FiiO X5 High-res Portable Music Player

Bought my Fiio X5 and it worked great for a few months, then one day, it got very hot ! so I sent it back for a warranty replacement, and it worked great until for just over a year, and now the replacement has done the same thing, will not power up, plugging in the charge cable, the charge light stays green, and the unit gets hot, so since it is out of warranty, I popped the back off, and checked out the battery, it isn't the battery that gets hot, but the circuits under the battery ! I won't be buying another Fiio player
 I used it 5 days a week at work, so maybe I just used it too much.
Also had the problem with both of them not connecting to my pc, plugging in the supplied cord would charge them, but I could not access the files on the memory cards.
 to Dobrescu George, I'm glad you have had good luck with the X5, that being said, I'm not impressed with the X5's I had, and am getting an Ibasso dx80
 I did email Fiio, and the response I got back was:
 

Dear user ,

Thank you for your mail and support to FiiO.

When did you buy the X5? It is X5 first gen or X5II? Are you capable to replace the battery yourself? It seems not only a battery issue only. You may take off the battery and collect the X5 to a power apply to see whether it can be turned on?

Looking forward to your feedback.
Have a nice day! 
 Best Regards,

FiiO Customer Service
 
 

 
 
Theme in video     https://www.dropbox.com/s/3r8b8wlkcyiw4hn/x5.fw?dl=0
 
 
 
This is an updated video review and it is highly suggested you try and enjoy the multiple custom options this device offers.
 
 
 
I cannot and did not use the default theme as i have never seen it. That's how easy it is to customize this device or use another persons theme.
 
If you have not updated to FW 2.5 it is strongly advised.
 
 
 
 
 
 

This review is based on a touring X5 unit and I do not personally own the X5. I need to give FiiO a big, big thank you for letting me be a part of this tour.

Since Head-Fi's detail section does not represent the scores of the reviewer, but rather the community average, here are my scores based on the 10 days that I actively used the unit (2014/02/10 - 2014/02/19):

Value: 4/5
Audio Quality: 3/5
Design: 3/5
Battery Life: 3.5/5
User Interface: 2.5/5
Overall Rating: 3.2/5







Now let's get into the details of these details.




[rule]
Value

At $350 USD, this device offers a lot for the price. What's a lot?

Here's what's in the package:

• Hard storage box
• X5 unit with screen protector pre-installed
• Soft silicone sleeve/case
• MicroSD card USB reader
• Male microUSB - male USB cable
• Short male 3.5 mm - female RCA coaxial cable
• Short male 3.5 mm - male 3.5 mm cable
• 2 x extra screen protectors
• 3 x 3.5 mm plugs
• HD Tracks coupon card
• Warranty card
• Quick-start user manual
• X5 button layout card (I did not see this in the touring unit package though)

That's a ton of stuff bundled with the device. Will people even use half of these? Probably not, but they're nice to have handy and it adds to the value of the package.


What else does the X5 offer?

• Portable media player
• USB external soundcard
• MicroSD card reader

For what it's worth, the X5 offers a lot at $350 and the overall package is well- and competitively-priced.

4/5 (Great) for Value




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Audio Quality



This is a quality of the X5 that seemed weird to me. Everyone else, or pretty much everyone else, seems to like the X5's sound and that it's "the greatest thing since sliced bread." My experience with the X5 is that it sounds okay, but nothing amazing.

In short, I heard:

• a bumped-up mid-bass response that sounded a bit boomy
• excellent warm lower-midrange
• fatiguing upper-midrange/lower-treble
• slight roll-off in the treble that makes it sound soft
• deep soundstage that isn't very wide
• great instrument separation
• imaging seems off
• good detail retrieval

In general, I listen for the overall sound signature before analyzing the technicalities and the X5 doesn't sound transparent to me. It has a warm sound overall that may be a bit thick, and there's something with the upper-midrange/lower-treble region that makes the X5 sound fatiguing to my ears and is a deal-killer for me in that regard. I'm not going to lie and say that the X5's audio quality is good if I have to take breaks from listening to the device due to fatigue, no matter what headphone or earphone I used. No other portable media player I've tried has this effect on me. The soundstage wasn't particularly wide, more so deep, so imaging seemed off to me and it was weird having the effect of listening to the music half-way into in a concert hall instead of the front-row, or on the stage as the conductor.

Using the line-out feature of the X5, it turns out that the amplifier portion of the X5 causes the fatigue issue for me since I no longer had those painful listening experiences. The DAC portion seems to add some warmth to the sound since I was hearing more mid-bass than I typically do. On the other hand, pairing the large X5 with an external amplifier seems impractical for being used as a portable media player.

What is this fatiguing sound I hear? It's hard to completely describe, but I was in a 2014 Subaru Forester the other day and I heard the same kind of sound from the speaker system. Female vocals, and really anything in the upper-midrange frequencies, sound really harsh, shouty, strident, or hard on my ears, almost as if dynamics of those instruments are being compressed and/or the system has a hard time reproducing those sounds accurately. They just really hurt my ears and I had to cover my ears or speaker to dampen the effect. It's one thing to have it happen to X speaker or Y headphone, but I had the experience with all headphones I used with the X5 (AKG K 701 (8-bump headband), Audeze LCD-X (touring unit), MEElectronics M9-BK, MrSpeakers Alpha Dog with Obedience Kit (touring unit), Sennheiser CX-300, or V-MODA Crossfade M-100). None of my other portable media players, amplifiers, nor DACs reproduce this effect.

Figure 1 - A depiction of me in anime form reacting to the X5's fatiguing sound
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?s=40bbb0483f9447f0cffaf16268c5b7c1&p=2383606#post2383606



As for headphone pairings, I think the X5's sound worked the best with the Audeze LCD-X (touring unit). It sounded okay with the Alpha Dog with Obedience Kit (touring unit), but it wasn't optimal and the narrow soundstage of the X5 made it sound weird and off. I use the Crossfade M-100 as my main portable headphone in my portable rig, and the fatiguing upper-midrange/lower-treble was definitely not a good pairing with it, especially if I plan to listen to louder volume levels due to ambient background noise. I'd like to keep my hearing intact thank you. My two earphones aren't a good pairing with the X5 either because the "kill switch" effect will activate (more in the "Design" section).




Overall sound quality is okay, but a non-transparent sound and especially the listening fatigue are a big no-no for me.
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=7208251

3/5 (Okay) for Audio Quality




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Design

Figure 2 - A beauty shot of the X5 (credit goes to lugia862)



The main body of the X5 is absolutely superb. It's made of a single solid piece of metal and it reminds me of an aluminum unibody MacBook. When I first picked up the X5, I noticed how heavy it is. It's quite heavy and it feels like picking up a portable external hard drive (or at least a 500 GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go one). I have small hands and the weight and wide body of the X5 almost feel uncomfortable to me when handling it with one hand. It's like having a super heavy Samsung Galaxy SIII in your hand (actually the width dimensions are very similar: 67.6 mm for the X5, 70.6 mm for the SIII).

Figure 3 - Size comparison between the iPod 5G, JDS Labs C5D, and FiiO X5



What's disappointing to me is that the body of the X5 feels rock-solid, but the buttons and mechanical wheel feel quite cheap. In the end, these moving parts are probably going to get the most use and thus wear-and-tear over time instead of the body. I'll expand on this more in the "User Interface" section, but the X5's front-panel buttons are raised from the main body instead of being flush and they're easy to push/activate. This is not very convenient to have in your pocket since accidental button presses will occur.

Figure 4 - Note the raised buttons
http://fiio.com.cn/products/index.aspx?ID=100000055517771&MenuID=105026016



I use portable media players in my left hand. Why my left hand? Headphones typically have the cable running down from the left earcup, and the portable media player consequently ends up in my left pocket (it's annoying to have the cable cross your body to go into a right pocket). That in combination with my small hands makes handling the X5 an awkward task. The skip track and previous track buttons are near the bottom of the unit (this is poor placement considering it's far from the center of mass) and the back button is on the top-right of the wheel (making it awkward to reach with your left hand).

Moving on to the X5's mechanical wheel, the wheel has steps (or clicks) when it rotates. Although having a stepped wheel is not a problem for me, the problem is that these steps seem very worn down; like when you have one of those long retractable erasers and the plastic steps wear down. This results in a very unresponsive and inaccurate user experience (more in the "User Interface" section). To add to that, the wheel is loose and for some reason, sticky if it hasn't been in use for some time (more on this in the "User Interface" section). To make matters worse, the wheel has very little grip with your fingers. The wheel's surface has a smooth, matte, soft-rubber/plastic feeling like the 2013 Nexus 7 tablet computer. This is problematic because you have to dig into the wheel to get a good grip on it, and upon spinning the wheel, you can feel it rubbing against whatever is right behind it. A patterned/texture surface like this early mock-up would have been much better in my opinion:

Figure 5 - Note the textured/patterned surface on the scroll wheel
http://www.head-fi.org/t/661411/fiio-x5-thread-info-updated-on-jan-17th-2014/2880#post_10121924



Now it looks like this:

Figure 6 - Note the smooth surface on the scroll wheel
http://www.fiio.com.cn/products/index.aspx?ID=100000055517771



On second thought, it looks like the textured/patterned wheel was actually in an earlier prototype. Sad face.

Figure 7 - A photo of the X5 before the current iteration of design
http://digi.163.com/13/1217/18/9GANDD7U00163HE1.html



Though I didn't really mind too much, the center button is activated in the very middle of the circle. If you press the button along the outer portions of the circle, it feels unresponsive and more effort is needed to press it than if you had just pressed the button in the very center.

The microSD card rubber/plastic doors are hard to access and it took me a while to get them open the first time around. Counterintuitively, you should push the door parallel to the X5's bottom instead of trying to pry it open.

Figure 8 - Showing how you should, and should not, try to open the microSD card door
http://fiio.com.cn/products/index.aspx?ID=100000055517771&MenuID=105026016 (modified by me)




The screen of the X5 itself is just fine. Text is reasonably sharp and it's easy enough to read complex characters in Asian fonts such as traditional Chinese (無賴-許哲珮 for example: http://www.hifitrack.com/zh-hant/node/6359). The weird thing about the screen though is that it has a large black bezel surrounding it. Because of this, the screen appears smaller than what it looks like it can display under the glass, and it looks a bit disproportionate to me considering the wide body of the X5.

The X5 uses a protective relay to prevent damage to either the headphones or the unit itself. While this is probably a good thing to have, my experience with the X5's relay has been more of a miss than a hit. For instance, if the X5 is in my jacket pocket and nothing is touching it, nor the cable of the headphone/earphone, the headphone cable can rub against the jacket's fabric and create the well-known staticky sound. This has happened to both of the earphones I have at hand and every time I've done this, the X5 goes into an emergency "kill switch" mode and everything on the X5 shuts off. I need to use a pin to hit the reset button to get the X5 to even turn on again. When this happened to me for the first time, I thought the battery died. Upon using a friend's portable battery charger for about 20 minutes, the X5 still didn't turn on and I had to use a toothpick from a restaurant to reset it. Talk about having a heart attack with a touring review unit...

This is extremely inconvenient for any user, especially if you plan to use these while doing anything outside in a true portable situation. I often speed-walk to my next class at school and this portable media player would be utterly useless to me if it keeps hitting the "kill switch" every time my earphones get into contact with my jacket's fabric. I didn't have this problem with the Crossfade M-100 on the other hand, so I'm not sure what the problem is.




Design of the body is nice, but the main operating buttons feel cheap and are oddly placed. It doesn't look all that ugly in-person, but it does have that retro-look to it, which I like.

3/5 (Okay) for Design




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Battery Life

There's not much to explain here, but I did a battery drain/charging test on the X5 unit before handing it off to the next person in the tour.

For my battery drain test, I tried to emulate a worst-case (or just a bad) scenario for music playback:

• High gain
• Volume level 96/120
• Replaying a 2:41 DR21 24/96 FLAC file (track 3: http://www.hdtracks.com/dr-chesky-s-sensational-fantastic-and-simply-amazing-binaural-sound-show-133068)
• AKG K 701 (8-bump headband) connected to the headphone out port
• Wrapped in a towel to simulate being in a poorly-ventilated coat pocket
• Less than 30 seconds of the screen being turned on
• Turned on/off the player twice (I had to do 2 sessions)

From this test, I got around 10.5 hours of battery life from the X5. It's not too bad, but it's not great either. I'd say it's about average for a portable media player.


The battery charging on the other hand took quite a long time to fully charge, which was shocking to me. I went to bed about 30 minutes after the battery depleted and left it charging via USB for about 4 hours. I woke up and the battery still wasn't fully charged, so I charged it periodically throughout the day at school. In the end, it took around 9 hours to fully charge (the LED indicator turned green). That's a ridiculous amount time if you only have a USB port at hand.





The X5 has an average battery life, but it takes nearly the same amount of time to fully charge it as it does to drain.

3.5/5 (Good) for Battery Life




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User Interface

The user interface (the interactions between the user, hardware, and software) is generally acceptable. The graphical user interface is navigational and things work reasonably well. Heck, they even have the full user manual in the settings, how cool is that? On the other hand, there are a bunch of problems I have with the X5 that all add up and prevent it from being a great or excellent user experience.

Right when you boot-up the X5, you're presented with a boot animation that lasts about 5 seconds total. This isn't problematic, but I would prefer a quicker boot time since I want to listen to my music as soon as possible.

After the boot animation, you're presented with the main menu of the X5. It looks nice and all, but when you rotate the wheel in one direction, the icons change in the opposite direction. This is a pretty well-documented issue and even after 10 days of active use, I couldn't get used to it. The center highlight remains static while the icons are dynamic/change. In other words, you control the direction the icons move.

Figure 9 - Home screen of the X5
http://fiio.com.cn/products/index.aspx?ID=100000055517771&MenuID=105026016



One would think that if you wanted to get to the heart icon (for a favourite playlist) in Figure 9, then you would rotate the wheel counter-clockwise (moving the dynamic icon up from the bottom into the static highlighted area). Upon doing that, you actually go to the folder icon above the music icon, the exact opposite direction you wanted the icons to go.

Still on the topic of the mechanical wheel, as described, it feels like it has worn down steps. This creates some problems with the user interface since you may scroll 2 or 3 worn down steps, and the graphical user interface only registers 1 step ([COLOR=FF0000]the "worn down scroll wheel" problem is, according to James, actually a firmware problem that will be fixed[/COLOR]). This makes navigation inaccurate, which is absolutely key for me when using a portable media player: I want an accurate mapping of my actions on the hardware side to the graphical user interface in the software. Additionally, when I left the X5 alone for some time and came back to move the wheel, the wheel stuck on me and it was stiff for the first few steps. I have no idea why this would happen, but it was annoying when using the X5 as an external USB soundcard and I used the wheel to adjust the volume.

Speaking of the X5 as a USB soundcard, you can't adjust the digital volume from your computer; all volume is controlled with the X5 ([COLOR=FF0000]the DAC volume should be adjustable from the computer if you're using a PC[/COLOR]). Also, the screen of the X5 stays on when you have it connected to your computer. I worry about this because I have a FiiO E7 and the screen is burned in (the E7's display never turns off either). One, this is annoying to have in the dark because you have a display that's always on and you don't even look at it most of the time. Two, sometimes when disconnecting the X5 from your computer, the screen stays on even after removal and a reboot is required to get it working again. This is inconvenient if I just want to unplug the X5 from my computer after charging and use it right away. Still talking about using the X5 as a USB soundcard, I wish the wheel would always be active for volume control. It gets irritating having to hit the volume buttons on the side of X5, or press and hold the center button, to activate the volume adjustment menu just to change the volume by a few units.

If you plan to use the X5 as a portable media player, the physical media buttons don't work nearly as well as I thought they would. In "Lock Mode 1," the media buttons are inactive when the X5's display is off and you have to hit the hold/power button every time you want to use the volume/playback buttons. In "Lock Mode 2," the media buttons are always active when the the X5's display is off. While "Lock Mode 2" may seem to be the logical choice to use when you have the X5 in your pocket, this is actually not very practical at all since the previous track/next track buttons protrude out from the X5's main body and are thus very easy to accidentally activate. This happened to me way too many times and I thought the X5 was just acting up. In addition, in this mode, the previous track button actually goes to the previous track, instead of restarting the song like in every other media player I have ever used.

It doesn't matter to me at all, but the speed at which the X5 updates your music library is actually pretty fast, which is a good thing. On the other hand, the media library itself has poor organisation. It basically only sorts music by song, album, artist, or music genre. Once you go into those categories and select an artist, album, or music genre of your choice, every song with that tag listed in alphabetical order by filename, not even the track name (e.g. 01 Fearless, 01 Mine, 01 State of Grace if sorting by the artist Taylor Swift). This again is a well-documented issue and this type of organisation is generally not useful for the user. Fortunately I don't have to deal with this since I browse all of my files by folder directory, which the X5 does support. However, all files are displayed in the X5's directory mode, including those pesky hidden files that Mac OS X creates on external drives. If you try to play one of these hidden files, the X5 displays a popup message saying that it can't play it and move on to the next file about 3 seconds later.

Regardless of whether or not these hidden files affect the X5's media playback, I had playback issues with the X5. Sometimes the X5 would randomly stop playing half-way through a song and would lock-up the entire device. A reboot is required to get it functioning again.

Figure 10 - Both the original media files and the hidden "._" files created by Mac OS X are displayed in the X5's file directory browsing mode (http://elyonbeats.bandcamp.com/album/museum)




Video 1 - The X5 froze-up on me while playing a 16-bit/44.1 kHz Apple Lossless file during a bus ride (http://www.yesasia.com/us/jay-chou-2007-world-tour-concert-live-2cd/1010040628-0-0-0-en/info.html)

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-k9Bn21tWo[/VIDEO]



Unfortunately I wasn't able to diagnose the problem in this case. When I re-formatted the microSD card, I did so in order to update the X5's firmware, so either one of those variables may have been the problem. In terms of upgrading the firmware from version 1.00 to 1.10, the differences were pretty minimal. The only differences I found were that the X5's display turns on if you press any button when the display is off (showing a message along the lines of "you must press the power button to use the X5"), and the track scrubber moved a lot faster, too fast for accurate track scrubbing.

Although my native language is English, FiiO did translate the X5 in 7 different languages (Chinese (traditional and simplified), English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, and Spanish), which is nice to have.

On another note, the battery indicator only has bars (e.g. 3 bars of battery). I would prefer to see a numerical value because I can get a quick and relatively accurate reading of the X5's battery life (e.g. 62% battery instead of 3 bars for a range of values).




The user interface as a whole is usable, which is acceptable, but the myriad of problems makes it a frustrating experience.

2.5/5 (Acceptable) for User Interface




[rule]
Conclusion

Evidently, my honest experiences and impressions of the X5 are pretty much the opposite of others'. Yes I'll probably be alienated because of this polarising review, and yes my review will just be a grain of salt in the larger pile, but I wanted to explain my experiences with the X5, and write an honest review. In short, I wasn't really impressed by the X5 at all and I thought it had more annoyances than enjoyable things. The X5 is okay for being an all-in-one solution of having a portable media player and a portable USB soundcard combo, and this is a great value in that regard, but I encountered waaaaaaay too many problems with it that ultimately prevent me from recommending this to anyone without trying it first. Even if the sound quality was beyond awesome, the user interface is definitely not something I would like to deal with again. On the other hand, there are people out there who don't care about the user interface at all and only care about the sound quality. Perhaps the X5 is right for you then.

Fortunately, FiiO has acknowledged some of these user interface issues and is working on some fixes for future firmware updates. However, until those are officially released, my experiences with firmwares 1.00 and 1.10 still stand. Unfortunately, the stock sound is pretty much locked in place via hardware unless changes are made in the firmware, so my sonic impressions of the X5 are more or less set in stone.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/707751/official-plans-for-firmware-updates-for-the-x5-after-version-1-10

You might say that my touring review unit was defective, or that I broke it somehow (this was actually suggested in the X5 tour thread...). While that could have been the case during the time I had with the X5, the users before and after me in the tour have written glowing reviews for it, so I don't think that was the case for me.




[rule]
Thanks

With that, I am still very thankful to FiiO for allowing me to try this, and I'm glad that I did get the opportunity to try it. I would also like to thank you, the reader, for taking the time to read through this very lengthy review! I really do hope this review helps a person or two.

Thanks again!



Note: [COLOR=FF0000]Text in red are corrections made by Joe Bloggs of FiiO[/COLOR]

 

Conclusion

All I can say is the X5 are for listeners who are purists to their music taste. They will demand everything is flat, so they can hear the characteristics of a mastering, but for average users, this might not be a great choice, and psychologically will make you feel that you have just wasted your money on something that dull. So, better be damm sure that flat music is what you are after, or not regrets might influence you.
 
At the meantime, I will stick to my Clip+ until the next big thing comes along.

Click to expand...

detailed review : http://earfisensation.blogspot.com/2014/04/fiio-x5-review-flat-head.html

DISCLAIMER
This X5 is a pre-production unit that is part of a FiiO organized US tour. We are not being paid for this nor are we being “forced” to sing praises. The following review are my views and opinions on this DAP compared to my current stable.
 
 
Introduction:
 
In my head-fi journey there is something that has always been constant and that is a whole lot of music being bought, ripped and enjoyed. A few years ago, the company I work for decided that they were not going to let us use “tablets” as our personal MP3 players due to security issues. I had a crappy Archos 7 Internet Media player with 160GB of disc space where I put all my songs and movies and although quality was NOT that great, I valued disc space and something more important to ME, battery life. From that moment on I started looking into different options, from the traditional iPod Classics, to the Touch, to the Sansa’s, etc. Most of them failed in one area, memory, with the exception of the Classic but I didn’t liked iTunes, have never bought a single song through their store and in fact I haven’t liked Apple a lot either so that left me with few options. Decided then on a simple Cowon C2 because battery life was excellent, I could use 64gb microSD cards and I had used their players before (plus I was already Ok with crappy UIs using Archos players such a long time – owned a 604, 605, etc.) Soon I noticed that my HD tracks were growing in numbers and I needed even more space but not only that, my headphone collection was growing bigger, better and I needed a bump in sound quality. So last year I began the search, the search for the “perfect” DAP… now, what do I think it’s a perfect DAP? Easy, one that:
 
1)Offers great battery life
2)Has enough space for my songs (or supports 64gb microSD cards)
3)Can play my WHOLE collection via Shuffle mode without problems
4)Easy to use UI
5)Offers a sound upgrade on previously owned DAPs.
 
 Is the X5 MY perfect DAP? Let’s find out:
 
    
 
Specs:
 
Too much info to fill this review so, just go here:
 
http://www.fiio.com.cn/products/index.aspx?ID=100000055517771
 

 
 
Package Contents:
 
Just like the X3 before it, the new X5 brings us in its compact case:
 

1. FiiO X5 (of course)
2. Documentation (Quick Start + Warranty, etc.)
3. USB charging / data cable
4. Rubber/silicone protective case
5. Protector plugs for inputs/outputs
6. Digital out to coax cable
7. USB micro SD card reader
8. Screen protectors

 
  
 
Not sure if this is the “Final” content that will arrive to us on March, but seems pretty complete to me!
 
 
Design and build:
 
Now, this is something that I was afraid of. The X3, even though is a very capable player, had such a horrible design. Not from a “looks” standpoint but from a usability standpoint. The button layout was just too confusing. Of course, you get used to it after a while, but it was definitely flawed. I’m happy to say “not so” with the X5. Not only does it sport kind of like an “old-school” design, but this thing is built like a tank! Button placement is definitely an improvement and the inclusion of the scroll wheel was an excellent choice. Navigating through folders with the X3 is a nightmare, really, especially if you have LOTS and LOTS of files but with the X5 not only is it faster, it feels natural.
 
Didn’t see anything out of place, nor badly constructed in this “pre-production” unit, my only critiques: possible issues with the scroll wheel and SD card rubber protectors. These are PROBABLY the only Achilles-heel I think regarding longevity but of course, that’s just an assumption. I also found the “Volume” buttons to be a bit difficult to press, not sure if this was on purpose or not but thank God for the capability of the middle button and scroll-wheel combo as another option to increase volume. (Edit: Joe stated that the volume buttons are stiffer on your preview units than the production units.) Love the feel of the device, the color and matte finish, the all “metal” enclosure it looks and feels like a high-end device.
 

 
UI:
 
This is always something that I’ve been concerned with on all of these new DAPs. We (the community) have discussed this on the forums a whole lot. Why are we paying for players with incomplete software implementation and horrible UIs? (Studio V, I’m looking at you!) The X3 actually does a good job regarding UI, the AK100 MK2 has a simple (read: “Ok”) software implementation but I have to say, the X5 takes the cake!
 
Configuration menus are clean, well-organized, easy to navigate and straight-forward. System Settings include options for: Language, Media Library updating, Key-lock setting (important, once you press “Power” to “lock” the device, NONE OF THE BUTTONS work (this is the default "lockscreen 1" option)! But a second key-lock setting actually lets you forward a track, change volume… Nice!), Screen timeout, brightness, etc. You also have Play Settings where you select your Play Mode (long live Shuffle!), turn On/Off Gapless playback, select between Low and High gain, etc. Again a bevy of options at hand, all working as they should. Also, did I mention that there’s a 10 band equalizer as well? Well, there is (with presets and optional “Custom” entry. )
 
Navigating through the menus with the scroll wheel, although it feels natural and easy, is a bit confusing at first (i.e. the animations are a bit jerky and I got confused if I was actually going up or down when scrolling) but you get used to it. You can go to a “Browse Folders” menu which lets you select the microSD card you want to navigate through or you can browse by Categories which includes: Artist, Albums, Genre or my favorite the “All Songs” one.
 
Of course, browsing by Categories (tags) is good and all if it works… One of the roadblocks for me was that every time I tried updating the Media Library with my 2 64GB microSD cards, it hung… It seems the player either has problems reading OTHER files (i.e. not music files), or problems with specific characters in tags, long filenames, etc. because it always failed for me at a specific number. FiiO mentioned that they are aware of the problem and a future firmware issue will/might fix this. (Edit: Joe stated that the library scan problem will/might be fixed before international launch in late March.)
 
As mentioned in the “design” section, button layout and usability is very good so the UI seems “in-sync” with the hardware, we are talking Apple-like good here (and yes, that’s a compliment!).
 
 
Extra Features:
 
The X5 not only provides headphone-out (duh, right!?) but also has Coaxial out and Line-out. Only tested Line-out to my Schiit Magni and my Lehman BCL and have to say that output is clean, powerful, I don’t feel I missed anything at all. This DAP also has a DAC option and again, same results, excellent implementation and if it wasn’t that I already “know” how my Nuforce Icon HDP sound, it would have been a bit difficult to select which I liked best.
 
 
Sound:
 
And here it comes, what I was waiting for. Now, I have to say that I expected a slightly better version of the X3 but no, I was wrong. The X5 crushes the X3 regarding resolution/detail/clarity. It provides a slight warm signature in the bass through mids without obscuring nor hiding any details. It feels it has less lower-end quantity than the X3 (I felt it had lower impact in the sub-bass region) and it feels a bit less “airy” than the AK100 MK2 but somehow every one of my test tracks sounded better through it!
 
  
 
Directly comparing the AK100 MK2 to it, I just found it … “soft” as if lacking energy. Meanwhile the X3 even sounded a bit “muffled” and closed in sometimes compared to both. For testing I used: Beyerdynamic T5p, Perfect Sound Dido D901, Ultrasone Signature DJs and MrSpeakers Alpha Dogs. And yes, the X5 did not have any problems driving all of these cans, even the Alpha Dogs in High gain… it lacked a bit Oomph but it did better than both the X3 and the AK100.
 
My usual test tracks were used:
 
Thrice - Under a Killing Moon
Miguel Bose - Este Mundo Va
Kaskade - One Heart
Blink 182 - Kaleidoscope
Jon Cleary - So Damn Good
Mima - Oigo Voces
Esperanza Spalding - What a Friend
Sara Bareilles - King of Anything
Killswitch Engage - Fixation on the Darkness
Juancho - Amor en la Mesa
Boston - More than a Feeling
J-King y Maximan - Ella me Pide Something
Calvin Harris - Feel so Close
Three Six Mafia - Late Night Tip
Orquesta Macabeo - Me Repito
Amber Rubarth – Tundra and Washing Day
 
Loved how the X5 sounded “wider” (sound stage) in tracks such as “Me Repito” and Jon Cleary’s “So Damn Good”. Metal-core tracks sounded energetic/fast even with that hint of warmth (I thought it was going to be a problem especially for guitar driven tracks but nope.) Could not really find faults with sound reproduction as it was effective with my current gear and that’s what’s important here. As a whole I would rank X5 > AK100 MK2 > X3.
 
Good synergy, good sound, can’t ask for more. (ok ok, I can… Keep reading )
 
  
 
 
Extra Notes:
 
Battery life test, it took me 10.5 hours to drain the battery from full charge until the player turned off by itself. For most people, 10.5 hours is good, but not enough for me (the X3 can provide almost 16 hours, the same with the AK100 MK2 using the same 2 microSD cards). But I have to reiterate that this is a pre-production/not final unit. So... battery life MIGHT change via Firmware updates, or not…
 
Also, THIS HAS BEEN THE ONLY DAP THAT HASN’T FROZEN on me while playing tracks. Yes, from the Archos to the AK100, ALL of them have frozen on me at one time or another. After almost 40hours+ of play time, the X5 only froze when updating the library (as mentioned before) but other than that, very stable (and I’m VERY impressed with that!)
 
 
Summary/Conclusion:
 
So, to answer the question posed, is the X5 my perfect DAP?
ALMOST!
It is robust, easy to use, sports one of the best UIs and functionality out there, gives me the ability of Shuffling all of my songs but, until the media library thing is fixed and maybe battery life improved, it is NOT my perfect DAP. SO I might say, not yet… but close.
 
Will it be the “perfect” DAP for others? Probably. Not everyone has the same needs and although I might see battery life as short, others will see it as sufficient, while I might see library issues as unacceptable, others might live by the “Browse by Folder” capability, etc.
 
I do have to say that FiiO is looking mighty serious in the DAP landscape. Not only is the X5 the better sounding DAP I have heard yet, but they are not charging an arm and a leg for them. 2014 will definitely be a good year for us enthusiasts. I’m just hoping that future firmware updates provide fixes to my “nitpicks” and if they do, I’ll be selling my other DAPs and just get an X5.
 

 
Finally just want to give a big THANK YOU to James and Joe for preparing this tour, and providing us the opportunity to “test the waters”.
 
 
Thanks!
 
 
 
Wishlist:
 
It might sound selfish but I would like in future updates:
 
1)Better battery life
2)FiiO to provide Internal memory (at least 32GBs?) I mean, I’m already using my 2 microSD cards plus like 7GBs of the AK100 MK2 internal memory.
 

Thanks to FiiO for the loaner unit.

 
If there is a brand other than Apple that is more well-known at Head-Fi than FiiO I’d be very surprised.  A number of their products have become pretty much standard entry-level recommendations and their flagship amp, the E12 is a mere $129! However portable amps have been rapidly going out of fashion with the increasing number of DAPs, or Digital Audio Players on the market, itself a consequence of the increasing number of Android-based phones available, including inexpensive models in China, which in turn have provided much needed components to manufacturers of portable audio gear.
 
While not Android-based DAPs in themselves, FiiO has gone with this trend and through something of a trial-by-fire as they worked on the software, developed the hugely successful X3. As their software has reached something resembling maturity, they came out with the larger X5. I became interested in the X5 because of the design and feature set and due to the positive impression I had of the sound at the e-earphone headphone festival in Tokyo in December 2013.
 

I was lucky enough to get in the loaner tour for the X5 and hold onto a unit for a while to get the hang of its capabilities. Thanks to Joe Bloggs on Head-Fi for giving us this opportunity.
 
  
 
It would not be unkind to describe the X5 as looking rather like a modern take on the original iPod. From the outside, the case is almost a work of art which manages to balance style with form and function. A physical scroll wheel and central button with 4 un-labelled buttons evenly arranged around it make up most of the front, and a small 400x360 pixel screen sits behind a wider piece of or plastic that, by default, is covered with a screen protector. The main volume controls sit on one side, two microSD cards slots and USB on the bottom and three different outputs on the top. The net result is attractive and reasonably functional, feels good in the hand and, with help from the quick-start guide in the box, doesn’t take long to get the hang of using.
 
 
Next to the power button is the headphone socket, line out and a coaxial digital output for connecting to another DAC, for which a short cable is included. On the other end, astride the micro-USB socket are two micro USB slots, giving the potential for up to 256GB of storage (potentially costing more, I might add, than the X5 itself). While slower than a USB 3 reader, the X5 can be connected to a computer and the contents of the cards accessed in mass-storage mode or the X5 used as a DAC, where it will accept up to 192k and 24 bit input. The X5 will play the usual plethora of common file formats, including DSD, which is converts to PCM on the fly.
 
 
 
The attractive interface, if you don’t mind reading the tiny, and in the case of some of the indicators, faded writing. Indoors it wasn’t a problem for me, but outside in the sun, especially with reflections, like other DAPs became impossible to read. For those so inclined, a number of members of Head-Fi have hacked the firmware to produce their own versions*. Despite being small, the interface is very quick. Scrolling fairly fast even though a large number of albums there are no delays or even stutter when turning the wheel at a moderate speed, though over two rotations per second it starts to struggle. Any delays come from having to repeatedly press and scroll through the menus. If you have as I do a very full 64 GB card, getting to an album in folder view half way down (or up, as scrolling jumps from beginning to end if done backwards and vice-versa) can take quite a while. The fastest way to drill down is via genre, if your music is tagged sufficiently well and you have a variety, followed by Album and Artist by picking whichever is closer to A or Z in the list.
 
  
 
If you’re thinking now “Why not just load on some playlists?” you’ll be disappointed to know that one major omission is support for M3U playlists. In the Chinese market, according to FiiO, playlists aren’t a big thing. If you wish to use playlists, you have to manually create them inside the X5 by playing the song and adding it using the quick menu button to a playlist, which cannot be re-named from the default “Playlist 1/2/3/4/etc.” Similarly, while there is an equaliser with a number of presets available, the lack of a touch screen means that the custom EQ needs to be set via a series of scroll, press-and-scroll motions, which can be somewhat tiresome. 
 
The good news is, however, the battery life. When not playing music, even left switched on, the X5 takes days, if not over a week, to drain the battery. Switched off the battery didn’t deplete even when left for a month unused. Playback time for CD quality files is quite long, over 10 hours according to the specifications.
 

 
The volume control has a very useful 120 positions, at least so for IEMs, with a setting for the default power-on volume level. It can be controlled using the side buttons, or using the scroll wheel after pressing one of the side buttons beforehand. Which buttons will still work after the screen is off/locked can also be controlled via settings, with three options for side volume buttons only, side buttons and play/pause button, or the previous setting plus forward/back buttons. While convenient, the idle power off setting, if on, is limited to only 1 to 8 minutes, though the sleep timer can be set to up to 2 hours.
 
Other than that, the X5 has a good number of settings for everything from balance and playback mode to being able to set whether songs are displayed by file name or title and whether or not to go to the last played song on startup.
 
Listening
 
What has now become something of a reference album with headphones, I put on Amber Rubarth’s Sessions from the 17th Ward. Switching between DAPs and IEMs it would become pretty quickly apparent which equipment was more or less capable of delivering the fine details buried in the tracks, from the birds tweeting outside to traffic noise and subtle movements of the musicians.  The IEMs I settled on for comparing, all high-quality, if varying in degree, were the FitEar Parterres, Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors (UERMs for short) and JHAudio Layla universals.  While the Parterres didn’t reveal much difference between the X5 and my AK240 (single-ended output), as I stepped up to the other two, especially since the UERMs and Laylas have balanced cables, the differences became apparent. My first impression with the various IEMs was of a slightly warm, but not ultra-revealing presentation.  Out-and-about, the X5/Paterre combination made for a very enjoyable listen, especially given the slightly lighter-weight frequency response of the Parterres. The Laylas, on the other hand, just revealed how dull and one-note the X5 was with acoustic music, the bass when attempting to push so many drivers also somewhat boomy and loose.
 
While I felt that the X5 does an adequate job with IEMs, with full-sized headphones it clearly had trouble, despite the nice-sounding numbers of <115dB S/N ratio and <75 Ohms crosstalk shown in the specifications. Plugging in Sennheiser HD-800s and other high-impedance headphones resulted in the music sounding like it was coming from a blob in the middle, most noticeable where I knew the music should have a wide soundstage. My more basic Audio Technica ESW9LTDs were more along its capability level. FiiO’s E12 amp, designed for full-sized headphones, is the same size as the X5 and FiiO provides a kit allowing them to be joined together. While I didn’t have one on hand, I used my Headamp Pico Power instead, which was clearly far more capable with full-sized headphones. The combination with either amp is still cheaper than other DAP options that do a decent job driving full-sized headphones that I’ve tested, such as the Calyx M. The only rivals that I can think of would be the iBasso DX50 and DX90 which I haven’t had the chance to test.
 
*http://www.head-fi.org/t/717947/fiio-x5-custom-modded-firmwares/
 
Specifications:
 
http://www.fiio.net/en/products/2/parameters
 
For further discussion, check out my DAP-off thread here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/714374/

I owned the X5 since 3 weeks when I wrote this mini-review, and there is absolutely not regret in relation to that purchase..
 
The design is not really my piece of cake, but this is not supposed to be a judgement, because I can imagine that others will especially like the X5 for it's looks.
 
The sound is as good as you could expect it from a portable unit in that Price range. The sound stage is stable, the background as dark as I could wish, and there is no recognizable coloration and distortion. Just make sure your headphone is on the rather higher-efficiency side. So in-ears as i.e. my Miles Davis Trumpet obviously go very well, but also full-size cans as my AH-D7100 sound really great.
 
More about my impressions, especially concerning the user interface in relation to the volume settings and lockscreen here.

Pros: (expanded) Sound quality, versatility, (mostly) easy to use UI, data storage options, charging indicator, user’s manual, most “issues” can be addressed via firmware update
Cons: (expanded) Gapless needs work, lack of markings on control buttons, silicon cover needs larger holes for plugs, twitchy scroll wheel, no playlist support, no easy way to return to “Now Playing” screen, “Next Track” and “Previous Track” functionality needs work, need to read user’s manual just to operate the player
 
Disclaimer:  
I would like to thank James FiiO and Joe Bloggs for giving me the opportunity to evaluate the X5.  It was provided at no charge and with no obligation other than to post my thoughts and impressions to the Head-Fi community.  The X5 was reviewed using Firmware 1.00.  Some of the issues noted below may be addressed in future updates but the player was reviewed and rated “as is”.
 
An Introduction:
 
This review is going to be somewhat different since I won’t be focusing on the sound quality so much as the usability and versatility of the unit.  My needs are fairly specific: I want a dedicated digital transport to replace an old laptop I've been using for a digital music source.  I also want a portable player to carry with me when traveling, something to handle headphones and IEMs.  I also may end pairing the DAP with an external DAC or Amp depending on my sonic preferences at the time.  The beauty of the X5 is that I was able to try all those options.
 
I have owned a number of DAPs in the past to include a Second Generation iPod Nano, Cowon D2, S9, J3, a Little Dot DP-1, and iHiFi 960.  I am currently using an iBasso DX50 as a digital transport for my home rig (along with a Schiit “uber” Bifrost, Lyr, and LCD-2s) and as a portable player for use with IEMs.  My music preferences include 60’s-70’s Classic Rock, 80’s “New Wave”, Classical, Folk and some “New Age” stuff.  While I totally understand and appreciate the advantages of analog sound, I grew up at the dawn of the digital age and recognize the convenience of digital music while being able to accept its limitations.  What does that mean to you?  It means I’m an old fart that doesn’t mind listening to digital music and trying out new toys.
 
Since the tour started, there have been a number of reviews with unboxing pictures so I will just say that the contents of the X5 box were all there and well packed.  The player was already in its protective silicon sleeve and had a screen protector mounted (with a couple of spares included).  A thoughtful inclusion was the USB-to-microSD card reader/writer.  After admiring the contents, I hooked a charger to the X5 to top off the battery.  I noticed the little charging light below the scroll wheel.  It glows red while charging and turns green when the battery is full.  It’s a very useful indicator since the menu screen only stays on briefly during charging.
 
The X5’s rival in my Man Cave is the iBasso DX50.  I got it a short time ago and have found it to be rather nice for my needs.  The X5 would have to equal or better the DX50 if it was going to pass muster.  I also use a Schiit (uber’d) Bifrost DAC and Lyr Amp with Amperex USN-CEP 7308 tubes.  For headphones I have the Audeze LCD-2…and on the last day of the evaluation I received a pair of Dunu DN1000 IEMs.
 
The Build:
 
I found the X5 to be well built and comfortable to hold in my hand.  It is taller than the DX50 but a little thinner front-to-back.  There are four elongated buttons at the 2:00, 5:00, 7:00, and 10:00 positions outside the prominent scroll wheel and center button.  The screen is not a touch screen.  I like the fact all the jacks for the Headphone-Out, Line-Out, and Coax-Out (SPDIF) are all on the top.  I did have some problems with the position of the power switch since I am used to it being on the side of my phone and the DX50.  The position of the power switch makes it a little difficult when you have a cable plugged into the Coax Out and need to reactivate the screen.  The volume controls are located on the side while the USB port for charging, file transfers, or DAC functionality is on the bottom nestled between two microSD card slot covers.  I actually like the covers since they help keep the cruft out of the sockets…and since I ended up loading the X5 up with two 64GB microSD cards I probably wouldn’t have to open the slot covers for a long time (of course, YMMV).
 
The scroll wheel is rather twitchy.  It is the main control for navigating through the menus but it is extremely sensitive to small movements, sometimes jumping several options in the menu when I was only trying to move to the next option.  It's made worse by the scroll wheel being a bit loose, having some play before connecting with the next underlying contact.  It made for a pretty frustrating experience…and to top it off, when spinning the scroll wheel it kept squeaking in one spot.  I hope it is just a fluke confined to this one example and not indicative of all players.  I think if FiiO reduced the sensitivity of the scroll wheel (perhaps adding a slight delay before switching to the next option), it would be a lot less frustrating.  The frustration can be reduced somewhat by being able to use the four front buttons to navigate the menus.  However, this brings up a couple of points…
 
The User Interface (UI):
 
When I think of a UI, I don’t just consider the menus on a screen but physical buttons and controls on the player.  A UI should be fairly intuitive and should not require studying a manual to memorize what a button does.  It can make for a very frustrating out-of-box experience for a new user having to operate the controls by trial-and-error.  In my opinion, one of the biggest shortcoming of the X5 UI is the lack of control symbols on the front buttons.  I really think this can be a major decision factor for people looking to buy based on the appearance of “ease of use”.  Not everyone wants to have to “RTFM” (Read…The…F*...err… Manual), instead preferring to just pop in a microSD card and hit play.  I deliberately approached this evaluation without consulting the manual unless I got really stuck on navigating the UI (...and yes, I ended up having to cheat and RTFM to learn what the physical buttons did).
 
I really like the screen main menu...It works well with the scroll wheel (at least when the scroll wheel isn’t being twitchy).  I also noticed the menu selection rotates opposite the direction of scroll wheel spin which makes scrolling through the menus counter-intuitive.  Perhaps if the menu scrolled in the same direction as the scroll wheel, it would significantly reduce some of the perceived “twitchiness” or at least make it easier to adjust to the UI.  I found the four physical buttons do allow some menu navigation as well (except scrolling up and down in a sub-menu), but I had to RTFM to discover it.  The on-screen menu symbols are pretty intuitive and the sub-menus present all the necessary information (I liked the separate music and player settings menus).  I just have a question…how does one go straight back to “Now Playing” after changing a menu setting without having to navigate backwards a step at a time to the main menu?  Perhaps having an option that returns you to the “Now Playing” screen after a certain amount of time is in order?
 
Using the player:
 
Disclaimer:  Remember, I reviewed the X5 with Firmware 1.00.  Some of the issues noted will probably be addressed in future updates but the player was reviewed and rated “as is”.
 
I used two 64GB microSD cards with mix of Flac and MP3 music files.  I had some initial trouble getting the X5 to recognize the cards after formatting them with my PC.  It was easier to format the cards in the X5 and load them with music via the USB-to-microSD card reader.  I’m sure it was due more to my ignorance than to any issue with the X5 but it seemed to be the easiest way to load music on the cards.  After that, the X5 easily recognized all my folders and tracks.
 
Selecting and playing music was easy using the directory (folder) menu.  I do like the option to choose which microSD card to access but I would also like to see an option where the player indexes both cards and presents all the music folders in a single directory.  I would also like to see multiple playlist support and the ability to add music to favorites by folder as well (playlist support is rumored to be coming in a firmware update).  Gapless playback is a necessity for me so I enabled it.  In Firmware 1.00, the music transition was not smooth with an abrupt transition as if the end of one song and the beginning of the next were clipped and jammed together.  I hope this can be addressed in a future firmware revision since it can be a major factor in choosing a DAP.
 
A note about the sound:
 
This area will actually be rather short since I find offering impressions of sound quality to be subjective and a matter of great debate in some circles.  The only apples-to-apples comparison of the sound quality that I can make is with my iBasso DX50.  I received the DX50 with a firmware that left it sounding rather bland and cold.  Recently, iBasso released a firmware version that brought the DX50 to life musically...it sounded really good to my ears…until I listened to the X5.  I found the X5’s sound to be more full-bodied and musical with good extension in the bass and treble and well-rounded mids.  I also noticed the background of the X5 was completely silent compared to the DX50 which sounds “airier”, almost as if you can hear the noise floor along with the music.  The difference between the two sound signatures is very noticeable with the X5 having the better sound quality.  Again, this is all subjective but are my impressions comparing the two.  I favor the X5 on sound quality if nothing else…
As an aside, I was asked to try the player with my LCD-2 headphones.  The X5 drove them surprisingly well, managing to play them louder than my comfort level...it won’t replace a high-powered amp, but at least it doesn’t suck when the X5 is all you have.  I found the X5 paired excellently with the Dunu DN1000 IEMs!  I would be perfectly happy having the X5 and DN1000 with me if I ever got stranded on a deserted island (with power ).
 
Other functions:
 
I tried out the X5 four different ways…as a player with headphones, as a digital source feeding my Schiit Bifrost DAC and Lyr Amp, as a source/DAC driving my Schiit Lyr Amp, and finally as a standalone USB DAC feeding my Schiit Lyr.  The X5 acquitted itself admirably, performing all the functions I required.
 

Hey, it works!                                                                     The holes in the silicon cover are too small for large plugs...
 

As a Digital Source feeding an external DAC/Amp...             And as a USB DAC feeding an external Amp...
 

The display while operating as a DAC...                               And feeding the LCD-2's...
 

As a Digital player feeding an external Amp via Line-Out...    The X5 and Dunu DN1000...an Excellent Pairing!!
 
Bottom Line:
 
The X5 is a diamond in the rough.  With Firmware 1.0 there are User Interface issues that make operating the player less than intuitive and somewhat frustrating.  Gapless isn’t correctly implemented (yet), and the menus and shortcuts need some refinement.  These, I truly believe, will be addressed in future firmware updates (as I’ve already heard rumor of).  Hardware wise, the scroll wheel is a bit loose and there are no control icons on the buttons.  These could be fixed in future revisions but might frustrate current users not accustom to “feeling their way around” the controls.  While the User's Manual wasn’t completely finished it was excellent in pointing out features and operations but the question is, how many new users want to have to “RTFM” before they can even use a player?
Despite my critiques above, I am looking forward to getting the X5 after it is released in the USA.  While I may have to wait for a few firmware revisions as well as “RTFM'ing" before owning an X5, I think in the end it will definitely be worth the investment when I need a DAP or a DAC or a Digital Source or a…  I think you get the picture.
 
My thanks again to James FiiO and Joe Bloggs for the opportunity to evaluate the X5 and offer my impressions.

Full review below
 
 

Summary:

As part of the pre-release tour, these observations are based on a relatively short experience with the X5, but I think that I got a good impression of what it offers. The X5 is a solid DAP. If you like the Fiio house sound, the X5 will delight you. It has some great features like dual mSD slots and a good UI. The Texas Instruments DAC provides great instrument placement on the sound stage too. The onboard amp didn’t wow me. It is solid and certainly acceptable, but it seemed too warm for me, with some bass bleeding into the low mids. Overall, it’s a good DAP, but I prefer a different sound sig from me equipment.
My context: I use my DAP’s primarily at work, or while working around the house. I want a DAP that’s small enough to comfortably fit in my pocket, and is easy to use without looking at (mostly meaning change the song, pause, and adjust volume while its in my pocket). Up to this point I have been using the iBasso DX50 with a C&C BH2 into Vmoda M100’s.
My Music: I did the testing with about 60% FLAC, 30% 320 mp3’s and 10% 128-256 mp3’s. I included the low rez files because I have some legacy music that I cant/don’t want to pay to replace and was interested how it would do with low bitrate files, but these were not factored into how I think the X5 sounds. I only tested one 24/96 album and no 24/192, as I hear no improvement from super hi-rez music.
Ergonomics:
Looks: Personally, I think this thing is ugly. I heard someone compare it to a 90’s Aiwa CD player, and I totally agree. I guess they were going for a turn table appearance, but it doesn’t really work for me. This is fairly unimportant though. Also, for those of you that are going to rubber band an amp to it, there is very little room between the screen and the wheel for the rubber band, and it gets in the way a little bit. You may be better off cutting out a square from the back of the silicone case and Velcro-ing your amp to it.
The Wheel: Personally, I am not a big fan of the wheel for navigation. The wheel seems solid enough, but I have concerns that small particulates (sand/lint/grit) could possibly become wedged between the wheel and casing, or possibly get underneath it since the wheel physically spins, unlike an Ipod which is stationary. I work in a machine shop where micro sized metal chips are common. I could see one getting wedged in the wheel at some point, although this was not an issue at all on my unit. I’m just thinking if you’re taking this around to less clean environments, it may be an issue. Other than the wheel itself, I thought it took a long time to scroll through long lists. I only have around 50 albums on my SD card, but it took quite a while to get to the bottom, so those of you with large directory lists will get a good thumb workout.
UI: I’ve been spoiled by a touchscreen for a while now, and going back to the wheel took some getting used to. Navigating the UI will get easier with time I’m sure, but I was not a big fan of it. It is fairly slow to get back to the Now Playing screen to change the song when you’re in the menu. Using the EQ with the scroll wheel is also somewhat tedious, but once it’s set you don’t really adjust it much, so I don’t foresee this as a big issue. Besides the interface, I like all the options included in the UI. It had some handy ones that the DX50 does not, like “power on volume”, left/right balance, and an integrated instruction manual. These are all great features.
Another big plus for the X5 is a properly working random play, meaning; Next Track button plays a random song, Previous Track plays the last track that was played. On the DX50, the Last Track button goes to the song immediately behind the current file in the directory, not the last track played. This drives me nuts! Another feature I like more than the DX50 is the FF/RW function. It skips ahead at a good rate with minimal delay. The DX50 FF/RW is overly slow, and its much more useful just to poke at the progress bar until you get the time in the song you’re looking for.
Timeout: The X5 only has a 8 minute maximum time out/shutoff which I thought was too short. I commonly get interrupted at work for more than 8 minutes, but less than 15 or 20. I have my Dx50 set to timeout after 20 mins, and don’t have to turn it back on frequently. With the 8 minute limit on the X5, I was turning it back on frequently, which was kinda annoying.
Silicone case: If you change cards a lot you’ll want to note: the silicone case covers the card slots, so you’ll either be taking the case on and off a lot, or you’ll want to cut out slots for the cards. Also, if you’re going to use it Amped all the time, the silicone case has 2 little tabs that cover the LO and Coax out which kinda get in the way. I would cut them off and just buy the silicone 3.5mm plugs to cover the unused HO/LO/Coax ports.
Play: there is a couple second pause between pushing the play/pause button and the player responding. Its about the same as on the DX50. The power up is slightly faster than the DX50 though. I like the menu option that allows you to choose how/if it resumes play where you left off.
Weight/size: noticeably heaver than the DX50. Not massive by any means, but its substantial. Its boarder line of too big, but hasn’t quite crossed into that territory yet. Without an amp, its fine; with an amp, its pretty big and no longer portable IMO. It becomes closer to a portable desktop rig.
Volume/Power: I used my M100’s for most of the testing, but also used Phillips Stretch headphones for a small comparison. I used High gain at around 35-50 volume. 40-45 was loud but comfortable. The M100’s are exceptionally easy to drive, so I cant really comment about the X5’s ability to drive 250-300 ohm headphones. One thing I like a lot more on the DX50 is that the Volume + and – buttons are separated by a quarter inch. On the X5 they are each half of “1” long button. I like the DX50’s 2 distinct buttons because they are easier to feel through your pants and easier to adjust without looking at the player.
Now, on the the important part: The Sound.
Do not have a large palette of high end DAPs to compare this to, mostly just the DX50, but have used Ipods, Sansa Clip+, Creative Zen, Zune, and the X3. For my comparison, I did No EQing to best compare one to the other (I mean, EQ off).
First off, I think the Texas Instruments DAC does a good job of imaging and instrument separation. Most of the time I thought this was a plus, but in some recordings, it made the sound stage too wide or localized. I specifically thought that the guitar and drums on Dave Matthew’s Lie in our Graves were almost too localized.
To me, the general signature of this DAP seems to be strong lows and mids, laid back highs. By that I mean the bass and mids stand out, with the treble taking a back seat. Sub bass ( <40hz) wasn’t as strong either.
To my ears, the Lows on the X5 are boosted. They seem more present than on my DX50. This really comes through with things like a bass guitar, and the lower notes metal guitars with distortion. I think I heard the upper lows bleeding into the lower mids on a lot of rock songs like Godsmack’s Bad Religion, Weezer’s Pork and Beans, and Disturbed’s Voices.
The Mid’s also seem very prominent to me. The vocals come across very nicely in general with a good, natural sound. Once thing I noticed: there is a certain frequency in some rock songs, a medium-high guitar note, that really pierces and seems overly loud. I noticed this in some of the rock songs mentioned above, and specifically in Korn’s Reclaim My Place.
The Highs could use a little EQing up in my opinion, but I think this about most setups. I did about the same boost with my DX50 and got both players to sound about the same.
I did some testing with the C&C BH2 and the Fiio E12 via the LO too. I thought both the E12 and BH2 provided a better (to my ears) sound sig than the onboard amp. It seemed flatter/more neutral in general. The prominent lows and mids via the HO seemed to be more even via the LO to either amp. Comparing the LO of the DX50 to the X5, I highly doubt I would be able to tell one from the other in a blind test. 1 thing I do like about the DX50, is that the LO volume is variable. I know people go both ways on this, but I personally like it because I have sensitive headphones. With the X5, I could only use around ¼ to 1/3 of the volume knob before it became too loud, and when in a very quiet environment, I only needed 1/6 to 1/8 volume. On the DX50, I set my LO volume to 230/255 and then I can use ¾ of the volume knob. I know that technically you want the highest source voltage and lowest amp gain for the best THD ratio, but I still cant hear distortion using it like this. If you have higher impedance headphones, this wont be an issue, as you need more power to achieve the same volume. Overall the LO on the X5 is very good and clean. It will be a great source for any amp you strap on it.
Final thoughts: The X5 is a solid player. Personally, I like my DX50/BH2 combo better at the same price point. I think the X5 has the “Fiio house sound”, and the people who like that will love the X5. I chose the DX50 after my co worker had me listen to the X3 and DX50. I instantly liked the DX50 more and have been in the iBasso camp ever since. I know lots of people like the Fiio sound though, so if you have liked their players in the past, im sure you’ll love the X5, especially if you’re coming from an X3. All in all, Im glad that I got to hear the X5, but it didn’t sway my love for the DX50.
 
 
I will be adding some pictures soon, my camera needs some updating so they are not the greatest but there are plenty on Head-fi for you to view.
Thanks for reading,Andy (Aka Howdy)


Edit:
After all that was said above I ended up selling all of my ibasso products bought the X5 and became a FiiO fan boy. The sound of the X5 is by far superior to the DX50, I think there have been something wrong with my tour unit but the new one I have now is great, no issues what so ever. I'm excited for the upcoming X7!

Just figured I would update this review and tell my new thoughts for the X5.

Packaging and bundled miscellaneous
 
* The X5 
* X5's silicone case
* The box the X5 came in and the card stand inside
* X5 quick start guide
* bundled USB cable
* bundled USB card reader
* 3.5mm to RCA coaxial digital adapter cable
* warranty card
* 3 3.5mm port cover plugs
* 2 extra LCD screen protector films
* X5 button layout cue sheet
* HDTracks coupon
 
Fiio is outdoing the rest of the competition in this aspect. I have never seen any other companies provide that much that there really isn’t any accessories you need to get for it. Earphone jack cover for all holes. 1 pre applied screen protector and 2 spares and rubber case for it. It has got you covered for years to come.
 
Build quality and design aspect
 
The casing is well made, nothing to complain about here. Hard buttons for all the important functions(Vol up/Vol down/Forward/Backward and Pause). Operating with 1 hand, I realise my thumb couldn't reach the bottom left button comfortably. Screen is not completely filled on the glass which doesn’t look nice. But they have done the right thing and not make the screen touch sensitive. Would have prefered if the screen is flush with the player. A little play on the wheel and middle button but not to point of being flimsy. Battery seems to be sealed though I remember James mentioning that users can replace the battery but not in the hot swappable way. MicroSD card flap could be designed in a better way. I feel that the flaps doesn’t sits well but it’s a minor nuance that is covered by the silicon case.
 
UI
 
UI on the X5 is better than what’s in the audiophile niche market at the moment but still a long way from the big players such as Apple and Sony. Booting time is fast. Interface is clean. Complaints I have is that the wheel accelerates in a linear way such that a long playlist takes a long time to wheel through(My own experience being 600 songs and wheeling it for 70+ full circles). Play by category needs work. All songs is sorted by file names which I think isn’t very user friendly. Would actually prefer if they replace the genre into playlist. There is no ways to create playlist. The closest it have is a favourite function which once you heart it, it appears under the favourites menu. I hope that they can implement the middle button hold as a favourite/add to playlist command at songs selection pages. So far from my usage, I have not encounter any bugs or hangs from the machine. Accuracy of the wheel is average. It seems to fail to register a few steps here and there but you use the forward and backward buttons to fine tune your selections. General UI design is very coherent and options/settings are very well thought out at this stage though it can still be improved further.
 
Sound
 
The X5 doesn’t  disappoint in this area though it scales with what you’re using it with. I had some sibilance issue with my Elpis2 whereas on the AKG K272HD, Klipsch X10 and Koss PortaPro,  it was a bliss listening it through the X5. Its able to handle what I’m listening to from Norah Jones to Avicii to Queen. There isn't any issue with playing any of my FLAC or MP3 files. Spacious and detailed/good separation would be what I would say about the sound from the X5. Bass isn’t overpowering in my opinion. Mid is neutral. Tested everything on low gain except for the AKG K272HD. Some tracks that I tested with.
 
Norah Jones - Don’t know why, Come away with me
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Swedish Mafia House - Calling
Audiomachine - Guardian at the gates, Akkadian empire
Fatboy Slim - Right here right now, Rockafeller Skank, Praise you,
ACDC - T.N.T, Shoot to thrill, Thunderstruck
Loch Lomond - Elephants and little girls, Wax and wire
Yoko Kanno - Gotta knock a little harder, No reply
 
Portability
 
Size is about the same as a Ipod Classic although a little thicker. There’s no problem putting it in my jeans pocket. Battery life is good. I managed to get 11 hours out of 1 single charge with constant use changing and searching of tracks.
 
Conclusion
 
At this price point, it’s really hard to complain about it. The X5 really hits all the right spot in terms of price/sound quality aspect. In the quality aspect especially, it's really a few notch above what the others are offering at the moment. Yes, there are things that can be improved upon and I’m very happy that Fiio is taking the right approach in developing their products. They do listen to what the niche market wants from their MP3 which is rare in this day and age.  Fiio proves that you don’t have to pay an absurd price to get decent sounding gears and from this demo, I will pick one up once it’s available in my country. I would lastly like to thank Joe and James for the opportunity to test out the X5 before its international release.
 
Disclaimer: Unit tested was a loaner and I’m not affiliated with Fiio in any ways.

Fiio X5 Review
 

 
Disclaimer
    -I am a beta tester for Fiio products so the item is loaned to me for a set period, and I am in no way affiliated to Fiio
    -This is my first time reviewing a DAP, keep that in mind
    
Introduction

    

    I am Lespectraal, just your average person inclined towards everything tech, and in this case I have been delving a bit into the world of DAP, starting with my own purchase of Fiio's own X3. The X3 was a mixed bag, despite the sound quality itself being exceptional the device as a whole suffered in other areas. So now we will see how the X5 holds up. I will be comparing the X5 to the X3 because those are the only two devices which are of the same category that I have owned and/or used.
    
Gear used
    
    Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro 250Ohm
    Hippo ProOne
    JDS Labs C5
    Taishan D03K
    
Build quality
 
 
 
    The Fiio X5 oozes of great build quality and even the looks alone tells you that Fiio has not skimped on this department. The device just feels great in the hand, albeit it is heavy compared to the X3. The casing to the buttons and the jacks are appropriately made to deliver the best operation possible.
    
    X5's scroll wheel does feel a bit loose during my operation, it feels as if the sensors were going to come off and it even shows during usage as the items does not move with accuracy. As it turns out it is more of a software issue than anything, but even with that said it still does feel a bit loose. With that said though the scroll wheel does help considerably when scrolling through large files, which does make sense since such a device that has large file capacity allows many files at once. Button scrolling as in the X3 will be more of a nuisance since you are expected to continually depress a button to scroll through all items and this does not feel as natural as the circular motion which the scroll wheel allow for.
    
    For the four corner buttons feel appropriate, their actuation force(the force it takes to press them down) feels just right. Daily usage of pressing the buttons to change folders or settings proved to be comfortable and I did not make accidental presses at all. Compared to the X3, the buttons are about the same to me. They both are accurate and able to register button presses when I demand them without a miss. They also feel durable as the presses feel "authoritative" and firm. The power button and volume rockers also share similar experiences.
    
    For the jacks, I feel they are made quite durable. Each input/output jack has this circular ring around it, which is the same for the X3. This ring serves as to protect the jacks from wear and tear, and allows for firm attachment of jacks. It also looks aesthetically pleasing. Once connected, a headphone jack feels firm in place, without no looseness felt at all. I had no problem with the headphone jack as I would usually place the X5 in my pocket. No disconnections or anything at all. Really built like a tank. The same applies for the X3. Both devices have equally firm and durable jacks and I would not worry about placing the devices in my pocket.
    Overall, the device feels absolutely stunning functioning to be durable, to allow it to be used daily and last for a long time. The quality is of the same league as the AK series of DAPs.
    
User Interface
 
    The UI is one of the most competent ones I have used in my life. It feels snappy and reliable without any hiccups. I could easily navigate the entirety of the devices UI with ease. I can easily get to where I want to, say to play a song from my library and get to it with such accuracy that shows how great the UI is. It never feels like a chore to move about the interface and for that reason alone makes the device worth the price.
    
    Now the ease of navigation is largely due to the fact that it incorporates a large scroll wheel right in the middle of the four corner buttons with another larger button in the middle of the wheel which acts as the accept/volume/play/pause button. All of the buttons form together to make that UI such a breeze to use with. The layout of the X3 with the oddly placed buttons for volume and up/down it does not feel as natural to me compared to the X3.
    
    The visuals on the X5 also deserves some praise. It just looks stunning. The vibrant colours and the sharpness of the screen just gives a great experience to the device. The low resolution screen and the lack of colours on the X3 is just eclipsed by the level of performance the screen the X5 has. Now that I have return to the X3 after using the X5 for the duration of the beta test, I just feel disappointed that I have to suffer with the X3's lesser screen quality.
    
    The X5 can also be used as a USB DAC which to me is one of the major reasons why I bought the X3. I spend a lot of my time in front of the computer so I needed a way to play music on my computer while having great sound quality. The X3 came along and from there I decided to buy it because it solves this very problem. The X5 is similar here. I can plug it into my computer and even play games on it and provide me great sound quality to replace the built-in systems.
 
Sound quality
    
    Here is a small disclaimer, I am not accustomed to the various Hi-Fi terminologies to describe sound as professional or as informative as possible, so bear this in mind. Think of it as a very subjective impression of the sound rather than a reliable understanding of how the device produces the analogue waveforms. But all reviews are subjective anyway, or at least to some degree, but I digress.
    
    I love all songs from classical to rock, and with this large scope of taste, I have found the sound section of the device as Hi-Fi as it can be at this price range. It sounds more cleaner and natural compared to the X3, which is more warmly tilted. I was able to hear more details on the X5 than the X3, and the soundstage became wider and the instrument separation is also boosted up a notch. As for the instrument separation, I think it is more subtle than an apparent change but it is there.
    
    I will break down the sound to its components:
    
    Bass
        
        To my ears the bass is quite well defined, it is the type of analytical bass I love in my music. Through the DT880s with its ability to go very low, shines in this regard. I was able to hear the low range rumble from songs like "Angel" by "Massive Attack". That song contains so much low frequencies it somewhat massages your brain as the song progresses. The X5 helps with that a great deal, it delivers the low frequencies through being punchy and defined.
        
    Midrange
    
        It comes to me as being very honest somewhat. Any vocal song you throw at it the midrange will be present and brings it forth so beautifully it leaves you wanting more. You will keep on playing your vocal-centric pieces for many times because of this quality. Instruments that fall in this range are also treated similarly, as in the flute in the song "With You There to Help Me" by "Jethro Tull". The flute sounds so fluid and engaging as if you could just lay down and let the flute just carry you away into audio nirvana.
        
    Treble
    
        The treble is very well defined and integrated into the rest of the sound spectrum. It displays this range with no fatigue, it lays them down to you instead of throwing it to you giving you ear fatigue. Cymbals sound just right for my ears, the sizzle sounds as realistic as it could be without sounding too harsh on you. The snare drums hit with such a snap and authority. "Wish You Were Here" by "Pink Floyd" delighted me with its wonderful synthesizers and guitar.
        
    Soundstaging
        
        Compared to the X3, the X5 sounds more spacious. The X5 delivers more depth, as in the front and back space. Other than that it is not so different than the X3. In this regard, the X3 and X5's soundstaging is already as good as DAPs can get.
        
    Imaging
    
        The imaging on the X5 is done better than the X3, for it sounds more 3D like compared to the flat 2D of the X3. I feel that I am more into the song on the X5 than I do with the X3 for that reason alone. The instruments and vocals are placed to give a better impression of the music being played. This is one of my favourite things about the sound of this device, with the other being the neutrality.
        
    Overall
    
        The sound as a whole is delivered with neutrality in mind. And by neutrality I mean that all frequencies are adequately expressed to the best of its capabilities. All the songs I have listened to are portrayed nicely through the device. Now this all does depend on the headphone/IEM you are pairing, but from my gear this is what I have experienced.
        
Conclusion
 
    The Fiio X5 deserves to be one of the top DAPs out there for giving it a nice feature packed experience with such a price, that it surely cannot be topped in that sense. For someone who wants pure Hi-Fi sound on the go, and also to be used as a USB DAC with a PC as a desktop device.
    
    However, if you are on a budget, I think the X3 will suffice, as both devices are similarly packed with features, and the sound quality difference is not that big of a deal if you are going to look for a device with less of a damage on your wallet. The X3 will do just right for that situation.
    
    The X5 will delight its owners for sure. From the build quality to the UI to the sound quality, all is done with a level of competence that just shows.
   

 
I first want to thank James at Fiio and everyone else involved in setting this tour up (especially Joe Bloggs) – it was way cool of you guys to let us have a crack at the X5 before its release and much more satisfying to be a participant as opposed to a spectator, which was always the case in the past for this guy….
 
 
Where I’m Coming From
 
So I’ve been into this hobby for a couple of years now and started out buying a used Cowon J3 in the for sale threads after having an ipod 5.5 and and 4^th generation ipod touch. I like the J3 quite a bit because of its battery life, decent though unspectacular sound quality, and stable/more than adequate UI. It’s light as a feather, too, which matters a lot to me since I listen to music nearly daily while driving a moped on my way to work (half hour each way) and elsewhere (Saigon is a veritable sea of mopeds – the streets are teeming with literally millions of them). There simply is no other way for me to keep my sanity intact when driving to work. Exhibit A:  (I drive through this intersection nearly every day

)
 
Anyways, I’m not yet a super-discerning know-it-all sommelier of daps (not a conscious goal of mine), but I’m getting that itch to upgrade. I guess I’m your typical newish head-fier with a mild case of upgradeitus who is on somewhat of a budget ( the X5 should retail for $350, depending on your region). Fortunately for me, I was allowed to participate in the SE Asian tour and had the X5 for about a week. Here’s my experience with the X5…
 
 
 
Old-school Build Quality
 
It is built like a tank and really feels like a substantial piece of kit in my hand, unlike most consumer electronics nowadays. It seems like something designed for field use – its build is that robust. For my own purposes and general use, it is on the heavy side and not ideally-sized for a shirt pocket during my commute (that is where I keep my J3 when on the road). I kept it in my backpack instead, which wasn’t quite annoying, but a bit cumbersome when getting off my bike since my backpack is strapped to my handlebars, facing me.  Clearly, this will not be an issue for 99.9% of users. After a couple of commutes, I decided the J3 is better suited for this generally dangerous task since this was, after all, a review unit and not mine (imagine the horror of having to inform Fiio of the demise of a review unit!). Saigon is quite hot, so there never really is a time when one has use for a coat with pockets – I wish I had an occasion to drop it in the inside pocket of a peacoat or something like that…hence, I’m really jealous of people who get to experience 4 seasons. For me, the X5 is more of a coffee shop/office sitting-on-your-tookus dap, which is quite alright since I spend a lot of time planning lessons or reading.
 
As far as battery life is concerned, I got about 10 hours or so out of it, using a mix of 16/44 and 24/96 files. I thought that I’d be really annoyed by this because of the J3 and its 30+ hours, but it didn’t cause me any problems at all. I knew what to expect, so how could I feel let down? I will say that it does take awhile to fully charge, so you need to be patient. A green indicator light  beneath the scroll wheel will show you when it is topped off. Otherwise, the light will be red and blinking. Everybody is in agreement about its storage capability: 2 microSD (256GB maximum capacity) slots is a beautiful thing. There is no on-board memory, but this can be forgiven since they were forward-thinking enough to consider the size of high-res files (typically over 1 GB per album) when deciding on this aspect. Well done, Fiio! Here's a couple of pictures I took of the X5: Camera: Canon S110
 
 
In The Box (16.6 X 13 X 4.3cm)
 

1. Micro USB cable: 1 meter, large current Micro USB cable (for charging/data transfer)
2. Silicone case: 1 dark gray semi-transparent silicone case (with built-in port covers)
3. Coaxial cable
4. OTG cable
5. Protective film: 2 pieces (plus one already applied to the X5's screen)
6. 3.5mm port covers: 3 pieces (very handy to avoid plugging into the wrong port when not using the case)
7. User manual
8. Warranty card
9. Promotion code for HDTracks

 
The UI
 
Much has been said about the UI and its unintuitiveness relative to other daps, but I didn’t find it particularly challenging to use. After a couple of minutes navigating through the UI, it struck me as a fairly straight forward affair, even before being improved with an update by the good chaps at Fiio (after I sent it to the next tour participant). There are similarities between the UI of the X5 and that of an ipod, but the X5 isn't quite as good. I'm not very picky about this kind of stuff, so I felt that it did its job admirably.
 
As far as the scroll wheel is concerned, I can’t say that I loved it, but it wasn’t bad. I wish it was more solidly affixed as it had just a wee bit of play and seemed to be slightly flexible (in contrast to the rest of the player, which is as solid as the hammer of Thor). I got used to it fairly quickly and didn’t really give it much thought after that. My experience was that the UI is very stable overall, though it did go a bit screwy on me a couple of times. At one point, the text was completely reversed, an exact mirror image of itself. Turning it off and back on again fixed the glitches each time (I think it happened 3 times over the span of a week), so it didn’t bother me so much as it put a sliver of doubt in my mind about its long term usage. I’m confident that Fiio will make the UI rock solid by the time it is released into the wild (if it isn’t already).
 
Update: Fiio has released a new version of the firmware with the following improvements:

1. DSD support
2. USB on-the-go support
3. Improved decoding of lossy formats (mp3 / ogg vorbis)
4. New UI for file browsing and selection of songs by category
5. Other bug fixes related to lock screen and recognition via usb by some computers

 
Update #2: Fiio has released firmware version 1.2.2 and gapless playback has been successfully implemented.
 
The brightness of the screen isn’t really sufficient for direct sunlight, but that’s one of the sacrifices that had to be made to keep this thing within reach of more budget-minded audiophiles like myself. In its defense, few if any audio-only devices can adequately cope with the sun in SE Asia (especially in its price range). My J3 has the same issue, but I’ve managed to live with this minor inconvenience for over 2 years now without having a mental breakdown over it.  
 
 
 
Naked Sound
 
This thing is way more revealing than the J3.  (For the record, I used Mr. Speakers Mad Dogs 3.2, VSonic GR07 MK1s, and UM Miracles CIEMs).  There were some albums on my J3 which sound just fine to me that were shown to be less than stellar recordings by the X5, and this is a good thing. Yes, it means you may have to dig around and perhaps pay again to find another version of an album you already love and have to really enjoy it on the X5, but it will be worth the trouble. High-quality recordings were made for the X5 and one that really stood out for me was Paper Airplanes by Alison Krauss & Union Station from HDTracks. With my Mad Dogs plugged directly into the HO of the X5, this album sounded sublime, just crystal clear, non-fatiguing, and full of body. I was near max volume, but I must have mistakenly been on low gain. It didn’t bother me at the time, but I was a bit surprised. I thought I had it on high gain and I’m now 99.9% sure that I was in err.  The MDs are a fairly power-hungry set of cans, so rest assured that the amp section of the X5 has enough power to respectably drive a plethora of full-size headphones. Another peach of an album was Whites Off Earth Now! by The Cowboy Junkies (MFSL), which is a collection of old blues songs masterfully reinterpreted, featuring gobs of sub-bass goodness (at least I think it's sub-bass). 
 
Other recordings didn’t sound so great to me; Morning Phase by Beck (24-96 flac from HDTracks) sounded harsh in the highs – not exactly sibilant, but grating (with flat eq setting). On the J3, the same file sounds better though less detailed: The X5 really put a spotlight on a recording's flaws. I used the X5's eq to reduce this and it did do the trick, but I was left hoping and praying that the folks over at MoFi get their well-manicured hands on Morning Phase and give it the same treatment they gave to Sea Change (a much better record imo). Much has been made about the sound quality of Beck’s latest, so I’ll just reemphasize my point about the revealing nature of the X5: garbage in, garbage out (sorry, Mr. Ludwig, but I think you laid an egg). Feed it properly and you’ll be very pleased with the results.
 
At any rate, the Mad Dogs did sound gorgeous with the X5, and is clearly a better mate than the E17, which is substantially warmer and less revealing. I didn’t bother to stack the X5 and E17 – for better or worse, I just can’t be troubled to lug around a brick during my commute, so I didn’t see the point. I’m probably in the minority, but I just want a dap that can stand on its own two feet (I usually use iems, so this stands to reason in my mind). Those who do prefer to use a separate amp or dac are in luck; the X5 has both a line out and coaxial out, and can also be used in amp/dac mode when hooked up to your computer via usb, which just shows its versatility. Though I would probably only utilize the amp/dac on occasion, it is a player that you can sort of grow into, should you decide to delve into the world of portable amps/dacs. That flexibility right there really makes this a good value relative to other products in its price range.
 
Regarding how my personal gear paired with the X5, my Miracles and GR07s both sounded very good, but not as good as the full-size Mr. Speakers cans. They needed a bit of eq adjustment to tame the highs with some recordings, as I've mentioned, especially if I wanted to listen at louder volumes (I usually do), which only surprised me in the case of the Miracles. For this reason, I will go out on a limb and recommend iems or full-size cans that are mildly warm-sounding – some have called the X5 neutral to slightly warmish, but my impression is that it’s a bit of a detail monster (in a very good way with the right headphones). As always, YMMV…anybody who has been following the threads will know that most people have had a notably different experience from mine, so I may be the exception here.
 
 
Final Deep Thoughts
 
For those of you with a dap that sits in the entry-level to lower-mid tier, and also have your first confirmed case of upgradeitus, I think you need to give the X5 a long look. Yes, it’s heavier than average, but it is built to withstand Armageddon, has a fairly powerful amp section, is easy to use, and can hold up to 256gb of music (128gb MicroSD cards are now available if you hadn’t noticed). It will play nearly every file type under the sun and you can go high-res if you like, all the way up to 24/192. It doesn’t look very sexy, but like me, you just want something that is dependable and sounds great. Just ponder for a moment what you're after, how you’ll be using it on a day-to-day basis and consider your options. Fiio has made an excellent player here and it should be on your shortlist. Also, they deserve heaps of credit for really listening to their customer base to find out what people want; they do a remarkable job of delivering features that there is demand for and the X5 is evidence of this. If you want to hear it for yourself, they've reopened the tour (http://www.head-fi.org/t/696004/fiio-x5-preview-world-tour-re-opened-for-application-p-114/1725#post_10392960), so depending on where you live, you may be able to audition this fine piece of ear candy.
 
If you want to read up on all of the vital stats, like size, weight, output impedance, etc., here's a link to Fiio that has everything you need to know in one place:              http://fiio.com.cn/products/index.aspx?ID=100000055517771&MenuID=105026016
 
 

FiiO X5 Review:
 
Hi first ever review,so probably not the most in-depth you will ever read,a bit about my self I am a Network engineer for Ericsson maintaining all of the Telecoms networks and as well as having a love for music,I have a passion for racing bikes and compete in the odd triathlon.
 
Thanks to the Fiio team for for giving me the chance to be one of the first few to listen to this player.
Ive only started listening to high quality sounding music,in fact it was Fiio who started me on this journey a few years back when I purchased the E7(Dac/amp)to improve the sound of my iPod and laptop.
I have been a fan ever since and jumped on the X3 when it came out,not without its bugs early on,because of a great team these have mostly been ironed out and in a whole I think the X3 is a fantastic player.
I will be comparing the X5 with the X3 and the new Sony F886 using Grado GR8,T-PEOS H-100j and HiFiMAN HE-400.
Most of my listening was either driving in the car or when training on the bike, and the X5 was a constant companion on the indoor trainer drowning out the constant drone of the flywheel!
 
Build
 
The X5 is a solid piece of kit with a good weight,I love the scroll wheel although a bit sensitive and responsive at first,I did get used to it,screen is good with better resolution than the X3,although the Sony has by far the better screen,the buttons are ok and do the job once you get used to there purpose,the only real gripe are the sd card slots, they are too deep and you have to use something to press to insert/eject,the X3 was a lot easier to insert/eject.

 
 
User Interface
 
FiiO have done a great job here,very neat menu layout,fast scrolling through menus,a vast improvement over the X3.Despite the Sony having a fantastic UI, I see no need for android on a dap,a good touch screen with wifi so that you can stream to spotify and Qobuz would be nice though!!.Ive had a few screen freezes and sd card problems but i am certain these will be ironed out before the International launch.
 
Sound
 
As I’ve said most of my listening was done on the move,no sitting down with the audio club dissecting every piece of the frequency range.For my ears the X5 produced the best SQ of any dap I’ve heard,lovely detail,excellent separation and good soundstage more revealing than the warmer Sony and X3,a good match for my Grados,I could listen to this combination all day
 I used the DAC connected to a mac with Audirvana running and comparing the H/O with a Little Dot mkIII,the Little Dots warm tubes are a better match but not by much,the X5 drives the HE-400 very well and I think tames the treble a touch.To compare the bass I used my T-Peos H-100j which have tremendous sub bass,the X5 sounded crisper and cleaner to the heavier X3,the sony is unfortunately euro capped,so to make it a fairer fight I hooked the sony up to the C&C BH amp which opened the sony up a bit especially with my Grados which needed that bit more juice,although I love the tone of the warmer Sony,I still think the X5 was one step ahead in detail.
Overall I think Fiio have done a great job improving on the stellar X3 and with future DSD upgrade,its a tremendous bargain,half the price of the Sony ZX1 which I believe sounds similar to the F886,with HI-RES streaming just around the corner,hopefully the future X7 will have an OLED touchscreen(wishing) and wifi.(But please no Android!!)



 
 
To sum up the X5 is a true robust urban road warrior of a player,true Hi-Fi on the move and I for one would buy it in a second.

Disclaimer: I am not related to FiiO, nor am I paid to do this review, they have kindly organized a tour to let the previewers have a 'taste' of how it actually sounds like.
 
Intro: I first came across FiiO's dap in Early December , which is their first and only dap in 2013 , I was particularly impressed on how it actually sounds , especially for it's price . In late December there was the FiiO X5 world tour application, decided to try my luck , and unfortunately I wasn't that lucky , but a few weeks after the shortlisted names were announced , I received a PM from my fellow group of local-Head-Fiers, enclosing a message sent by Joe that there'd be an extra set, so there it is, I'm in the X5 world tour !
This is a simple review of mine:
 
[Sorry for the low quality pictures , I do not have a proper camera so I took these using my phone]

The packinging: 9/10
 

 
 
It's a simple yet elegant box
 

 
 
Open up the box and you'll find a black box, it has the leather-texture, though it's made out of paper.
 
Accessories: 9.5/10

 
 
Inside the box, you'll get a silicon protective case for the X5, a micro USB charging/data transfer cable, 2 instruction manual, 2 screen protector, a warranty card, a coaxial cable, 3 anti-dust plug, a micro sd card reader, a USB OTG cable (for future firmware use) and a HDtracks discount code.

Build/design: 8.5/10
 

 
 
It is heavy(200g as stated), build quality like a tank, though I have not (and will not ) try to drop it to see whether it'd survive after a drop
There're a total of 5 clickable buttons at the front side, they're have a tactile feeling when you try to press it.
The scroll-wheel has a rubbery texture and it is turnable , unlike the iPod , where you'd only touch and go round the circle.
 

 
 
There're two volume buttons at the side, it has also the tactile feeling when you press it.

 

 
 
At the top of the X5, you'll see 3 output holes, the first hole to the left is Headphone Out, second hole is the Line Out and lastly to the right is the Coaxial Out.
[Picture (bottom)]
On the bottom of the X5 you'll find 2 micro sd cards slot, with a rubber flapper attach to it, not the biggest fan of it , as I had problems opening up the rubber flap , takes awhile to open it up .

Battery: 9/10
It is a built-in 3700mAH Li-polymer battery, it is said that it'd last 12-15 hours of playback which is quite impressive it has to be said.

UI: 9/10
Not the fanciest UI , but it's simple , good , and best of all , fast .
 

 
 
This UI reminds me of a Sony Walkman-style (phone) kind of theme , scrolling speed is great , no lag or whatsoever .

General specifications (Thanks Brooko!)
 
Dimensions:64.6 x 114 x 15.6 mm (W/L/H)
 
Weight:122 g
 
Display:2.4” 260K HD IPS (400x360)
 
CPU:Ingenics 4760B 600MHz dual core
 
DACCM1792A (supports up to 192/24 res)
 
Outputs:3.5mm headphone out, 3.5mm line out, 3.5mm digital coax out
 
Storage:2 x microSD (max support 64Gb x 2 at time of review)
 
Battery:3700mAh Li-Polymer, up to 15 hours playback (~12 hours currently)
 
Gain options:0 / 6 dB
 
Supported Formats:APE, WAV, FLAC, WMA, ALAC, MP2, MP3, AAC, OGG
 
Supported Resolution:Up to 192K/24bit – dependent on format
 
Headphone Out:
 
Output Impedance<0.26 Ω
 
Crosstalk:>75 dB @ 1KHz 
 
THD+N< 0.003% @ 1KHz
 
MAX output voltage:> 8 Vp-p
 
MAX output current:> 150 mA 
 
SNR > 115 dB
 
Output Power:460 mW @ 16Ω, 255 mW @ 32Ω, 28 mW @ 300Ω
 
Line Out:
 
Crosstalk> 100 dB @ 10KΩ @ 1KHz
 
THD+N< 0.0025% @ 1KHz
 
SNR> 115 dB
 
Line output> 1.5 Vrms
 
Here's the main part of the review , it's a little short and simple section . 
 
Sound: 9.5/10

Treble: It's extends very well , yet smooth and natural . Consiered 'netural' in FiiO's product, it is a little warm if compared to other daps , excellent for bright sounding headphones or in-ear monitors.

Bass: It's punchy yet controlled , it produces the right amount of bass when needed .

Sound-stage: It has more depth than width , I'd give a score of 3/5 for depth and 3.5/5 for it's width .

Mids: If you have a 'mids-laid back' headphones or IEMs and you want a dap with forward mids, this is for you, presentation of the mids is just stunning, one of the excellent aspects of the player .

Micro-detailling: W-O-W . By far , the best I have ever heard , every strumming of the guitar , beat of the drums , this player will never fail to capture every micro detail of the music . Just wow . 

Final thoughts: 350 USD ? You don't get what you pay for this player , you have gotten a steal of the century , it has to be the best player for it's price tag , and with a great customer service , you'll not regret buying this player . Judging from it's build , it can last for at least a good 5 years . If you're looking to buy a player that sounds excellent and can last for long time , FiiO's X5 is for you .
 
I'd like to thank FiiO , James and Joe for organizing this tour and giving me a chance to preview the X5 , it has been a amazing and wonderful experience .  
 
Thank you for reading

tl;dr: 3.9/5.0 => 4.5/5.0. The X5 is a good DAP and USB DAC combo that will shine even more after more polishing (right now it’s 1.20 and will get 1.21 soon. Things are looking really great from what I have seen in the changelog so far! )
 
For…
People who want the same sound for their portable and desktop setup
People who prefer a very well-detailed and well-presented soundscape
People who want something simple to play their loseless files (i.e. those who just throw everything into one card and play from there)
People who are ok with frequent firmware upgrades
 
Not For…
People who want something a little smaller and/or lighter
People who prefer a touchscreen
People who need ReplayGain support
People who want something more intuitive at one look
People who want something that works really well off-the-shelf
 
Note: In italics are the required disclaimers as per stipulated in the Preview Tour thread.
 
One day in December 2013, as I was looking around in Head-Fi (being more interested in audio ever since Fiio decided to add USB DAC capability to the X3), I came across a thread by Fiio asking people to test out the X5 as part of its “Preview Tour” (i.e. test it for 10 days for free and then pass it to the next reviewer/Fiio depending on schedule set by Fiio). I thought to myself, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained, YOLO” and signed up for it despite not writing having written a proper review before, not having high-level audio products and most probably being unable to afford to get the X5 in the immediate future being just a college student only. So, by some stroke of luck, here I am, reviewing the Fiio X5 (albeit an engineering sample and mostly on Firmware 1.00; the ones that you will be buying will be better than this review set ), and here’s my experiences with it.
 
Initial Opening
When I got the set from the previous reviewer, it was in a normal-looking box that you will expect for any electronic product. But, when I opened it, I was a little impressed by that sleek looking black box that held the X5; its leathery surface seems to show that this product is clearly for the (slightly more) upmarket consumer. The other stuff you get is on par with the rest in this market (e.g. USB cable, 3.5mm to coaxial cable and maybe that silicon case), except for the screen protectors (the X5 already has one, and some spare ones), the MicroSD card reader and even an USB OTG cable (as the X5 will be able to play media files from other USB storage devices in future firmware patches), which I thought are a nice touch from Fiio. The silicon case is a little thick though, which means that if you are planning to use the X5 with bigger 3.5mm plugs, you cannot use the silicon case (that’s why you will see that I am not using it in the pictures).
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 
The X5 itself
The first impression you might have is that “Hey, it looks like and iPod!” thanks to its mechanical wheel. But beyond that, it is a completely different beast from the iPod and many other digital audio players in the market. Around the wheel are 4 buttons, with a fifth one in the middle of the wheel. Below the wheel, you will see 4 dots, which are lit by a green/red LED to indicate USB activity. Above these is a large screen, which is quite clear and sharp. I am happy with the screen considering that it is the biggest I ever had for a DAP. On the top side of the X5, you will see the 3.5mm ports for Line-Out, Headphones Out and Coaxial Out, the Reset button and Power On/Off button (which acts as a Lock button too), which is as expected. The left side of the X5 has two buttons for controlling volume like the Sansa Clip Zip. What may be more interesting is the bottom of the X5, which has two MicroSD card slots and a MicroUSB port; not many digital audio players allow you to use two MicroSD cards and also another USB storage device at one go and not many digital audio players have thick and strong rubber covers to protect your MicroSD cards, which I think are important since they are small and somewhat fragile.
 

 

 

 
Within the X5
The X5 starts up pretty fast and switches off pretty fast too (with a friendly “See You” message). Once the X5 is started, you will be in the main menu and you can use the wheel (or the bottom two buttons) to select where you want to go and the middle button to confirm your selection. You can choose to play your music files via selecting one of them among them within a storage device (this is what I used almost exclusively throughout this review), or go by artists or genres. There is also a “Favourites” playlist that you can use after setting some songs as your Favourites. Finally, you can adjust your X5 according to its “Equalizer”, its “Playback Settings” (e.g. gain control) and “System Settings” (e.g. language settings and USB port settings). A firmware upgrade can be done quickly and easily by getting the firmware file from the official Fiio website and placing it in a MicroSD card and then starting the X5 with it.
 
 

 

 
Sound Signature
Coming from entry-level digital audio players like the Sansa Clip Zip that I am using now, the X5 is unsurprisingly a huge improvement. When paired with my (modded) Beyerdynamics Custom ONE Pro, I was happy at how the X5 was near-neutral as compared to the Clip Zip; I noticed slightly more treble (and even more so if FW1.15 is used). More importantly, I was pleased with how the X5 presented the details of the music; the level of detailing may be the same for the X5 and the Clip Zip but the X5 somehow managed to make me notice all these details much more than the Clip Zip. I support the popular notion that the X5 is good at showing the “micro-details” of the music. Also, it was only on the X5 that I can notice the weakness of my COPs: weak mids, which goes to show that the X5 is good enough at telling the weakness and strengths of some headphones. One of my friends also noted that the X5 is on par with the Cowon Z2 in terms of sound signature, but another friend using an iBasso DX50 noted that it was too bassy to his liking.
 

 
USB DAC
One of the reasons why I am interested in Fiio’s X3 and X5 is that they can be USB DACs too and thus be part of your desk setup aside from being your portable setup (i.e. I prefer an all-in-one solution). Here, the X5 proved to be quite good. In order to use the X5 as an USB DAC, you must set it to be a DAC in the USB settings under the System Settings and then install the USB DAC drivers for your computer. When I was using the X5 as an USB DAC and paired it with a 12AU7 tube amp from Fred’s Amps using a RCA 1960’s grey plate tube, the sound signature is obviously the same as before except for the slightly tubey sound due to the tube amp. It is surprisingly on par with the much cheaper Fiio D03K/Taishan, but I must note that the Fiio D03K needs a SPDIF or Coaxial input while the X5 needs an USB input. (Sidenote: I connected the X5 to the D03K via its Coaxial output and then connected the D03K to the tube amp. The results are almost the same aurally, but it looks kind of funny ) The X5 however outdid Stoner Acoustics’ UD100 as it is much heavier on the vocals and bass, which then underemphasized other details, making it less neutral than the X5. Notably, the X5 hung and had forced shutdowns a few times during this testing phase; I suspect it has something to do with the line out port since they happened when the jack is inserted or removed from the port. Normal usage does not require you to do this many times in a short period of time though so this should be a not-so-urgent issue lest this is related to other forced shutdown issues.
 

 

 

 
USB Charging
The X5, being an USB device, needs to be charged via the USB port. While it can reach 100% if charged from a wall socket (of which I need to separately get a wall socket to USB plug), I was disappointed in seeing that it cannot be charged that quickly when plugged onto my laptop as an USB DAC (even after 12 hours!). I thought that I can use the time it is acting as an USB DAC to sufficiently charge it for the next day. Strangely, when I tried using a portable charger to charge (whether using the X5 or not), it was not charging as fast as on a wall socket too. On FW1.10 and above, I also noticed how hot the X5 can get while charging and how slower the charging process can get.
 
Other Issues
Other than this issue, I also noted that the buttons could have been labelled a la the X3; some of my friends and I noted that at first glance we do not understand what buttons do what until we either read the Quick Guide (in the System Settings or the one supplied with the X5) or we just play around with the X5. We also noted that the physical wheel feels flimsy and can be clumsy in terms of usage (especially when setting the Equalizer). While the wheel makes it faster to go through many songs as compared to the normal buttons as seen on the X3 and the Clip Zip, it is still slower than a touchscreen. I also noticed how imprecise the wheel can be at times, for some reason I tend to select the option/file that is just below my intended target.

Album art proved to be another issue I had with the X5; while the X5 is able to support them as stated on the official website, I am forced to experiment to find out what naming convention works and what doesn’t. Also, album art is cut off at the bottom and anyway, I feel it could have been better placed in the screen (i.e. the text should not block it at all).
 
The X5 is also quite huge and heavy compared to my Clip Zip, I had a hard time operating the X5 with one hand given that it is almost as wide as my palm. I also note that at certain circumstances (e.g. chasing a bus), its weight can be a hindrance.
 
Finally, song switching is much slower on the X5 than on the Clip Zip. This is slightly rectified on FW1.15 but the new Artist>Album behaviour (and that much loathed lockscreen being switched on when wrong button is pressed issue) is not something I want at all times.
 
Verdict
The X5 does well to market itself to the audiophile market (which have its own expectations of prioritising SQ over UI/physical size and not minding to read the manual first) given its excellent near-neutral detailed SQ (+2.5 stars) and the USB DAC functionality (+1.0 stars) at a good price point (+1.0 stars) (compared to iriver/Astell&Kern’s AK series of DAPs, which seems to be its main competitor given the similarity in terms of functionality). That said, the slight problem of it is getting “mainstream” customers due to the UI (particularly the five unlabelled buttons) and the slowness of the hardware wheel vis-a-vis touchscreens that most of us are used to today (-0.5 stars). I am also not impressed by the album art issue; the lack of documentation can give a bad impression to consumers (-0.5 stars). I however acknowledge that I might be nitpicky over these points since they will not cause much problem operational-wise (+0.5 stars). If then, the main problem I have would be the charging issues (-1.0 stars) as I feel that no matter how good the X5 is in terms of sound quality, that will be pointless if I cannot use it often thanks to this issue. Thankfully, all these issues I have mentioned can largely be mitigated via the firmware patches that Fiio gives often (as seen in the X3) and I believe that Fiio can and will be able to fix these issues in due time and even throw in new features as per users’ suggestions/feedback (e.g. the USB DAC feature in the X3) given their excellent track-record in Head-Fi. (+0.9 => +1.5 stars)
 
Will I Get It: Maybe. Its price (SGD 479) is a little too high to my liking though but that’s really just me. The lack of ReplayGain functionality is another personal bugbear too (having to reconvert my collection takes up a lot of my time that could have been better to enjoy the X5, but thankfully, it is just an one-off…)
 

And sighs, it is too big for this pouch... :X

Disclaimer 
I am part of the X5 Preview tour for Europe (UK). I had the chance to evaluate the unit for 10 days.  I have no affiliation with FiiO and this review is based solely on my 10 days with the X5.
I would like to take this opportunity Joe, James and the whole FiiO team for making this preview possible.  Any company that makes an effort to know who their customers are and engage with them is on to a winner.  
Well done FiiO.
 
A little context
I am not an audiophile - at least I don't think I am.  Unless of course what I deem to be excetional sound quality makes me an audiophile then so be it.
First I had an iPod playing 128, 160 and 192 kbit/s MP3's using the standard packaged earphones - I was super impressed.
After a while I wanted more so sourced 320 kbit/s MP3's and bought some 'upgrade' earphones (Sennheiser CX 300-II) - I was super impressed.
After a while I wanted more and discovered FLAC & ALAC and bought some 'upgrade' earphones (Sony XBA2 In-Ear Headphones) - I was super impressed.
Then I got a gift of Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro-80 Closed Studio Headphones which led me to discover headphone amps. Some research pointed me in the direction of the Fiio E07K Andes USB DAC and Portable Headphone Amplifier - I was completely blown away.  This was now on a par with the McIntosh MX406 and MCD4000-6-Disc-CD-Changer system I have in my car.  I never thought I could have that quality of sound in a portable package.
After a while I wanted to take this sound with me when I travelled so I purchased a pair of Beyerdynamic DTX501P to complete the package.
After a while I wondered how much nicer it would be to have exactly what i have in a more compact package which is when I discovered the FiiO X3.  It was while researching the X3 that I discovered the X5 which led me to an invitation to join the X5 tour.
 

 
The question that I needed the X5 to answer for me was is it a suitable replacement for my current bundle and are the improvements significant enough for my definition of 'sound quality' (I think sound quality is something that is totally subjective although I understand the need to try and describe or define it)
I firmly believe (my personal opinion) that the main function of a high quality music player is to listen to music.  Things like being able to easily adjust the volume, the bass & treble or whether a track can be tagged as a favourite are very much secondary functions.  Fortunately, most of these secondary functions are software based so they can be improved or tweaked.  
Here are my findings.
 

 
Build 
The build quality of the unit is hard to fault.  The solid metal casing is a joy and feels great in the hand. Unlike some, I actually like the weight of the X5 - it gives it a premium feel.
 
Operation (User Interface)
I found the operation of the X5 via the User Interface to be fresh and different, in a good way.  It took a little getting used to and I can see that a little more work is required in the software to address issues of workflow and making a few functions configurable.
The good news is that most of this can be done via the Firmware upgrades with relative ease.  FiiO will have to manage their development roadmap carefully to release Firmware upgrades that address logical feature sets.
I would like to be able to adjust the speed of the scroll wheel or what each 'click' represents.
 
Operation & Ergonomics (Control)
I found operating the X5 in terms of volume controls, shortcut 'X' buttons for next track, previous track etc., was perfectly adequate.  It took a very short time to get used to how things operated and then it was a breeze.
In terms of Ergonomics, the only thing I would change would be to duplicate the volume buttons on the left of the unit, on the right.  Then I would allow the user to select the right or left for the volume controls and the right or left for the next track/previous track. This way the ease of use of the X5 does not depend on which hand it is held in – just a thought 
 
   
 
                   
Sound Quality
For me this should be the only reason to buy a portable player. The UI, the controls and even the capacity are all secondary in my opinion- after all there isn’t much point in listening to several songs at the same time ?.  I was truly amazed at the sound quality produced for such a reasonable price.
As I mentioned before I am not an audiophile.  All I know is that I found the X5 to have just the right amount of bass, treble and mid range for almost any type of music I cared to put through it.  I was particularly impressed by the way I could get the perfect sound by using the EQ when listening to high quality recordings of Kora music.  But it doesn’t stop there – I pulled out some music that I only have on as MP3’s and somehow the X5 treated them with so much respect that they decided to behave like high quality FLAC’s - miraculous!
The only ‘core’ part of the X5 I would want to see improved if possible would be the power of the headphone amp – more power please.
 
Conclusion
The X5 really is a hidden gem.  I will be getting one just as soon as I can.  I am already looking forward to long haul flights with the X5.  I would recommend it to anyone who wants to evolve their enjoyment of recorded music – by the time they become a fully fledged audiophile they will already have the right player!
Next challenge FiiO – make a player that is twice as good for only twice the money, I dare you!
For me the X5 is a better package than the iPod/E07K bundle and that X5's wining margin grows with each firmware update.
 

 
Introduction
Fiio as company in the Audio Market is very well known for bringing Audio equipment to the mainstream market that not only sounds good and looks good but priced good. There was a point in time where we would’ve turned our back on Chinese Audio Companies but recently we have been accepting them and they have been outdoing their competition with quite a few successful products. Over the years Fiio has made a name for itself with portable headphone amplifiers and dacs but in 2013 the company decided to make a move into the world of Digital Audio Players or DAPs. They did this by giving us the successful Fiio X3, while it had an old school look it provided a great sounding portable music player that could play almost any file format at a great price. But being Fiio they always like the one up themselves where they can, so in the beginning of 2014 we saw the fabulous Fiio X5 come to market which aimed itself in the Mid-Fi to High-End Market by coming in at a price of £450.00 (RRP) and here it saw competition from the likes of iBasso, Colorfly and Astell & Kern who are very big names in this portable audio market. So did it deliver? Yes it did!
 
Exterior Design
The exterior of the Fiio X5 is a well made and solid design, the entire chassis and housing has been constructed from Metal with the buttons being constructed of Metal. The top output ports are gold plated, this is to ensure a more durable connector and overall increase lifespan. There is a myth that gold plating does improve sound but so far this hasn’t been confirmed and the original use of gold plating on electrical connectors such as 3.5mm connectors and usb connectors is to get a better contact between the two connectors and improve durable which in turn improved the life span of the connector. Next we have the big design choice which sticks out like a sore thumb, this is the mechanical scroll wheel. This is reminiscent of the older iPods which used this to control the device but where the Fiio differs from the iPod is by using a mechanical scroll wheel which does feel better but unfortunately there are some problems where by the scroll wheel can be a bit loose and it can take time to respond in some cases. The IPS Screen is a very nice touch, providing very nice colour and a good resolution with Text and album Artwork looking very good on it. The Dual MicroSD Cards is another very good addition, as with most Music Fans their libraries will be huge especially if they are in FLAC or Hi-Res so therefore having dual MicroSD Card Slots means we get up to 256GB of Storage and I’m sure Fiio will allow us to expand further when larger MicroSD Cards become available, but the only problem here is the covers for the MicroSD Slots are quite difficult to remove and to be far I don’t see why Fiio just didn’t use a sliding door like Astell & Kern. Overall the exterior is very well made and mostly designed with thought but in some cases they could of done better.
 
Internal Hardware
 
Internally the Fiio X5 also has us covered using a PCM1792 DAC for the digital conversion, then we have 4 op-amps which are OPA1612 handling Volt Amp, I/V Conversion & Low-Pass Filtering. Then to finish it off we have two headphone output chips which are LMH6643 which hand the Current Amplification and the Headphone Output. The PCM1792 is a superior DAC to that found the original X3 which was a Wolfson DAC, WM8740SEDS. Now the little brother, Fiio X1, uses another PCM DAC which is the PCM5142 and the new X3 uses a Cirrus Logic DAC which is the CS4398 but in the case of the X3 it uses the same OPA1612 as the X5 but only two which handle Volt Amp and Low-Pass Filtering and then a single LMH6643 for Current Amplification and Headphone Output, so where the X5 can split the output into Left & Right the new X3 does them both on a single chip. The hardware found in the X5 is very good, but at this point I can’t compare it to the X1 or X3 to see how this hardware configuration compares to them. Now comparing the hardware of the X5 to the iPod Video 5g and Note 4, well the iPod uses a Wolfson Dac which is the WM8758 DAC which in itself is a pretty great DAC. Now the Note 4, well not sure we know what it is cause as far as I am aware I can’t seem to find out what it is so if people know then please comment but we do know that it will decode 24-Bit/192Khz Music Files so it’s not a slouch.
 
User Experience (UI)
The UI is another section that needs to be done right, as if the UI is poor then users will not want to use it. Well I am partly happy to say it’s good, ish! Now the good thing is that once your library is updated, the X5 is able to successfully compile your music by Artist and Album without issues plus navigating the UI is fast thanks to the Dual-Core Processor found inside the X5. But for me I feel the UI could've been designed a lot better, to me it doesn’t seem to well thought out and compared to the likes of the iPod it does seem old fashioned. Plus navigating and finding your way around can be difficult at first but you do get used to it. Overall I feel that the UI is ok but not great and could’ve been done a lot better.
 
Sound
Now let us get to the sound, I shall try to explain as best I can the sound I can hear coming from the X5 but please do remember that this is my own personal feelings of how I hear the sound. Everyones ears are different!
 
Bass:
So the bass is by no means overpowering and by now means fitting for real bass heads, there is a bass boost but I don’t use EQ so the out of the box SQ is not bass head ready. However the bass is strong, tight and clear, there is no sense of it being weak nor withdrawn. The bass has great presence without overpowering the rest of the frequency range. It has very good separation, by being very cable of separating Kick Drums from Bass Guitars makes for a very good low end experience.

 
Midrange:
The mid range for me is great, its neutral and is always there, it just never goes away! Which is a great thing, the one I like is hearing Vocals which falls into this range so having the mid range clear, articulate and neutral means it never gets overpowered nor gets put aside, for Metal/Rock/Rap/Pop or anything with vocals this is something I always want from my Audio equipment.
 
Treble:
This is where I feel the detail of the X5 gets into its own, the highs are detailed and extend very well. They can sound a bit bright but overall I love it, hearing cymbals crash and high guitar notes clear without distortion makes for a very pleasing experience.
 
Separation/Soundstage:
If you pair the X5 with a headphone that can separate well then the X5 will compliment it by separating instruments very well. It almost feels as if I can sense the silent space between the instruments and for that really gives great airiness to the sound. This provides a great soundstage as well, it doesn’t feel compressed nor claustrophobic. Remember “The music is the silence between the notes” and does it ring true when the song is separated well.
 
Overall the sound quality is neutral with each section of the audio spectrum well presented and not overpowering each other, each range is allowed its space to perform without the other ranges coming in its way. The treble can sound a little bright or harsh but this is very dependent on the track and how the track is mastered. If I was to sum up the way the X5 sounds, its that the Music drives the X5 not the X5 driving the Music.
 
The following comparisons were done using the following albums:
 
Killswitch Engage - Disarm The Decent
AC/DC - Back In Black
Warpaint - Warpaint
Slash - Slash
 
I know I specifically chose these albums mainly because Disarm The Decent and Warpaint can suffer from a too much low end and muddy sound, this would allow me to see how each player would handle these kind of tracks. Then using the AC/DC Album & Slash Album allows me to see how well each player separates the sound and how clear the SQ can be. So while it may seem unfair using partly poorly mastered albums it helps to see how each player handles them, as remember not all albums are mastered perfectly.
 
Compared to iPod Video:
The first things I notice is how the bass on the iPod does become a little boomy when compared to the X5 especially because of the Bass Guitar and Low Electric Guitar notes, however the X5 also suffers a little bit a boomy bass due to the track but not as much as the iPod, with the iPod I feel the slightly worse bass management on the iPod does affect the other ranges where the X5 has better bass management allowing the other ranges to work better. The next thing is the kick drum which sounds a little weaker on the iPod compared to the bigger presence it has on the X5. The vocals also sound a little bit more withdrawn on the iPod than the X5, whether than means the X5 is more forward in the midrange than the iPod who knows but having the vocals sound a little bit withdrawn is quite annoying. Plus I sense a lot more airiness and spaciousness on the X5 than the iPod. By no means does the iPod do poorly, in fact it does a good job and performs well but the X5 just out does it in almost all aspects. Would I say upgrade to the X5 from the iPod, well for me the slightly boomier bass from the iPod and slightly weaker midrange makes me want the X5 a lot more.
 
Compared to Samsung Note 4:
The Note 4 does have a clearer sound than the iPod and better management of its bass, the separation of the Note 4 is actually quite good and overall the SQ is quite neutral and similar to the X5 but again I feel the X5 just has a little bit better clarity and spaciousness. But by no means does the X5 get a clean whitewash over the Note 4, as on it’s own with and without the Fiio E11K which when added to the Note 4 makes the SQ a little thicker and deeper adding nicely to the clear SQ. So while I recommend the X5 over the iPod Video, if you already own a Note 4 have a go at pairing it with a Fiio AMP like the E11K or E12 and you could even pair it with an AMP/DAC like the Oppo HA-2 if you want to.
 
So while I recommend the X5 over the iPod and mostly over the Note 4 but with the Note 4 I would say have a go with some portable AMP/DACs and see how it goes as you may be surprised. I still feel for the price of the X5 + MicroSD Cards, I would highly say have an audition of the Fiio X1 and Fiio X3K to see how they sound compared to your current setup and I will only really recommend the Fiio X5 for those who really want the top end from Fiio, like me!
 
Final Thoughts
Well this has gone on for a while! Please do remember this is all my own opinions and your own experience can differ for the better or the worse. For me the X5 serves as a great foundation to build upon with better headphones and IEMs, it allows me to have a great source to which I can then plug in some great headphones. But like a lot of things I own, I don’t always recommend it even though I love it a lot and the reason being because when comparing to the Note 4 I was surprised how the Note 4 was able to keep up mostly with clarity and spaciousness to the X5, it really shows that if you try it out with some portable AMP/DACs it can shine. And with the X1 and X3K below it, it makes much more sense for people to try those out first as considering the Fiio X3K uses a similar circuit to the X5.

Hello everyone, My late review of the X5 due to PC issues.
 
 
Headphones used: AD900X, MDR-F1, HD25-ii, JVC SZ2000, Fischer FA-011, JH16 and FXZ200.
 
 
To start with, no pictures since they were all lost along with the review so I will keep it short and sweet.
 
 
To begin with, the player feels sold and well built compared to the X3 and should be able to hold its own against the rest of the DAP bunch.
 
The buttons feel well built and nice to the touch although the wheel could use a more rigid gearing compared to the one it has now as it feels too loose at times.
 
 
Moving on to the display, the display seems nice and clear and sufficiently lit to see in the sunlight too very important due to the fact that it will be used outside.
 
Could use a bit more brightness or maybe its just me going blind.
 
 
The layout of the X5 with all its ports and buttons is very easy to use after fiddling with it for 15 minutes and as with most things you can just feel the buttons and do your thing.
 
So a big benefit for future X5 users as the wont have to deal with esoteric buttons and myriad menus.
 
 
Now coming to the most important part, the sound. The Fiio X5 seems fairly well balanced overall with no nasty spikes or unnatural boom.
 
Just clean and clear audio with no surprises.
 
The treble is well defined and articulated for a very pleasant presentation, midrange just needs a bit more body but that could possibly be changed by using different headphones.
 
The bass is just about right with no bloom or looseness. You get tight punchy bass and very good speed/impact for most tracks.
 
The soundstage is very precise and large though not huge.
 
 
I also tested it with my E12DIY and that only helped it to get even better. The E12 adds some more bass impact and punch to the whole sound while helping out with harder to power cans.
 
 
The X5 surprised me most however when it came to plugging it in my car and boy oh boy, it was amazing how good it was.
 
I have a comprehensive triple amp car setup with a HX-D2 headunit,Focal Kevlars, JL Audio sub and sound proofing all around.
 
The X5 literally was the cheapest piece of kit in the whole setup and it also had the biggest impact.
 
The whole system seemed to have cleared its throat and the sound was simply mesmerising.
 
It was crystal clear, sharp and very very enjoyable and seemed to unlock hidden potential in the whole setup.
 
I still haven't gotten over the fact and will get an X5 just to keep in my car.
 
 
 
To conclude, the X5 is something that is well worth the price and even more importantly for Fiio, a shot across the whole DAP field.
 
Having owned the X3 and currently running the E12DIY, the X5 pushes Fiio in a newer and bigger direction as I always liked Fiio products (E7,E12 and E18)
 
but had that nagging feeling that something was missing or not right but not anymore.
 
The E12DIY and the X5 have progressed Fiio to a higher playing field and everyone else, watch out.