Just to be clear, Rocoo-A uses a totally different hardware compared to C30 or Gumstick. Rocoo-A is Rockchip Nano based while C30 / Gumstick is Sigmatel based.

Older version of Gumstick actually sound louder because of the old firmware it used. New generation of Gumstick sounds softer because the max volume is limited to lower distortion during EQ - thus newer Gumstick is about as loud as C30 is going to be (the volume limiting already applies to it as well)


Also to clear things up, SQ wise the two are on par. I simply choose C30 because its has BBE.

EQ on Gumstick is pretty basic. You get the typical rock /pop / etc kind of EQ and a simple User EQ, that's all.

Gumstick on older firmware can output higher volume. On the newer firmware, it is actually about the same as C30. The volume on both Gumstick and C30 on newer firmware are lowered to minimize distortion, acrounding to Cube.

HM801's DAC can handle 24/192. However this really isn't what Hz is about. Sampling rate doesn't equal to frequency response. Even the best desktop player that do 24/192 still cuts off at around ~22kHz at output. For most commercial music, there is no very obvious benefit to go to 24bits or beyond 44kHz because they are mastered at 16/44. Transcoding those music to 24/96 doesn't make it better than it already is.

The hanging on Bye Bye is a curious one - I got hit a few times on early days with C30 on v007.020, then somehow it becomes very stable without any reason. I have updated to v007.021 for two weeks now and haven't have any problem so far. My Gumstick (which is on a very old firmware) on the other never hang since I got it last year.

I have had X19HD for a while now. It isn't an upgrade for C30 so save your money for something else.

Side-grade? more like a significant downgrade actually. Even C30 is not quite as good as T51 and C30 is better than X19HD in most areas, except perhaps bass boost since X19HD has hardware bass boost. I was personally hoping X19HD could be better than C30 but I am quite disappointed. If you can get X19HD under US$30 than it is still a decent deal. But if I have the choice between C30 and X19HD, I'll pick C30 every times. To sum it up, there is nothing particularly special or great about X19HD.

It isn't head shaking by any mean but it is textureful, which reminds me a little bit of how ZO does its bass boost because it only boosts the sub-bass and not the mid-bass.