Pioneer XDP-30R
Hi-res audio without the high prices? Count us in
Music fans are getting very excited about hi-res audio, which delivers sound that’s vastly superior to CD quality
or standard downloads. There’s just one catch: hi-res audio players are incredibly expensive. Or at least, they were. Pioneer’s new XDP-30R is a very reasonable £349.
It’s a pretty thing, black aluminium with a touchscreen, a copper volume knob, transport buttons and twin microSD slots: hi-res audio files are big, and you’ll fill the 16GB internal storage in no time. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack, as well as a 2.5mm jack for balanced headphones, and it works with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well as USB. PC users get software to manage their device but on the Mac it’s a case of dragging and dropping from Finder in USB Mass Storage Mode.
The XDP-30 has two Digital Analogue Converters (DACs) and supports audio files of up to 192kHz/32-bit (CD-level quality is 44.1kHz/16-bit) or DSD 5.6MHz. The MQA format isn’t currently supported, but will come in a future software update.
We’ve supplemented our collection of old favourites with Radiohead’s OKNOTOK, the newly remastered and hi-res anniversary edition of OKComputer, and it sounds truly extraordinary on the Pioneer. On our studio headphones, which don’t flatter specific frequencies, the sound is so clear you can nearly hear Thom Yorke’s darkest thoughts. To make a bad Radiohead pun, it has
Everything In Its Right Place: the effects and instruments are pin-sharp in the stereo stage, things you never noticed coming in and out of focus as they move in and out of the mix. Densely layered songs such as Climbing UpTheWalls reveal their secrets, while Subterranean Home sick Alien feels more spacious and spooky.
Impressive range
Lower-quality 44.1kHz FLACs still sound fantastic: Bowie’s LifeOnMars feels brand new, Fleetwood Mac’s TheChain is jawdropping, Chic’s LeFreak is gloriously funky and the bass in Daft Punk’s GetLucky is so low it makes your brain vibrate.
The Pioneer can upsample such audio to 192k, but the untouched audio sounds great to us: the upsampled audio feels a little wider and more spacious, but it’s a subtle difference. Our only niggle is the maximum volume is a little low for our ears. Switching to line-out mode boosts it considerably and probably does terrible damage to our eardrums in the process, but makes things even more exciting.
The XDP-30 is a superb music player; if you’re looking to step up to hi-res audio without breaking the bank, it’s a great choice. You’ll get the best results in quiet rooms with good headphones – and the Pioneer gives you an audio experience worth staying in for.