Disclaimer: the Pioneer XDP-100R featured in this post was lent me by Ongaku Shuppansha, a magazine client of mine whose yearly half-yearly publications and events I shoot. I had the XDP-100R for most of a day. I shot it, RMAA'd it but never plugged in a headphone for personal listening.
It looks like a Jeep designed by a man worried about his manhood. It performs like an Onkyo DP-X1. It’s got enough 00’s in its name to qualify it for an MI6 franchise of its own. And no way is it sexy enough that the handsomely epilated people on its marketing page would touch it for less than a model's wage. Strangely though, despite all its 00’s and other other idiotic geekified nomenclature, I find it easier to type XDP-100R than DP-X1. What gives?
About 100$ or so, I guess. Both the Pioneer and the Onkyo share similar guts, though the Pioneer is missing a few things. Balanced output, mainly. And a secondary twin DAC. Not that it makes it perform any worse. In fact, side by side, both its unloaded and loaded output measure within outlier expectations. For all intents and purposes, the Onkyo and the Pioneer are the same. Still, the small difference between the two may, to the geek that likes roll bars on her DAP, may be worth the brag. Roll bars and brilliance. Bet you never saw the two cheek by jowl before. I sure haven't.
Depending on the amount of hair on your chest, and the amount of testosterone you’re squirting under your eyelids, the XDP-100R may appear handsome. Since both the Pioneer and the Onkyo fare single-ended RMAA metrics like happy twins, and since their interfaces are as alike as any two identicals, I’ve decided to copy and paste the interface bits from the DP-X1 article. (I’ve taken the liberty of substituting every applicable instance of DP-X1 for XDP-100R, and amend irrelevant areas at a whim.)
Here goes:
“The XDP-100R too simply co-opts the basic Android interface into an audiophile device. And that basic Android GUI is all glitz. It doesn’t provide simple, always-on, direct music controls that should be the norm for a high-end music player. And getting music to register to it was even more difficult than for the Astell&Kern AK380 (RMAA’d here - reviewed here), primarily because ID3 tags support isn’t great. I expect that to change as its software is updated.
I don’t belong in sales. Nor do I care about new entries or underdogs. User experience is the glue that should bind important elements such as audio performance and perceived sound quality. It is my strong opinion that almost all late-gen audiophile DAPs ignore important user-oriented aspects such as comfort, simple navigation, reduction of glitz, and hardware controls. Astell & Kern’s AK380 almost nails the custom Android GUI: everything from hardware control to playback is both accessible and adheres to logical hierarchal design. Its singular exception is its horrible overriding of hardware volume input with instant touch-control. But let’s get back to the XDP-100R.
As I had less than an hour with the device between photo edits, I’d like to stick to testable observations. Enter RMAA. Amateur it is, but it does a good job of illustrating key performance metrics. Simple RMAA testing is the least anyone ‘reviewing’ or even subjectively talking about ‘sound quality’ should do.
While the XDP-100R boasts best-of-breed results for loaded dynamic range, noise level, and stereo image; its distortion figures are just okay. FR stability anomalies are low, but bettered by Fiio’s X3ii. Still those differences should be inaudible.
While I can’t put a full stop behind professional audio testing of the XDP-100R, I can say this: RMAA proves that in certain, important areas, it performs. For its price, it shames the AK380. But the AK380 is a more full-featured and easier to use DAP. It packs in way more storage and offers a much smoother user interface. Onkyo/Pioneer were sorely lazy in designing anything but the audio circuit. (Oh, and the way the volume pot falls under the index finger is great.) And while that audio circuit is fab, the rest is generic, android smartphone flab. Pick up any large Huwei and you’ve picked up the XP-D1.
A marketing team designed the volume scale, which tops out at 160. 160? Yes, 160. Why not 98,5, you say? Why not 300216? Because piss off, that’s why. 160 isn’t recognisable on any human scale. It is idiotic, and market driven. The AK380 goes to 150. The XDP-100R goes to 160. Win? Both output roughly similar voltage into both loadless and loaded signals, but the AK380’s volume scale is marginally easier to parse into real fractions. The extra 10 ticks are just for show. And they are a stupid, shameless, waste of brain power. Shame on Astell&Kern for not setting the AK380 to 100, but shame +1 on Onkyo for stupidifying the volume scale further.
The good news is that that flab is way way less painful in the hand than the stupid angle-for-angle’s-sake AK380 hardware design. For ridiculously small gains against stupid design ethics, let’s hear a yay!. ”
The following Rightmark Audio Analyzer tests were conducted through this equipment.
Source: Pioneer XDP-100R
ADC: Lynx Studio HILO LT-TB
Computer: 2012 27" iMac
Cables: 1,5m Hosa Pro 3,5mm stereo to dual 3-pin XLR (around 8$); bespoke y-split 2,5 TRRS to dual 3-pin XLR made by Musashi Sound Technology.
Loads:
NL - no load
SM2 - Earsonics SM2
ES7 - Audio Technica ES7
DT880 - Beyerdynamic DT880/600
24-bit all loads results @+6dBV
24-bit unloaded summary @+6dBV
End words
If you've got hair on your chest and enjoy the superfluous, roll on with this roll barred DAP. There's nothing but your manhood stopping you from enjoying the XDP-100R. "Onkyo sissies!" taunt Pioneer fans as they tear down the M5 hoping to find the MI6. Yeehaw!