The first major sortie fired to announce this coming wave was fired by iRiver’s re-branded Astell & Kern players, which many claim has set a new gold standard for performance. And then came the marketing juggernaut Pono with its bold claims of sonic utopia and even bolder rock star endorsements. Pono has balls and made no bones about its intent to poach Apple’s enormous customer base with promises of better sound quality from its Toblerone shaped player and Pono centric music market.
 
Since the market explosion in 2013, Astell & Kern has enjoyed its position at the Vanguard and Pono’s success is ballasted by rock star endorsements. Even against an onslaught of derision from audio critics and tech sites alike. The rest of the portable audio player segment is left to duke it out over the scraps on limited R&D budgets and next to nothing in marketing.
 
If you consider that both tech giants Microsoft and Samsung bent the knee to mighty Apple just a few short years ago and pulled their Zune HD and Samsung Galaxy players from the shelves. It's absurd to think that an obscure group of Korean and Chinese audio houses could submit products that compete for King Cupertino's crown. And yet that is exactly where we find ourselves... How?
 
Simple really.... Apple's throne is in jeopardy because Apple has let its vast portable/ digital audio kingdom fall into disrepair. It has spent the last few, Jobs-less years focused on multi-media content consuming devices like the iPad and iPhone, while the music focused iPod has become a bit of a person in the Apple hierarchy. This was never more apparent than when Apple decided to kill off the The Classic, which is the only unit it its line up with respectable storage capacity, in favor of the more app and cloud friendly Touch.
 
One could argue that Apple has lost interest or at least lost their vision in the portable audio market just as the market itself has matured. It was the iPod that resuscitated the segment from near death after years of failing health and atrophy from too many years of plastic disc spinning Sony Walkmen. By the late 90's you could buy a CD spinning Walkman at a gas station for $20
 
If it weren't for iPod there may be no such thing as Audeze, Inner Fidelity, Cypher Labs, ALO Audio or possibly even Head-fi.
 
Yet now we find Blue Chip audio companies like Sony, Yamaha, Pioneer, Kenwood, TEAC, and Onkyo focusing significant resources on the portable audio market while carefully walking back from their "All In" position on 5.1 and 7.1 Channel A/V to try and repair damaged reputations in the 2 channel stereo game.
 
Meanwhile life giving Apple is focusing its efforts on..... digital horology?
iWatch.... Times are Changing.
 
Still, this year alone I’ve counted at least half a dozen companies who are bringing devices to market to try and ride this Portable Music Player, Digital Audio Player, MP3 player (WHATEVER!) wave. Whether we’ve reached a saturation point with new devices is anyone’s guess but I doubt we’ve seen the last of them.
 
For me the question is whether these new market players, like the queued up review sample (The Fiio X1), are setting a new state of the art. Or are they all just traveling down a well-worn road Apple blazed years ago while bringing nothing new to bear. It could be that they are simply filling the vacuum left by Apple's faltering interest. Basic economics.
 
We shall tease out the truth at the entry level jumping off point today.
 

​

 
For me to be willing to consider a future life with a Fiio X1 or any other DAP it must show itself as superior to the current experience I have with my litany of iPods. And that isn’t just a cut and dry matter of sound quality. Mind you I am flush with Apple devices and am not one who finds their tone offensive, so the notion of moving out of the Apple ecosystem is not so easy. I currently have no fewer than 6, including two “audiophile” approved Apple iPod videos (5th generation) with the older Wolfson silicon as well as 3 Nano’s an iPad Air and an iPhone 6.
 
With such a large collection of Apple devices, the idea of leaving iOS based playback feels a bit like the idea of abandoning Nikon for Canon or ditching DSLR for mirrorless. It’s not just the camera itself that you are replacing. It’s the ecosystem and long term investment in lenses, filters, software etc… that makes the switch far more disruptive.
 
And while I do have a fair amount invested in iOS/ Apple based playback it is not insurmountable. I have a few line out docks to tap analog line level signal from Apple’s proprietary connectors into a portable amp, I’ve got a dock that extracts digital audio from my lightning based products and I’ve got DACs purchased because they work with iOS devices using a CCK.
 
Apple’s User interface makes for a hell of transport if you can move conversion and amplification off board. But those same DAC’s are likely going to work with this modern crop of portable units just as easily.
 
Flexibility and connectivity are important in todays market. Consumers won't accept the Casino like cradle to grave environment of iTunes from modern DAP makers.
 
For this reason among others, I've stayed away from using iTunes for music management or playback. That honor goes to JRiver and because of its plugins library I am able to sync and load most all of my iPods with music directly from JRiver. Making the move away that much easier. The only devices I sync with iTunes are my phone and tablet because they are governed by the iOS monopoly.
 
Meanwhile only Pono has had the gall to try to create its own iTunes like ecosystem, but Pono offers a line out that doesn’t require custom cables. So in that regard it isn’t as closed a system as Apple. I do think a great number of consumers are like me and are going to need more than just promises of better sound quality to justify the change, especially since it seems like everyone is promising better sound quality. Despite the fact that sound quality differences at the transport/ front end stage of the game are relatively small.
 
A lion share of Canon cameras use an 18 MP sensor which is a far lower resolution than Nikon’s 24MP spec on even its cheapest D3300 DSLR, yet Canon outsells Nikon with general consumers because they’ve marketed their gear as “fool proof” with celebrities like Ashton Kutcher fumbling and bumbling around taking perfect shots without any training. The average Joe sees Canon’s as easy to use and approachable and will drop $400 on a T5 without even considering image quality.
 
Not to say one is better than the other!
I really don't want none of that fight!
 
Although I do appreciate the handsome nature of the Astell and Kern 100 and 120, and am even taken with the look of the new entry level X1, before I venture too far down this DAP rabbit hole, I need to understand what the aftermarket DAP manufacturer is bringing to the table and where it may conflict with my sound system and my listening habits.
 
 
So to begin in earnest, I don’t think Fiio needs much of an introduction for anyone on Head-Fi. They are a prolific entry level company for us Head-fi types. Early on their reputation suffered from perceived “cheapness” and even I was skeptical of buying any of their budget gear fearing it was cheap Chinese plastic fit for Walmart. Maybe a step above Radio Shacks Boostaroo in my book but certainly not up there with HeadRoom, Ray Samuels etc...
 
As years wore on, Fiio held strong to its core mission and earned a reputation in the Head-fi community as a fantastic company that offers very good performance on a budget. Their line up of battery and USB powered headphone amps and DACS are what many a Head-fier has cut their teeth on, and still are to this day.
 
I personally have owned their E10 dac/amp for 4 years and it has made more than a dozen trips across country with me and is a vital part of my travel routine.
Fiio has 3 tiers to their digital audio player line up ending with their $350 TOTL X5 (recently updated with Mark 2) which is chocked full of features, inputs & outputs. But I chose the golden $99 X1 for no other reason than I thought it looked best and because I am testing waters here, not diving in head first.
 
IT BEGINS!
So with a 64 GB micro SD card in hand I quickly formatted the card to Fat32 using the Fiio X1 (as per the user’s manual) and proceeded to drop some 60 odd GB of uncompressed 16/44 CD Rips onto the card from my PC.
 
I spent the next couple hours listening through my main system while watching the music get written onto the drive and waiting for the X1 to reach full charge.
 
Once the SD Card was filled to the brim with musical goodness I punched it into the slot on the side of the X1 and hit the power button. Turning the device on you are met with a colorful Fiio greeting then taken to setup screen where you select language and update library. What took nearly two hours to write onto the SD Card took a matter of seconds for the X1 to scan and organize. I added some 1300 songs in a matter of seconds and the Fiio X1 was ready to play. I used the scroll wheel to take a look at the music and selected the “Artist” category… Sure enough it was all there… What was more is the X1 read all of my WAV file format tags without a single hiccup. Even though I've spent a God awful amount of time updating tags on all my music(I use Tag Scanner BTW) they usually vaporize into thin air when moving files from one device to the other or from program to program, so 'Good On Ya' Fiio!
 
Next I plugged in the only in-ear monitor I own and the only one I’ve ever listened to that agrees with me, The VSonic GR-07 and listened for a bit finding nothing at all offensive. SO far so good.
 
I didn’t want to be hasty by turning the unit on, listening for 10 mins… shouting “IT’S CRAP!” and shove it back in its box with a return label from Amazon…. It’s not entirely fair to pass judgement without giving it some time to break in. Now I know I am acknowledging the existence of voodoo here and I couldn't tell you how it works to save me life but I do feel there is something to it. Letting component parts fully energize and allowing the caps, resistors, diodes etc… to stabilize does seem to do.... something?
 
Maybe it is brain burn in, but  (big but!) reality is that my perception is perception, my reality is reality, so if I perceive it as my truth…. It’s the truth as far as I am concerned! It doesn't matter what the underlying laws of physics are. 
 
So I plugged it into my computer through a constant power USB port and sorted by All Songs, selected the first song  and hit play... By JRivers calculations it should take the X1 4.25 days to play all the music I had loaded onto it, but I only gave it 24 hours +/- of run in. The next day I unplugged it from the computer and beater phones and plugged in the GR-07...
 
It sounded ok.
 
I didn’t really feel like I was listening to something extraordinary but I was using a $150 set of IEM too. There was a bit of sharpness in the tone and some of my hotter recordings did cut at my ears a little, which is not something you typically hear with the  VSonic GR-07. The GR07 is about as warm and cozy an IEM as I have ever heard.
 
Luckily this bad boy has an EQ! Go ahead and groan audiophiles, I really don't care. 
 
I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Certain music can sound flat or thin or 2 dimensional depending on source material, amp, headphone etc... Having tone controls is a good thing and I tend to use them often. 
 
Attempting to move the sliders the best I could to mimic a Fletcher-Munson loudness contour I was able to de-ess the treble and goose the bass a little. Making the adjustments proved a bit counter intuitive with the Fiio interface but after a couple oops & damnits I was set. This added a bit of depth and a degree of warmth to the tone. With a nice rich full sounding recording like Smashing Pumpkin’s - Siamese Dream or Gish things were sounding pretty damn good. The part of “Today” where the guitars and drums flood the stage after the small guitar intro was a bit harsh but other songs like Quiet, Geek USA, and Rocket sounded full and had a good amount of live character. With less than stellar studio efforts like Off With Their Heads ‘Home’ the Fiio sounded harsh and the albums already strident nature was pretty bad with the Fiio, EQ or not.
 
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
I swapped out the GR-07 and pulled the microscope down off the shelf. The Sennheiser HD800 is probably the best headphone I have for analyzing gear because of its sometimes brutal honesty. I tapped the headphone out of the X1 directly to the HD800 and cranked up the volume to 75% and while I was getting a good volume level out of the X1, it was showing clear signs of strain. Static and electric hash were tainting edges of transients blurring the cymbal  crashes and lower bass was not distorted but truncated in the sense that overall dynamics were severely compressed. Not to worry! It was an unfair test of the little X1 in the first place. Although it is good to know that the X1 is a no go with pro grade full size cans… The same holds true for my planar magnetic headphones. The LCD2 was serviceable but like the HD800 the dynamics and punch of the music was compressed and the overall presentation was diluted pretty bad. With the HE400 things were better but at this point I was certain that the X1 would benefit from off board amplification. 
 
Time to bring in support. The ALO Audio National has been my go to portable amp for close to three years now and even though it doesn’t sound all that good with the HD800 because it’s tone is a little too clean, it does not lack for power with the HD800 and I am familiar with its good, bad and ugly. I knew the National/ X1 pairing would probably double down on problem areas in tone but wanted to use it in its likely context. Tethering the X1 to a $1500 desktop amp seemed like a waste of time, as I can’t imagine anyone would use it like this. So I did it anyway to check its performance against the E10.
 
I'll just briefly cover this before going into portable impressions. I found the X1 a near equal to the E10 with the E10 acting as offboard DAC to my laptop and the X1 acting as transport/dac with both sending a line level analog signal to my desktop gears. Both sounded good running into Godzilla (my hot-rodded Sansui AU517) and my April Music/ Stello deck. I wasn’t able to identify any appreciable differences between the two in terms of sound quality and performance. That is pretty impressive considering I have about $2000 and a couple hundred man hours invested in optimizing my digital front end.
 
VS. King Cupertino
This is where it really shakes out for me... It was a comparable transport to my desktop set up, but the screen is too small and isn't the right form factor. No, the X1 is a portable transport and it must needs beat the iPod if it expects to see time in the starting rotation. Can the X1 unseat the iPod? This is where it will win or lose.

So I grabbed a male 3.5mm to Y adapter with 2 female 3.5mm so I could compare the two directly. The iPod was tethered to the National with a Forza 30 Pin Line Out Dock and the X1 with a 6" Forza mini to mini. I wasn't able to strap the X1 to the National because it's design doesn't lend itself to using rubber bands... The bottom buttons on the X1 are too low and you have to cover up the top ribbon on the screen. Not a big deal at all but still something to keep in mind if you want to bundle the X1 to a portable amp. Once they were both connected, I could cue up a song on both and easily switch back and forth to listen for sonic differences.
 
I was listening to "Taken For a Fool" by the Strokes on the iPod and then switched over to the X1... when ouch! Damnit! The volume jumped into the danger zone. The output on the X1 is significantly louder than the iPod. I found that I needed to attenuate the signal about 8 hash marks on the National volume pot to level the volume between the two. With all the cables and devices all clustered together and the small size of The National's volume pot and the front face of the National being a bit crowded my fingers had a bit of trouble getting at the volume dial, but they always kind of do. After listening to the X1 and my iPod Nano for some time, with albums from The Strokes, Weezer, New Order, Blur, Beck, Studio One era Wailers, and a bit of Lorde I was able to get a pretty accurate picture of the X1’s overall performance.
 
The Achilles heel, if you want to use it with full size headphones, is that Fiio disables its inbuilt EQ when you are using the line-out option from the jack. Without any of the X1’s tone shaping abilities available through the line out, the X1 exhibits a tendency towards sharpness in the upper register and though the treble was bright and revealing did not have the necessary level of refinement needed for such illumination through the top of the stage. Laid bare by the HD800, the X1’s tone gets fatiguing and I cannot reconcile myself to it even with softer headphones like the LCD2. 
 
ON AN ISLAND WITH X1
 
In order to try and reset my brain, I tried ditching the Nano as a reference point to see if I could get my brain & ears to buy in with the X1 on its own merits. I left the Nano at home in the morning and drove the 20 miles to work with just my X1. I was hoping the X1 would sound more agreeable without King Cupertino casting its shadow over the audition. I still wasn’t able to find peace with it. With the EQ engaged using a small portable headphone or with a warm cozy IEM like the VSonic GR-07 the sound is pretty good. But the X1 does not work well with off board amplification because the line out configuration cripples what I consider to be necessary EQ functions that can massage the X1’s tone enough to soften is otherwise fatiguing sound. 
 
Mind you my 2nd generation Nano is one of the closest things you'll get to a audiophile quality iPod. Some of you may snort with derision at that statement, but the older iPods used Wolfson silicon (WM8975) and of all my iPods (3 nanos, 3 Classics, 2 shuffles, 1 iPhone and 1 iPad) the 2nd Gen Nano has the most refined sound of them all. It has a much quieter output (as evidence earlier in this review) but as long as you have amplification that is up to the task, it has a level of refinement and more width to its stereo image than any other I have. Plain and simple It is the best of my iPod stable and if there is a compliment to be paid sound quality wise to the X1 it's that the two are very close to each other without any DSP.
 
The big score with the 2nd Gen Nano is its well implemented EQ presets which elevates tone density significantly when needed. The more popular iPod Classic and A-Phile approved Video 5th gen have well documented issues with EQ presets that cause clipping and distortion. So I tend to gravitate towards the lighter, smaller Nano and just have to sync up and change playlists more often if I want different music.
 
Also the X1 seemed to have a shallower and narrower sound stage. Switching to the X1 from the Nano, lead singers invariably moved towards me quite a bit and the outer edges of the stereo image collapsed considerably. While this presents as a forward and aggressive sound signature, which my inner punk rocker enjoys. Contrasted against something with more honest stereo imaging, the X1’s sound stage is pretty narrow.
 
I’d say it’s probably the most significant delta I can give the X1 between the two. Its sound stage is too forward and crowded.
 
Tone wise, all things equal, the deltas between the X1 and iOS were pretty minor. If you aren’t looking to move amplification off board, and are looking to use the X1 with IEM or small efficient portable headphones then it provides a near equal sound quality to the iPod. Functionally the iPod wins out with off board amplification because its EQ is still working in line out mode, but that is only if you want the added muscle for larger headphones.
 
So while I’d give the sound quality edge to the Nano. Which is simply softer, more refined sounding and is able to add a significant dose of warmth when using the preset of the EQ. It’s really not a night and day thing. The X1 keeps pretty good pace when you consider the two devices on their own merits. The caveat here being the soundstage... The X1 is very narrow and forward. But this is more obvious on staging giants like the HD800 than it would be on a pair of IEM's.
 
As far as user interface, I won’t even bother comparing. It is well known that the Cupertino giant trades heavily on the snappy nature of their interface. The UI is what has allowed them to stay ahead of the Android Army. Android is far better today than it was just 2 years ago, but still doesn’t hold a candle to Apple. The sheer simplicity, speed, and responsiveness are their UI has no rival in the market and Fiio is certainly not the company to overtake them.
 
Interface wise the X1 screen is relatively grainy and the scroll wheel is not the smoothest. The forward and back buttons seem a bit counter intuitive and doing things like adjusting the EQ are laid out a bit odd. With enough time everything is serviceable but it takes a bit of trial and error. The volume buttons on the side are fine, if a bit shallow and sometimes hard to get response from. One significant niggle I had with the X1 was that its screen could not be woken up by pressing any key. You had to press the power button in order to wake the X1. Good I suppose as this help avoid accidental volume spikes when in your pocket or song changes but still after 2 weeks of use I would still hit buttons or the scroll wheel on the front screen expecting it to wake up only to remember I had to press the power button to get it to come back to life.
 
So what’s good? There are a number of areas where the X1 does have significantly better performance than iPod and if, like I said, you were going to use the X1 strictly with small portables and/ or IEM then these are welcome victories.
 
Storage: Right now you can utilize up to 128GB Micro SD cards with the X1 and because it scans and assembles libraries so quickly you could have 2 or 3 or 4 different cards with different libraries and the few seconds it takes the X1 to assemble a library is nominal. This flexibility and ability to keep your library on Micro SD cards is definitely a plus.
 
High Res: I personally don’t own any hi-res music (beyond weird samplers of music I’d never really listen to) so the high resolution capabilities are a zero sum gain for me… But those who live and breathe hi-res certainly won’t find the same capability in an iPod. Betwixt the two, X1 is the only one that can play that game.
 
Battery Life: The iPods, being a bit long in the tooth, and with a habit for quickly losing battery memory suffer relatively short charging cycles, even with updated batteries. I did not track hours with the X1 but played music through it relatively frequently for nearly a week before I needed to plug it in and get it charged back up. My iPod requires a trip to the charging station once every day or two depending on volume of use. X1 slaughters it here. How it holds up over the course of a year or two I couldn't say... Head-fi's impressions thread may have the answer.
 
So does the X1 overtake the king? Not in my book. With my listening habits and the way I want a portable player to work.
 
That said if you are looking for a modern player that spends most all of its life tethered to a pair of in-ear monitors like the iPod was originally marketed, then it offers comparable sound quality along with storage flexibility, battery superiority and high resolution capability.
 
All good things to the right customer.
 
That customer just isn’t me. So does the X1 turn me off to digital audio players? No. I am leaving room for the potential. If the right device with the right interface popped up I could see it as a portable transport that could take my entire library anywhere I go. Ditch the laptop altogether. But for now that device remains elusive to me.
 

FiiO X1 Review
 
I've received the X1 as part of the X1 world tour, and have since passed the unit onto the next reviewer a long time ago... This review was mainly delayed by life events.
 
I've not bothered with pictures (there are so many of them with every review anyway) and tried to keep things succinct. Wall of texts is not the best way to convey messages, after all.
 
Physical
It's fairly compact and rather well built, although I still remain a fan of SanDisk's implementation of physically scrolling scroll wheels over FiiO's, but I digress. It has most hardware buttons you would ever want, with good tactility. I don't really understand the 'notch' in the chassis where the front panel curves back before meeting the sides, but this is negligible in the whole scheme of things.
 
The X1 package is fairly complete, containing
- FiiO X1 unit
- Silicone case
- 3pcs screen protector
- MicroUSB cable
- Documentation
 
The silicone case is fairly sticky and a lint-magnet, and not something I liked, but it works, although it does block the charging LED.
 
The controls are generally understandable - you don't need a manual to figure out how it works, although I'd call it usable rather than good. The UI however, can be a pain to work with in the sun with the combination of screen and colour palette chosen.
 
The battery itself lasts fairly long, about 10~11 hours with on-off usage across 3 days.
 
Sound
The raison d'etre of the player itself.
 
Set up goes as follows:
FiiO X1 -> FutureSonics MG6pro
 
The first thing I noticed was a rather severely rolled off bass, and a diminished soundstage. Trying to boost the bass with the EQ didn't make things any better, if anything the slight midbass bloat became even more prominent. There wasn't any real slam, and it was quite rather distressing (I am, if the CIEM didn't already expose me, somewhat demanding of bass performance [quality, not quantity!]).
 
This could admittedly work in favour with some of the cheaper IEMs out there with their rather uncontrollable bass, but two wrongs don't really make a right in my books.
 
The mids and highs don't have any glaring issues, and the intimate soundstage does work to make softer details a lot more clear.
 
Conclusion
Reading more words won't help you make up your mind, take an mSD card (formatted for FAT32) and head down to your local FiiO carrying shop and try it out. If it pleases you, treat my words as hogwash and buy it.

Buid/Usage/Etc
 
Overall build seems quite nice. It has a solid metal feel in your hand and there's some heft to it (good or bad, depending how you feel about weight). Edges are all clean, and there's no looseness. Buttons are firm and responsive. The only thing I don't like is the wheel, which feels a bit wobbly. If there are no buttons built into the wheel, it should be steadier than that. It's also too smooth for my liking; a more textured surface would have been better for grip and being able to feel if I'm actually spinning the wheel or not.
 
The power switch is recessed which is good so you don't accidentally bump it, but the rubber sleeve has a nub on the inside which increases your likelihood of accidentally pressing it, so... one step forward, one step back?
 
Screen resolution seems decent. It's enough to display the cover art which I don't really care too much about. *shrug*
 
No internal memory? Seriously?
 
 
 
User interface
 
The UI is reasonably intuitive and fairly smooth. I didn't go through any manuals and was able to figure out how to move around the menus without any issues. Updating the firmware is also a cinch. That said, I still have a bunch of gripes over the UI.
 
First of all, why doesn't the wheel control volume? This is the most intuitive thing and it practically seems backwards to not have that. You can get rid of two buttons in one stroke. On that matter, the volume buttons are then no longer volume buttons when the screen is off and instead switch tracks if you hold them. Changing button assignments is just confusing for the user and really makes no sense. If you want to implement a hold-to-activate when the screen is off to prevent accidental button presses, ok I guess that's fine, but don't change what the buttons do.
 
I also don't like the lack of memory on poweroff. It'd be nice if it jumped back to the last song/playlist when you turn it back on.
 
Back to the scroll wheel, the lack of texture also makes it difficult to be precise. I can't feel if I'm actually moving the wheel at times which makes control sloppy.
 
These several factors make the X1 not that great for pocket fumbling use while on the move, which in my mind is a big detractor from the portability factor.
 
 
Sound
 
My main comparisons for sound here are my aging Sansa Fuze and Clip+. I listened primarily while walking around, which some will argue is not an ideal time for critical evaluation, but to me that is the intended usage.
 
Even with the din of people, traffic, nature, etc, I could tell that the X1 was more defined across the board. Deep bass on the Fuze feels mushy in comparison, and the treble presence wasn't nearly as good (though the bigger difference was easily in the bass).
 
Powerwise, it's got plenty of oomph for a dap. I even plugged it in directly to the newfangled HiFiMAN HE-560 and got reasonable sound out of it. Just for a laugh I tried the HE-6... I got volume, but felt like I was listening through a cardboard tube.
 
I played with the EQ for a bit, but really was not impressed. Turning up the bass produced a tubby sound, and messing with the treble made things sharp and tinny. I have a few different EQ plugins on my computer and those all produced a nicer sound than the X1.
 
 
Overall
 
Pro: It's a step up in sound quality from my Fuze. Not huge, but noticeable in a “busy” environment so that's good
 
Cons: UI is ok but annoying, bigger and heavier than my Fuze, no internal memory.
 
Verdict: For me personally, even though the sound is better, it isn't enough to justify the increase in bulk and clunkier interface.

Introduction
 
Taking part of the Fiio World Tour i was excited to get my hands on this little beasty.  I was interested in this as a budget player and to see how it compared the the iBasso DX50 i had recently purchased and to my Girlfriends iPod touch 5th gen.
 
I was 3rd in line so i had to wait a while but it didn't dissapoint when i finally got a hold of it.
 
I only have a pair of Sony MDR-1R to try this out with.
 
First Impressions
 
The device came in a tiny box inside which was the device and a standard Micro USB cable.  The Device itself feels high quality and has a weighty feel to it.  Buttons have a nice click to them and the thing feels like it should cost more than the proposed price of $100 (around £62!)  I did find that the scroll wheel felt a little loose and not quite as responsive as it could be.  After inserting my Micro SD i found i had to re-format to FAT32 instead of the NTFS i had prepared it with.  Finally we were ready to Rock and Roll!
 
Display
 
The Display on this device seems much sharper than the resolution would have you believe however i found that the contrast is somewhat lacking and the screen while bright enough just seems a little too washed out.  Its purely functional without too much fuss.  You are able to choose from several colour themes to give the UI a look to suit your mood - i stuck to the default steel grey look.
 
Interface
 
The interface took me a while to get to grips with - but after half hour / 45 minutes i was navigating with ease.  Everything seems pretty logically laid out, though i wasn't too sure why there are seperate menus for playback settings and system settings. 
Music info is displayed nicely over album art while playing back music - this neatly fades away if left alone but can be displayed again with a click of the OK button.  Everything feels fast and responsive, i didnt experience any lock-ups or freezes while using the device.
 
Sound Quality
 
I may sound a little harsh here but at the back of my mind i 'know' this is a budget device.  I feel what Fiio have achieved here is amazing for the cost of the little thing. 
The X1 has a pleasant sound, i liked the wide soundstage but felt it lacked punch and energy.  I like to listen to music loud but found the X1 just couldnt deliver the volume levels i like.  I thought i could maybe compensate with some EQ, but found that for some reason volume is limited when EQ is in use.  I couldn't find a way to unlock this limit, but thats not to say the feature isn't available.
 
At lower volumes the sound is pretty crisp though the mids i did feel were a little muddy, which seems to get more muddy with higher volumes.  It wasn't unpleasant and i could easily listen to it for long periods of time but given the choice i'd reach for my DX50.  I did feel the sound was better than the iPod as i always feel the sound from iPods is a bit crunchy and lacks depth.
 
Conclusion
 
The X1 surprised me - i expected a cheap device to 'feel' and 'Be' a cheap device, however the X1 doesn't feel cheap at all.  I think it feels, looks and sounds a lot better than it has any right to.  If Fiio do sell these at the price they say they will then i think that anyone looking for a decent DAP need look no further and will be in for a little treat.  However those wanting a better sound may want to look at spending a little more.
 
I 'liked' the X1 but ultimately didn't 'love' it.

Audio Quality: 4.5/5
 
Battery Life: 4/5 (with "Idle Poweroff" feature turned on it should last a couple of days at the least)
 
Design: 4/5 (good and beautiful but mediocre scroll wheel)
 
User Interface: 4/5 (convenient enough!)
 
Value: 3.5/5 (would have given it 5/5 if it weren't for the "24-192 problem" mentioned below)
 
I have had this DAP since at least 6 months ago and have listened to music by it almost every day.
 
Just a few clarifications:
 
Scroll wheel is inaccurate but then again it's a luxury in this price range IMO. also you can use the other buttons to navigate.
 
It has problem playing 24 bit 192 kHz FLAC files...the sound gets chopped up for 2 or 3 secs like a rectangular gate had been applied to it. I tried changing the albums and pressing the reset but the problem persists even though resetting made the frequency of this occurrence much less. that reminds me, I have had to reset the device 3 times in this 6 month period because it wouldn't turn on at all!
maybe changing the sd card's format to ex-fat will solve this issue but I don't have more than a few 24-192 albums and I don't listen to them much, so ... who cares !
 
The screen in washed out, which means it has less than enough contrast to cope with extreme lighting such as sunlight. well... this is "kind of" acceptable considering the low price too, I guess.
 
Sound quality is good but I can't compare it to anything except my fiio e7k connected to my laptop and X1 actually is better sounding than E7k. It feels like the e7K has a narrower soundstage and a looser bass in default setting.
 
Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase though I would have bought "X3 second generation" if it was available back then.

Disclaimer
 
I got this unit as part of Australasian tour arranged by Brooko, thank you very much for including me in this tour.
 
Introduction
 
I am just another music fans in this world, I love listening to music, and that made me stumble into head-fi around 7 years ago when looking for the best way to listen to my music. I am not in anyway an audiophile, heck not even close, so please forgive any lack of details in my review. Most importantly this is my personal impression on the unit, most likely i heard things differently than you, my ears, my preferences, my brain
 
Since Fiio X1 is a DAP, I think it's only proper to compare them with other DAPs, having said that i never own a lot of DAPs, so for this review I will just compare them with the Kogan MP4 player and my phone, HTC One M7 in term of sound quality.
 
For the majority of my listening i am using T-Peos Altone 200.
 
Build Quality
 
I guess everyone will agree that the X1 build quality is simply superb, you got to love those aluminium body, it just feel solid and looks good. The Kogan MP4 player can't compete here, but of course they are about 1/3 cheaper so it's not really a fair comparison. 
 
Interface
 
This kind of stuff never bothered me much, but if anyone need to know i found them very easy to use, no problem here.
 
Sound Quality
 
Ok the most important part for me, sound quality, so how do they sound? In short they sound awesome! They are leaning toward a bright and warm sound signature, music sounds fun and engaging. Some people says that they are neutral, but from my experience i would say they have a bit of U shape sound signature, the reason for this is my Altone can be a bit too bright going straight from the X1 using the silicon tips. Changing to a comply tips help tamed the highs here.
 
Compared to the Kogan, i would say either a). Kogan is more neutral, or b). Kogan is more mid centric, since the Altone sounds just about right coming straight from them even with the silicon tips. Kogan MP4 player provide a very good competition for the X1 in term of sound quality, i can't really say which one is better or worse since different pairings and amping will yield in different result. I guess it's safe to say that if you prefer some sparkle in treble and better bass, the X1 is the DAP to go.
 
Compared to HTC One, well i have never really like my HTC One SQ, it's not that bad, it's just ok, somehow i found music is a bit dull going out straight out of the phone, I am aware that i can install some DSP like Viper audio but i still think Fiio X1 sounds better even after all that DSP. Mind you i don't really tweaked the Viper setting that much, so your miles may vary.
 
Amping
 
As a part of this tour, i also receive Fiio e11k kilimanjaro 2 portable amplifier to be tested. Another good thing about Fiio X1 is that it has a line out mode when you want to chain them to another amp, and to be honest i am not expecting a lot of change with the amping, but boy am i wrong. Line out + e11k, double awesome! Remember when i said about the Altone being too bright, it's gone, they are perfect now. Switch on the bass boost on the e11k, oh wonderful. I can't believe how great a DAP + Amp + Altone sounded, i automatically start my foot tapping to the music. It is the perfect pairing, they must have made them to be paired together. In short if you got the extra budget go with the e11k as well, they complement the whole package perfectly.
 
To be fair i also try e11k with my Kogan, and again it improves the sound of my Kogan as well, but i will say they are better paired with the X1.
 
And of course to be fair i also pair them with my phone, and again it also improves the sound, but meh, will take the X1 anytime.
 
Quick note, just for fun i tried my AKG K340 on the X1 + e11k combo, and to my surprise they manage to drive them quite well. Obviously it's not as good as my desktop DAC/Amp (Micromega MyDAC/Project Sunrise) but they manage to deliver those particular beautiful acoustic guitar sound that made me fell in love with the K340, i am quite impressed.
 
Summary
 
I love the Fiio X1, i am currently considering to buy them, but probably will wait until i have enough money to buy e11k as well since they are just perfect together. You can't go wrong with these, they are simply awesome

Well…it’s not the X5, it’s true. It also doesn’t cost US$350.00. It definitely isn’t a Rockboxed Sansa Clip, and it definitely isn’t an iPod Touch. These were the different units (unamped) I compared the X1 to (unamped as well) when I participated in the X1 tour organized by FiiO.
 
So what is it? The X1 is a small, well-built and pretty-looking little DAP built by FiiO to appeal to those more in the “budget-fi” market. It will have an MSRP of about US$100. It features a variant (improved) of the good UI they introduced with the X5. It uses the same clickwheel as the X5, but it’s a little smaller and as a result actually works better. It also has no black border around the screen like the X5 does. It only has one micro-SD slot, and does not work as a DAC.
 
It has a sound signature that is closer, more in-your-face, than the X5’s and as a result is definitely a little warmer (not necessarily bassier) than its older sibling, the X5. It still sports great placement of sounds, and does a wonderful job of presenting dynamic range in recordings that have it.
 
I put the X1 through its paces using FLAC 16/44 files and ran through multiple genres, from jazz to rock to classical to folk to electronic and all were enjoyable, the electronic more so than the others).
 
I used my Magnum X build (Magnum X drivers in Korina sleeves and SR325is cups), my SR80 pink drivers in African Blackwood cups, a pair of Blox M2C and a pair of HiSound E212 IEMs. The bass from the HiSounds was too much…impressive, but a little overwhelming. The Magnum X felt harsh after a while, but the SR80 pinks and the Blox sounded just right.
 
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the X1. I will not, however, be selling my X5 and replacing it with one. This is a good thing. To be honest I was a little afraid I would want to ditch the X5 after five minutes with the X1. To its credit the X5 withstood the challenge. The iPod Touch and the Sansa Clip will remain where they are (in the upper right desk drawer, the Clip waiting for my wife to take it running, the iPod Touch waiting for me to use its timer in my morning meditation sessions).
 
The established hierarchy in my household will remain the same, but I suspect it will not in other people’s homes. The X1 is going to be a solid contender in the market. It has great build quality, has a few improvements on the X5 (UI and clickwheel implementation), and despite not sounding quite as good as the X5, is still nothing to be ashamed of in the audiophile arena.
 
Now all we need is for FiiO to release either an IEM or an earbud to go with it with their usual emphasis on quality and value…
 

Sorry for the semi-quick review.
I'm part of the X1 Australia tour. I'd like to thank FiiO, Joe Bloggs and everyone in the tour for making this possible.

I'm going to be as blunt as possible. It's the X1 vs an iPhone 5, using my Audiofly AF180s. I have headphones but prefer IEMs, headphones for me collect dust.
The iPhone is a consumer market DAP. The X1 is a budget DAP. Both can play FLAC & ALAC files. I'll review parts that make a DAP for me.

1. Build Quality.

The X1 is built from aluminium / metal. It's almost wholly made from metal except from the click wheel, which is rubber / plastic. The click wheel is okay, kind of like the iPod classic. It's not too sensitive and easy to use.

The buttons are made from metal and have a solid feel to them. The power button is recessed, which is a good choice as it stops the player from being turned off or locked. Overall, build quality is a 7.5/10. The click wheel lets the whole thing down. The audio jack isn't gold plated, but that keeps the price down.

Form factor
Form factor is 10/10. I couldn't of asked for better form factor in my hand, it's so light the buttons are easy to use.

UI
UI is a 7/10. It's not quite there yet, and I'm coming from an Apple device to this. The UI is good, easy to use but there's just something missing that I can't put my finger on. It's mainly the lack of a touchscreen.


Battery life
Battery life is a 9/10. For me it lasts about 1-2 days on 1 charge. On paper it says 12 hours, so battery life will be different from person to person depending on how much you use it. Line Out uses more battery, but not by too much.

Sound
Sound is almost analytical compared to the iPhone's warmer sound (I use the canopener app so my sound is altered)
Personally I like the clarity of the X1, it's really clear but the flatter sound lets it down for me. It's still enjoyable, but I'm not sure that I'd move completely from an all in one solution for better sound.
The X1 isn't forgiving of bad recordings and highlights their weaknesses.

Overall, the X1 is an 8.5/10. The UI lets it down, but everything else is perfect for a $100 player. Everyone should have this, it's a direct replacement for Sansa Clips and all those other cheap budget players.
I don't want to give it back, it's become a good part of my life. Probably buying one soon.


Would this be your go-to audio player? No. It's good for high-quality files and for times you don't want to get your phone out your pocket.

What was the best thing I noticed about this DAP?
No itunes. Easy, straightforward file to file sharing. Insert high five emoji here.

The main reason I love this DAP is the full package - the sound, the UI, the build quality and the usability. There's no glitches I can see, the soundstage isn't flat like on an iPhone, the build is amazing for a $100 player, it's small and lightweight. The sound is different to the iPhone and both have their perks. I'm not sure which is the overall contender, but I'd have both by choice.

Is it for you? Listen to it and see. Be warned - once you've used it for a week, you'll want to keep it.

    edit: January 2016, the X1 is at the time on firmware V1.6, I've been using it for some time now, and it is again a great improvement. no more of what I called FIIO's bug, now after coming back to the "now playing" song from any menu, the "back" button takes us to the list of songs for that album like any other DAP would do. it's a drastic and very significant improvement. added to this the firmware got rid of the 3 thousand something song limit it could scan(was still accessible when browsing by folder though). also the wheel works way better than before thank to firmware update.
so right now I take the FIIO out of my "Chinese DAPs with crap UI that sound good" list, and place it into my "DAP with ok UI that sounds good" list.  more than ever before I believe the X1 to be a real bargain for the price.
 
          At the moment of that review we're at firmware V1.3, I waited to post this since V1.1 to see if the firmwares would bring important stuff like they did on the X3. Now with some adjustments done on the µSD for practical use, and enough time to stop wondering if the wheel would break(I now believe it's a sturdy little wheel), I feel that this DAP is honestly worth reviewing and most of all worth buying for its audio qualities.
As always with FIIO there are a few things that I find great, and make me wonder why other brands don't do it? And other functions and UI choices that scream unfinished business and show that FIIO is still pretty new to DAPs interfaces.
My very short writing about sound was made using a switch(matched as closely as possible by reading the voltage output into my laptop with a 1khz tone), and compared to a few other DAPs and amps. All with mostly IEMs not sensitive to impedance as not to mistake the FR change from impedance with the actual sound of the DAP.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                    for size reference, with sony A15, and good old sansa clip+. as you can see it's still a very pocketable DAP, don't mistake it with the size of a big X5.
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 
Speed:
The boot time is about 15seconds for me, nothing impressive, yet good compared to most products doing a full boot. So a very ok time.
if you change tracks or pause and then press play again, or simply select a new song while browsing, the music might start in advance of the screen's refresh. And that lag gives a feeling that the DAP is slower than it really is. In effect it is pretty fast and tends to start playing songs faster than on my sony A15. Where strangely enough, using the sony's smooth movements and screen switching, you get the false idea that it's the faster DAP to react to a command.

 
Wheel:
8buttons+a wheel is overkill, I would expect between 7 and 9 buttons, or a lot less and the wheel, not both. Here the UI wasn't optimized for the wheel like Apple did. If next/previous could do vertical scrolling in all menu pages(it does in most), then you could effectively not use the wheel at all. I personally would love a setting to disable the wheel(never liked them and never bought ipods, I'm a button guy).
That wheel brings more of an alternative choice for the user than a simplification of anything in the interface. Like the long press at the center for volume when you have already 2 side buttons for volume, or scrolling your library when you could do it with the 2 bottom buttons. It takes some learning and we can find a few of those redundancies in the actions. Anyway, after 2days I had adapted and didn't whine as much as I did the first day. So most of it really ends up to getting used to the DAP and personal choices.

Some people might complain about the wheel being very slightly wobbly, but it looks like a million bucks, and in the end the DAP feels sturdier to me than the X3 did.
My first day with the X1 reminded me of my deathadder's scroll-wheel(mouse), about 20steps, but you end up miss-clicking sometimes because it doesn't get locked into a position precise enough. Just like the rest, with some practice you do get better at it.

 
Looking for a song:
Here I'll have 2 opinions, the default one, and the one you get once you have “optimized” your library.
Looking for a song is a bad experience. I can't say it another way, you waste too much time scrolling the entire library. So be it by folder, or by artist, or by song, it's all the same, there are too many songs to start at A each and every time.

Now my take on it:
- If you have a huge library, first I would suggest to use the lower button to scroll instead of the wheel, you look a little less like a psychopath when you'll do that in the street(just saying from how people looked at me when I played “hamster simulator 2015” in front of them). The buttons are just easier for long massive movements.

- Getting alphabet folders to drastically improve browsing speed, a DIY UI.

 
                            In the pocket:
 

You can set it so that when the screen turns off, the volume buttons on the side are still active(and the front buttons are locked). Short successive press on the volume buttons let you set … the volume. Amazing, I know!!!
But a long press becomes next/previous track!!!!! Ain't it genius? 2Buttons on the side is almost all you need, I find it to be simply my best “in the pocket” experience ever.
And as you've already noticed, I'm not sucking up to FIIO, those instant 2 side buttons<=>4actions are all I need in my back pocket. And in practice, they never activate just from me moving around, so I never need them locked.
I loved a few sony DAPs because of the side buttons, I also love the Cowon system where you decide if you want the volume to be volume, or track change. And can easily use unlock to switch between functions.
Well the X1 has the same kind of idea, except it's de facto better to use IMO. And anything that has only front buttons or touchscreen is simply useless in a pocket. You have to take those DAPs out for every single action you want to perform, they all fail from my “portable on the move” perspective.
The ON/OFF button(that also turns ON the screen/unlocks) is right next to the 2 volume buttons but isn't standing out, you can barely feel it. So you really immediately feel the 2 volume buttons and don't risk hitting the wrong one by mistake.
Really it works just as it should and I find that perfect in my back pocket. Most will find that trivial, but to me that's what makes for a good experience with a DAP(but then nothing beats a remote and a few basic functions are available on the X1 by remote).
With the silicone case you downgrade the experience from brilliant to functional because the silicone power button is out too much, but still easy to identify.

I tried the other lock options, but to me they're not for on the go use, more like for the desktop kind of setting, or when you really need a fast way to press pause(but for that you could try to get a remote).

 
                          In my hand:
 
Browsing the library isn't good by default, I've said it enough. It lacks alphabetical search so you need to do as I did and make one with your folders.

There is still what I call the FIIO bug(should be solved on the android one at least). When you leave the “now playing” window to do something(EQ, change a setting, activate the line out...) you can go back to the now playing song real fast, but from that moment the “back” button will only take you back to the main menu instead of going “one up” into the browsing three. Meaning that you will now need to browse from the start if you want to select a new album. It is very annoying TBH, you get used to it, but it's lame. Obviously my DIY alphabet browsing helps a lot to get past that “bug” faster.
this is no longer true, check the 1.6V firmware improvement at he start of the review.
 

So once the all “looking for a song” problem is solved, the rest of the UI is actually simple and pretty intuitive. For example you can get back to the “now playing” screen with one long and one short press of the “back” button from anywhere. Even on my Sony I can need up to 3 and 4 actions to do the same, and I think very highly of Sony’s UI. Like I said in introduction, a few things are annoying, and others are nothing short of impressive. There is no avoiding them, so it will really come down to personal appreciation of the pros&cons of this DAP.

 
 
 
 
 
 
EQ:
7bands equalizer going from +6 to -6db. It does the job in most situations, and doesn't clip the sound or lower the volume from ON to OFF. So a relatively easy to use EQ.
The sound doesn't clip at any volume setting, because activating the EQ set the maximum volume possible at 88 out of 100(6db lower). So you don't have to be careful with the EQ, FIIO is careful for you. How cool is that?

 
Balance:
This setting will be useless to many people, but to anybody with one ear more damaged than the other(from a position at the job, from shooting firearms...) it can be nice to have it. What it does is change the volume level to make left or right channel louder. So basically you change the settings until you have the lead singer right in front of you again.

 
Hiss/noises/and anything that isn't music:
With the hf5 or IE80(both low impedance high sensitivity IEMs) I can notice a very little hiss only when getting the volume almost at zero while not moving at all in the most quiet place possible, and it's super low. If you know me a little I pretty much always complain about hiss on DAPs, and I'm very happy with the noise floor of the X1. It's about the same level as a clip+(and in fact better as it doesn't have the annoying buffering noises of the clip+). My A15 hisses about twice as loud(subjectively). And I remember the DX50 to also hiss a lot(again with sensitive IEMs only).
So for a DAP's headphone out, it's really a good job again. I really value FIIO for that, the X3 had maybe the cleanest background I ever experienced on a DAP. With most DAPs nowadays sounding clean and pretty much transparent, hiss on IEMs is one of the last criteria that really matters to me for audio quality.

There is a small noise when going from 16/44 to 24/96 or back(I experienced that on a few DACs sometimes), Only on changing resolution. Some might get annoyed by it in “shuffle ALL” setting. Else when listening to an album it won't happen and all is silence and music. Using almost exclusively 16/44 flac and mp3 it's a non issue for me, I only noticed with my test tracks for the review TBH.
 
 
I have another thing for noise, and that is shielding against cellphones. In that respect the X1 fails bad. My phone calling at 40cm(15inches) makes some still loud noises with the X1.
And this ends up being the only thing stopping me from telling everybody to go buy one as a cheap way to get excellent sound. It's a great little DAP, I really believe that. And would still believe it if it was costing 2 or 3 times as much. But for me, bad shielding is a problem depending where I go.
Other brands suck at this too, as if we were living in 1980 and cellphones were a non issue...
DX50 wasn't great at shielding, the studioV, the CK4, were nightmares... And even many amplifiers are actually very sensitive to cellphones. So I'm complaining because I find this to be a problem, but I'm well aware that it's not an isolated problem at all, still FIIO might want to start looking that up to at least reduce it a little.
What's the point of running after hifi sound if we end up with a “tatatak tatatak tatatak” noise each time a phone looks for a tower? At a time when so many people pretend they can hear the benefits of high-res, I don't get how this is still accepted in audio?
My sony daps are fully shielded, but they also don't have an amp section so to speak. So I'm guessing maybe op amps don't like cellphones, and anything with a good amp section will be sensitive? IDK.
 
As a global noise conclusion, that still makes the X1 a really good product compared to the competition, but it could be better with shielding.

 
Line out:
As usual with FIIO, the line out is great and rather loud(about 1.5v just like HO maxed out). For portable devices it's really good(ideally a line out would have 2v but only rarely gets there on portable devices). I definitely think that people in need of high gain for some low sensitivity headphones, can benefit from the extra push of a source delivering higher voltage to the amp.
By comparison, my sony A15 has a very quiet line out that is 16db quieter than the X1's(10db is considered twice as loud), so possibly worst SNR on the sony, and my amp has to do some extra effort to get the same gain level(loudness).
In some special situations, it can also be a double edged sword. If you're using very sensitive IEMs with your amp, then that extra voltage might force you to reach the imbalance region of your amp's knob.
Something like a Pico slim will not be concerned(“digital” control of the volume shows close to no imbalance at any level), while a Pico(not slim) had in my experience some imbalance problems at lower volume. So as always, make a clear list of your needs before you pick a DAP or an amp. You will often end up regretting going for the FOTM on headfi without really looking into the power output and impedance of the DAPs. For example this cheap X1 can drive headphones that the very expensive sony ZX2 cannot(fact, not opinion). So don't get blinded by overly simplistic statements of superiority you are bound to read on headfi. Truth is never so simple and can only be reached with the complete sound system in mind, starting with your own headphone and what it needs to work at its best.
 
All in all it's an excellent line output and I do recommend the X1 to people willing to use an amp. A nice FIIO amp, maybe a C&C BH(people seem to love it), or something like that. I'm not a pro when it comes to cheap amps sorry. Obviously the better the amp for your headphone, the better the sound, the amp section on portable devices being the main bottleneck after the headphone itself.
I repeat it often, but the right external amp is often the only real answer to some specific IEMs or headphones problems. To deal with hiss, impedance, crosstalk, power limit... You will rarely check all marks with just a DAP for all your headphones/IEMs. So going cheap with the X1 as a DAP when you know you will use an amp is a very interesting option for actual sound quality.

 
Impedance:
2ohm.
I'm a believer of lower is better, but realistically, most DAPs are around 3 to 5ohm(because it's an easy cheap trick to improve the source's behavior, but of course that's the usual “I need to look good and don't care if what you plug into me will suffer from it”.
2ohm with the 1/8minimum ratio recommended for impedance bridging, means that you might want to avoid any IEM that goes below 2*8=16ohm(many multi BA IEMs go below that even if they are specced higher).
So for most IEMs above 16ohm things will be great and the signature variation should mostly stay below 1db. (you know, all the feedbacks saying that a DAP is cold or warm when in fact people are talking about their IEMs reacting to the DAP's impedance).
For multidriver IEMs below 16ohm, expect more than 1db variation in the signature(the amplitude depending on the impedance's curve of the IEM itself).
If impedance is important to you, then the X3 has 0.3ohm or below over the audible frequency range, it's really impressive even for non portable amps.

 
µSD:

You can chose the library update to be automated or not.
You do need the card to be formatted in FAT32 like on almost all DAPs for ideal behavior(the DAP can format the card for you, just do it befor loadin it with msc ^_^).
The scan is pretty fast, I must say that was a very nice surprise.

 
Accessories:
Well for 100$ you get a usb cable, a silicon casing some screen protections and a few stickers. Anybody who's into buying second hand or reselling his gears will know how much that actually means. I personally don't use cases because I don't sell my DAPs(I mostly give them away), and I'm looking for small portable DAPs. So I'm not so keen on making them bigger with a case. But usually people are very happy to have a way to keep their precious DAPs in good shape for years.
So it's easy to understand how attractive this X1 can be. When I see what I get for the price, I can't help but also think about the AK240 and whine at the margin they make on customers. Thank you FIIO for letting us know the value of things.

 
Gapless:
Didn't work perfectly for me on mp3 but worked on flac. I didn't try more than 2 albums made on purpose, because I'm used to have my live albums and classical music in one single track(so that it will be gapless on any DAP).
So maybe don't take my word for it.
 
 
Replaygain:
No.
I suggest hard coding it on the files you put on the µSD if you get bored of changing the volume level all the time. If you shuffle a lot, you do need that in my opinion.
 
 
USB:
It charges the DAP and let you transfert files on the µSD if you don't have a faster card reader. No DAC input capabilities like a X3 or X5.
 

 
 
Playlist:
The X1 offers 2kinds of playlists by itself, and you can use a third one with .m3u(or m3u8).
-The first one is to create playlists using the X1 itself, when playing a song, you can add it with the playlist option (top left button and go to the +sign). You can't name your playlists but you can create several.
You then access them here:
 
 
 
-The second option is again on the top left button, to click on the little heart icon to make your favorite list of songs. This is limited to one list, but this time you go in the favorite menu and add several songs at once. When the playlist system only let you add the actual playing song to a list.
You can access that list here:

 

 
-Third option is to use .m3u to make playlists in the same usual way(keep the direct path between the .m3u and the songs identical)
But still the X1 requires a little organization as the .m3u playlists will not show up in the playlist menu(only the lists made with the X1 will show up there), you will basically see the playlist where you placed it when browing by folder.
I placed my .m3u playlists at the root of the µSD so that they would all be together when browsing and immediately accessible by reverse scrolling(as they appear at the end of the list after the folders). That way there is no problem with the relative path to the songs(as they're all starting at the root of the storage), and they are fast to access when browsing by folder.
Again with a little trick you turn the X1 into a pretty convenient DAP.

(3subfolders, 3playlists, and one test tone ^_^) Just click on the playlist you want to get the list of songs as if it was a folder.
 
 
 
Compatibility:
With my overly universal µSD card I had zero trouble. It's a card with only 1 embedded pics per track, no bigger than 300*300, nothing else but music files, limited number of sub-directories, with track number as the beginning of the song's names(01 02 …), only 4 or 5 tags(album, artist, track name, track number, number of discs), ID3 2.3, and no tricky symbols or languages.
And that's pretty much what I suggest doing if you get a X1(or any non android FIIO DAP). None of those stuff are required to listen to your music, but it could make sure you'll have the best experience possible.
Now with another old µSD with random mess for test purpose, I had tracks in the wrong order(alphanumerical order instead of track order). It didn't see some of my Japanese albums, even when the track name was in roman letters(romaji), but the name of the artist was in Japanese. The songs simply didn't show up when browsing(I use english language setting).
Some .jpg didn't work, I didn't look too much into it as I now tend to embed pics. That works on pretty much all DAPs and avoid to have to rename the covers depending on the DAP. Using bigger images seems to slow down the screen refresh slightly when you change tracks so I don't recommend it. The other reason why I don't recommend it, the size and quality of the screen.

 
Screen:
As it happens, it's pretty much the same screen size as my sony A15. But having it horizontally reduces the effectiveness of the browsing in my opinion.
Others have mentioned it, but the colors and contrast are washed out(well it's a 100$ DAP). And while I have no problem with that, as I didn't plan on watching my summer holiday pics on 300pixel screens anytime soon, it does make browsing a little more difficult in a sunny day.
The good part is that there is no strong angle limit to look at the screen(it doesn't turn all white when you're not straight in front of the screen). So a better experience than with my Sony E585 or Cowon I10 in that respect.

 
Save your ears:
I love the volume that can reset when you turn the DAP OFF(another of those great FIIO functions you wish were on all the DAPs in the world). Using all kinds of IEMs with all kinds of sensitivities, I set the volume for my most sensitive IEM to be right, and go up from there on other IEMs. That way I never hurt my ears because I forgot to turn the volume down after fooling around with another headphone.
 
Same with switching from line out to headphone out(it is physically using the same input and you set it in the menu).
 

The idea of plugging my IEMs while in “line out” setting scared me A LOT! But the guys at FIIO thought about security, when you turn ON the DAP in “line out” mode, the music doesn't start instead you get a warning. As the music can resume automatically when using the headphone out setting, it's a great way to remember, even if you don't look at the screen warning, you get a hint that something is not right. And you will avoid blowing your ears off by mistake.
The same way you can't change to line out while playing a song. It may seem annoying, but it saves you from a bad manipulation launching 1.5V into IEMs that reach 115db with 0.3V. So it's a very wise choice made by fiio.

 
Sound:
The sound is pretty nice and clean, not warm or anything. I have clear memories of the X3 being warm and needing some treble boost to make voices to sound neutralish(/!\ With the very first firmwares, I didn't hear the x3 recently). The X1 just sounds neutral.
So I'm going to make some people angry again, but to me as long as the IEM doesn't require much and isn't impedance sensitive, a clip+ sounds very very close. And so did the Sony A15(done with a switch and volume matched at 0.2 or 0.3db as I couldn't get better with volume controls). It felt like soundstage/headstage might have slight differences, but I can't swear I would succeed in a blind test only based on that aspect of the sound. I find that more and more DAPs do sound clean and transparent nowadays(great for us), and the main differences now are impedance output, hiss, and what they can drive.
Now to be honest, the X1 is superior to the A15 in pretty much all audio specs you could think of measuring. If you read my review on the sony A10 series, you see that I use almost only it and not so much the X1, but that's for convenience, certainly not for sound.
I also think it is better than a good old sansa clip in all audio specs except for impedance(the clip is 1ohm the X1 is 2ohm).

Trying my hd650, didn't change much between my A15 and the X1, meaning that I would add an amp anyway. Now on a more realistic scale, the X1 can get more gain(how loud it goes) and certainly more power than the Sony, and will be very fine with most portable headphones.
The X3 when I had it(again it was with the very first firmwares so it might not stand now) had some stereo stuff going on, the headstage felt like everything was pushed in front. I didn't get that feeling on the X1 and the stereo imaging seems perfectly normal.
So good sound, good volume control, nice power, no hiss, cheap and versatile. Anything else?

This DAP sounds nice, People who can stand the UI should get this DAP and put money in a good pair of headphone/IEM or even amp instead. Of course if you guys can afford the best of everything, then go ahead, but as a starting block for a portable sound system, the X1 has the specs and versatility needed to get good great fidelity.
Some reasons to get a more expensive DAP could be size, weight, connectivity/features, UI(obviously), battery life, the idea that cheap stuff can't sound good and you need a 4 digits price to get your placebo going full throttle, etc. But sound is fine as it is and a great value for the money IMO.

 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
+
+OK loudness(close to 1.5v into most loads)
+Sound(low distortions, low noise, all is pretty good).
+Line out, good quality and loud(1.5v)
+µSD slot.
+Physical buttons (and the great side buttons that can do both volume and change track!!!!)
+Better looking than a pono.
+Can turn ON to a preset volume however loud it was when turned OFF. You get a Warning when line out is ON.
+Balance (left/right loudness) for people with uneven hearing it can help put the lead singer back at the center of the headstage.
+Can read low sample rate tracks(some podcasts and free audiobooks are recorded below44.1khz)
+ 7band EQ
+Background hiss is super low compared to many other DAPs.
+Still a portable size (the X5 is too big for an all purpose DAP IMO).

 
-
-All the UI/browsing troubles!
-No internal memory.
-EMI shielding is not good.
-Screen isn't amazing(I don't care but some do).
-The wheel is a little wobbly and overall isn't that great of a choice when there are already so many buttons.
-Some work is required from you to rename and/or retag/sort music to improve compatibility/track order/browsing speed.
-No replay gain
 
 
 
 
FIIO X1, the IKEA of UI. You get it cheap because you have to build the browsing method yourself. ^_^
If your library/tagging skills are bad you end up with a mess and should avoid at least all non android FIIO DAPs(not yet out at the time of the review). Clearly not everybody is willing to spend time working on “making” a DAP better to use, just like IKEA isn't for everybody. So some will rather buy the ready made furniture at a higher price and be happy for all the time they saved.
Now if you're willing to spend a little time on it, you end up with something nice to use and you saved a good deal of money compared to a Sony or an Apple product.

 
Sound quality is rather good, to me it's neutral, pretty clean, really low hiss level. 2ohm impedance output is still low enough for almost all IEMs(16ohm and above ideally). it goes louder(1.5v) than my rockboxed clip+ at max level(my sony A15 max out is around 0.32v...). But voltage isn't all there is to driving a headphone(unless it's a 600ohm one), and the X1 will drive adequately a wider range of headphones than a clip or a sony(any sony), or most cowons. So even for sound only, it's a very nice entry point DAP that delivers on audio specs.
This little buddy being at about 100$ also justifies some leniency. So while I would never get a DAP with that UI at 500$, I find it fine at 100$. After all even a Sansa clip takes some time to get used to. And did you ever try some of the really cheap Chinese DAPs? For some you even wonder how to turn them ON.
People willing to get a DAP not too expensive, but with actual sound quality should buy this(as long as the headphone used is within driving specs). That's my sincere opinion, as long as you don't mind the UI too much.
FIIO doesn't use fake marketing claims(hello pono), doesn't talk about all the DAC greatness while forgetting to mention that the output will still be only as good as the crap amp section they use(hello sony). FIIO doesn't make big claims, and publishes many specs to prove they're not all marketing and no guts.
It's obviously a very personal judgment, but if honesty was an audio value, then the X1 would indeed be one of the very best at any price. I wish great success to FIIO if only for that transparency and open dialogue they have kept with us on headfi.
 

VIDEO REVIEW:


INTRODUCTION

You might be wondering why you need a Digital audio player when we are living in a century where we use our phones to listen to music. Your phones are dedicated to many other functions like photos, phone calls, data, etc. This in turn limits your phone from having variety of files types & dedicated hardware/software for music! What the digital audio player like the Fiio x1 offers is a dedicated dac/amp to make your music sound much better and battery life dedicated to just music, to name a few. There are of course many more benefits and variety of features depending on the digital audio player we are talking about ! READ ON to find more features for the FIIO X 1 digital audio player.



ABOUT FIIO

Fiio is a Chinese company that produces and sells high quality products at favorable prices to those who love music and style. They strive to raise the reputation of “Made in China.” It was first established in 2007 with the background experience in researching and developing countless portable music product of different types. Fiio strictly adheres to ISO9001 standards in quality management and thus Fiio products are sold internationally with pride. They ceaselessly pursues perfection in designing the perfect product for users, producing many variety of products with improvements until this day.


DISCLAIMER

This unit was purchased by me for this review and as usual I am committed to providing reviews with no bias.

SPECS

DAC: Texas Instruments' Newest PCM5142

AMP: Intersil's newest ISL28291

lossless music formats: APE, FLAC, WAV, WMA, ALAC, at up to 192kHz / 24bits Plus mp3, aac, ogg vorbis...

Material: light durable aluminium alloys

Weight: 106 grams

Battery: 1700 milliamp hours (10-11 hours usage)

Output level: 100 mW @ 16 ohms

Recommended impedance range: 16 to 100 ohms

BUILD QUALITY / FUNCTIONS

Build quality: Fiio is known for their build quality and it is no exception for the Fiio x1, which is built in full aluminum. It is very durables and very nice to the touch. Even the buttons feel nice, although they are not the “nicest,” you cannot expect more from a 100-dollar digital audio player, for the price you pay, one thing you will have no complaints is the build quality.

EQ functionality: Fiio really stood up to bring the best in a budget package here by adding this function. With this function, you can easily EQ your music just the way you like it. It even has its own set of EQs for different genres of music such as pop, vocal, rock, etc.



Themes: adding to the style and beauty of the DAP, it features an all new UI theme rendered on a full colour display. Available in gold, silver, pink, orange, blue, and green themes.

Line output: The X1 supports both driving headphones directly and line output as well, switching between the two easily via a menu selection. Using line output, you may expand the X1 by bundling it with dedicated headphone amplifiers for more demanding power hungry headphones.

Micro SD card slot: support up to 128GB, which plenty for most individuals, even enthusiasts.

Controls Buttons: the control buttons are very easy to access in your pocket and simple. Featuring center play and pause/enter button and fast forward, next song, etc in the nicely placed X – buttons.

Factory reset function: on the side of the device, there is an extremely small hole that you can use in case your device starts malfunctioning or has a seizure, you will need it but we will get on this topic in the later sections of this review.

The scroll button: It is a rubberized mechanical wheel. feels great, I have no complaints.

PRACTIALLY

The flat surface and reasonable size allows for easy pairing with externals dac/amp, not to mention being perfectly comfortable in your pockets.

NEGATIVES / THINGS TO IMPROVE ON

RESET BUTTON: the reset button was a nice touch because it is required because errors frequently arise with different files types of just in general. It is perfectly fine after using a reset button but it would have been nice to not have to use the reset button at all.

Bluetooth: Fiio x1 (1st gen) does not have Bluetooth. Fiio did release the 2nd generation which has Bluetooth and if you really want Bluetooth, you can purchase an external Bluetooth adapter.

Does not support DSD: this is if you really care about REALLY high quality digital files on the go, I would imagine most people are fine with flac files

SOUND QUALITY

I auditioned many different IEMS/headphones across over 100s of different test tracks in lossless flac files. (some include, noble x / LZ A4 / IE80 / HD598cs / m40x / re400 / he400 / h650 ETC)

My conclusion was that this is one of if not the most classic fiio sound signature you will hear. This digital audio player will NOT give you neutrality but more a warm and smooth sound signature, which most people will enjoy. The clarity suffers a bit compared to their higher end DAPs or shanling m1 (another entry dap), especially in the highs. Also, fiio x1 is more powerful than shanling m1 but m1 beats the x1 by far in separation and imaging. But again, Fiio is more full sounding because of its more powerful amp and overall warmer sound signature.

Disclaimer:
 

This unit was in my possession for a few days as part of the Fiio X1 Australasian tour. I'd like to thank @FiiO, @Joe Bloggs and @Brooko for making this tour possible.
 

 
Build:
 
In the world of audiophile DAPs, at $100, the looks alone could have you fooled that it costs more. The X1 has a solid build with an aluminium body along with the buttons, and and feels nice to the touch with a nice weight to it. Fairly smooth edges, no protruding parts or looseness. The buttons are firm and responsive. Recessed power button is a nice touch. Navigation buttons are easily accessible one-handed, and not too far apart or too close to tell the difference, though I would suggest the power button to be at the top instead for even more straightforward control if fumbling it in the pocket. The scroll wheel, though, is my main gripe with the build. It is made of plastic, and not as responsive as it could be, making selections within sometimes will not register. More grip and tactile feedback on the scroll wheel would be my suggestion. Screen display resolution is sharp but lacks a bit in contrast, especially under direct sunlight. There's no internal memory and the X1 accepts one MicroSD card. As there is no cover on the MicroSD slot it is best to avoid exposing the unit to any contact with water at all costs. X1 does not accept DAC.
 
User Interface:
 
The UI is reasonably intuitive. I was able to find my way around the menus and settings without much fuss without referring to the manual. There are a few user-friendly settings such as sleep-timer, brightness, changing button assignments etc to customize the device to your liking. The device sometimes is a bit laggy and takes about half a second to respond. The lack of memory on power-off is a bit letdown. It'd be a nice feature to have to have your last song/playlist when you power it back on.
 
Battery Life:
 
The X1 is listed to last around 12 hours. The battery was still at more than 50% despite me already passing the 6 hours mark some time ago. Pretty impressive for such a unit.
 
Sound:
 
Headphone Out (Unamped)
 
X1 unamped is more than adequate for most, if not all IEMs on the market. As I only use IEMs, I will only comment on its usage with IEMs, in this case mainly my ASG-1Plus. X1 offers a fairly neutral sound with only a tinge of warmth, which was less warmth than I was expecting given Fiio's general line of products, but a welcoming change nonetheless. 
Bass is tight with good impact while lacking a bit in extension. The vocals are full and natural. It has a fairly wide soundstage but not deep, with good imaging and instrument separation. Detail is there but not for critical listening purposes. The noise floor is present with sensitive IEMs but not an issue when music is playing.
My main comparison here would be against my Vivo XShot. The X1 has slightly thicker and fuller mids than the XShot, and has punchier bass. On the other hand, the X1 has slighly smaller soundstage and less clarity and airiness. The two are not huge gaps apart though and both compare favourably.
 
Line Out (Amped)
 
Line out was tested mainly with the E11K on low gain that is included as part of the tour. Again, E11K is fairly neutral, and this latest offerings from Fiio might indicate a more neutral house sound in future products which I am more inclined to be interested in. Since both X1 and E11K go for similar tuning, the difference or increase between headphone-out and line-out is small.
 
Verdict:
 
For the price of $100, what you get is a DAP that decodes up to 24/192 for a Line-Out with a clean and neutral sound in a portable device. The X1 is a solid deal, with sound quality, build quality, portability and usability all rolled into one package that doesn't break the bank of the consumers. Fiio is the brand that has brought many into the audiophile world with its affordable pricing, and with the release of X1 will continue to benefit many, especially the budget conscious.

First off, thanks heaps Brooko it is a privilege to be included in the tour! Thanks also to xtralglactic and boneofimba before and after me for showing me some gear and generally being top head-fiers!
 
My History
 
My only previous exposure to the Fiio range was the old E7 which didn’t blow my socks off as I found that it didn’t add anything special to my setup at the time which was a volume hacked Note 1 feeding my ety er4s’. Since then I have increased my line-up a little adding an Epiphany O2, a Topping NX1 and the Stoner Acoustics UD110 fed by my Note 3. I no longer have the ety’s but I now sport the lovely (IMHO) akg q701’s. I also have a set of havi B3 pro 1’s for travel, takstar pro80’s (which I really don’t use if anyone would like to borrow/buy) and a px200iii (destined for a senngrado build in the future).
 
For your reference I spent my time on the tour testing with the q701’s as they are the most testing of my equipment.
 
Fiio X1 physical impressions
 
She is a beautiful little box. Solid little box with well thought out industrial design…I really like the package. Minimal but very well presented. I did find the player a little chunky coming from using mobiles as my music transport for the last couple of years, but it does feel good in hand. The silicone case was a nice little addition but not having indication of button actions on it made it a little bit of a guessing game until I was used to the controls.
 
The buttons themselves and scroll wheel were all nicely implemented and positioned although I did find my attempts to be precise with the wheel a little frustrating, despite the mini clicks on the wheel the correlation between the click and the advancement on the list didn’t seem to match… a little thing, but when you are trying to get to a list item in a hurry made it a little frustrating.
 
Volume and navigation were not immediately intuitive but once I got used to the system were a logical enough system. I did find I never quite got used to the screen unlock on the side, I always wanted to just hit the middle button on the scroll wheel. I can understand the decision, but it made it a little more awkward when the unit was say, on the desk at work…
 
Fiio E11k physical impressions
 
Once again, Fiio have managed to make an impressive little device. I really dig their styling. On the other hand, as others have mentioned, the placement of the volume knob was a killer on this and actually led me to stop using it after a shorter time, replacing it with the NX1 in the stack, partly on battery life and partly on that baffling decision. A couple of positives on the decision though, a) it does make for a prettier design b) It is easier to change the volume in a stack sitting on your desk…but to be honest, it didn’t really work out for me… shame really, I thought I would enjoy the difference…
My Big Contribution to the Tour Impressions
 
Well, I was thinking… what can I really add to this tour? Many people with great experience will give you their thoughts which mine will often mirror, but I do have a bit more to offer…
 
This is my first non-phone player since the original iPod and since getting into the head-fi community, so my key question coming into this was, will I enjoy not having it all-in-one…
The answer is undoubtedly yes.
 
To be honest, it was not the sound quality or the UI (which I actually find a little cumbersome after the ease of the note 3 graphic interface) but actually the dedication to the music that I enjoyed. There is always another distraction when the phone is with you so the chance of really listening to the music diminishes. I found myself purely tethered to the music and that made me walk around doing little projects to music, or just sitting listening rather than getting distracted on head-fi (it’s a disease, I swear) or other mobile activities and that  was an absolute joy, I re-found a love…
 
So, I will be looking to pick up a player at some stage. Is it urgent and necessary? Not really, I still enjoy my phone and tbh don’t have the money now. However, I will be picking a player up at some stage and I really look forward to the day.
My Sound Impressions
 
Just to reiterate, I did my sound checking with the Q701’s to be as demanding as possible so this may mean that some of the distinctions I draw are a little exaggerated compared to listening through less picky phones… I recognise that but at the moment I don’t really want to listen to anything else in my collection so if you don’t like that, suck it up princess J
 
X1 – headphone out first – The major standout (in a negative way) was that the soundstage collapsed and it was left with a weaker centred image. That being said, there was plenty enough volume and the general sound was still pretty balanced. It was a listenable sound, but there was a bit of the magic missing from the q701 sound, almost a little stuffy.
Note: the sound was improved with the updated firmware and became far more listenable at a pinch but wasn’t a patch imho on the next iteration below.
Line out amped with either the NX1 or E11 – Ah, here is where the magic is! To be honest, I was shocked at the difference this made, the sound stage and definition to the sound came back in spades creating an open strong platform for music. It seemed to me to be really well balanced with no real colouration, just the music coming through strong with nothing missing.
 
E11k – I am not going to go too detailed into this suffice to say that in my opinion this little critter sits between my NX1 and O2. I find the NX1 gets a little strident in the top end and soft in the bass when pushed, only really noticeable when I sit down again with the O2 which fills out the sound just a little more and bass with a little cleaner impact and a smoothness to the highs. If you were to sit the E11k on a scale between the two I would say that it sits about a quarter of the way from the nx1 to the o2 (NX1<E11k<<<O2) on that experience description. Not sure if that makes sense but I hope it adds to your picture of it all 
 
Conclusion
 
Well, this has been a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed the little player and already miss it. It doesn’t have me rushing out the door to purchase it, but I will carefully be saving up my pennies and seriously considering it in the future. It does add something to the music experience coming from a mobile phone music listener to have a dedicated DAP, maybe not too much difference sound wise coming from the Note3 – ud110 – nx1/o2 and from an experience pov adds a whole lot.
 
Thanks for reading and I hope it helps 

So I've being the using the Fiio X1 as my daily with  Havi B3 and my Dn 2000 to the gym and just during breaks at work, also a bit of listening at home and I must say its a really good compact DAP neutral sounding. It is easy to use took me 5 mins to learn all the functions and setting. I wish it just had a little more power as it I have to have it on 70 volume level for the Havi to actually become loud and with the DN 2000 I had it on 45 to become loud I know the Havi like more juice but a bit more power would be nice but it not something really to complain about. Great DAP Fiio surely is paving the way.

Needs to read playlists properly. Better ways to modify playlists. Additional playback options needed (e.g. shuffle current list of songs AND loop al)

Disclaimer

I do not own this unit – I had this unit for a few days as part of an Australasian tour. Thanks to [color=#22229C]@Brooko[/color] for providing his own unit for this tour.
 

Build

Honestly I didn’t expect a $100 device to have this build quality. Solid aluminum with machined buttons, although the plastic scroll wheel feels cheap and detracts the overall value.
8.5/10
 

UI

The UI is an okay to me, while some buttons seems redundant at times. For instance pressing the lower left/right buttons in folder browsing simply moves the cursor to one item over/under, I can see an improvement for future firmware to change this into page scrolling instead.
I personally think the unit need some rework in the line/headphone out department. The option to switch between the two is hidden inside system settings (took me a good 10 minutes before I found it) and requires you to manually pause currently playing song instead of doing it automatically when you switch options.
7/10
 

Accessories

FiiO provides generous amount of accessories included with the package – silicon case, USB cable, 3.5mm interconnect and few stick-on stickers for personalisation. I won’t be using the case and stick on as I like the aluminum feels but YMMV.
10/10
 

Sound

The X1 sounds warm, has more clarity than my iPhone 4S and less detail than DX50+C5D stack. It’s good enough to be paired with IEMs but I didn’t test the X1 with my headphones, barely tested the line out so I won’t comment on that.
8/10

Conclusion

The X1 might not be for everyone but personally I think it’s a good option for introductory DAP for its price. UI needs to be smoothed out a bit otherwise it’s perfect.
8.5/10

Disclaimer:



I received this unit for review purpose as a part of the Australasian tour. The unit is owned by Paul (Brooko). Thank you for making this happen.
 
Summary:
This is the review of Fiio X1 high resolution DAP. I am a new aspiring audiophile member and have experienced quite handful of DAPs from Colorfly C4, HM901, AK240  and several others. But this is my first experience with any Fiio product. I am currently owning AK120II, therefore there will be some reference comparison among X1 and AK120II.  The earphones used for this review are IE800 and JH Roxanne Universal. The X1 DAP is always reviewed with Equalizer Off.
 

 

 

 
What's in the box:

1. Fii X1 player
2. Black silicon case.
3. Micro USB cable for data transfer and charging purpose.
4. Documentation: Quick start guide, screen protectors, warranty, etc.

 
 
Hardware and Build quality:

1. The unit is made from machined aluminum screaming excellent quality throughout. The only non aluminium part is the jog wheel which has a rubber coating on the top.
2. The X1 design cue comes from Apple Ipods.
3. The size and form factor feels just right. It is quite light and easy to carry around.
4. The screen size and resolution is good enough to get the job done. But the screen is hard to see on outdoors though.
5. The DAP's physical interface has standard buttons such as Prev/Fwd track, Back button and a menu button. The buttons have small symbols etched beside them to indicate their functionality. If you press and hold the back button it will take you to the home screen. There is a learning curve in remembering what each button does and can be annoying when the DAP is in the case.
6. Dedicated pause and play button would have been better.
7. There is a welcome tiny blue LED light on the bottom of the DAP to indicate the DAP is on.

 

 
 

1. The volume buttons are on the left side of the player. The Up volume key has a small nub on it to distinguish between up and down volume key.
2. I am not a fan of silicon cases. The rubbery silicon case feels bit cheap and it accumulates dust.
3. The DAP has a 3.5mm audio jack which functions as a line out too. I have not tried the line out as part of the review.
4. The DAP can support up to 128GB of micro SD card and has no internal storage. The media update for my 64GB card full of songs took only few seconds, very impressive!!!!

 
Battery:

1. I got around 8 to 9hrs runtime. The Fiio website says approx 11 hrs. Though majority of my listening included 24bit tracks.

 
Software:

1. The UI is simplistic and offer all the standard options, for e.g. Now Playing, Albums, Artists, Genre, Favs, Playlists, Folder view.
2. I generally browse songs by albums and it would have been good if the software allows the user to configure default shortcuts in the home screen so that I don’t have to go through several clicks to access the album category.

 

 
 

1. I love the way the settings have been divided into Play settings and system settings.

 

 
 

1. The following play settings got my attention.
   1. Allow the user to resume from where it was playing.
   2. Gapless playback.
2. The remaining settings are standard audio settings such as Equalizer.
3. The system settings have info about the firmware, themes, auto power off, etc.
4. One annoying thing I noticed is every time the screen turns off, I have to press the power button to turn on the display. Maybe there is a way to change the behavior but I could not figure it out.
5. I was surprised to see that a player for $100 USD is about to play 24bit songs without any hiccups. It can play APE/FLAC/ALAC/WMA/WAV at max 192KHz/24 Bit.

 

 
 
Sound Quality:

1. The sound is excellent based on the price point and I found it better than AK100 which costs about 4 times the price of this player.
2. The sound felt bit thick and on the warmer side with a narrow centre stage. Sometimes it felt the treble is attenuated and the sound is almost there but something is missing.
3. The DAP was not able to drive my JH audio Roxanne to its full potential, which the Calyx M and AK120II did with ease.
4. However, the synchronization with my IE800 was actually very good much better than AK100.  The background was not completely silent with the Roxanne's. There was a small hiss noise which is not there in the AK120II for the same track.
5. The output power is great and at 50 volume level (max 100) my IE800 was singing pretty excellent.

 
Conclusion:

1. You cannot go wrong with this player for this price point.  The only bad thing is $99 will not get you going out of the box, you need to invest in micro sd card as there is no onboard memory. I think the X1 is the most musical hi res player you can get amongst its competition. Hopefully they will solve the wheel UI synchronization issues with some firmware updates.

Fiio's new X1 is an excellent low cost entry for those looking for better audio quality than what their current smartphones are capable of.

 

I must admit, I am not a fan of DAPs. Even the nicest, most expensive DAPs still don't have the capabilities of most mid range smartphones (touch screen, downloadable programs/album art, wifi transfers, etc). I would be very hesitant to spend $300+ to have none of those features available to me in a separate audio player. This is where the $100 X1 comes in. The DAC and amp inside the player ends up providing very good sound quality at a very affordable price. Here are my impressions of the X1 in the week that I had it. 

 

 

Build Quality:

 

Top notch for the price. The aluminum alloy chassis has a premium feel to it. It feels nice and solid in your hand, and the provided silicone skin and screen protector help prevent possible damage. The click wheel turns easily, and the buttons respond fluidly to touch.

 

Features:

 

-192kHz/24bit playback from just about every useful audio file type (FLAC, ALAC, MP3, OGG).

 

This is a major feature that most audio players ~$100 simply don’t have. This allows high quality playback from sources such as HDTracks with zero issues.

 

-A good (but not great) quality DAC and amp.

 

The DAC and amp used in the X1 (PCM 5142 + ISL28291) are better than your average DAC found in smartphones, but they still fall short to many of the higher level DACs (SABRE) out there by quite a margin. This combo simply doesn’t have the detail and resolution found in higher quality DAPs (X5), but it is better than what $100 normally gets you.

 

-Up to 128GB of SD card storage

 

Huge feature. Any respectable DAP should be using consumer friendly expandable SD card storage.

 

-Line Output

 

Another huge feature. This allows an external amp to pick up where the X1 lacks, which allows more demanding headphones (or speakers) to use the X1 as a source.

 

Ease of Use:

 

This is where the X1 stumbles a bit for me. With touch screen smartphones being such a large part of our lives now, having to use a scroll wheel feels like a time warp back to 2005. While it is easy to navigate through the Fiio UI, there were far too many times I missed the convenience of tapping where I wanted to be in a track.

 

Sound Quality:

 

The overall sound signature of the X1 surprised me with how flat it was. Normally I love a good flat signature, but bass levels actually seemed lower than flat, and with less extension. For bass heavy consumer earphones, this works out pretty well in cleaning up the bass bloat present. For higher quality neutral signature IEMs, it sucks the life out them. EQ ended up being a must in order to bring back sufficient levels of pleasurable bass. Luckily the Fiio EQ works pretty well, but more power hungry IEMs won’t do well off of the internal amp with a large bass boost.

 

Detail retrieval was a noticeable step up from a Moto G that I used in comparison.  

 

Final Thoughts:

 

The Moto G vs. X1 got me thinking… which would be better, a standalone DAP, or a cheap smartphone with a USB DAC/amp attached? With the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop, most android phones now support USB DACs. I was finally able to use my Geek Out 1000 off of my Oneplus One the other day, and the results were fantastic.

 

The X1 is a nice unit that will work very well for most people. For me, while it was nice to try, I vastly preferred the interface of my smartphone and ease of use to run Spotify and Google Play Music (two major things missing from the X1).

 

My suggestion: Now with both Apple and Android supporting USB DACs, the time is now to make a compact, affordable, high quality, easily connectable 192/24 USB DAC/AMP for smartphones and anything else with USB. Separate devices with less features don’t make much sense anymore to me, and I don’t feel I’m alone in this.

 

 

FW 1.0 was used during the review duration.

 

Thanks goes to Joe @ Fiio for providing the X1 for review.

Hello guys !!!
Because I wanted to be included in FiiO’s X1 Preview World Tour for the review of their product I had only 10 days, but I tried to make the most of the time to give a serious review that is not limited only to the acoustic description of the product. In fact the first thing I did after checking the X1, was testing it and checking if the graphs and data reported were real.

 

FiiO certainly does not need any introduction, if you think about portable audio electronics surely FiiO is among the first that come to mind.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

As always I want to start this review with thanks ...


My thanks go to Joe Bloggs (FiiO’s PR) who was keen to know what you thought of this crazy reviewer always ready to be meticulous on any product regardless of price.


Thanks of course go to FiiO itself as a company that once again proves worthy to be where it is now.

 

INTRODUCTION
I was chosen as a reviewer for the FiiO X1 preview world tour, I’m not paid by FiiO (in fact I'll pay the shipping charges to the next previewer, thankfully they are cheap) and have not received the X1 as a gift. I also have to say that the review is my personal opinion.

 

PACKAGING

The packaging is simple: it arrived in a simple cardboard box, but if the savings in packaging allows me a much better quality ... so let it be. (note from FiiO: retail X1’s come with different packaging.)

 

BUNDLE
The bundle consists of everything you need:
Silicone Cover for protection from accidental impact.
USB cable to connect it to your PC and / or DC power.
4 screen protector films (1 applied on the screen out of the factory, 3 spares).
Warranty and User Manual.

 

MATERIALS
The structure of the FiiO X1 is solid, consisting of metal and really nothing to say from this point of view.

 

DESCRIPTION
First, as always, the link to the manufacturer

http://www.fiio.net/en/products/18
And a quick description with regard to aesthetics is delegated to the photospublisched here cose I've not the permission to pubblisching photo on this site at the moment

https://www.facebook.com/marco.bicelli.33/media_set?set=a.1510392935887069.1073741832.100007491309933&type=3


I would like to start from the two beating hearts of the DAP: the DAC and the OPAMP.

The DAC is the PCM5142 from Texas Instruments : http://www.ti.com/general/docs/lit/getliterature.tsp?genericPartNumber=pcm5142&fileType=pdf


It is not top of the line, but is a good DAC for the price.

 

The OPAMP is the OPA2322 (not mentioned on the product page, but info provided by FiiO) http://www.ti.com/general/docs/lit/getliterature.tsp?genericPartNumber=opa2322&fileType=pdf  

whereas the buffer is actually the Intersil ISL28291
http://www.intersil.com/content/dam/Intersil/documents/isl2/isl28191-291.pdf


Here, although this is also the amp chip used by the AK100, I would have preferred something more , you can get peaks in voltage of 4.2 V and only 43 mA of current. Reasoning in what I wanted was an operational amplifier or a headphone amplifier chip so you can have voltages and higher currents, but that would have greatly disturbed the X3.

Reasoning on operational rather that they could not in any way disturbing the other products (operational operating power voltage maximum of 5.5 V) ... I believe that the ISL28291 is a good product.
All you remember how often my speech has little to do with the volume, it is more than sufficient, I speack  relating to details, dynamic. (keep in mind this part because it will return all in listening)

 

My speeches are, however, well known to FiiO in fact She start to describe the product from the hearts and the fact that this player is at first a DAP, in fact She speak now of portable amplifiers (I had connect the X1 to my dual mono amplifier... an interesting experience).

Continuing in compatible formats ... ok serious and important ones are inside.
Continuing it seems interesting to say the device accepts micro sd cards up to 128GB.
The key issue is to say that the X1 unlike his older brothers is only a player and is not a DAC for other devices, USB fact only serves to recharge the battery and upload their own music on the memory card.

 

Moving on to the technical specifications.
The 106 grams stated are respected (weighed 100 times on different days and considering measurement errors, the weight is ok).

 

The FiiO guide only X1 headphones up to 100 ohms ... well I have bored before telling you about Volts and Amperes because these data so difficult? No They tell us what FiiO  X1 can do and what it can not do. I consider quite useless those reviews where the volume is tested with 300 ohm headphones; FiiO itself say t that X1 is not good for greater than 100ohm headphones, if we consider the evidence-based techniques and my beloved physics these criticisms are funny .

 

And now we come to my favorite graphics ... the ones you find on the product page are real ... They're not marketing, but science.


The first that I want to analyze is the frequency response one; there is a very linear frequency response with one drop of -0.4 dB at 20 kHz, essentially a graph like that I call linear, the decline starts from 10 kHz and covers the area of highs where our hearing is less precise. The frequency response of the FiiO X1 certainly does not disturb their older brothers (X3 and X5) which instead attain 0.2 and 0.1 of flexion.
The second graph we have a lot interest  in it that because THD is the rate of total harmonic distortion; also in this case there is a minimal distortion that remains inaudible: 0.01% at least up to about 14-15kHz, for my personal opinion from the point of view of the THN, the X1 is comparable to the X3, the X5 however, remains on another level over the entire audio range.
The only real "flaw" that I find in a technical technical analysis of the X1 is the output impedance including always within 2 ohms. Why call it a lack? Simple most raises the output impedance will have more problems of noise with headphones within the 100ohm, however, because in reality it virgoletto although the output is not as perfect and does not reach the ideal values ​​by 0.01 ohm, is however well far from the order of 10 ohm impedances that make it really impossible to create a good headphone amplifier impedance of less than 100 ohms.

 

TEST ABOUT THE FREQUENCY
As always somewhat like a minimum test to see if what the company says is true or not. This time I used the line in of the Xonar U7 to check the graphs. The test is not obtained by ear, but through the use of the Leveller by REW (freeware program to test the response in the environment), the conclusions I draw from the tests already insert errors.
Essentially I decided to keep four levels of output volume: 100, 75, 50 and 25.
As for the headphone output:
At 100
are obtained by slight fluctuations of 0.1 dB at 20 Hz

30 Hz you get a stable output
Since 8000 I get -0.4 db
 

At 75
Are obtained fluctuations of 0.2 and 0.3 db both at 20 Hz, both at 30 Hz
40 Hz you get a stable output
At 15 kHz get -0.2 db
At 19 kHz get -0.3 db
 

At 50
A 20 Hz fluctuations are obtained of 0.5 db
At 30 Hz fluctuations are obtained in 0.1 dB
40 Hz you get a stable output
At 15 kHz can be obtained - 0.1 db
At 19 kHz can be obtained - 0.2 db
 

At 25
A 20 Hz fluctuations are obtained of 0.2 db
30 Hz you get a stable output
At 15 kHz can be obtained - 0.1 db
At 19 kHz can be obtained - 0.2 db

Essentially I obtained that with regard to the 'headphone output it is more precise in ultra-high range when it is not at the maximum, on the contrary the best stability under 40 hz I obtained by the maximum output. I think that considering the errors of measurement I can declare the graph proposed by FiiO as correct and verified.
 

For  the line output what I obtained is easier to say. I obtained that by 8000 Hz there is a reduction of 0.4 constant up to 20 Khz tested; to any output level from 30 Hz has a certain stability in output; to 100 and 75 to 20 Hz there is a fluctuation of 0.1 dB, while at 50 and 25 there is a fluctuation of 0.2 dB
In this case, what I got is slightly in contrast to the stated, but I can not compete in instrumentation with FiiO, considering that the measurement errors, however, the graph is quite similar to that stated.

 

THE FIIO X1 ON CAR
Among the conditions to review the X1 was
“Reviewers are Reminded to listen responsibly and safely to the X1, to not use it a when operating machinery or driving, and not to drive headphones to excessive volume with the X1. “
Interesting is the part about the driving but when I drive I want good music.
Honestly it performs well, I can not quite say everything right (I was concentrating on driving), but it seems that, despite the limitations imposed by the situation, I listen good music with FiiO X1 .
Dynamic was not great, but the instrumental band was well executed and monitored, because in general I did not hear annoying resonances .

I cannot tell whether it was better the headphone or line output, it seems to me they were the same,.

 

USE AT HOME WITH YOUR SPEAKER SYSTEM
Who ever said that these players are not side by side to a home listening?
They have advantages in convenience it will light up immediately and without delay, make available their discography.
The experience was quite funny, but as you can see in REINFORCEMENT FOR THE FIIO X1 with my pre-amplifier X1 done a massive jump forward
Now speaking of the X1 without reinforcement.
First I decided to take advantage of the headphone output which I preferred to the line for better airiness and stage. Compared to the line seemed even more dynamic.
My discography test as usual it was all focused on rock music.
As for the sound:
Bass there was when needed, good dynamic and instrument that will play on the stage located in a fairly good; lack of energy only the lowest notes in the 40-50 Hz.
Medium present them properly without being shot in the face or shaky, all instruments and voices are played back correctly and in fact are quite musical, but the positioning is observed.
High treble is also very present, they are not fatiguing but remain well detailed.
For ultra-hight I must say that even though these lacked in airy.
In general one can say that the FiiO X1 also manages alone to give a good musical experience with a listening relaxing, with a good scene, and a musical figure interesting.
It sounds the perfect player: low cost, useful at home and on the move, sounding etc ...
Obviously it has his faults and anyway it cannot replace an hi-end.

Might you want more dynamic, body and life in bass, in mid you might rightly want a better musical figure, and a better sound stage, in the high you might want more detail, and you may also want more air between the instruments. So you could still rightly want more, but then the FiiO X1 is a portable low-end and you can rightly ask for more of what he can do.

 

USE WITH HEADPHONES
I tried the FiiO X1 with some cheap headphones:
Superlux HD685, hi TAKSTAR 2050 BitFenix ​​Flo (aka the superlux hd662) and of course the Superlux hd681EVO .
I must say the FiiO has always behaved well enough (not the HD681EVO), good management of the soundstage, and a product that wants to do almost everything myself has always recreated a musical figure pretty good, not excellent, but still appreciable; also there was always a good dynamic.
However, even with headphones commonly thought of as easy to drive, however, the defects X1 popped up: at the bottom feels like lack of impact when you require more power, the scene is quite small, and at the top you would want a bit 'more air.
In short, the same story as before ... there is everything that needs to be there ... but there's always that but he does say, "Something is missing."

CONCLUSIONS  1

This initial findings because the end of the shoot out after the piece more interesting imho showing the goodness of FiiO X1 makes it bloom potentials and eliminating defects.
The conclusion is quite simple: it is used as the FiiO X1 is one of the best players I've ever tried, it's convenient to carry around, reads almost all formats and sampling helpful. Sonically speaking feels that power has many advantages, however, remains clear that there are also shortcomings.
 

FAULTS: SOMETHING OF TECHNICAL
Well do you remember all that technique information that I have served up first?
Well you said enough all you are going to hear with the ears, especially when as in this case the data reported are real.
1 The graphs of frequency response tell us how the X1 manages to sound quite neutral. Neutrality has also been confirmed to listen.
2 The electrical parameters tell us rather than be able to play well every acoustic band and how to play the music scene. Essentially the Volts and the Amperes told us that it could be paired to the X1 a low-impedance headphones is required, but you would never be able to push them for good without showing the side.
Well I have listed the flaws, those that every reviewer should go to find ... now we go to the reasons because I still think the FiiO X1 is right also for the finest ear.

 

REINFORCEMENT FOR THE FIIO X1
The same FiiO propose to connect the player to an external amplifier allows me to catch the ball and talk a little also the only non-invasive and effective implementation that can be made ​​to the FiiO X1: assigning to it a portable amplifier.
FiiO offers its line of portable amplifiers, excellent both in relation to the cost, both for performance but I could not miss the chance to try it with my DIY  headphone amplifier and preamplifier.
Since I had my transmission line speakers that  looked at me enticing and I could not fail to make them play on this occasion interposing between the amp and the FiiO this "small" portable dual mono preamp... but also HD681EVO told me: "And who are we? The daughters of the servant? ... A few stories we want it too! "
Attached to my little X1 has made a significant jump forward in terms of the entire musical figure. I have to say that it is as unlocked, the dynamic, the airiness, placement, detail ... everything has become more musical more accurate, powerful and obvious.
The bass is reborn largest, most dynamic and dry; mids have become, if not perfect, precise and present with a level of positioning dazzling also when the instruments or singers were particularly close in space between them (also the choruses). The highs were already very good, but they received more ariosity. Essentially, if first seemed to listen to a small stage where it all is this, but a bit 'in a small space; now seemed to be in front of a real stage, consider that the quality of the player is actually exploded showing how the FiiO X1 can give much more at home.
And finally headphones could express themselves if not the best without breaking the boxes too, and without complaint or Vatt neither of the amps, confirming the ratings and the evidence obtained through the speakers.


TEST PAIRE TO MY HEADPHONES AMPLIFIER / PREAMPLIFIER
It seems proper to bring some measurement obtained by the use of the amplifier for headphones.
Since listening through this device is setting the volume to 40/100 tests were made ​​with this release.
The graph of the frequency response obtained is identical to the previous one.
So because it sounds better? The answer is simple t volts and amperes management is much better.


CONCLUSIONS
It 's now time to draw final conclusions in light of all the ratings and tests carried out.
Without doubt the FiiO X1 is a great player, with different positive sonic characteristics, but they need an amplifier to come to the surface.
Compared to older brothers X1 has only one real flaw: the fact that it is not a DAC.
But this defect we try to read it in a more appropriate manner. The FiiO X1 is a portable player that allows the use of micro SD cards up to 128 GB or say the equivalent of about 400 FLAC albums ... we want to put too high sampling? Ok do 200 albums; a number such that before finishing them all passes a really good amount of time.
If the justification of the amount, however, may be enough to even the most inexperienced and least demanding ... we face the lack of the fact that the X1 does from the DAC. Well before you say that this is essential, consider two factors: the first is very practical and corresponds to the question "is it for?" (Meaning: I need to walk around with a DAC? It will connect to a PC, phone etc to play music or always listen to uploaded files?); the later is more realistic and you have to answer the question about whether you have a DAC in the house (well if you have one at home probably sounds better than the 99% of portable DAC ... and take a portable DAC loses meaning)
I think the second reason is to make more sense on which to continue; In fact, if we consider the DAC or sound card is not moving they provide better output not only of 'X1, X3 and X5 as well, then so if the real reason for buying a player is his use as a reader, because at home you still better, the FiiO X1 becomes a very interesting product, then if you take it to an amplifier the whole thing becomes even more interesting because it is the luxury of competing products more expensive and noble.