Face to face with James，Anything about FiiO

[OVERHATE]

Basically, I completely agree with your opinion. Here are some reports.

The independent decoder has been developed and is currently preparing for mass production. As you can see, there is an R2R with a huge VU table and a bold buffer decoder.

The independent pure Class A headphone amplifier has completed the ID design and is currently in the planning stage. It may be launched by the end of the year.

3. Desktop headphone amplifiers will have K13R2R and K15 to fill the price gap.

USB DONGLE will also have more interesting models, including tubes and R2R.

5. More competitively priced closed headphones and open flat-panel earbuds are both on the way.

6. The IEM market is very troublesome. Nowadays, a large number of new brands have emerged in China. To be honest, due to the existence of solution companies and the popularity of 3D printing and CNC machining technologies, the threshold for doing IEM has become very low. Coupled with the limitations of product technology (space, etc.), I think now IEM is more of a marketing and appearance gimmick.

OMG Did you just say Tube Dongles?
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

 

[trevdawg94]

One big issue that's not going to be easy to overcome is interference with any R2R dongle; I love Cayin's RU6 and want to use it portably but the popping and crackling due to interference from a cellular connection makes it a lot harder to enjoy. I think the glass cover on the front would allow for more interference but I'm not sure how you would work around that without making assembly much harder and forgoing certain features such as a display. It's also going to be a challenge for any Bluetooth R2R DAC/amp since you need to have a way to communicate with another device though I don't think it causes nearly as many issues since you can keep it away from your phone. If Fiio can figure out a way to solve this for both types of R2R devices then they would sell like hotcakes even if the cost was higher than other options due to the additional work required to mitigate this problem.

I'm excited about potential tube dongles as well but I'm not sure if Fiio would be able to come up with a better suspension system that will fit in a dongle, as what iBasso used is pretty good but not perfect so there is still some ringing when in motion. It would be much easier to do in a Bluetooth DAC/amp as Musehifi's M5 Ultra uses the same tubes and their suspension system doesn't have any ringing at all. Quality control with tubes is also going to be a major issue especially in the dongle form factor as iBasso has had issues with dead tubes in the Nunchaku which I wouldn't be surprised to learn is due to the suspension system they used as I haven't hear any reports of that happening with the M5 Ultra.

So while I'm excited for both types of products I'll probably hold off for a bit until impressions come in to highlight any potential shortcomings.

 

[SkippyBE]

Portable r2r sounds like a dream. Count me in.

Also highly interested in the R2R tube desktop dac and the matching class A headphone amp. The design renders look fantastic.

I own the HiBy RS8 r2r. Great device.

 

[MDKrinkles]

I own the HiBy RS8 r2r. Great device.

Yeah I think unfortunately that might be a tad out of my price range. That’s more than I’ve spent putting together my entire desktop set up lol.

 

[SkippyBE]

Yeah I think unfortunately that might be a tad out of my price range. That’s more than I’ve spent putting together my entire desktop set up lol.

Indeed, it's a very expensive device but I see it as an investment for many years to come. I travel a lot for work and love to have some 'quality music' with me.

Now I'm in doubt to replace my FiiO Q7 with the FiiO K17...

 

[zilax002]

How does Qudelix do it with their 5k? That thing works awesome. Seems like the tech is available but I’m not an engineer…

I believe they use communication between the app and device over Bluetooth (even when using the device wired) to get DSP on iPhone.

It's a novel and possibly unique approach. There is a user on the Q5K thread who's very knowledgeable about how it works technically.

 

[Vamp898]

My personal feedback to FiiO as having used lots of their products (and liked quit a lot of them): I still hope that FiiO introduces a new "No bull" Reference/Monitor Lineup. For people who do not want some exotic sound or sound signature or whatever, just the highest possible sound quality, nothing more. Something that isolates well (closed design) and with good foam earpieces (COMPLY) or, even better, Custom.

An IEM with the frequency response of an Studio Reference Monitor (like the VE7, MH334SR, MACH60, CW-U77/L77, HL5410/7410, PP8 and similar) and an 3.5mm USB DAC/Dongle which is optimized to drive them with very low ohm output impedance and not too much power.

FiiO is always _so_ close to having these products (like the FA9 or FA19) but there is always a twist that makes the product unique, but make them loose the usability for that use case. Crazy 10-driver designs, DAC/Amp Dongle with way too much power and so on.

FiiO has so many products that go over the top, i want some basic reference. It sounds strange but i want less. Less drivers, less power dongles. Quality over Quantity.

Simple 3-way design with 3 BA units and, at most, 6 drivers. No fancy switches to change the tuning, no fancy cable with interchangeable plug or whatever.

And the DAC/AMP Dongle, a simple CS43131 is more than enough. Physical Gain Switch and Volume Rocker, done, thats it. No LED, no App, just plugin and works.

An down to earth lineup that ""Gets the job done"" and with longer support. An product lineup that gets updated every 7~10years. A solid base/foundation

 

[russellxz]

Fiio, please consider making an electrostatic headphone energizer converter. No one is producing such a device in the market right now. The last known option was the iFi iESL, but they have discontinued it.

I would personally love to see more of a sound shift towards a warmer and more natural tone with R2R and tube. I hope to see more products from Fiio for electrostatic enthusiasts in the future.

 

[Neeoo]

cause when you add the WIFI, It will be the star of a lots of trouble. personally I want it as simple as possible , just for local music. and we already have M21/JM21/M23 , So maybe we need a different one.

Having local playback via Sd card is what I desire.

 

[evvv777]

I believe they use communication between the app and device over Bluetooth (even when using the device wired) to get DSP on iPhone.

It's a novel and possibly unique approach. There is a user on the Q5K thread who's very knowledgeable about how it works technically.

That sounds innovative. Any idea why it would need Bluetooth to communicate that data when it’s plugged in. I would think data would be data. I’ll check out the Q5k thread.

 

[nycheadphones]

Following is my personal opinion - my thoughts are as follows:

I think Fiio has a huge opportunity to re-brand.

In my opinion, Fiio can raise prices without much decline in demand (although more research here is needed in terms of how much to increase) if you promise regular firmware updates and support for a number of years.

My last purchase was a ka17 which I bought specifically for the eq which was exceptionally unstable until yesterday - I think the new firmware fixed 80% of the issues but time will tell (it’s improved but if you toggle the eq you can see it still doesn’t always load a preset properly - I’m not sure if the bricking of the ka17 on the control site was fixed but that was ridiculous for a flagship item - and silence from Fiio). Months of having a device where the main feature (to me) was not stable (and easily bricked) made me say “I’m done with the brand”.

However - there is an opportunity here - on certain products consider including priority support and prioritize resources to their firmware/software development - especially for flagship items in each category. Rushing to release a ton of new products I think is not the best strategy - focus more on quality, raise prices as needed and the loyalty should return. Releasing a ton of new products without refining older products looks terrible to your fans.

Yes it’s true Apple does not get it right with the release of the new iPhone each year but refinements are made quickly and support is ongoing for many years. Additionally many of your products have the same or similar components making multiple product updates at the same time potentially possible (update btr-17 and ka17 at the same time).

This type of communication with the forum is already a great start!

Thank you for your time.

 

[zilax002]

That sounds innovative. Any idea why it would need Bluetooth to communicate that data when it’s plugged in. I would think data would be data. I’ll check out the Q5k thread.

Yeah it's an issue with the access iOs provides (or more accurately, doesn't provide) to external DACs, from what I understand.

Bluetooth communication almost seems like a clever hack on Qudelix's part to get around the locked garden Apple ecosystem.

 

[AlexUA]

Following is my personal opinion - my thoughts are as follows:

I think Fiio has a huge opportunity to re-brand.

In my opinion, Fiio can raise prices without much decline in demand (although more research here is needed in terms of how much to increase) if you promise regular firmware updates and support for a number of years.

My last purchase was a ka17 which I bought specifically for the eq which was exceptionally unstable until yesterday - I think the new firmware fixed 80% of the issues but time will tell (it’s improved but if you toggle the eq you can see it still doesn’t always load a preset properly - I’m not sure if the bricking of the ka17 on the control site was fixed but that was ridiculous for a flagship item - and silence from Fiio). Months of having a device where the main feature (to me) was not stable (and easily bricked) made me say “I’m done with the brand”.

However - there is an opportunity here - on certain products consider including priority support and prioritize resources to their firmware/software development - especially for flagship items in each category. Rushing to release a ton of new products I think is not the best strategy - focus more on quality, raise prices as needed and the loyalty should return. Releasing a ton of new products without refining older products looks terrible to your fans.

Yes it’s true Apple does not get it right with the release of the new iPhone each year but refinements are made quickly and support is ongoing for many years. Additionally many of your products have the same or similar components making multiple product updates at the same time potentially possible (update btr-17 and ka17 at the same time).

This type of communication with the forum is already a great start!

Thank you for your time.

I never understood people who buy such expensive devices just to use the equalizer lol

 

[MDKrinkles]

I never understood people who buy such expensive devices just to use the equalizer lol

I’m one of those weirdos who flatly just doesn’t believe in using EQs. For me it defeats the purpose of all my gear sounding different. I do like tweaking with more unusual parameters like the schiit gunnr having width and presence knobs.

 

[scracy]

I’m one of those weirdos who flatly just doesn’t believe in using EQs. For me it defeats the purpose of all my gear sounding different. I do like tweaking with more unusual parameters like the schiit gunnr having width and presence knobs.

Yep 100% agree with you there.