PIONEER XDP-100R HI-RESOLUTION AUDIO PLAYER

Onkyo has wasted no time leveraging its purchase of Pioneer’s audio division, as this new hi-res audio player proves, so we wondered how different the XDP-100R is from Onkyo’s own hi-resolution portables.

Here in Australia, Pioneer’s audiophile products have been absent for some years now, but now that Powermove has assumed responsibility for distribution I’m assured that this will change, not only because of Powermove’s involvement but also because of Pioneer’s sale of its audio division to Onkyo, which will now be responsible for building the products for both brands. If you haven’t ever used a portable hi-res player and were expecting the Pioneer XDP100R to be solely a hi-res audio player, you will be in for a surprise, because it’s actually more akin to a micro-tablet computer than a hi-res player. Or perhaps even more appropriately, more like a high-end mobile phone that also happens to be a hi-res audio player… except without the phone capability!

This comes about because Pioneer is using the Android operating system (5.1.1) (over Linux) to run the XDP-100R, which means it’s possible to load and run on it any Android app you want: calculator, clock, calendar…you name it. Many useful apps you won’t even have to load yourself, because 123 of them are already there: think Google, Chrome, Gmail, Clock, etc. So, so as long as you have the XDP-100R connected to a Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n or 802.11ac) network (which, incidentally, is very easy to do, no computer nerdishness required), you’ll be able to use it exactly like you would a phone, to send and receive emails, surf the internet… whatever!

But of course what sets the Pioneer XDP100R apart from most other mobile devices is its ability to store and replay hi-res audio signals, including MQA. It’s able to do this because inside is a high-spec Sabre ESS-