FIIO X5 Anyone Getting One?

I'm listening to the Doors' first album (24/96 HDTracks download) and the player is handling it flawlessly. Very impressed.

 

The X5 looks tempting. I don't have a hi-res portable solution, which I would use in bed and in the car. My classic ipod finally died, and I need to move on from my 20-year old cd player. Looks kind of bulky for the car.

 

For what it's worth, the X5 is slightly smaller than an iPhone.

 

The iBasso DX90 was released a few weeks ago and I am listening to 24/96 Gaucho right now with the LCX-X. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner.

 

Ugh, probably. Just what a guy with little disposable income needs. Seriously this fits in with my new program of trying to walk 5 miles a day.

Actually I was about to go for a X3 before I saw this thread. Now I'm not sure at all.

 

You mean LCD-X, right? And the DX90 drives them sufficiently?

 

Yes. Typo. LCD-X has lower impedance than LCD-3. The DX-90 has no problem driving it with gain at medium. However my Etymotic ER4s sounded like crap with it I guess due to the very high impedance. My normal gear is an iPod, ALAC, SR-71a triple stack so the DX90 will actually be portable with the Shure SE535.

 

Bummer about the ER4s. But I have been itching for a pair of 1964 Ears.

 

Having spent about a week playing around with my X5, I have to say that I have zero regrets about replacing my iPod Classic with this. No complaints about the SQ, although I think that I detected a bit of sibilence in the vocals on some of my Doors 24/96 HDTracks downloads. That could be a product of the mastering, though, since I had never really done a lot of critical listening before. It also sounds wonderful plugged into the AUX input jack in my Toyota Yaris factory stereo, which isn't particularly great. A couple of minor quibbles:

• When browsing the library, articles at the beginning of band names are used in sorting. This results in "Jimi Hendrix" listed under "J" while "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" is listed under "T". Hopefully, this will be addressed in a future firmware upgrade. This can be worked around using the file browser, though.
• I wish that there was a browsing category for compilations like there is for the iPod. There is a lot of clutter in the artist browser due to a couple of multi-artist comps that I have loaded on the player. Again, though, this can also be worked around using the file browser.

Anybody know where I can submit these suggestions to Fiio?

That's it for now.

 

Thanks for this. Believe it or not, the best way to communicate with Fiio is that thread over at Head-fi. Based on your experience, I think I'll pull the trigger on one myself.

 

One more thing about the file browser: you can only browse on memory card at a time, but I think that's normal for these types of devices.

 

James Fiio, the principal owner of Fiio, regularly posts in this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/661411/fiio-x5-thread-info-updated-on-jan-17th-2014/7515

I, too, plunked down on the x5 and don't regret it. It cannot be beat at this price point and I'm not interested in waiting around for Pono, which the x5 may well be superior to, but who knows at this point. It easily aces my two previous DAP's, the Cowon D2 and D3, which were no slouches, but had file and sample rate limitations which caused me to upgrade. Also, their UI left a lot to be desired.

The build quality is superb. You could defend yourself with this thing. It's like a rock. No muggings will occur with the x5 at your side.
The x5 has handled every file I've thrown at it whether it be 24/96, .flac, or .wav. It has been relatively future proofed with the possibility to increase miniSD card storage to 256GB when these cards become widely available. The SQ is the best I've heard from a DAP. I love that it can also work as a DAC and I regularly AUX in to my car cd/dvd player in my car. Battery life is also excellent. Mostly though I bought this for SQ, practicality (DAC, AUX in, plays ever file under the sun up to 24/192 and .dsd!), and robust storage.

My early criticisms are it seems a bit too analytical (lacking bass) with my etymotic HF5 headphones, although I think this has more to do with my ears being used to my Sennheiser pxc 250 headphones which were more sensitive to low end sonics. I'm still futzing with the eq to resolve this...probably is the HF5's though and not the x5's fault. The UI could be a little better implemented. You do have to scroll around a bit to get to what you want. Also one must be very cognizant of labeling bands properly, but this is easy to figure out. It does take some time to get used to the unlabeled buttons on the exterior but this too comes with time, and really the only mystery is the top two buttons as the bottom three are pretty self explanatory. I think the button criticism has been blown out of proportion by many reviews I've read. Other than that I've had one or two minor problems with it reading some files, but those have come from questionable sources...

I would recommend the Fiio x5.

 

Thank you all for the reviews. I'm giving this player serious consideration.

 

According to a post at Head-Fi, firmware 2.0 should be out very soon with unspecified new features and bug fixes.

 

I ordered mine yesterday but the comments here helped me feel even about my decision! Anyone know where I can find a good deal on a nice quality 64gb or 128gb micro SD now ? I'd better start saving up for some upgraded 'phones now, too.

 

I just ordered mine.

I've been doing a lot of walking lately and plan to keep it up. This will make it much more enjoyable. Plus it's a DAC and a usb hi-res sound card of sorts for when I travel. It was a no brainer as long as it's a quality product.

The only issue I can foresee is with the non replaceable battery, but that's no different than with my Samsung tablets.

 

Is everyone buying theirs from Head Direct?

 

I got mine from an Amazon seller as soon as they had one offering it for list (others were trying to charge $399 or more). Micca Store is an authorized dealer as well and they have them in stock. They only reasons I didn't buy from them were a) they are PayPal only and I wanted to use a credit card and b) their processing and shipping was going to take up to 10 business days and I was being impatient.

 

I use PayPal but have it go right to my credit card.

 

I ordered from Head Direct. It took a couple of days for them to actually ship it, but once they did it took just three days for it to get from Shanghai to my front porch.

 

Sure. My PayPal currently goes directly to my bank account, but of course I could change that. The shipping was a bigger issue for me as I wanted it as soon as possible. I'm glad I did grab it as I checked and there are currently no sellers offering it for list on Amazon (which means my seller sold 10 units in 24 hours).

 

Oh, I made sure that PayPal never pulls money from my checking account again. Last week an unauthorized PayPal charge came through and wiped out all the money in my checking account. My bank said there was nothing they could do about it and it surely wasn't their error. I ended up getting it back from the merchant, though it was a royal pain.

They've now put a stop order on any future PayPal charges. Now I never have to worry about accidently having one of my PayPal charges come out of my checking account if I forget to check 'other' in the check out process.

 

Good tip, thanks. Thankfully I'm lucky if I use Paypal more than 1 a year but I'll make the change nonetheless.

 

I find it handy since it doesn't require me to enter my CC info each time I make a purchase. I know I can store my CC number with some merchants but I feel better going through PayPal, and having it come out of the CC account. I use it for HDTracks and other online music vendors.

 

Firmware 2.0 now available from the Fiio website. I just installed it but have yet to do any in-depth analysis of the new changes. UI is pretty much the same, though.

A quick question: would leaving the backlight on during playback significantly reduce charge life? I'd prefer to leave it on during playback, but not if it toasts my battery.