General Headphone Audio

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Angst said:
The k15 still has a few software bugs to iron out but its a solid unit.
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Might of had my first quirk today. PC was already on, forgot to turn the K15 on out of standby, watching some Youtube videos. Noticed no sound coming out of the right speaker. So switch from Pre to PO and nothing happens, still no sound from the right speaker. Closed Librewolf browser down thinking it was that and no-change. In the end I had to switch the unit off via the power switch on the front and re-switch back on for sound to be coming out of both channels.

Haven't upgraded the firmware yet, so will do that soon.
 
Ive not had that but I have had it refuse to play anything and need power cycling to recover it once. When I use musicbee and wasapi exclusive, the EQ cuts out when the sample rate changes on a track change requiring an eq profile swap to re-enable it, It still does it even after the update and fiio support tell me they cant re-create it.
 
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Timber said:
New Hifiman Planar this time in partnership with ASUS ROG branding; ASUS ROG Kithara - 420g & $359

Bumped into this from https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/1q52mmp/asus_rog_x_hifiman_kithara_announced/

I guess with this CES underway in Las Vegas we are seeing some new audio tech, which maybe explains the timing on that new Luxsin Audio X8 DAC/AMP talked about in the other thread.
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Hifiman with their reputation of build quality and ASUS with their non-existent CS. What can go wrong?
 
Im sure there won't be loads of people trying to use it with their motherboard audio and going on forums asking why it's so quiet and sounds like crap.
 
My only surprise is that it isn't wireless. When Audeze did the 'gaming' planar it was either the Penrose, Maxwell (now 2) or the Sony PlayStation Pulse Elite. They make sense in appealing to a console, or PC owner that doesn't care about DAC/AMPs, or cables. I suppose this is another 'budget-to-mid-fi' Planar in an evermore competitive price bracket.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Audeze Maxwell 1 should go on sale, surely that is the one to go for if you want a wireless gaming headset?
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Probably. I suppose it depends on the availability of older stocks, but the GadgetryTech review I watched last night seemed to suggest the 2 is a very incremental upgrade. Although there might be reasons not too; it's very heavy, price etc.
 
That page for that hifiman collab seems to show them plugged into an asus branded dac/amp, has that been announced as well or is it already an existing product?
 
Angst said:
That page for that hifiman collab seems to show them plugged into an asus branded dac/amp, has that been announced as well or is it already an existing product?
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I don't see it in the CES press-release with all the new stuff (linked earlier). That said whatever that box is has an older ASUS-style aesthetic. Compared to all the aggressive, ROG, angles-everywhere with RGB some of their stuff has (monitors etc.).
 
Btw @Angst managed to upgrade the firmware on the K15, but did have a moment with it (not sure if you've done it yet). You upgrade the 'Main Controller firmware' (for me this was V136 to v142) by using a USB stick and inserting that into the spare USB-A port on the back of the. All pretty easy as you just follow the on-screen prompts. There is then separate 'MCU' firmware (going from V92 to v93) however I didn't read the instructions properly and proceeded to update this from the USB stick too, which sent my unit into an update loop for a while. I re-read the instructions and after a power-down did it properly via the RS232 USB-C port connected to my PC.

I did notice there are five new themes in the main upgrade, where some are nicer than others.
 
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The easiest firmware upgrade is the X9, but the DX5II isn't that hard. If I boot it up when pressed the dial it turned into USB mode and then appears in explorer, drop the file in and that's basically it.
 
Timber said:
Btw @Angst managed to upgrade the firmware on the K15, but did have a moment with it (not sure if you've done it yet). You upgrade the 'Main Controller firmware' (for me this was V136 to v142) by using a USB stick and inserting that into the spare USB-A port on the back of the. All pretty easy as you just follow the on-screen prompts. There is then separate 'MCU' firmware (going from V92 to v93) however I didn't read the instructions properly and proceeded to update this from the USB stick too, which sent my unit into an update loop for a while. I re-read the instructions and after a power-down did it properly via the RS232 USB-C port connected to my PC.

I did notice there are five new themes in the main upgrade, where some are nicer than others.
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The main firmware can be updated over wifi directly from their servers as well, which is how I did that. The rep listed the changes in the new version in the head-fi thread for the unit if you haven't seen them.
I had a play with the new themes, no idea why it has to reboot to apply them but in the end nothing beats the stock orange for me.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
The easiest firmware upgrade is the X9, but the DX5II isn't that hard. If I boot it up when pressed the dial it turned into USB mode and then appears in explorer, drop the file in and that's basically it.
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Yep, I imagine there's a similarity with all of them. I know the Fiio K11 was exactly the same as you mention - put it into USB mode, drag the file over. You realistically only have to do it a couple of times in the lifetime of the DAC/AMP, or maybe not at all if the bugs aren't that bad.

That said I think what Fiio call the 'Main controller firmware' for the K15/17 is really the OS. And that's why that's so easy to update. Where as the MCU is the actual FW upgrade.

Although interestingly the Fiio K15/17 also say the XMOS USB chip can be upgraded in the instructions with steps on how to update, but no files to update atm. I wonder if this is where you could permanently change that standby behaviour of the XMOS chips. I've not seen that before on a DAC/AMP.

Angst said:
The main firmware can be updated over wifi as well, which is how I did that, the rep did list the changes in the head-fi thread for the unit. I had a play with the new themes, no idea why it has to reboot to apply them but in the end nothing beats the stock orange for me.
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True, I did see you can do the main update over wifi in the menu. That's even easier then. And yes agreed the orange theme looks the best. It's the one I've left it in as it gives it that slight retro look.
 
I have done a lot more than twice in both my X9 and DX5II lol

I think the x9 have been done about 4 times and the DX5II may be 5 times. I have done it twice in the last 2 weeks.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I have done a lot more than twice in both my X9 and DX5II lol

I think the x9 have been done about 4 times and the DX5II may be 5 times. I have done it twice in the last 2 weeks.
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Fair challenge. These newer DAC/AMPs are more software dependant so you update them more often.

On the K11 it was so stable so didn't really need to update.
 
Timber said:
Fair challenge. These newer DAC/AMPs are more software dependant so you update them more often.

On the K11 it was so stable so didn't really need to update.
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The X9 has been updated mostly for newer UI. The DX5II did need better firmware though, like adding the PEQ and then making it stable and working.
 
On the one hand, I want a super simple bulletproof device that just works and doesn't need firmware updates like my old DAC, but then on the other, I don't think I could live without built-in PEQ anymore, it's just so much better than relying on software.
 
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