Well first impressions are wow this thing is built like a tank. it feels heavy and solid. the screen is absolutely tiny but very clear. Slightly annoying that there isn't a power button on the front. The control wheel is fast and easy to use but a little cheap feeling. I have mine paired with the Topping A90 amp. I'm learning that there is such a thing as too much detail lol. I had a set of headphones (monolith m1070) that I've been enjoying listening to for a while now. With this setup I almost cannot listen to them anymore. They have become very harsh and sibilant in the treble region. The reviews about the headphones always complained about this, but I never heard it. I thought I just wasn't treble sensitive, but the X16 has shown me how wrong I was lol. With my cheaper amp DAC combo, there wasn't much of a tonal shift between each songs. They all sounded boomy and not much treble presence. With the X16 there is a wide tonal range now. Songs that used to have a boomy bass now have a quite and refined thumping bass. The treble extensions is beyond what I've expected. I'm not a fan of overly peaky treble so I have to EQ it out now. I'm waiting on my focal clears to come in to really test this out though. I'm not a audio reviewer and I don't think I have golden ears. If someone points out a minor detail in a song I can often find it myself. While I am just listening regularly I wouldn't catch those minor details by myself though. I often will find something I like or dislike about a audio setup, but simply cannot put into words. if you have any question about the X16 let me know and I will try to answer them (I've had mine for a while now
).
Thanks for your quick review. I have some questions for you:
- Have you noticed build quality issues? For example: the device is unstable on the stand, the USB connector is not reliable and it's not easy to remove the USB cable... My SU-9 has these issues.
- How about the remote control? It seems to work on several devices, because the Play/Pause button is likely to be the 'OK' button on the X16, isn't it? Do the 'Stream', 'Dac' and 'Amp' buttons have any function?
- Does the X16 have any sound color filters like the SU-9? For example, to emulate a tube amp (on SU-9 this function has almost no effect).
Thanks in advance and congratulations for your new DAC!