Fiio vs. iPod

The Fiios are great. They sound good and are a good value. But the GUI is super frustrating if you are used to the ease of an iPod. If you use it to do more than just press "play", I guarantee you you will want to smash it against a wall with a hammer at least once an hour. Hard!

 

How well does it function? I'd read a lot of discouraging reviews implying that it operated very slowly - particularly with regard to bluetooth functionality.

It's definitely not elegant in that "Apple" sense of it, but I don't think Fiio has done too badly in the interface design area. Personally, I really like that it allows me to view the directory structure rather than isolating me to only what the UI thinks I need to see.

 

Ok... After some time on the road for work, I have returned home and I have to admit that my A/B testing between the 5th Gen iPod and Fiio X3 II didn't last too long.

With only a handful of exceptions, the Fiio kicked seven shades of crap out of my poor iPod (seriously, I felt bad for the little guy). In general, the frequency response seemed far more even with the iPod tending to favor a "warm" low/mid sound at the expense of higher frequencies or extreme lows and the sound stage on the X3 was immense in comparison to what the iPod was rendering. Where I found exceptions, I'm left to assume the recordings I tested simply lacked the detail necessary for the Fiio to bring a lot out, but a difference was still audible.

The Fiio basically manages to be detailed without losing a "musical" quality. Interestingly enough, this is why I was using my 5th Gen iPod instead of my 7th Gen models - the later models of iPod gained clarity, but sacrificed a certain something that made the music sound "musical." I think I'm led to believe that a 7th Gen iPod embodies the "clinical" tag I often hear Fiio detractors staple to the X series of devices.

If it makes any difference to anyone reading this, my "test environment" was a car stereo in a newer rental vehicle, so the fact that I was so easily able to discern an improvement in sound stage presentation and sonic detail under those conditions should speak volumes. Your mileage may vary, if you'll excuse the pseudo-pun.

Having spent a little more time with the Fiio, I have to say that the only real "interface" gripes I have are pretty minimal. I've had it freeze on me a few times when it didn't like a USB connection, but you can hard reset them easily enough by holding down the power button for 15 or so seconds, so it's easily fixed - even if it's a pain to need to manually re-set any custom settings I had in place before the freeze.

Beyond that, the transfer speeds (using Musicbee - haven't tried directly transferring through Win 7) are laughably bad - 4700 tracks in lossless took around 9 hours to transfer using the Fiio as the transfer interface. Compare that to around an hour and a half with a USB 3.0 card reader even with Musicbee as the front end. So, basically, you need a card reader if you're buying one of these.

Think that about covers first impressions. The plot thickens though as I've been impressed enough by this device that I'm awaiting delivery of an X5 II and my roommate has offered to buy this X3 off of me, having been wowed by my listening tests. Onward and upward, I guess.

 

The rep at CES said the X5 III will retail for $400.

 

That x5 III looks nice.

I used to mod old iPods with the wolfson chipset. Then i bought my first x3. It also had Wolfson but sounded better

I have the x3ii now having sold my original x3 and my original X1 ( which I disliked).

I mainly play the Shanling M2 nowadays. Same price as x3 and even better sound

By the way there is no 128gb limit for the x3. I have proven that in the past though my big cards are in my notebook and shanling m2 right now.

You can also use the x3ii as a dac / amp for the iPhone. Requires a new generation cck from Apple and you need to power the connector

 

Will it make a diff if a scan disk 200gb microSD card is formatted to exFat as opposed to Fat32 for the Fiio x1? The only option my PC gives me is exFat? What's the diff?

 

You'll probably be better off with exFAT than FAT32. FAT32 is an old standard that I believe ended its functional life when Windows 2000 became a legacy operating system. exFAT has the compatibility benefits without the size restrictions of the older format type.

That said, if you ran into some compatibility issues (I don't expect you would), you may be able to find a freeware disc management tool that'll let you format in FAT32 if you've really got the itch. Personally, I just use the Fiio to format the card so it's guaranteed to be compatible.

 

The 160 gb iPod Classic is compatible with highest quality aiff files. I have 3 of them that I use all the time. Perfect for long flights and car trips! I will be mourning when they die.

 

I understand the sentiment for iPods, I myself had one 10 years ago and loved it, but compared to what new stuff is out there the Apple devices are like dinosaurs - in pretty much all respects except maybe UX

 

I can understand the reluctance to migrate out of Apple's ecosystem. It has a real elegance to it that some of the more DIY alternatives don't. That said, I don't have to worry about MusicBee suddenly dropping support for a file type or refusing to allow me to copy to or from a MicroSD card. And, if it's ever discontinued (a very real possibility with iTunes), there are alternatives. I can even forego library software with a Fiio entirely if I want to.

It's not as sexy, but it is empowering.

 

I recently updated the FiiO3 ii firmware to the latest revision (2.0) and noticed a substantial boost in transfer speeds (from iMac to the FiiO's microSD card). I suggest checking out your system version and be sure it's the latest "fix" if you haven't done so already.

 

The X3 shipped with the most recent firmware, unfortunately. It may have been a quirk of my system, but I repeatedly found the transfer to be painfully slow even over a USB3.0 port (I know it's not USB3.0 compliant, but it should at least run quickly in USB2.0 mode through one).

At this point, I'm running an X5 and, with two 200gb MicroSD cards in this beast, I'd be terrified to try to transfer all of that data directly through the Fiio itself.

 

I suckered myself into buying an AK100ii for about a cool grand. I have never been so disappointed in hardware in my life. Android based and a crap UI. And a gutless amp. I hope Fiio improves on that. Significantly.

 

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. On the plus side, even if the X5 III turns out to be a turd, it'll at least cost less than half of the AK...

I do have to admit that I'm a little leery of the move Fiio is making to touch screens and Android interfaces. It just seems like more bells and whistles which get in the way of - you know - playing music. Then again, it could completely melt faces with its unfiltered awesomeness and it certainly wouldn't ruin my day.

 

I think it's a great idea personally, and certainly from a commercial and product development POV -- there are literally billions of people completely at home with the Android system and interface, whereas the biggest flaws of the FIIO all related to GUI, ease of use and compatibility, learning curve, etc (that and crummy translated documentation). I have no doubt that a touchscreen/Android-bases system will be way more attractive to most potential buyers than a kludgy proprietary interface. Getting FIIO basically out of the software & interface side of the business and adopting a common industry leading software/interface and letting FIIO concentrate on what it does best -- good sound, format ubiquity -- is a great idea. Hell, I'd almost be willing to trade my X3 2nd gen for a FIIO with an Android interface and a touchscreen.

 

I own both the Fiio X1 1st Gen and the iPod Touch 128gb (most recent model). $79 player vs $400 player. How much do you want to spend? iPod Touch will require you to use iTunes to put music on it. Fiio does not. When larger microSD cards come out, you simply buy a new card, load it with music, and put it back in the Fiio. iPods will require you to buy a new device for more storage. iPod Touch can use streaming apps if that matters, the Fiio I have cannot. I'd say if you're just listening to your own music on it, Fiio is an easier way to go. I have not noticed huge differences in the sound quality on any of my headphones.

 

It's actually funny. I went back to my OP just to see what the timeframe was. It took less than three months to extricate myself from the Apple ecosystem once I laid hands on a Fiio. I started with an X3 II, but quickly decided I wanted/needed the X5 II's dual card slots. Once I made that leap, the idea of carrying around extra cards rather than a separate device became far more practical - I used to have two iPods: one for the car playlist and one for new music I was auditioning. At this point, I wouldn't go back if someone gifted me a pile of brand new iPods.

Oh yeah, and the sound quality is something else as well.

 

I have one of them that has been in my car for years now. The thing that I like is that my car has an iPod interface to make it easy to navigate my collection. I am hoping it is still a feature on my next vehicle, but I wonder if it will eventually be phased out. I have gotten a lot of use out of it over the years. When it dies, I will just end up putting more music on my iPhone...which actually has 130GB available... rather than streaming everything.

 

Having just acquired the new Android based FiiO x5 III...i am so far quite pleased with it...sounds great!..I just load the music i want onto micro sd cards in the Flac format...don't bother with album art etc....I have dedicated my individual MSD cards with different genres of music i.e...pop, rock, classical, box sets etc.
Another plus is that i can easily access Spotify on the device.
My iPods are now part of my 'old technology' collection.

 

mi ipod is still going ! hopefully I will be able to replace the battery! otherwise I will go back to Fiio!

 

I notice sound quality differences between Fiio and iPods. I've always found iPods to sound bright and harsh from their headphone outputs, but when used from their line-out outputs along with a good portable headphone amp they can sound acceptable to me for general portable listening. I do find that the iPods do have a flat soundstage (lack of depth) even when used with a good external amp. That's their main failing.

Fiio's to me always sound mushy. Lack of definition. Narrow soundstage. Lack of depth. Lack of focus. Even when used with a good external amp. The sound quality from their built-in headphone amp has always been disappointing. Fiio to me has always been the embodiment of mid-fi sound. Even in their dedicated headphone amps. Especially in their DAPs that combine DAC and amp.

 

I like the Fiio x1 2nd gen I got ... but I miss my iTunes playlists. So ... I find myself using my iPod 160gb more often than the Fiio. Is there an option to export iTunes playlists to the Fiio x5 3rd gen?

 

How is the battery life and how do you like the UI? Part of my brain refuses to accept the idea of a DAP with a touch screen vs. hardware controls, so I'm exceptionally leery of the III at this point. Probably totally irrational on my part.

My library is so large that I have to use playlists to keep straight what I'm syncing to my player. You can use a program like MusicBee to sync to the cards your Fiio takes - including playlists. As a plus, it allows you to import iTunes library data - playlists, play counts, etc.

 

Is anyone with a Fiio using MediaMonkey to sync? If yes, can you sync playlists?

 

Just have had the unit for three days...so i really don't know what the battery life is..a poster on YouTube says he got over 9 hrs...the UI?...i'm still in the learning curve..unfortunately their owners manual leaves a lot to be desired.
I'll update my opinion next week.