Cocktail Audio's New and latest X50pro Audiophile Music Streamer/server...Any Love?

It’s a nice feature that one of your units is being used both as a player and a NAS for the whole system, but it does make the purchase of the second unit, which apparently you are using just as a player, a bit of a head scratcher.  One of the advantages of a unit such as Cocktail is the all in one deal:  ripper/player/hard disc storage all in one.  Until I read your post I didn’t realize that it could also be a server for other players on the network (I’m assuming it is DLNA compliant).  At any rate, the second unit, which costs twice as much as the first, comes with redundant disc ripping and storage.
I would have sunk the money into a dedicated player for the second system.  Otoh, I am glad that what you have done works for you, that you are happy with the outcome, and hope that my comments don’t put a dent in your enjoyment.  Just food for thought

Thanks for comment. Not al all. The main reason I got 2nd X50Pro was availability in gold finish which is rare among hires but required to complete my 2nd stereo setup. I know this sound cheesy but my eyes are as good as my ears and it all simply have to look good. There is literally zero alternatives capable of what X50 have to offer also in terms of dac interfaces variety and decoding capabilities (I like to experiment with these).
In time I will most likely install storage in the Pro. Also because one if systems uses wifi which occasionally may cause data throttling which immediately cause unnacceptable playback stutter. Or maybe I just patch it another cat cable and call it a day. Money is not object when I know gear is worth the expense. And both X50s definetely are. 

Couple new functions discovered and possibly a software bug.

Last night signed up my X50Pro to Amz Music (have HD service), had to use Music X Neo app for it but works like a charm. Was browsing extensively trying to find in song with higher than 44.1k sampling frequency, no luck so far. But all music is in 32bit resolution, that's double comparing to CD. And yes, most of it sounds stunning, super clear, detailed, similar to my hires files I listen offline. Whether Celine Dion or well know A-Ha, I could not resist turning around to check unit display "what is that makes sound so good".
I also tried Group Play. It is new function that allows employing multiple X50s to play same song in sync in multiroom. Indeed it does exactly that and in perfect sync. No delay or lag noticed. One problem is for some reason my other X50D stops playing via USB Audio when group mode is enabled, I have to switch to coax output to get the sound. My X50Pro does not have this issue, plays via USB no problem whether in group play mode or not. Must be X50D software glitch which I reported to Novatron tech support.
Btw, the latest firmware available at Novatron website I used (r1688) to flash my old X50D to enable Group play, messed up the UPnP service. I am unable to access X50D library from X50Pro by Genre, Album, Artist. Only selection by song Title works, but that takes forever to display results (over 10,000 songs in my storage) so it's unusable. This did not make me happy either about new firmware, so beware to use it.

Hoping Novatron tech support will repond soon or I have to roll my unit firmware back to factory giving up Group Play function between both X50s.

That's all for now. Cheers.

tom6897:

"Do any of the owners of the X 50-D know of any tweaks to get “better than stock” sound out of the unit? Any upgrades besides power cord and cables which I do automatically?
maybe extra isolation, shorter signal path or upgraded capacitors etc."

Try replacing the internal/stock SATA cable with something better.
(i.e. from SSD/HDD to main board)

pj

 

X50D is a digital player/streamer transport and has no analog audio circuitry path of any kind. It has been designed to its optimum performance and messing with it not only voids warranty but may also result in product malfunction.
Changing cable is not going to improve anything as it is sending synchronous high speed digital data to properly terminated interface with controlled impedance path.

My general advise is don’t fall into hype of improving digital audio path often advertized in different social media. I am EE with master of science degree, designing these circuits for over 25yrs for a living with multiple products in the market in US and around the world and I can assure you there is no room for homebrew improvement for this kind of product, it can only lead to worsening its performance or breakdown
Again, this is not an analog product, don’t mess with it. Goodluck.

P.S. word of note... about firmware upgrade Novatron was emailing users about. I confirm their latest revision R.1688 has two major bugs, one is where UPnP server stops working after upgrade, second the database root file may get corrupted showing incorrect Album information under Artist in main Album browsing view.
Also, trying to downgrade back to factory R.1530 will cause the player to be blind to music database, without ability to initialize or rescan it, as these two options will disappear from the Setup menu after downgrade from R.1688 to R.1530.

So my advise, don’t try new 1688 firnware. It may deadlock your X50D player.