3 stuttering (playing from sd card and internal). It's really disappointing and annoying.
Only Rockbox solve the problem (but WHY??)
Did somebody has solved the problem whitout rockboxing?

Hey guys.  (Long explanation.  Sorry. Trying to scientifically cover all the bases.)
 
I did experience the stuttering.  Although to me it was more of a "skipping" or the sound would drop out, blank for an annoying moment, then come back.
Mine started around the time I upgraded to 1.6, but I believe that was a coincidence.  Because after two days of blanking, I upgraded to Doc's Favorite Final Firmware.  Then the sound was fine for a week or so, and then it started blanking on DFFF also.  Therefore I am of the opinion that FW does not matter.
 
I have been following both DX50 and DX90 threads since the beginning.  There was a lot of talk about the blanking on the DX90 thread, so I followed this path:
 
I have three micro sd cards.  All Sandisk.  64 - 16 - 64.  I started using them directly out of the package with no formatting.  My first 64G card was very full to the brim, as was the 16.  I was getting blanking on both of them.  The 3rd 64G was new, and not very full, so didn't experience any blanking.  I also have a tendency to swap out album folders quite a bit.  So the 1st 64G would have half that stay all the time and half that get re-written.
 
I downloaded the formatting tool from the SD Association here:              https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/
I did a complete format and overwrite of all my cards,
I have not experienced the blanking since that time.  Been about a month now.
 
I "believe" that the problem was occurring for me because of the writing and re-writing of the files on my cards.  There were probably sector gaps of non contiguous files, and I also believe i read something about the cards using a small open partition while in play mode to copy the data to the partition for use.  So maybe being too full, and having overwritten many times caused the issue.  That's what I'm going with for my hypothesis.
 
EDIT:  I forgot to mention that there is a great deal of discussion about how the built in microsoft formatter is much different than the SD Association format tool from download.  Therefore:  1.  Any new card I get will receive the SD Association format right out of the box.  2.  IF I experience the problem, again I will use only the SD Association Format Tool.

 

[jjjchan]

A newbie here and just want to share some observations in FWs. I bought my DX50 3 weeks ago and updated the firmware from 1.5 to 1.6 right away. In the ATH-M50, it was well balanced for me but after switching to Fidue A83 yesterday, mids and highs became unforgiving but they were awesomely clear. I've read in the A83 discussions that Fidue requires 100hrs burn-in time (I believe this because I auditioned a good sounding and most probably well burned-in demo unit), but I can't stand the harshness for 100+ hours so I updated the FW to SU 1.3.3 upon reading some good feedbacks from it. I noticed right away that the mids and highs became smoother and less unforgiving, soundstage has increased also which is nice, but the bass was recessed a little bit compared to 1.6. My setting was flac/irr off/default by the way. My main concern in the SU 1.3.3 is the Gapless playback. IT'S NOT WORKING. I noticed this right away because I listen a lot of live performances. Gapless works perfectly in 1.6. I like the sound of SU 1.3.3 but because of the issue in Gapless playback, I might go back to 1.6 after 100+ hours burn-in for the Fidue A83 if there is no solution for this issue. Advices are very much welcome. THANKS!!

 

[CoiL]

With SU 1.3.3 @ FLAC mode gapless isn`t supposed to be working. When using All mode, it should work but SQ isn`t so good.
Your setup interests me because I`ve had also my eyes on A83 but my ears can`t take harsh highs. About bass, SU has more balanced and neutral sound signature which is good but You`re right about bass (and percussion) "thump", it is littlebit weak. Only things what have fixed this so far (for me) are using SUEX fw or changing out HO/LO capacitors. I went the latter way and really happy with the result using SU 1.3.3.
With 1.6 there is more bass in quantity but still SU 1.3.3 bass SQ is better.
 

 
I "believe" that the problem was occurring for me because of the writing and re-writing of the files on my cards.  There were probably sector gaps of non contiguous files, and I also believe i read something about the cards using a small open partition while in play mode to copy the data to the partition for use.  So maybe being too full, and having overwritten many times caused the issue.  That's what I'm going with for my hypothesis.

Maybe but so far I have not experienced any issues even when card has very little amount of free space left. Atm I have only 16mb free on my 64GB card and everything works flawlessly. My guess is that most ppl just don`t delete those folders created by mango to internal and sd card with every time adding new music or deleting old and also they do just scan sd card not rescan library.
Also about reformatting, I think there might be problems with exfat and fat32 should be preferred if I`m not wrong.

 

[7S Cameron]

With SU 1.3.3 @ FLAC mode gapless isn`t supposed to be working. When using All mode, it should work but SQ isn`t so good.
Your setup interests me because I`ve had also my eyes on A83 but my ears can`t take harsh highs. About bass, SU has more balanced and neutral sound signature which is good but You`re right about bass (and percussion) "thump", it is littlebit weak. Only things what have fixed this so far (for me) are using SUEX fw or changing out HO/LO capacitors. I went the latter way and really happy with the result using SU 1.3.3.
With 1.6 there is more bass in quantity but still SU 1.3.3 bass SQ is better.

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I "believe" that the problem was occurring for me because of the writing and re-writing of the files on my cards.  There were probably sector gaps of non contiguous files, and I also believe i read something about the cards using a small open partition while in play mode to copy the data to the partition for use.  So maybe being too full, and having overwritten many times caused the issue.  That's what I'm going with for my hypothesis.

Maybe but so far I have not experienced any issues even when card has very little amount of free space left. Atm I have only 16mb free on my 64GB card and everything works flawlessly. My guess is that most ppl just don`t delete those folders created by mango to internal and sd card with every time adding new music or deleting old and also they do just scan sd card not rescan library.
Also about reformatting, I think there might be problems with exfat and fat32 should be preferred if I`m not wrong.

I also delete my folders, do a factory reset, and rescan library. I've been doing it the same way this entire time, but the stuttering has oy started happening recently. I think I may try what Lester said and see if it makes a difference. I've been considering switching to fat32, I just didn't want to have to add all my music back on. Seems like that may be my only option.

 

[7S Cameron]

BTW, I've been using New DOCs Ultimate Final Favorite Firmware or something along those lines... and I gotta say, I'm very impressed. It fixes my harsh highs issue that I had with NDFFF.

 

[CoiL]

New DOCs Ultimate Final Favorite Firmware or something along those lines... and I gotta say, I'm very impressed. It fixes my harsh highs issue that I had with NDFFF.

And now it`s Your turn to share link to this FW to me 

 
 
Think I already got it, this one? -> http://player.ru/showthread.php?t=139417&page=152&p=1543499&viewfull=1#post1543499
 
Overall sound is same as NDFFF ? Only problem I had with NDFFF was littlebit harsh highs, otherwise great sounding FW. Will try the one I linked right away
 
Just a note - NDFFF is based on DX90 2.0.5 and NDFFUF is based on stock DX50 1.5.0.
 
Edit:
 
NDFFUF isn`t for me. Compared to SU 1.3.3 @ FLAC/iir off/cpu default... for my ears NDFFUF has somewhat boosted and "boomy/muddy" bass, brighter highs and vocals are less in focus. Soundstage difference is hard to tell, sounds about same. Maybe NDFFUF won`t fit for my DX50 because I have upgraded capacitors, idk. Going back to SU 1.3.3. But I recommend others to try this fw since it may "fix" bass/kick presence.

 

[jjjchan]

  With SU 1.3.3 @ FLAC mode gapless isn`t supposed to be working. When using All mode, it should work but SQ isn`t so good.
Your setup interests me because I`ve had also my eyes on A83 but my ears can`t take harsh highs. About bass, SU has more balanced and neutral sound signature which is good but You`re right about bass (and percussion) "thump", it is littlebit weak. Only things what have fixed this so far (for me) are using SUEX fw or changing out HO/LO capacitors. I went the latter way and really happy with the result using SU 1.3.3.
With 1.6 there is more bass in quantity but still SU 1.3.3 bass SQ is better.
 

I just tried the All mode and the gapless works with some acceptable lag. What's the difference between the All/irr off/default and Flac/irr off/default? They seem similar to my ears.
Upgrading the A83's cable to linum music cable smooths out the harshness of the mids and highs and  improves the bass and the soundstage a lot. But the improvement is much heard on the AK240(store demo unit) and not much, but its there in my DX50 1.6.

 

[CoiL]

  What's the difference between the All/irr off/default and Flac/irr off/default? They seem similar to my ears.

All mode uses different decoder/settings to play files while FLAC only uses only flac decoder/settings... as much as I know (I don`t know exact code life of Mango/Android).
All vs. FLAC sound definitely different to my ears with my gear. Better clarity, detail and separation. But if Your ears don`t detect any difference then it doesn`t matter for You. 

 

[jjjchan]

  All mode uses different decoder/settings to play files while FLAC only uses only flac decoder/settings... as much as I know (I don`t know exact code life of Mango/Android).
All vs. FLAC sound definitely different to my ears with my gear. Better clarity, detail and separation. But if Your ears don`t detect any difference then it doesn`t matter for You. 

Thanks for the replies! I'll stick on SU 1.3.3 on flac little bit more and soon compare it to All, 1.6, and maybe 1.8 to find which suits best to my ears.. =D

 

[7S Cameron]

 

New DOCs Ultimate Final Favorite Firmware or something along those lines... and I gotta say, I'm very impressed. It fixes my harsh highs issue that I had with NDFFF.

And now it`s Your turn to share link to this FW to me 

 
 
Think I already got it, this one? -> http://player.ru/showthread.php?t=139417&page=152&p=1543499&viewfull=1#post1543499
 
Overall sound is same as NDFFF ? Only problem I had with NDFFF was littlebit harsh highs, otherwise great sounding FW. Will try the one I linked right away
 
Just a note - NDFFF is based on DX90 2.0.5 and NDFFUF is based on stock DX50 1.5.0.
 
Edit:
 
NDFFUF isn`t for me. Compared to SU 1.3.3 @ FLAC/iir off/cpu default... for my ears NDFFUF has somewhat boosted and "boomy/muddy" bass, brighter highs and vocals are less in focus. Soundstage difference is hard to tell, sounds about same. Maybe NDFFUF won`t fit for my DX50 because I have upgraded capacitors, idk. Going back to SU 1.3.3. But I recommend others to try this fw since it may "fix" bass/kick presence.

I agree with your assesment of the sound. I find the bass portion rather enjoyable, but because mids are my primary concern the firmware won't work as a long-term option. I'm going to give Sound Explosion Grand Final a try since I read it has really good mids.

 

[7S Cameron]

And if that doesn't do it for me I will probably end up going back to SU EX. That is definitely the best sound I have heard out of my DX50. It sounds so organic and analogue while having a great bass response.

 

[ph0n6]

Personally I prefer Rockbox for it ultilities (Many Sound settings so tuning sound is a joy, not to mention Crossfeed which I really like, folder management, etc.......) It's good to have options. For simpler usage though 1.3.3 is hard to beat. I introduced it to some guys owning DX50 and they really enjoy it

 

[7S Cameron]

  Personally I prefer Rockbox for it ultilities (Many Sound settings so tuning sound is a joy, not to mention Crossfeed which I really like, folder management, etc.......) It's good to have options. For simpler usage though 1.3.3 is hard to beat. I introduced it to some guys owning DX50 and they really enjoy it

I love the functionality of Rockbox, but I haven't been able to get it to sound as good as Sound Unlocked unfortunately.

 

[jjjchan]

  And if that doesn't do it for me I will probably end up going back to SU EX. That is definitely the best sound I have heard out of my DX50. It sounds so organic and analogue while having a great bass response.

Do you have a link for this FW? I can't seem to find it the web. Thank you!!