Sometimes the heads of the designers of little-known Chinese companies come up with ideas so ingenious that they take it easy - like no one before had thought of it. Here was the xDuoo company, doing hybrid amplifiers like this, and then suddenly, once, and shot a brilliant model in the face of a very budgetary, but very good player xDuoo X2.
It's worth noting that, X2 is not the first model of the player xDuoo, as the index suggests, before it was still X1, but it was not as popular as the second model.
As the crisis moves around the country, the purchasing power of the population is falling, and the cost of audio equipment is clearly not even on the second plan, and even further. Fortunately, the rescue in the face of X2 arrived in time (the player came out at the very end of 2014).
With this model xDuoo can give a master class "how to make a cool budget player". First of all, we take the time-tested chipset AK2117, on which the SanDisk Sansa players are popular among the music lovers, from them we take a two-color OLED screen. We make for this player a simple case made of black aluminum. While everything is quite normal, but now begins the magic. We add the amplifier LMH6643 to the circuit, we feed it from the bipolar power generator, which allows us to throw out the separation capacitors at the output, and immediately we get a 250 millivaw (or 1/4 watt, so more impressive) exhaust emission with a load of 32Ω. We do not save on microrelo-type things, which will protect the user's hearing from clapping when turning on and off.
The result is a very small player with a great sound, the hallmark of which is a very affordable price. On the ubiquitous AliExpress you can only for $ 50 with delivery almost anywhere in the world.
Given the pleasant price and no less pleasant sound, xDuoo X2 fell a lot of popularity. Usually in this case, Chinese manufacturers are heavily involved in quality and are starting to make the product massively, saving on everything they can. To xDuoo's honor, it's worth noting that they managed to avoid this, and even carried out a number of notable improvements in the player's design: they improved the power of the amplifier, replaced the buttons with more reliable ones, and "dopiled" the screening. In addition, they are actively upgrading the software part of the player, releasing new firmware.
The first xDuoo X2 came to me at the beginning of the year, it was quite buggy and had a number of bugs, so I did not even write a review on it. Now I have a player with a 3 version of iron and a 6 firmware version (there is already 7, but more on this later).
What you can get in exchange earnings earned by honest work with a portrait of Willis Grant?
Specifications
- Processor: AK2117
- Amplifier: LMH6643
- Output Power: 250mW @ 32Ω
- Frequency range: 20 Hz - 20 KHz
- Total harmonic distortion + noise: 0.005%
- Signal to noise ratio: 107 dB
- Recommended load impedance: 8Ω - 300Ω
- Power: Built-in Li-polymer battery for 4.2 V
- Operating time per charge: > 10 h
- Charging time: <2 h
- Supported formats: WAV, APE, FLAC, MP3, WMA
- Housing: Aluminum
- Dimensions: 70.6 mm × 40.6 mm × 12.5 mm
- Weight: 50 gr
Packing and delivery kit
The packaging of the player is the simplest one that can be. Ordinary box made of non-white white cardboard with simple polygraphy. Inside is a plastic box with a player and USB cable. Judging by the notch in the box, it was originally planned to equip the player with a clothespin as an iPod Shuffle, but then they refused this idea.
Also in the box there is an instruction in English and Chinese and a warranty card. This concludes the accessories. Of course, the kit would not have prevented the cover, but the good would have made the player much more expensive, and the bad one has spoiled the impression of the device. Fortunately, after searching a little, the player case can still be picked up on the same AliExpress or eBay.
In general, as the saying goes, "poor, but clean," for an inexpensive player is more than normal.
Design and management
At first it causes a skeptical smile, but really xDuoo X2 looks very, very good, especially against the background of other Chinese counterparts. The all-metal casing with the back cover on the screws gives it the feeling of an expensive device, and a good build quality further emphasizes this. In the updated version, we even got rid of the unpleasant jerking of the buttons that spoiled the impression of the first version.
Found, however, in this barrel of honey and a fly in the face of the display. The screen itself is very simple, its upper line is orange, the rest are blue-green (in English this color is called cyan). This item went to the player as a legacy from SanDisk Sansa Clip +, it had the upper line used to display the status icons, and the rest contained different text, so the interface looked whole. XDuoo developers did not bother with this and often use the screen as a whole, so the orange line looks weird, although for a player of $ 50 this, of course, is not even nit-picking. The main problem is that the designers, it is unclear with what a fright, made the protective glass of the screen a mirror, especially it is strange on the background of the fact that in the first versions the screen was normal. This dramatically worsened its readability in the sun, in addition, the screen is very easily covered with scratches. The first problem users decide is the disassembly of the player and rubbing the mirror coating with acetone. The second, unfortunately, can be solved only by replacing the glass (more precisely, plastic) entirely, and it still needs to be looked for. Personally, I do not strain this and use the player with scratches, this does not prevent, and by and large, the cool screen in the budget player is clearly not the most necessary thing.
All controls are located on the front panel, 5 buttons are located "cross" and one is moved to the side. In the latest version of the hardware, the buttons are qualitative, they are pressed clearly and pleased with a confident click (in the first version there were problems with this). Management is not devoid of easy Chinese illogicality, but compared to some other players it is simply the best of reason.
Four buttons located on the cross, as you might guess from the notations, are used to adjust the volume, rewind and navigate the menu. By the way, be careful with the volume, the power of the player is high, and at high volume levels it can really spoil either headphones or hearing (or both). The central button with long press is used for on-off, with a short press it is used to pause and start playback. It also acts as a confirmation button in the menu.
A separate menu button allows you to call up 3 different menu options. A long press opens the system settings menu, where you can select the language, view the firmware version and choose the shutdown time when idle. A short press of a button when music is not playing opens the file management menu, which basically contains different delete options. If the music is playing, pressing the button will open the playback menu, where you can select one of the equalizer settings, the repeat option or turn off the sleep timer.
I want to note that the equalizer in the X2 is quite possible to use, in contrast to the more expensive players, the deterioration of sound when the equalizer is turned on is not so noticeable.
The headphone jack is located on the bottom. The left panel contains a slot for memory cards, a hole for resetting the player and a USB connector for charging and synchronization. Officially supported memory cards up to 32 GB, but most of the cards in 64 GB also works (although I would advise all the same to check the compatibility with the player before buying). In the latest version of the player, the card slot is slightly shifted relative to the slot in the case, pay attention to it, so as not to miss, inserting the card.
The music player plays exclusively on folders, no media libraries or sortings by performers and genres, it's all simple and efficient: we select the desired partition of the file system, and listen. If necessary, the player is able to move to adjacent folders, if the music in the current has already ended. It's a little surprising that all files on the memory card are sorted by modification time, this can sometimes confuse. In the 7th version of the firmware, the normal sorting was done alphabetically, but according to many users, the sound deteriorated in it, so everyone is waiting for the firmware with the sound of the 6th version and the functions 7. The player remembers the position at shutdown and can continue playback from the moment it stops (an invaluable feature for fans of audiobooks and live sets of popular DJ's).
After a little getting used to, control of the player does not cause the slightest problems, and convenient buttons allow you not even to take it out of your pocket.
X2 is very omnivorous in formats, it understands them almost all, only some exotic variants such as APE with a high compression ratio and proprietary like ALAC are not supported. By permission, files up to 48 kHz and 24 bits are supported, although not all. So for reliability it is better to overtake everything in standard 44.1 kHz / 16 bit. CUE files are not supported, so you have to cut large files. There is no playback mode without pauses in the player, although the gaps between the tracks are not great (somewhere from half a second with a small fade).
The battery life is another strong point of the player. In my test on one charge, the player worked for 10 hours and 15 minutes (if you do not include the screen at all), and it charges in less than 2 hours, which is also an excellent indicator.
Sound
To listen to the player, the following headphones were used.
- Oppo PM-3
- Dunu DN-2000J and Titan 1
- Lear LUF-4F and LHF-AE1d
- Ambient Acoustics AM10
Since, judging by the reviews, the sound of the player differs on different firmware versions, I clarify that what is written below refers to the 6th version of the firmware, which public opinion considers the best for sound at the moment.
This player differs from most of the models that I saw on the review, the absence of a dedicated DAC chip, the decoding of the digital stream and its conversion into an analog one is handled by the chipset itself. This, of course, gives a worse result than the specialized DACs, but a good powerful amplifier gives its advantages, so in the end the sound is very, very good, and with the correction for the price - even more so.
The main advantage of the player is that it is powerful, which means that it works very well with almost any headphones, swinging them up to a good level. The overall delivery tends to focus on the middle bass and lower midrange, the upper frequencies are reduced, which gives a relaxed and tireless HF. The main disadvantage of the player is a noticeable simplification of microdynamics, which especially affects the depth of the imaginary scene: the positioning of sound sources in the record "closer-further" is very difficult, the background in the performance of xDuoo X2 is compulsively torn forward. The second minus (although repairable) is a very schematic supply of high-frequency and high-frequency. This, of course, removes sharpness, and even light and transparent Dunu DN-2000J lose their HF, but this has a detrimental effect on the transmission of subtle nuances of tunes, primarily the nature of mid-frequency instruments. Fortunately, the high frequencies are corrected quite well by the amplifier, and xDuoo released a very suitable model for X2 - a small and inexpensive XQ-10, which will be devoted to the next article.
From the above, it may seem that xDuoo X2 sounds bad, but in fact it is not. I deliberately tried to paint his shortcomings to explain how it differs from more expensive brethren, now let's move on to positive moments. The main one is that the aforementioned drawbacks do not interfere with the player's sound, so that they can be heard, it is necessary to compare this player with more expensive models, the price tag of which is at least 2 times higher.
The bass player is drivey and energetic. The resolution is average, but without a smear and a rumble. It is surprisingly deep and resilient, a little creeps up on the middle frequencies, but the smallest, in most cases it is invisible. The midrange range is good in terms of resolution, the players play very emotionally for their price and build a very good imaginary scene in width. HF, as I wrote above, taken away somewhere in the background, but not too tired. By the way, judging by the reviews, in the 7th version of the firmware in xDuoo tried to fix this problem, which was not liked by all users. Control the HF player, too, does not shine, so try to avoid bright headphones.
Compared to other players on codecs without an amplifier, xDuoo stands out with an enviable macrodynamics and enough drive attacks. This, in turn, gives a more natural sound without the plaque of synthetics, which is typical for low-power players, in addition, you are not so constrained in the choice of headphones. X2 does not need a variety of software sound enhancers, which are so fond of shoving into their offspring the same Cowon, it is natural and pleases with its liveliness. This kid is just boiling with energy and trying to throw it out at the first opportunity to the listener, it does not always turn out perfectly well for him, but this kind of manner - bribes.
Compatibility
The player is primarily aimed at beginning music connoisseurs, and they often try to listen to it with very budgetary headphones that have low impedance and high sensitivity. Since the amplifier of X2 is very powerful, this leads to a very noticeable background noise. It is worth considering that, in general, this player tends to headphones with an impedance somewhere from 32Ω to 100Ω, and closer to 100 even better. It will also be a mistake to use it with expensive headphones, it will not reveal their potential. Fortunately, now there are a lot of very worthy models on the market, which will not burden the budget, and they will be able to please sound. The older models Soundmagic, VSonic VSD series, headphones from Ostry and Havi - they all fit very well with the X2. From full-size models you can pay attention to the products of Takstar and Fischer Audio.
The genre player is more or less universal. Of course, listening to it with complex classics, orchestral jazz or progressive metal is a very controversial activity, but it's easier to digest genres very simply. To the flaws of the record, he is quite tolerant, but still it is worthwhile to choose a better quality material for him.
Traditionally, a few tracks for an example.
Powerwolf - We Drink Your Blood The style of music, almost perfect for the player, evil guitars, characteristic vocals, a driving melody, all this benefits from the vigorous filing of the X2.
The Alan Parsons Project - Dora Quite well X2 copes with the transfer of more lyrical tunes, such as this masterpiece of exquisite musicality from the last album of the great project.
Gogol Bordello - Pala Tute And again, energy and expression, which work well for both the artist and the player. A slightly darkened sound compensates for the most successful mixing of the album.
conclusions
I think the conclusions are already clear to everyone who has read this far. xDuoo X2 - an excellent player for those who are just starting their way in the world of high-quality audio and / or limited financially. If you, as I have, already have a higher-end player, xDuoo can become a "backup option" for those cases when you will not be able to carry a large device with you. Of course, up to more serious models for sound X2 does not hold out, but it compensates for it by size, design, time of work and, of course, price.
The article is based on materials .
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