DAP discussion thread

I believe this is the one I had: NW-S700

Noise-cancellation was through a proprietary cable on the headphones that had an extra little tab which you can kind of see here:



They were WAY about proprietary then. You had to use their Music player to add songs (before I Rockboxed it) and they really wanted you to use their ATRAC files. You could use 3rd party headphones but you lost the ANC. The ANC was really pretty impressive all things considered.

 

I would double check the current state of things with Fiio's firmware. I sent mine back before the android os update. I paid a little over $500 for mine. I see one currently listed on Amazon.com for $378 with the am1 module. I never bothered to change amp modules before returning it. A few people here told me it was a much different beast with a new amp module.

 

If you want to get an X7, I would seriously advise you get something other than the AM1. I personally thought that the other amp modules didn't really sacrifice any of the technicalities of the AM1 but had a warmer sound signature that just sounded more right to me - as in not as artificially bright.

As for the beta firmware, personally I think it's mostly stable as long as you stay away from the FiiO music app. If you look at the HF thread, most people are actually complaining about how the FiiO app can't scan tracks, or can't play through DLNA, or it crashes, etc. Personally, I haven't had any of these problems when using third-party music apps. As for DLNA, well, if you really need it again there are a lot of third-party apps out there.

 

They're still doing this with weird USB cables and USB out cables. I think their WM connector to USB cable has a weird tab for Sony devices only. Way to go.

 

I agree, if you get the X7, please stay away from the AM1. Horrible amp module.

 

Hi all, anyone has any experience with the Onkyo DP-X1/X1A?

 

Hey guys, I am seeing this trend of putting anti EMI stickers inside DAPs and on iems. I am the only one thinking this smells awfully like BS?

 

Lol. I completely agree bro. This sticker nonsense is just that, nonsense. I saw that ridiculous post on HF too bro.

 

This shit was popular during the era of flip phones. WHY IS IT COMING BACK

 

I had the original DP-X1 for a while.

On the surface, it was the perfect device ... fast and responsive, attention paid to solid audio-engineering in the hardware, dual card slots, balanced output, Bluetooth support, useful amount of power, quiet amplification and the ability to run third-party applications for streaming, even MQA support (if you care about such things).

In reality it was a different matter ...

The headphone sockets were only attached to the board, with no other retention mechanism, and it was very clear, even after a few days use, that they were not likely to survive for long in real-world use. Battery life was pretty lousy. Bluetooth had a range of about a foot and a half (using the same heapdhones with either an iPhone or a Sony WM1A they get an easy thirty feet).

And then there was the heart of the thing ... Android and the general software/audio issues this imposed (and imposes on any player that doesn't have a very heavy customization applied to it by the manufacturer ... e.g. A&K, FiiO or some Sony units).

First, early units had horrible distortion with quiet passages in music from third-party player applications (e.g. TIDAL and Spotify), which was unavoidable since it would occur during fade-in/fade-out of tracks as well. This was fixed, and now there's an issue with small skips in music with offline TIDAL tracks. Then there is the requirement to use a third-party application (UAPP) if you wanted to use an external DAC and not be stuck with Android's forced-re-sampling. Said app has a less than lovely user experience and if you don't exit it properly won't let the audio device go so nothing else gets to use the DAC until you do, and can't (or at least couldn't) do offline streaming content at all.

Sound wise, I liked it better than any of the A&K players ... it was just all the "workarounds" necessary to get the thing to work for me at all that it felt like I spent more time making accommodations for laziness or poor decision making on Onkyo's part than I did enjoying music. So, I got rid of it. And it's made me extremely wary of DAPs that use Android as their foundation going forward.

 

Sigh...so scratch another " upgrade " option of the list. These DAP's seem to be worse compromises than just using my Galaxy Note 4! Seems like better of with just phone for streaming and some easy to drive IEM/and some non- android DAP. The Sony NW-ZX100 starts too make a lot of sense especially at the price it is going for these days, or just stick with my A15. Thanks for the heads-up about these android daps.

 

Be happy, makes choosing easier.

 

I gave up on android based daps. I went back to a simple player.

 

Agree about Android DAPs. Something weird to me about the home-screen looking like a smartphone. I like the purpose-built operating system of the new Sony DAPs (1A & 1Z) especially now that some of the lag in the UI has been worked out. Cheers

 

That last update was killer. As far as android daps, I prefer them, if done right. Much more flexibility. You can use various music player apps, you can hopefully add V4A (must for me being a basshead), and you can tweak them a bit more to accommodate your tastes. Downsides, battery life is usually less, updates are a nightmare, some apps don't play nice, and android upsampling.

 

Totally understand Rich, but while I'm a minor basshead (especially compared to you!) I'm even more of a K.I.S.S. type of guy. Cheers

 

Talking about a review format, courtesy of @Mimouille on HF.

 

Out of curiousity, do you know how / when this was fixed?

I suffered from this and tried to get support from the Onkyo forums. Firstly was told they couldn't replicate it so it doesn't exist, then when others chimed in with the issue they said they would pass it onto engineers. The mod on their support forum then hasn't responded for months... I sold it a while ago already now.

Can only imagine how many issues their new phone / DAP will have.

 

Just got M1 and yes, Paring with Andro, it is quite bassy without being muddy or bloated. And it is dynamic sound. I quite like it. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

It was fixed with a software/firmware update last year. I don't know exactly when, or which firmware revision it was, as I'd gotten rid of the player before the fix was released. Unfortunately I believe that fix was also the update that introduced a problem where offline content stored in the TIDAL app will skip once per track.