powerav Posted June 8, 2016 Posted June 8, 2016 http://www.cocktailaudio.com/overview_x40.php Anyone have one of these, hard to find too much info on it. Looks to be the goods and ticks all the boxes.
Guest thathifiguy Posted June 8, 2016 Posted June 8, 2016 I don't think you'll find many around anymore. The local supplier, Interdyn has stopped supporting the brand.
powerav Posted June 8, 2016 Author Posted June 8, 2016 I don't think you'll find many around anymore. The local supplier, Interdyn has stopped supporting the brand. Why? Lack of Sales?
Guest thathifiguy Posted June 8, 2016 Posted June 8, 2016 That would be the main reason I would think. Shame, it did seem like a good unit, well featured and reasonably priced. I think there are a number of underlying issues with cd ripping music servers, namely metadata. It's good in principle, but a number of cd ripping units (X40, Bluesound Vault) can often get the metadata wrong and if so is unable to be edited. Just do what I did, get a half decent NAS, rip all your discs with db Poweramp and get yourself a good quality streamer.
powerav Posted June 8, 2016 Author Posted June 8, 2016 Ok. I have a NAS with all music in flac and well tagged. I was just looking at something like X40 for the fact it has internal hard drive storage as I don't often trust NAS and network stuff. As well as all the good streaming services, awesome dac app control etc, just seems to tick all boxes where most I have looked have one one or two crosses.
Full Range Posted June 8, 2016 Posted June 8, 2016 It does look like a well thought out component, It's got my attention and my thinking hat on
avalon27 Posted June 8, 2016 Posted June 8, 2016 i have the x40 and its my favoutite piece of audio eqipment.
Jventer Posted June 8, 2016 Posted June 8, 2016 I was thinking that it looks like a nice product, maybe the marketing/support was not there? As I am a tightarse I have gone the same way @ - ripped everything and now i am OK. Still a pity when products go/are not supported.
powerav Posted June 8, 2016 Author Posted June 8, 2016 (edited) i have the x40 and its my favoutite piece of audio eqipment. Awesome. Can you confirm it has Tidal and Spotify? Also is it easy to transfer files from NAS to installed internal hard drive of X40. Edited June 8, 2016 by powerav
Guest Posted June 9, 2016 Posted June 9, 2016 I have the Sony HAP-Z1ES, brilliant and solid piece of gear. Even though I sort out the metadata before sending the audio files over to the Sony's internal drive, the Sony does allow editing on the unit itself and will search and come back with alternatives for you to choose from. While the Sony is a dedicated server rather than a streamer, it does stream internet radio (and gets upsampled and output as DSD), there is a strong rumour that streaming services are coming to the unit very soon, starting with Spotify (would prefer Tidal or Deezer myself).
powerav Posted June 9, 2016 Author Posted June 9, 2016 The sony does look great and have seen some great reviews. I am now starting to look at the Cambridge 851N. Would there be a big difference connecting to AVR and then to Rotel Poweramp via the AVR preouts or better to connect 851N straight to poweramp?
Guest Posted June 9, 2016 Posted June 9, 2016 The sony does look great and have seen some great reviews. I am now starting to look at the Cambridge 851N. Would there be a big difference connecting to AVR and then to Rotel Poweramp via the AVR preouts or better to connect 851N straight to poweramp? The Cambridge would have far superior DACs and so would be the better performer than the AVR, but it depends on what you connect. The 851N (like most DACs) doesnt have analogue inputs so connecting things like a TT would be a no-go. The 851N was on my radar but as I was after a dedicated server an streaming wasnt a big deal, the Sony won.
Guest Posted June 11, 2016 Posted June 11, 2016 I can't comment on the X40, but I did have an X10 very early on. It was horrible. Buggy. Non-intuitive, difficult to navigate and setup the network connection and so on. I think I still have it in a cupboard somewhere actually. There could well have been some improvements on the later firmware however.
powerav Posted June 11, 2016 Author Posted June 11, 2016 I can't comment on the X40, but I did have an X10 very early on. It was horrible. Buggy. Non-intuitive, difficult to navigate and setup the network connection and so on. I think I still have it in a cupboard somewhere actually. There could well have been some improvements on the later firmware however. I think I'm over it, as from past experience with media players it's never good to rely on firmware updates to fix things. 1
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