Gadgetory

thanks everybody for tuning in to another audio head youtube video review this time around we have the x1 by a dl retails for around 480 dollars and it is a DAC and headphone amp combination in one small unit the footprints roughly size of the new iPhone so it does pair really well with that kind of a thing if that's what you're looking for the finish on the top is very nice it's a nice metal kind of semi-gloss machined black look which is very cool and the sides are actually covered with more of a rubber feeling as well as the back so the rubber kind of texture is very characteristic of like the Evo phone they had a few years ago sometimes they cover it used to cover them with a more rubber like substance so all things considered the build and the texture very solid with this one for four hundred and eighty dollars even the price is a little bit on the higher side but the quality of the build is kind of up there as well with the guys that play in that range which is really nice on the top of this you can see that there are resolution indicators that light up with a corresponding feed that you're giving it it's a really nice setup I like it when a DAC tells you what you're getting so you can verify it if you don't have that kind of software on the back end doesn't do the new audio files audio file darling of the day which is DSD but there's not really much of a selection in the way of DSD music to begin with so it's not that big of a deal with this unit particularly I did find that this the x1 drove headphones in the mid-range really well there was a slight buzz for it within your monitors but nothing that you know didn't get covered up as you turn the volume up but for almost every headphone I tried it with nine Coos LCD to even the 300 ohm HD 650 which is kind of hard to push no problem whatsoever the thing clear sailing sounds great the DAC on this thing is actually quite impressive I really enjoyed it a lot you can connect it to an external source via and obviously the analog outputs which is nice because you can isolate the deck but also optical if you wanted to keep going digital to the other side so that's really versatile in that we are a lot of different options there in the front you can even plot analog analog input into it so you have it you can isolate the headphone amplifier if you just needed that so I really really enjoyed all the ins and outs of this really kind of diverse applications you can put it into all kinds of fun stuff from the optical out like I mentioned before to isolating the headphone amplifier you can really do a lot with it and it's also quite compact and small I guess one of the biggest perks I haven't mentioned yet is that it actually does Apple compliant connectivity so if you've got your iPad or iPhone it connects directly into there via the USB port in the back so you can just plug the your cables you already have right into there now ADL also makes smaller lengths of cable that are more appropriate if you want to like latch these two together somehow you can connect it to the micro USB cable into your computer and use it as up up to a 192 Hertz DAC which is you know pretty good stuff both ways if you have that kind of versatility plug in both things and ready to rock and roll just like that so it also charges through the micro USB in the back so when you connect to the computer it's also charging I found the sound from this unit to be really good really really about the price point from the headphone amplifier that you would expect around this range detail was good bass response was even vocals were even they not you didn't push him too far forward they weren't recessed back everything was nice and flat just like you'd expect I did think that the deck I almost outperformed the headphone amplifier because limited space but the tach has pulled off very very nicely this thing is an all-around great piece if you looking for a lot of different stuff in one package that's also portable and feels really sturdy in the hand this is probably something you'd want to audition all kinds of good stuff coming in and out great sound great DAC on it does a lot the really high resolution stuff including apples so it's probably one of the most all-in-one kind of portable packages I've reviewed to date really cool the company also makes a head phone to partner with this it's called the h-11 eight that we did a review for which is kind of you know a nice pairing as well