Headphone Heights

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Original Message

FiiO X5II DAP initial notes

Posted by sbrians on February 21, 2016 at 23:41:53:
I was travelling and went to the Headphone Bar in Vancouver to determine whether I wanted to buy an X1 or X3. I walked out w/ the X5 since it seemed to get me up there in sound close to the Astral & Kerns AK100.
I finally got a portable system which may be my last that I need to buy, since I feel not need to have better. I feel that I no longer need a portable NOS DAC, given the sound of this. The sound of this is awesome - detailed, dynamic, musical. My first tests was whether it makes MP3 lisenable. It does. I use it on high gain (more power and dynamics, supposedly) with my Ultrasone HFI-580s. Given its portability, I seem to be using it more than my main system now. I can walk around and do things w/ my mind in another world. When I travel, I no longer miss my main system. I find that amazing. It makes even cheap headphone sound much better than with my older, cheaper, Sony NWZ something.
I found that for ripping CDs, Exact Audio Copy, although requiring more work to use, is much more accurate than Foobar200. I compared wav files, one from each and it was no contest.
I found that wav files sound a little better than FLAC - they convey a little more emotion, timing, a little better timbre, etc. in this player. It's subtle, but the clearest difference was a bit more emotional conveyance.
I also learned that by setting up Ultradefrag to defrag the wav files prior to transferring to the memory card(many had 1000 fragments), the player is much quicker skipping to the next track, etc.
I highly recommend checking this out if you are in the market.