This is my first high end DAP. I've used it with my Beyer AK T1p, my T5p and ATH MSR7s. I usually play VBR AAC files circa 320kbps and 44/16 FLAC files
The build quality feels solid and the player is clearly made out of sturdy quality materials
It's easy to use for any smartphone owner and Android allows many apps including Tidal, Spotify, VLC and Youtube, all of which work great on my device, as well as the usual Facebook, Twitter, Chrome etc.
The stock player is simple and functional, it supports gapless playback and lossless files. Transferring files to the player is as easy as Windows drag and drop
The Single ended sound quality is superb for a portable music player and matches anything that Astell and Kern could do for under $3000 as it is clean, detailed and transparent, if lacking a little warmth. It also drives quality headphones loud volumes at high gain. Even equalisation doesn't seem to negatively affect the sound.
The Balanced and Active Ground control modes are incredible. They put to shame all other DAPs released concurrently. They open up the sound to an extent which even most standard-level portable dac/amps could not manage and give the sound a more natural tonality as well as further improving transparency and giving an extra "kick" to the bass and more smoothly resolving harmonics. The soundstage is as wide and dimensional as I could imagine. Apparently in Balanced it is easy to drive even 600 omhs headphones to uncomfortably high volumes, although I've yet to try this, given the low-gain performance i can well believe it.
Battery life is similar to the stated figures as well.
In conclusion, the DP-X1 represents incredible value for money, flexibility and quality in the personal audio market and is a must buy for hi-fidelity novices and audio experts alike.

A great purchase for under 180 pounds, these headphones blow the direct competition away when it comes to almost everything.
They arrive in a nice premium package with a thick, high grade cable for home usage and a smaller one with microphone for portable usage. They are very large and do look a bit incongruous in public, but they are clearly well made from premium materials, sturdy and not too heavy. They are very comfortable, with thick earpads and the weight is evenly distributed towards the sides of the head.
They have a very low impedance so can be powered to uncomfortable volumes even with a portable source, though as ever a powerful amp improves fidelity. The sound of these 50mm driver packing headphones is not particularly natural but is certainly fun.
In terms of frequency response, they are bassy and perhaps a little boomy not to an uncontrolled degree , they rarely distort or gets in the way of the midrange and highs, which are clear, and present if a little on the metallic side. If the bass level seems too much, this can be rectified with gentle equalization. The sound-stage on these is fantastic, almost as good as an open backed headphone, with plenty of width, depth and precision. They are slightly on the "relaxed" side for an audiophile set, in terms of attack and decay but should be fast enough for most genre's of music to come over with purity.
All in all a very worthwhile purchase. It's a shame they are no longer easily available.

A reasonably priced pair of premium Open back headphones. They are well made and super comfortable and have a luxurious appearance well suited to home hi fi use. Unlike other hi fidelity phones they have a relatively low impedance and don't need a huge amp to sound good or loud,although one usually helps for sound dynamics.
They have a great sound quality, very natural in tone, bass, mids and treble all clean and clearly represented. Soundstage width and precision are all superb and detail is fantastic.
A very good buy if you don't want to spend silly money on truly audiophile headphones for the home. However models such as the HD650 provide even more depth and balanced tonality with more impactful bass.

These headphones are much recommended online as a relatively cheap introduction into the world of high fidelity. They are functional and do not excessively grab attention visually. They are extremely comfortable and adjustable for all head sizes and shapes, the build quality is top notch and they are hard wearing. They come with a range of cables which is useful for home and portable listening, though none have a mic or handsfree buttons. These can be driven to enjoyable volumes even with a weak input source. The sound quality is very good. They are overall tonally balanced as both bass and treble are slightly emphasized over middle frequencies giving a "lush" or "vibrant" sound to the music", though it's not too unnatural . Individual sound elements come through clearly and with great detail. However the stereo sound stage is slightly lacking width and precision compared to many other high end headphones, although they are still a huge step up from regular "consumer" headphones or In-Ear monitors. Overall, a solid purchase for a budding audio enthusiast who is too smart to waste their money on an inferior product.

A very good DAC and headphone AMP for the price. A clear improvement in sound quality from my laptop for headphones, even ones that already sounded good, this gives a much cleaner,clearer and more powerful signal in all frequency ranges. Works very will with my Samsung Galaxy and Sony Walkman DAP and gives their volume levels a much needed boost. Battery life is around the claimed 15 hours if used with moderate gain. For headphones with under 150 ohm impedence I cannot imagine I would need anything more.
Doesn't fit with great comfort comfortably in a pocket, however.
Also, having recently upgraded to a rather high end DAP this doesn't seem quite so special any more however it is far from horrible and will most likely give a box-standard weak audio interface a much needed upgrade into a clean signal with all the "necessary" detail, warmth and dynamics.

This is my first really good quality Digital Audio Player. I have used a range of Audiophile headphones on it.
If you're used to digital Sony Walkmans of days gone by you will recognize the simple, efficient, responsive user interface (a pleasure to use), and appreciate the range of different ways to tweak audio settings, although I prefer to leave them off (apart from the equalizer) to achieve a natural sound. Also this can play videos and display photos, though the portable, non touchscreen nature of this makes these features pretty useless in practice. This is a very sturdily built yet lightweight player. The SD card slot allows you to expand the rather limited internal memory up to 128GB more for what is these days a very cheap price, and file transfer is very easy as the player and SD card show up in "My Computer" as external hard drives. All popular file formats are supported.
The immense battery life on these is why it has the edge on every other Hi-Res audio player as I can go a week of listening for several hours a day at high volumes before the battery goes empty.
The Sound quality is very good, providing a lot of intricate detail other players miss, realistic tones, a wide soundstage, and clean, controlled bass. Sony has obviously put a lot of work into the S Master Digital to Analogue Converter and Amp must be really good for the price. Don't get me wrong, however, I know Astell and Kern stuff would put this to shame.
I don't use Hi-Res Audio and these work well even with high-bitrate MP3s,CD standard FLACs and AAC files and show how good lossy can be, although obviously the pre loaded HR sample files sound great.
The 10+10 mW headphone jack output can drive all of my relatively efficient headphones to enjoyable volumes, however anything above 40 ohms impedence will not be driven to anything resembling a "loud" or "exciting" volume, and frankly for anything above a 50-ohm Sennheiser 598 you will need a strong headphone amplifier/DAC to take the clean WM-digital-port signal to get even adequate volume, so that's about 80% of BeyerDynamics out of the window! And isn't the point of this to be small and portable, which my FiiO E17 certianly isn't , not in my pocket! Having said that my M50X and MSR7 work a treat on this! I imagine Sennheiser Momentums would do well with this, given they are only 18 Ohm.
I rarely use the Bluetooth on this but when I do, it seems to work OK over short distances.
In Short this is a good value purchase for a budget audiophile. However after 2 years I have already upgraded to an Onkyo DP-X1 which is a significant step up in most ways.

My favorite pair of headphones, and considering I own the Sennheiser HD598s, that is saying something. They look fantastic, very stylish indeed, they are extremely comfortable, infact the ear pads are quite heavenly, although the headband is prone to heating up a bit and could be a little bit thicker in order to distribute the weight around my head. The grip is a bit tighter than on many brands of headphone though never painful for me and provides a great seal that leaks zero sound and isolates external noise very well. The cans themselves should be more than big enough for most ears. They are light enough to be portable but solid enough to feel good quality. They are sturdily built as well. The choice of cables are all very good, thickly insulted in rubber and with pure gold connectors. The Sound quality on these is phenomenal. First, in terms of volume, these are very loud, even at medium volumes, on my relatively under-powered Sony A17 Walkman. Though the listed impedance is a higher-than-usual 35 ohms, these must have very efficient drivers as they can get very loud indeed on portable players and smartphones. An Amp is really never needed for these at all. The actual quality is wonderful, you get an almost perfectly neutral response, although I tend to eq the upper-mid-raange down a little bit as it can get a little bit harsh, and bump up the bass slightly to my taste. The bass is tight, clear and controlled, the mid-range is smooth, full bodied and natural, and treble sparkles sharply without the strange metallic quality some headphones deliver. Detail and clarity is unsurpassed at this price and the sound-stage is wide, deep and precise.

These are okay headphones if you can get them for a cheap price (sub £90 ) but probably aren't worth any more than that.
Their build quality is solid, despite all the plastic used, and they can be used for both portable, professional and home audio as they have a low impedance, although I have come across many similar headphones that are easier to drive loud without a headphone Amp. The detachable coiled cable is also a great feature. They are fairly comfortable over a long period of time, they have just the right amount of grip for me although the headband could be more well padded. The ear pads are not soft but do cushion enough IMO. The sound isolation is better than average, these really can shut out the hubub of world if you need them to, also sound leakage is minimal.
The Sound quality is good, although with 50mm drivers I would expect more bass and sub bass,in fact I have to gently eq the mid range frequencies down and the bass up to get a neutral response, although once that is done they show themselves to extend well in both treble and bass directions, bass in particular is tight, clean ,controlled and never gets in the way of the other frequencies. The sound stage on these is the clear strong point, fantastic, providing clarity, in fact in terms of creating stereophonic width and depth these beat the ATH M50x hands down, although in terms of the detail the AudioTechnicas have a bit more resolution on the individual elements.
Overall a worthy purchase at a good price, however for a hundred pounds sterling or more there is much better out there in the closed-back market, like the Sennheiser Urbanite XL or the Yamaha HRH 400 PROs.

I purchased these as my first "Audiophile headphones" a couple of years ago, and have since purchased better pairs. The good news is that they still work perfectly. They are lightweight, comfortable and not as flimsy as they feel, however for people with larger ears they will not fully fit and will feel like very big on-ears phones. They do not leak much sound and the isolation is OK but if your not playing music, anything above a moderate crowd throng will come through quite clearly.
The sound quality is very good in terms of mid to treble response, detail and sound stage width, and is very appealing for vocals and more relaxed genres of music as well as. Sadly the bass is slightly "recessed" however this ca be rectifed with gentle equalization from the source to provide a good neutral response, however these cans are hopeless for any basshead as they can't handle loud & hard pumping bass without slightly distorting the rest of the sound due to their "relaxed response" . Also, sadly for a headphone of such low impedance, it cannot be easily driven to an ideal volume by my Sony A17 Walkman (I have to set it to 28/30), and maybe it isn't the strongest source but it drives my other phones to even louder volumes at much lower levels (20/30), and I need to use my FiiO E17 DAC to get these to an "exciting" volume.
They are a really big step up from low-end crap but there are even better On and Over Ears sets for the price for Seventy quid or so, such as the Audio Technica M40X. I would advise people to avoid the replacement to the HD449, the HD471, if they don't like the sound of these, they apparently have the same sound quality, albeit with a detachable smartphone friendly cable.