Cocktail Audio X45 Pro Music Player/DAC

[rmoyers]

I recently purchased a Cocktail X45 from Audio Advisor.
I successfully installed the 'MusicX Neo' Android app on my Galaxy S21+ 5G smartphone.
I successfully connected the X45 via Ethernet to a 1Gbps network. Speed test shows speeds at least 800Mbps - more than enough to stream even lossless 192/24.
I successfully installed a 4TB SSD drive (WD Blue) into the X45. I performed a 'Format Storage', and assigned 'HDD1' to the Music DB.
I have a subscription to both Tidal HiFi and Qobuz Studio Sublime.
I use the RCA analog outputs connected to a Krell Showcase processor. I plan to use the XLR outputs in the future.

 

Overall, the X45 sounds much better than my Oppo 105.

I really like the CD ripping feature. It's fast and accurate. I can't tell the difference between ripped and original CD.

Hi-Res like 96/24 albums sound awesome on my Krell/Martin Logan system.

I am having some problems streaming Qobuz in Hi-Res format. It seems to stream Qobuz only MP3/320K. Tidal streaming is fine. Am working with Novatron to fix this.