FIIO X5 Anyone Getting One?

that's why I said "badly"
can't edit it now

 

Since it looked unlikely that B&H was going to have the X5 in stock before May (ie. after my birthday), I cancelled and place an order with Head-Direct, which appears to be the only online retailer that I can find that has it in stock.

 

I'll be very curious of your impressions. I think I'm going to wait a few more weeks.

 

Adorama has it in stock now. Mine is scheduled to be delivered this Saturday.

 

Really? I just looked and it said "Available for pre-order".

 

No, I pre-ordered mine in early April. I received a tracking notification from UPS last Monday and it now is scheduled to arrive at my place this Saturday.

 

Which Shure model do you have? I use SE 420's with my X3 and I would say they sound a bit bright. Was thinking about the Westone 4's myself.

 

I've forgotten the model number (I got rid of them when I bought the Westone's), but they weren't a high-end model. Probably cost me $100 ten years ago.

 

How many GB's will this FIIO X5 hold btw

 

Currently up to 256GB with 2 128GB microSD cards.

 

Cool, That's enough space to load up some nice crisp Zep soundboards and all the new hi rez downloads .

 

Getting one very soon.

 

My X5 is scheduled to be delivered today via DHL. Let the fun begin....

Head-Direct really came through on this. I paid $6 for shipping and it went all the way from Shanghai to Wylie, Texas, in 3 days.

 

You would be doing many of us a great service if you would post your impressions and experience with the X5. Not just the sound, but the UI as well!

 

Don't know how helpful I can be with the sound, but I'll give it my best shot. I will most definitely be paying a lot of attention to the UI since it's the big unknown for me going into this. We ain't in iTunes anymore....

 

Well, I just unpackaged the X5, formatted the MicroSD cards (this can be done with the cards in the player), updated the firmware and am just now transferring some tunes over: Beatles 24/44.1 flac files for starters.

First thoughts: I'm spoiled by iTunes. With the X5, you basically have to treat each memory card as a separate storage drive on the computer. This means that you have to basically keep track of what you put on one card in order to prevent duplicate files on the second card. A bit irritating, but I imagine that I'll get used to it after a while. I think it's simply a matter of being taken out of the iTunes comfort zone that I've enjoyed for the past 10 years.

It'll probably be tomorrow before I can comment further on UI (especially the firmware update allowing album-browsing by artist). I will also be checking out the gapless playback capabilities.

I have to say, however, that it's a pretty handsome-looking unit. A bit larger than my iPod Classic, but certainly not oversized. More thoughts tomorrow (hopefully).

 

I just experienced the first epic fail on the X5! When playing an album, the player appears to totally ignore the metadata specifying the track number and instead plays everything back alphabetically by file name. This would be fine if my file names started with the track number (ie. "01-Come Together.flac") but when ripping my CDs, I did not do this and instead depended on the metadata to keep album tracks in order.

Not a happy camper right now....

 

Not that I'm necessarily pro-Apple, but they have set the bar very high regarding functionality and playback behavior based on metadata. Your experience is typical of those that have been "spoiled" by the way Apple devices work. I certainly wouldn't want to pre-pend track numbers to my existing file names (mine typically contain the track number already). And I think Pono users will be in for a shock if they expect the Pono to behave like an iPod.

Try to hang in there and take a look at the long X5 thread over at Head-Fi if you haven't already.

 

I found a pretty quick workaround. MP3Tag lets you batch-rename file names based on the metadata. It took about 25 seconds to successfully rename all 716 files that I transferred to the X5 (disc number-track number-title). All is well now, but I'll still have to go back and rename all the other files in my music library.

 

One thing that I am spoiled with as far as i-Tunes & the i-Pod goes is shuffle mode and the ability to create playlists. Is this possible with the X5 ?

 

Shuffle mode - Yes
Playlists - No, although it's rumored that they will address this in a future firmware update

As for my first impressions on the SQ, this thing really sounds wonderful on my Bose QC2 headphones. The bass is very well-defined and I'm not hearing a lot of that brightness that others have commented on. Keep in mind, however, that I'm not using great headphones and my hearing is probably not up to the level of others here.

As mentioned earlier, my main project will now be to rename all of my music files with the track number in front. It'll take some time, but it certainly isn't going to be a Herculean task. MP3Tag is very powerful software.

 

Mp3Tag is very powerful. It has a scripting language in it if you need to be able to do more. Consider giving the project a small donation if you find it really useful.

What software do you use on the computer for managing and playing your music files? JRiver, MediaMonkey, Foobar?
There may be ways in that software to do what you need and to better handle the syncing to the X5.

 

I will definitely be making a donation.

I'm starting to use Foobar for managing and playing files, but I'm in the very early phases of learning.

 

You have any higher-res files to test with? I'm curious about that.

 

Foobar is good. I don't use Foobar for managing my library so I can't offer specific help for it. But it is quite capable to do what you need. For example, you should be able to configure it to automatically keep your files named with the track number so they sort properly on the X5. And I'm sure people will figure out ways to have Foobar manage syncing the X5 if the X5 needs special considerations. There's going to be a good number of Foobar users using the X5.