Headphones and Amps and DACs... Oh My!

[Jon]

bump

My desktop setup is still the same (for now..) but I got a FiiO X1 for Christmas and holy shit, I love everything about it. Not only does my music sound better but I can carry 4x as much of it with me and my phones battery lasts way longer now. After using it for a few weeks I'm astonished that Apple discontinued the iPod Classic, instead of upgrading it, because that's exactly how this feels to me. Portable music player that will play damn near every format you throw at it, battery lasts forever, expandable memory, great UI, and of course, it sounds amazing. The only thing I could ask for is a colour wheel & texture list to customize your screen theme, instead of having to choose between 6 simple defaults.

How is the gapless playback on that?

I have been wanting to dive into the portable DAP world for a long time, but find myself solely looking at players $500+. For under $100, I could have one and be off my high horse.

When I'm not doing anything "special", I use my iPhone 6 + Philips Fidelio M2L's connected via lightning cable (24/96, currently capped at 24/48 because of firmware) -- Is there any reason not to pick up the X1?

EDIT: I'm also looking at the Audeze EL-8 Titanium's for tax season, regardless.

[ibanez33]

How is the gapless playback on that?

Good enough that I never wondered about it before, double-checked the settings and listened to a few songs to confirm how it was. I usually listen to albums through-and-through and have never noticed a gap where it shouldn't be. I'm not using any particularly great headphones with it (yet), just a pair of Sennheiser MM50 I got for cheap. It's mostly for convenience so I can have more music with me on-the-go and save my phones battery, but I occasionally use it with my DT990 around the house and it sounds beautiful.