Joined in 2023 
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I should mention that the Fiio E10 was oscillating at its peak output into my 33 ohm load. I had to turn down the volume to "6" instead of max of "8" for the loaded measurement. The FX-Audio DAC-X6 on the other hand had no such problem so measurement is at its max output. Could I immediately hear a difference going from onboard audio to the DAC-X6? Honestly, I couldn’t. I felt like I wasted my money… If you look for the best DAC amp combo, I suggest you take a look at DAC-X6. Starting with a design, I have to affirm that its styling is great and comfortable. It hasn’t unnecessary decorations and furnishes, the whole device looks smooth and simple. That response is very poor in high frequencies, dropping from 5 Khz on by as much as 5 to 7 dB. We should see a rule flat output. So better pair this with rather bright headphones to compensate. Compare X6’s line-outs to something like Topping E30 and the latter shows a bit more tone richness and subtlety. DAC X6 is a bit rough around the edges but not that far behind really.
FX AUDIO DAC-X6 - Linsoul Audio FX AUDIO DAC-X6 - Linsoul Audio
On the right side of the plot we have THD+N, dominated by distortion. In this case we have clear differences between channels but THD+N ratio would be -107 dB for left channel and -103 dB for right channel (again the ratio of signal level and THD+N level). Or 0.00045 % and 0.00071 %, respectively. I like decibels more." What happened was this: the tonal balanced didn't really change at all, or it happened so imperceptibly that I can't tell the difference. But! The amount of detail doubled. Or tripled. Suddenly there is so much happening everywhere. So much air. So much detail. And it is a very smooth thing, too. There is no harshness to anything. You just find layers upon layers of texture in the instruments. The bass might be a smidgen more controlled than with the OPA2134, but it is very close. phones: Audeze LCD2f (Bamboo/suede), LCD2.2 (Rosewood/leather); prev. Hifiman HE400, Denon AH-D2000 Meanwhile, I spotted a post somewhere where you mentioned you now have the Topping DX7. Are you going to review it soon?
I’d like to add that you get circuit protection also at this price! What’s especially nice about the design of this dac is that it’s seems to be designed by actually listening at the result of the design. I bought the dac X6 Kgsuss (which looks a lot like the FX audio design) as a replacement for a soundblaster E5. The latter was three times the price but had all kinds of issues,(audible noise was one of them) That’s remarkable because both use the CS4398 DAC from Cirrus. It’s an old chip but it blows ESS sabre dacs and AKM Velvet sound/shit DAC’s completely away though the measurements of it are slightly worse. Topping uses the latest DAC chips but that’s all. Open one up and you’ll find almost no other components at all. Compare that to a Marantz – HD-DAC 1 (also designed around the CS4398) and you’ll find that FX audio did a pretty good job trying to actually design a DAC around this chip. Yeah; this is a mains powered amp (rather than usb, or battery), that's one of the factors why I chose it. This is surely the (most) correct category. I noticed some very cheap headphones have this same issue, with certain frequencies being completly out of range. The DAC X6 (high biased, opamp rolled) is a brilliant piece of budget hifi. I love it. The combo with the modded T50RP represents absolutely stunning value.
FX Audio DAC-X6 review - Prime Audio Reviews
I believe the PCB with the white daughter board is a later revision on the FX-AUDIO DAC-X6. Not sure what the difference is but to me it sounded good. I had actually bought one recently to test. My first one did not have the daughter board and sounded similar. This applies for most countries. However, large items such as headphones and desktop DAC/AMPs (e.g. HarmonicDyne G200, MUSICIAN MDP-2, and etc.) are excluded. Comparing the X6 with my 'proper rig', what i did notice is that the X6 is inferior in just about every way. But this is to be expected; I've got a little bit of pride, about my set up. Particularly the source. This makes the X6 useless to my home setup. Still, I will just relocate it to work, where I can't use speakers anyway. If anyone is looking to buy the X6 and use with powered speakers, keep this in mind.Note at this point that my inventory for comparison is rather limited so take this with a grain of salt. So my comparison is against the Benjie K9, Galaxy Note 5 and Sound Blaster Recon3d. Testing was done playing from Foobar2000 using .FLAC and mp3 files from my desktop computer via USB and optical connection using 2 channel, 24 bit, 96000 Hz (Studio Quality). Music tested includes The Fostex did not and does not fare well on either dac amps. It is loud... BUT not loud enough. No oomph in the bass for example with both amps/dacs. The fostex does shine on my Yamaha home receiver. Fyi, I've switched from the Dac-X6. I found my laptop onboard actually had better mid's and high's. For the price yes it is quite incredible as you get an excellent case and plenty of juice to power HD6XX, but the clarity just wasn't there. Hey, thanks for your input. I ended up followed what you said, plugging the speakers into the headphone out. That worked out quite well in the end. Volume control has about 90+ steps. Unit appears to have an optical encoder with maybe 30 steps per revolution. You have to spin the knob a LOT to raise and lower volume. PRE OUT and headphone out use same volume setting. This alone make the unit a mess.
Review of the FX-Audio DAC-X6 - NerD|OtakU Review of the FX-Audio DAC-X6 - NerD|OtakU
Good to hear all of your opinions of the X6 here. For a newbie like me, it's certainly comforting to know that I'm hearing what others are hearing.The Exasound does serious damage to FX-Audio here, showing not only 20 db lower noise floor but also one that is very well behaved with just a smooth increase towards the end of the scale. The FX-Audio has a chewed up response which indicates noise plus other sources of spurious signals. If anyone wants to review my files, I uploaded the recordings at https://nilsschneider.de/temp/whitenoise_test_dac_x6.zip That is an interesting find. Definitely an attempt to copy one another. Who came first is had to tell. As is knowing which is better without a bench test. It doesn't show up as well in the picture but that entire side is rusty red. Components like this would not rust so fast so my suspicion is that this is a used switch that lost its good life in another component. Or alternatively it is a poor quality switch as to rust so easily.
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