[cattlethief]

Looking forward to the new x5,ive owned a few players and the x3 blows them all away,dont understand why some people have been complaining of the build?Has there been a few versions?mine is solid no flex and more solid than my ipod classic,having dropped it a few times without a scratch,i also prefer the ui to that of the sony f806 which is a pain at times(lags with crappy buttons)and of course the sound can easily beat these two players,pity the x5 isnt coming out in the next week as my brother will be in China,but i am sure it will be worth the wait!

 

[goodvibes]

  Well, i dont really see the point of having a coaxial output for portable use. After all, one of the advantages of having an all in one hi end DAP is that one wont need to strap on an external DAC and end up with a brick. Using a computer for audio playback is highly contentious to say the least because computers are electrically very noisy. If the forthcoming x5 is to have a coaxial out, then should it not be of a quality in keeping with the expectations of the rest of the player? This way it could be used as a transport also for a home or desktop rig. More and more people are using their ipods and other portable devices docked digitally (and otherwise) to their home rigs. I'm sure that in future the quality of the signal coming out of a coaxial connector is going to be a very important sales issue as the shift from cd's to hi res streaming goes mainstream.
If i'm going to fork out 400$ for the x5, I want it to definitely replace a similar priced cd player in my system.
I really appreciate sandalaudio's explanation of the goings on in the digital domain and I feel that james and his team would do well to look into this aspect within the x5. So far, with the x3 the coaxial output just seems an afterthought and more of a sales gimmick, with no concern towards the purity of the signal coming out of it.
I really really hope and wish for an x5 which will truly be a standout player both as a portable and as a standalone transport. Heck, i'd even be willing to pay a bit more!

Nice post and expected. I'm a HiDef guy but it's not just about being (or near) bit perfect. This is a fine example as was the noisy computer as source one. Not what folks here want to hear. If your friend wanted to do a comparison that would be hard for others to question he could properly downsample the HiDef file to a CDR ripped at the slowest available speed with a good program like DBpoweramp or XLD and then compare. 
 
I'm looking forward to the X5 myself. I think some are expecting too much from a $259 player. The X3 doesn't need to be a top dig transport to serve it's primary use very well. It's dig out also doesn't directly relate to it's inboard use depending on how they do the transmitter and signal sharing.

 

[Mark K]

Dear James
I hope this is not a redundant question. I wish newer X5 can support better files system for larger files and larger storage media. Current X3 supports FAT32 which appears an older and inferior than exFAT or even NTFS.
I also hope X5 can support unicode. We all live in a world of mixed cultures. It is far better to play tracks with names and lyrics with character sets recognizable.

 

[Cecala]

  Dear James
I hope this is not a redundant question. I wish newer X5 can support better files system for larger files and larger storage media. Current X3 supports FAT32 which appears an older and inferior than exFAT or even NTFS.
I also hope X5 can support unicode. We all live in a world of mixed cultures. It is far better to play tracks with names and lyrics with character sets recognizable.

Good post, I second the motion.

 

[BillsonChang007]

Not sure if this is mentioned before or is it too late to mention about anything but I am hoping the X5 will work with the E09K... Like using the X5 as music source and DAC then the E09K as amp xD

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

Line out to rca in e09k

 

[tjw321]

  ...
FAT32 which appears an older and inferior than exFAT or even NTFS.
...

Do you have any knowledge on which you are basing this assertion - the inferior part, not the older part which is self evidently true? In which case, in which areas are they superior? I can't think of any areas which would make it worth increasing the cost of the X3 by whatever amount Microsoft charges for their proprietary filing systems. Also, NTFS doesn't work out of the box with Macs which rules that out. And there are plenty of other filing systems as good as (or even better than?) NTFS which windows doesn't support so that cuts both ways.

 

[xuan87]

Any idea what the sound signature will be like? Similar to X3 or more neutral than that? I didn't want to go through the entire thread and it wasn't mentioned on the first page.

 

[Mark K]

Any file system which can handle large single file will do. I do not use Mac...so exFat or NTFS are the options for me

 

[tjw321]

Any file system which can handle large single file will do. I do not use Mac...so exFat or NTFS are the options for me

Ah. So you need support for >4GB files - I wouldn't have thought there would be much need of that in an audio player but the added DSD support requires it, doesn't it?
The problem with exFat (and probably NTFS, too, though there has been some reverse engineering) is that you have to pay royalties to Microsoft. If you were to go with NTFS then you exclude Mac users (though I have a Mac and use NTFS a lot via the Tuxera add-on). Supporting both NTFS and Fat32 may be an option, but I think there are added costs in supporting NTFS even if there isn't an MS royalty. Also, I believe it uses a lot more processor power than Fat32 which is why Fat32 is still popular in embedded systems. I suspect NTFS support is unlikely, but you never know.

 

[Oscarilbo]

Hi...
 
any news on the exact price???
 
I'm so curious about this one because I originally wanted the X3, but when I found out about the X5 decided to wait.
 
Do you think is going to be a lot different in SQ ?

 

[AmberOzL]

  Hi...
 
any news on the exact price???
 
I'm so curious about this one because I originally wanted the X3, but when I found out about the X5 decided to wait.
 
Do you think is going to be a lot different in SQ ?

400 USD. X5 will be reference class dap from FiiO. I would expect something high end.

  Any idea what the sound signature will be like? Similar to X3 or more neutral than that? I didn't want to go through the entire thread and it wasn't mentioned on the first page.

James said it will be neutral unlike X3.

 

[jrodricl]

  400 USD. X5 will be reference class dap from FiiO. I would expect something high end.

James said it will be neutral unlike X3.

wow a reference class at 400? will it be released within 2013 or will we have to wait until 2014?? if i have to wait too long i might just go for sony zx1...James hasnt updated this thread for a while as well...

 

[sbradley02]

  wow a reference class at 400? will it be released within 2013 or will we have to wait until 2014?? if i have to wait too long i might just go for sony zx1...James havent updated this thread for a while as well...

I looked at the specs on the Sony and was underwhelmed especially at the price.
Seems like all the money is going into the pretty case.
Wait for the X5.

 

[Mython]

  wow a reference class at 400? will it be released within 2013 or will we have to wait until 2014?? if i have to wait too long i might just go for sony zx1...James havent updated this thread for a while as well...

 
It won't be uber-reference.
 
X7 might be!

 
Still, I have reasonably high hopes for the X5 - $400 is an interesting price point and enough for Fiio to use some fairly decent components.