[ratinox]

Battery longevity is usually not an issue with small consumer electronics like cell phones and tablets. The new hawtness comes around every 12-18 months and along with it the impulse to "upgrade". A high quality Li-Ion battery pack will last about that long under heavy use and abuse. Fancy that.

Anyway, you're welcome. There's a vast trove of battery information out there on the intarwebs. Most of it is misleading or incomplete or just plain wrong. That Tech Republic is an exception, accurate as far as it goes but it misses a couple of fine points.

 

[Wapiti]

I personally would not be concerned with the charging circuit in the DX50.  The safety low discharge switch is in the battery itself, not the unit in which it is installed.  It appears the stock battery simply gave up and needs replacement. 

 

[Wapiti]

There's nothing wrong with wanting more/better per se. What I hate is the pressure in this forum to buy outboard amplifiers when they're not needed and are of no actual benefit.

As with many such disagreements, it comes down to nomenclature.
 
Is an outboard amplifier "needed" or "necessary?"  Of course not.  The DX50 amp works, produces sound, allows one to listen to music.  It allows one to get from A to B.
 
Is there an "actual benefit" to using an outboard amp?  It depends on your equipment and what you mean by "benefit."  It may sound better, it may not. Your trip from A to B may be faster, more comfortable, more sporting, etc.  It may not.
 
Both extreme positions are ludicrous.  It is equally inane to argue an outboard amp is not needed and of no benefit, as it is to assert an outboard amp is needed and of absolute benefit.
 
(For the record, my winter beater is a 2012 BMW.  My summer toys are a Z06 and a Ducati 1098 S Tricolore.  How what one drives is relevant is beyond me. )

 

[ScreenKiller]

May I suggest this amp for the DX50. It is a slight upgrade over the C5 paired with the DX50, but its form factor, 6.3mm jack and bass boost option (located on the inside of the amp) restrict it from being better than the C5 in all ways.

 
thanks for the recommendation skybleu but that amp is huge.
the thing i liked about the c5 is its compact form factor. anyway how much does that amp set me back?
 
any other recommendations for dx50-v3 ?

 

[LinkyG]

There's nothing wrong with wanting more/better per se. What I hate is the pressure in this forum to buy outboard amplifiers when they're not needed and are of no actual benefit. Case in point: my deconstruction of LinkyG's perceived SQ improvements between v1.2.6 and v1.2.7 by adding an amplifier. To follow your Mercedes vs. Honda analogy, it's like you insisting that I really should get an S-Class because it's so much better than the Fit (Jazz to you folks outside North America). Better in some ways perhaps, but an S-Class costs $80K-$120K more to buy, is commensurately more expensive to insure and maintain, guzzles more than twice as much fuel per mile, and isn't nearly as much fun to drive as my Fit.

Let me be plain - I disliked 1.2.7 and removed it from my player. I had no problem with 1.2.6 at all. having a few quid in my pocket I decided to invest this money in an external amp. I connected it and found an immediate improvement in the sound I was hearing. I then re-installed 1.2.7 and found that by using the amp this version was now as good as any other. I was no more pressured to buy an amp than I was to buy the DX50 to replace any of my previous players, I just had cash and wanted to try an external amp. I then posted my opinion on here for the information of others - I thought that was the purpose of this forum. You are entitled to your opinion, but you have not deconstructed my views at all. My benefit is that I perceive that I am getting a better sound to listen to - a different sound if you wish, but I prefer my DX50 amped to not.

 

[ratinox]

As with many such disagreements, it comes down to nomenclature.

Is an outboard amplifier "needed" or "necessary?"  Of course not.  The DX50 amp works, produces sound, allows one to listen to music.  It allows one to get from A to B.

I disagree with the statement as an absolute. Really. If you're using 600 ohm headphones then you're going to need a more powerful amplifier than what DX50 has just to get reasonable volume levels. As to why you'd be trying to drive headphones like that from a consumer-grade portable music player, well, that's a different issue, one that may be getting into stack envy and showing off territory. Or perhaps not. Just because I can't think of a practical reason for doing so does not mean that such reasons do not exist.

 

[Carlosfandango]

Using one of these:



And a simple wall powered micro USB charger (like you get for most tablets or phones) I was able to do this....





Which I think most of you knew about anyway.... But for those that didn't.

So this is my DX running it's music library from a 1tb HD. You just need an power source (either charger or a laptop) and away it goes.

I tested this set-up at my desk today.

The DX battery drained in like... 3 hours. It was like the DX was powering the HD, which of course it wasn't the samsung charger was.

If i shut off the DX it instantly started to charge (while the HD was still plugged in)... if i disconnected the HD the DX charged..... but i couldn't play the HD, the D X and recharge the DX or maintain acharge inthe DX at the same time.

 

[ratinox]

LinkyG,

My deconstruction of your experience is not a matter of opinion. It's a direct observation of the Wolfson DAC and the electrical circuits on the DX50 circuit board. It is not possible for a DX50 firmware change to affect the headphone out without identically affecting the line out. This is not to say that you do not perceive differences. Our brains are very, very good at editing the things we perceive, inserting things that aren't there and removing things that are, so that what we perceive matches our expectations. Here's a clever trick that I just discovered:

https://twitter.com/shashwat1/status/326366762406928384/photo/1

How many times does the word "you" appear on the card?

Look again.

Do you see it twice, now?

That's a tiny example of just how unreliable our perceptions really are.

 

[Gintaras]

There's nothing wrong with wanting more/better per se. What I hate is the pressure in this forum to buy outboard amplifiers when they're not needed and are of no actual benefit. Case in point: my deconstruction of LinkyG's perceived SQ improvements between v1.2.6 and v1.2.7 by adding an amplifier. To follow your Mercedes vs. Honda analogy, it's like you insisting that I really should get an S-Class because it's so much better than the Fit (Jazz to you folks outside North America). Better in some ways perhaps, but an S-Class costs $80K-$120K more to buy, is commensurately more expensive to insure and maintain, guzzles more than twice as much fuel per mile, and isn't nearly as much fun to drive as my Fit.

mate, sorry for disagreeing but i believe DX50 must be amped from line out to achieve great sonics. using IEMs straight from DX50 makes me feel like listening to artificial metal scratching especially what concerns trebles, there is no analogue like fluidity to music. but then adding good amp lifts DX50 sonically miles above earth, music sounds smooth organically flowing, treble harshness becomes tamed and mids jump out on you, vocals get life feel and drums get more airy and decay goes deeper thanks to increased black space between notes.

as regards S-class believe me if you would drive it once there would be no way back, i love it much better than BMW7 and that says a lot. actually Honda makes great cars too, my sister drives Hinda, but there is no comparison to S-class.

 

[turboman808]

I was wondering if there was a guide that explained headphone amplifiers a bit better.  I got the ibasso pb2 last night and connected the dx50 to it.  Then plugged in the hifman headphones.  It sounded way better.  I can't say it was really any louder but it was definetly much crisper and you could here every detail alot better.  

 

[Sorensiim]

  I was wondering if there was a guide that explained headphone amplifiers a bit better.  I got the ibasso pb2 last night and connected the dx50 to it.  Then plugged in the hifman headphones.  It sounded way better.  I can't say it was really any louder but it was definetly much crisper and you could here every detail alot better.  

Amping headphones is about so much more than just increasing the volume 

 
Did you try the balanced or single ended output from the PB2?

 

[turboman808]

  Amping headphones is about so much more than just increasing the volume 

 
Did you try the balanced or single ended output from the PB2?

 
Haven't tried the balanced yet.  I accidentally ordered the female connectors instead of the male.  But I should have the right connectors next week.  

 

[Wapiti]

I disagree with the statement as an absolute. Really.

Of course you do.  But you are arguing with yourself; no one stated such an unqualified absolute.  By ignoring both the context and snipping out the bulk of my post, you have constructed a straw man - and then knocked him down. 
 
This approach is entirely silly and unproductive.

 

[ratinox]

Looks like the article I linked is from a banned member. Sorry about that. Anyway, some useful information for comparison:

iThings have a maximum output voltage of 0.5V. Apple's earbuds are rated at 109 dB SPL/mW and 23 ohms (as best as I can find). They require 1.3mW to reach 110dB. iThing amplifiers can deliver 10mW with that load which is more than enough power.

My KRK KNS-8400's are 97 dB SPL/mW and 36 ohms requiring 20mW to reach 110dB but the same iThing can deliver only 7mW with that load.

DX50 delivers 1.7V on the medium gain setting which is quite a lot more than an iThing. Peak power with my KRKs is a much more than respectable 80mW. No outboard amplifier needed.

DX50 delivers 3.1V on high gain setting. Shifting to a harder to drive headphone like Sennheiser HD 600 (97 db SPL/mW and 300 ohms), the peak power output is 32mW, more than enough to drive them to 110dB.

Stepping up to 600 ohm headphones presents a problem for DX50. At 600 ohms, DX50's peak power output is 16mW with a 600 ohm load. You're going to need more power to drive headphones like this.

The wide variations in power output for different voltages and impedances should give you an idea of why matching headphones to amplifiers, even the ones inside DX50, can be important to getting the most -- or even anything -- out of a music player.

 

[highfell]

thanks for the recommendation skybleu but that amp is huge.
the thing i liked about the c5 is its compact form factor. anyway how much does that amp set me back?

any other recommendations for dx50-v3 ?

I had a graham slee voyager which I couldn't really tell the difference compared to the amp of the dx50 but I now have a Leckerton UHA 6S mkii with the opa627, which I would thoroughly recommend and it's not horribly expensive. It is a beautifully built piece of kit and sounds sublime.