Tidal's iPod? Hands On With Echobox's Flask-Shaped Explorer X1

With Apple giving careful consideration to its iPod line, possibly it's the ideal opportunity for some different players to venture up. As of late we've seen Neil Young's Toblerone-like Pono Player, the music-centered London cell phone from Marshall, and additionally more standard gadgets like the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, which claim to play high-res, 24-bit sound.

Here at IFA, we got a nearby take a gander at the Echobox Explorer X1, which appears to be the official music player for Jay Z's battling greetings def music benefit Tidal. As indicated by George Gill, Echobox's central advancement officer, the Explorer X1 will likely accompany three months of free hello fi Tidal administration (a $60 esteem) and, as I saw, there's a Tidal logo ideal on the home screen.

This isn't a select Tidal player. Flip to one side in the UI and you see Spotify and TuneIn Radio. The player additionally has 64GB of interior stockpiling in addition to a MicroSD card space, and it can play different uncompressed positions including FLAC and WAV; DSD document support is coming soon, ideally by dispatch. With a 200GB SanDisk MicroSD card, the X1 could without much of a stretch replace the abundantly dearest by-audiophiles iPod

It's additionally delightful. The X1 resembles a wooden cup with a metal top and base. The carafe's top is the volume handle, and it's the best-feeling handle I've ever addressed a cell phone. It has furrowed edges, and unmistakable snaps for steps, as on a top of the line stereo framework. A large portion of the UI is worked through a 3.5-inch touch screen. (A prior model, with a 2.7-inch touch screen, has been disposed of.) Is it thin and super viable? Nah, not by any stretch of the imagination. Is it fun and somewhat senseless? You wager.

Gill is unmistakably an audiophile, and the X1 is a work of adoration. It's still a work in progress, in spite of the fact that Gill said it's going on special in October for around $450. The demo show I saw had unsteady programming, and Gill said the organization was swapping out the optical yield port on the top for a cajole jack.

Consistent with his audiophilia, Gill rhapsodized about the player's DAC—a more established TI PCM1792, which he said gives a more simple feel than more up to date chips do. However, he didn't know very what processor it kept running on, saying just that it was a Rockchip CPU running the Android 4.2 OS. While the X2 is a universally useful Android gadget—you can swap out the unique Echobox programming for the standard Android launcher effectively—it plainly has enough energy to stream astounding music and very little more.

I put on some Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro earphones to listen to the player; Gill called attention to that numerous gadgets don't have an amp sufficiently intense to drive enormous earphones, however the X1's 300mW amp has no issue doing as such. Uncompressed music sounded delightfully balanced, with bone-warming bass and effectively recognizable cymbals.