My xDuoo X3-II arrived today (Canada). Some early comments:
This shipment, handled by Asendia USA, was quick and painless, especially in comparison to my last experience with a drop, which was handled - at excruciating length - by DHL. So well done, USPS, Asendia and Canada Post. And Massdrop, please continue to use this mechanism, it works very well.
The packaging was very basic - a cardboard box with a few poly pillows and the xDuoo box and packing slip stuffed inside. Nothing seemed to be damaged, but this wasn't much protection. Also, the poly pillows - meh. What's wrong with using paper?
The actual xDuoo packaging - simple and well done, reminiscent of cell phones. Comes with a USB C cable, a short 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, some spare screen protectors (not sure what for), some stick-on rubber feet, a couple of small widgets that may be for resetting or extracting the SD card (not sure), a reasonably comprehensive instruction sheet in Mandarin and English. The English is serviceable but the minor errors in it will doubtless irritate some.
The device itself - I like it. Aluminum box, non-scratch screen, one MicroSD slot (my 256Gb card is in the mail). Screen is easy to read but the print is small and may strain some users' eyes. Controls are physical buttons which feel fine when pressed.
I inserted a spare 32Gb card just to give it a spin, used the on-device menu to format the drive (took about 10 seconds), and connected the device by USB to my Ubuntu laptop. Ubuntu had no problem recognizing the device and automatically mounted the SD card. I copied some music over... wasn't blinding fast, about say 8Mb/sec. Next time, I'll put the SD card in my computer and copy the music over that way. I ejected the device on my computer but had to fumble a bit to tell the device that it was no longer to expect to talk over USB - not sure which button I pressed in the end.
I plugged in my HE4xx and cued up a 96/24 Nils Frahm album, and away we went. Very nice. I'm comfortably listening at volume 35 (out of 100). Clear and lovely, much improved over listening with the same 'phones to my Pixel XL. I notice the default settings leave a tiny gap between tracks, but it's just silence, no pops or other blasts of noise.
So far, so good! Well done, xDuoo and Massdrop, thank you!
This shipment, handled by Asendia USA, was quick and painless, especially in comparison to my last experience with a drop, which was handled - at excruciating length - by DHL. So well done, USPS, Asendia and Canada Post. And Massdrop, please continue to use this mechanism, it works very well.
The packaging was very basic - a cardboard box with a few poly pillows and the xDuoo box and packing slip stuffed inside. Nothing seemed to be damaged, but this wasn't much protection. Also, the poly pillows - meh. What's wrong with using paper?
The actual xDuoo packaging - simple and well done, reminiscent of cell phones. Comes with a USB C cable, a short 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, some spare screen protectors (not sure what for), some stick-on rubber feet, a couple of small widgets that may be for resetting or extracting the SD card (not sure), a reasonably comprehensive instruction sheet in Mandarin and English. The English is serviceable but the minor errors in it will doubtless irritate some.
The device itself - I like it. Aluminum box, non-scratch screen, one MicroSD slot (my 256Gb card is in the mail). Screen is easy to read but the print is small and may strain some users' eyes. Controls are physical buttons which feel fine when pressed.
I inserted a spare 32Gb card just to give it a spin, used the on-device menu to format the drive (took about 10 seconds), and connected the device by USB to my Ubuntu laptop. Ubuntu had no problem recognizing the device and automatically mounted the SD card. I copied some music over... wasn't blinding fast, about say 8Mb/sec. Next time, I'll put the SD card in my computer and copy the music over that way. I ejected the device on my computer but had to fumble a bit to tell the device that it was no longer to expect to talk over USB - not sure which button I pressed in the end.
I plugged in my HE4xx and cued up a 96/24 Nils Frahm album, and away we went. Very nice. I'm comfortably listening at volume 35 (out of 100). Clear and lovely, much improved over listening with the same 'phones to my Pixel XL. I notice the default settings leave a tiny gap between tracks, but it's just silence, no pops or other blasts of noise.
So far, so good! Well done, xDuoo and Massdrop, thank you!