[docholliday]

  Well, I certainly did not wish to imply elitism when I decreed my little X1 II as “disposable.”  I love this DAP’s touch wheel and sound, but I was more reacting to all brickbats thrown at it due to being a work in progress as far as firmware updates.  I’ve read a few posts where people rail against this player as if it’s conspired to ruin their lives.  I’m glad many people are enjoying it.  I certainly agree that FiiO’s previous X1 and this serve as wonderful envoys for the uninitiated to move away from listening to music on iPods and phones.

If you are implying that I'm one of those people who "rail against this player", then think again...I am not. On the Fiio forum, I've been more than nice about it and have only really noted three things that need improved - slow operation with occasional lockup upon return from standby, no RG, and buffer/timebase issues. As I've said before, it's a great player, with a great price. Even with more expensive DAPs, many times, I'll take the X1-II because it's smaller. I also wouldn't feel as bad if it got destroyed when I'm out and about as it would be much easier to replace so I don't have to baby my DAP all the time.
 
My issue is that every comment from Fiio about the "next firmware" has been without detail, without any kind of "progress". It's always "in the next firmware, sometime this/next month". After seeing that for a while, it starts to become a hollow promise. Then, suddenly, the X5III gets released and there is suddenly even less from Fiio about the X1-II. The new shiny red-headed stepchild is getting pushed to the backburner and it seems like they have one person working one hour a day on firmware for every player they have.
 
The timebase/next track speed and sleep/lockup bugs are the most annoying. Imaging listening away while working on something (doesn't matter if your at a desk or crawling through a wire chase running cable) with the player in your pocket. You hit next to pull up a random track and it's playing at 1/2 (or 2x) the speed of the last. You have to pull the player out to do the work around (go play something else manually so that it'll get the 44 vs 96 timebase right). You turn on the display, hit back, and it locks up because of another bug. Now, you have to hold down buttons with both hands to shut it down, restart the player, and begin all over. 
 
Then, back to work. Suddenly, the random play goes from a Pink Floyd track (nice and quiet), where you had bumped up the volume to hear, to (insert 90s loudness war band here) and you get your ears blown away from the 12db difference. But, you had already spent weeks tagging and ReplayGaining your tracks - the RG data is stored in the file, but it's useless here. Now, you've already had to sit there for a minute getting the player restarted. Then, you had to stop again and (quickly) grab the player to punch down the volume.
 
It might not be too big a' deal for those at a desk all day or when you're dedicated to listening. But, there's times where your doing something where stopping and having to rip your customs out of your head or letting go of whatever your holding (or hanging on to!) to grab the player out of a pocket. And, no, I'm not putting a $1500 DAP in my pocket so that I can have RG in these environments.

 

[iancraig10]

That saddest part is that the player does actually sound good imo. At this price point, it's very good, but the interface .....

Bluetooth is awful and the slowness of updating the library makes it unusable for these purposes.

 

[justDAP]

X1 and X1ii..though I only had 1st gen but not X1ii...for those who want an intro into hi-res music, for those who use it as tool to burn in their iems or cans...etc. well...its still an awesome tech compared to its price!
 
just dun belittle it...come on, u dun buy a X1/X1ii just to burn-in your $1000+ iems or cans, then throw it out of the window, do you???!!! if u do...then u are either very stupid or too much money that u duno how to spend them...and there are millions of hungry people who duno where their next meal will be...sigh...

 

[peskypesky]

I just received my X1 1st generation. Got it for $80. I passed on the X1ii because I do not want to deal with that lag. 

 

[justDAP]

That saddest part is that the player does actually sound good imo. At this price point, it's very good, but the interface .....

Bluetooth is awful and the slowness of updating the library makes it unusable for these purposes.

well...be wired...wireless is overhyped...wireless depends on the dac in the small little casing u have in ur ears or cans on ur ears to translate electronic signals to music...being wired means the source of music translated in the DAP/DAC/Amp goes directly to what on or in ur ears...please correct me if I am wrong...
 
so if I understand correctly...u can have the best of gears...but once u go wireless...all it matters is the DAC in or on ur ears...so it does not matter wat DAP/DAC/AMP u got...just any smart phone will do right...meaning wasting money on nothing...

 

[docholliday]

That's how I feel about wireless audio of any kind...even with Apt-X HD or whatever the high-res Bluetooth is, wireless isn't the reason for me to have FLAC files. Not to mention the extra batteries to have to keep charged. I'll take a wire any day.

 

[ASpencer]

  If you are implying that I'm one of those people who "rail against this player", then think again...I am not.

 
I’m referring to posts like the fella that bought one off eBay, grew frustrated when he couldn’t return it, then shattered the DAP to pieces in rage.

 

[fish1050]

   
I’m referring to posts like the fella that bought one off eBay, grew frustrated when he couldn’t return it, then shattered the DAP to pieces in rage.

Well it was probably cheaper than seeing a therapist. 

 
Let's face it Fiio has a history of needing two iterations of every DAP to get it right.  The X1 and X3 were buggy as hell and I returned both and then Fiio got the X3-II pretty well bang on.  In the case of the X1-II Fiio went with a pretty major platform change and guess what, lots of issues.  Assuming the X1-III will be an evolution of the X1-II Fiio will probably produce yet another solid DAP.  Fiio also had the $100.00 to $150.00 segment largely to itself but now has competition from Shanling with the M1 and Cayin with the N3.  Mind you they are about $50.00 more expensive than the X1-II but offer AptX.  The Cayin N3 at this point appears to be the biggest competition to the X1-II
 
To me the big question is what does this mean for the X3-III assuming it is based on a better version of the X1-II design.  The hope is that at a higher price point Fiio will opt for better hardware on the X3-III to take care of the lag issue and figure out the problems from the X1-II.  But given that Shanling and Cayin are offering AptX bluetooth on their low end models Fiio will be under pressure to add it to the X3-III.  
 
I think Fiio to some extent has handcuffed themselves with their chosen price points. Trying to do what they did with the X1-II and still keep the $100.00 price point was unrealistic.  To me this should be a $150.00 DAP with better hardware.  But if the X1-II was $150.00 then the X3-III would need to be $300.00 to keep a big enough price difference to keep from cannibalizing each others sales.  At $300.00 the X3-III would be priced higher than the Sony A35 and that would make it a tougher sell.   
 
Also Cayin, Shanling, Sony, and Onkyo/Pioneer have a big advantage over Fiio.  They all sell home audio products as well which is a much bigger market.  So they don't have all their marbles strictly in the portable audio market like Fiio.  A misstep on a product like the X1-II by Fiio will cost them alot more financially than the other manufacturers that have more products to fall back on in other markets.  These other manufacturers can afford to take more time producing portable audio products whereas Fiio needs to keep a constant stream of product releases to keep generating revenue.  I think this leads to Fiio rushing their DAP's to market before they are ready.  

 

[docholliday]

   
I’m referring to posts like the fella that bought one off eBay, grew frustrated when he couldn’t return it, then shattered the DAP to pieces in rage.

Ah, yes, that would be stupid and childish...

 

[ASpencer]

  Also Cayin, Shanling, Sony, and Onkyo/Pioneer have a big advantage over Fiio.  They all sell home audio products as well which is a much bigger market.  So they don't have all their marbles strictly in the portable audio market like Fiio.  

Actually, FiiO is smart in that they don’t own a movie studio like Sony that’s hemorrhaging money and dragging their profits down.  There’s lossless music and then there’s losing quarters.  Selling DAPs and headphone doesn’t mitigate that “Ghostbusters” write down.

 

[Rei87]

Actually I think that, for me, the Fiio x1 hit all the right boxes. Its cheap enough to be disposable, has slightly better sq than a phone, has a screen, can play lossless, and can be left on 24/7 when plugged in. It a perfect abuse player to run in stuff, and toss away if I blow the chip from the constant charging....

Really, if you actually want to listen to music on the go on any serous level, pony up and spend more on a mainstream enthusiast lvl dap. This is not the player a player you should be using as your serious rig..it's like saying you use an ipad as your main workstation. ...

just dun belittle it...come on, u dun buy a X1/X1ii just to burn-in your $1000+ iems or cans, then throw it out of the window, do you???!!! if u do...then u are either very stupid or too much money

Actually. I do use it for that purpose, and nothing else. Id rather sacrifice the cheapest semi-decent sq player i can find, then kill my CU,1z, or even desktop rigs battery/caps. It's because i don't have too much money that i have to preserve the life of my main rigs.

 

[justDAP]

Actually I think that, for me, the Fiio x1 hit all the right boxes. Its cheap enough to be disposable, has slightly better sq than a phone, has a screen, can play lossless, and can be left on 24/7 when plugged in. It a perfect abuse player to run in stuff, and toss away if I blow the chip from the constant charging....

Really, if you actually want to listen to music on the go on any serous level, pony up and spend more on a mainstream enthusiast lvl dap. This is not the player a player you should be using as your serious rig..it's like saying you use an ipad as your main workstation. ...
Actually. I do use it for that purpose, and nothing else. Id rather sacrifice the cheapest semi-decent sq player i can find, then kill my CU,1z, or even desktop rigs battery/caps. It's because i don't have too much money that i have to preserve the life of my main rigs.

http://www.tested.com/tech/accessories/459117-science-and-myth-burning-headphones/
 
quote : "There's a win-win solution here: Don't burn-in your headphones with loops of white noise and pink noise. Break them in by listening to music. A wide variety of music, if you're worried about exposing the headphones to different sounds. That way, you give your brain and your ear time to adjust to the new headphones. And if the headphone drivers really are flexing and settling into an oh-so-subtly different sound, you'll have arrived at that aural bliss after a few days of happy listening."
 
happy burning

 

[fish1050]

  Actually, FiiO is smart in that they don’t own a movie studio like Sony that’s hemorrhaging money and dragging their profits down.  There’s lossless music and then there’s losing quarters.  Selling DAPs and headphone doesn’t mitigate that “Ghostbusters” write down.

Well Sony is finally cutting back on movie productions and getting more into television where the margins are better. 

  But I was speaking about audio products not movies and the other manufacturers mentioned don't own movie studios either. 
 
Having both home and portable audio divisions lets these companies leverage R&D across two consumer audio segments vs only one for Fiio.  It leaves Fiio with a smaller margin for error.

 

[ASpencer]

  Well Sony is finally cutting back on movie productions and getting more into television where the margins are better. 

  But I was speaking about audio products not movies and the other manufacturers mentioned don't own movie studios either. 

 
Sony’s film division had a billion dollar write off, but they’re not cutting back on movie production.  They’re in the midst of hiring a new studio chief.  The studio isn’t “getting more into television” as they’ve always had a burgeoning TV division and robust global syndication.  That was part of the allure of the initial acquistion. Sony's main financial windfalls these days come from Playstation, but perhaps there should be a separate thread devoted to discussing the solvency of corporations.
 
I did find it interesting to see someone else refer to the X1-II as “disposable,” as I had, but it’s not to downgrade the player as to more exalt the portability.  I view it as a pocket device as opposed to the centerpiece of a desktop audio system.  While I’m fine traveling on a plane with a QP1R, I wouldn’t feel as copacetic jogging with it.  I dropped the X1-II once and didn't sweat it.  If that happened to any higher priced DAP, I'd scream like Janet Leigh.

 

[Rei87]

http://www.tested.com/tech/accessories/459117-science-and-myth-burning-headphones/

quote : "There's a win-win solution here: Don't burn-in your headphones with loops of white noise and pink noise. Break them in by listening to music. A wide variety of music, if you're worried about exposing the headphones to different sounds. That way, you give your brain and your ear time to adjust to the new headphones. And if the headphone drivers really are flexing and settling into an oh-so-subtly different sound, you'll have arrived at that aural bliss after a few days of happy listening."

happy burning

Haha the thing is that i don't have the patience to use my gears for 300hrs and slowly wait for the burn in. But, then again, we all have our little rituals which we swear by, and my side swears that burn im is a precise methodology that can help you make subtle, but controlled tweaks to the overall sonic signature, depending on what you do and which burn in track you use. The only reason why I bought into the fiio, is that it can run flac files (unlike some of the cheaper players), and has a screen that makes manipulating burn-in tracks so much easier than a simple input-only player.

Heck, this fiio has not left the table, and has not played anything other than burn in tracks, ever since i bought it last year. It's constantly powered by the ifi (to ensure a clean power input) and running my different gears in 24/7. I hope fiio has covers 24/7 constant plugged in usage. But, even if they dont, I bought this as a disposable player, in every sense of that description, to serve its role as a easily replaceable tool to enhance my main gears' performance. I do have some friends who said that I should have stuck to using an opus 1 as a burn in rig, but even I think that spending more than 150 is abit overkill for a device that mainly serves to output pink/white/sine waves/noises.