FiiO X1 II (2nd Gen) w/ Bluetooth!

[ASpencer]

  Sure seems like those of us who take the time to groom our libraries into fashion (which sounds like you and I are about the only ones?!) don't have any issues with lag or other phenomena.

 
I concur about dbpoweramp being superlative.  I also make sure that everything from genre to year and composer is accurate.  I actually reduce my jpegs to smaller sizes than you do and did notice how it appreciably speeded things up for me.  For the X1 II screen, it seems fitting as it's small.  I have higher resolution jpegs in other DAPs with larger screens.
 
I have all FLAC files save for two MP3 files, a podcast and old single ripped into that format, and noticed the X1 II switched between formats fairly quickly... only the slightest lag.

 

[docholliday]

   
I concur about dbpoweramp being superlative.  I also make sure that everything from genre to year and composer is accurate.  I actually reduce my jpegs to smaller sizes than you do and did notice how it appreciably speeded things up for me.  For the X1 II screen, it seems fitting as it's not small.  I have higher resolution jpegs in other DAPs with larger screens.
 
I have all FLAC files save for two MP3 files, a podcast and old single ripped into that format, and noticed the X1 II switched between formats fairly quickly... only the slightest lag.

I really do think that proper tagging is the key to speed. I have a friend with the X1-II and a 256GB Evo+ card. He complains about the slow library update, but hasn't tagged well, and sees a 30-40 minute update time. When I put my card in his player, it updates in a few short minutes.
 
As a commercial photographer, I'm quite used to meticulously organizing images from shoots so it was a no-brainer to want my music organized that way. I spent almost 4 weeks the first time cleaning and re-ripping, then tagging/re-tagging my whole collection, but in the end it was well worth it. I have some albums in multiple editions, including SACD so it was imperative that I tag well to be able to tell. I've even gone to the length of adding a small copy of the Hi-Res Audio gold logo image to the 24-96 and DSD file album covers so that I could tell at a glance when they are played (since very few players have an "HR" icon appear).
 
One of my cards has about a half dozen albums that are in MP3/320K. But only because they were only released in that format (direct to digital and demos). Otherwise, it's FLAC or DSD. For FLAC I've got mixed stuff from 24/44, 24/88, 24/96. I've had 24/192 on there, but have since re-encoded those down to 24/96 as the 192 is a waste of space for a portable situation. Oh, and if I'm listening to dailies when I'm mixing/mastering I may have a 24/192 direct and a MP3/VBR0 copy to compare.
 
Both my X1-II and N3 switch between formats/sample rate/sample depth without an issue and almost immediately. The only issue I've run into on the X1-II is where going from a 24/96 to 16/44 file or vice-versa may result in the latter playing in 1/2 or 2x speed. Other than that issue (and it's rare that it happens), the players both switch files at almost the same speed. The one thing that the X1-II does that is kinda annoying is when returning to the beginning of a track where it'll screw up the first few seconds again before playing right. The N3 hasn't done that and I'm sure Fiio will get it resolved in a firmware update. Looks like the output should be muted and buffer flushed before playing again would be the resolution.

 

[Jayden16]

Well, I wish I was having the same experience as all of you that are defending the speed of the X1ii. My player has been unbelievably slow, sometimes taking around 10 seconds to get into the 'Artist' category and another 10 seconds to go into an individual artist. I'm also experiencing a ton of lag while scrolling. I really am not exaggerating the 10 seconds either. I have a 200gb, Class 10 Sandisk card with 139GB of FLAC files, and another 49GB of MP3 files. The card was formatted in the player, my files are very well organised and tagged, I have stripped every file of it's album art, placed the album art inside each album folder and have it converted to 300px for the player. Losing my patience very quickly with it, especially as I bought it as a replacement for my 10 year old iPod Classic (that still performs leaps and bounds better than the X1ii, on its last legs). My friend has the original X1, and it's pretty pathetic that with the same card in it, it is faster than the 'upgraded model'. If performance isn't addressed in the next firmware update, I'll be selling it or possibly even returning it to the store I bought it from on the grounds of false advertising by Fiio regarding gapless playback.

 

[docholliday]

  Well, I wish I was having the same experience as all of you that are defending the speed of the X1ii. My player has been unbelievably slow, sometimes taking around 10 seconds to get into the 'Artist' category and another 10 seconds to go into an individual artist. I'm also experiencing a ton of lag while scrolling. I really am not exaggerating the 10 seconds either. I have a 200gb, Class 10 Sandisk card with 139GB of FLAC files, and another 49GB of MP3 files. The card was formatted in the player, my files are very well organised and tagged, I have stripped every file of it's album art, placed the album art inside each album folder and have it converted to 300px for the player. Losing my patience very quickly with it, especially as I bought it as a replacement for my 10 year old iPod Classic (that still performs leaps and bounds better than the X1ii, on its last legs). My friend has the original X1, and it's pretty pathetic that with the same card in it, it is faster than the 'upgraded model'. If performance isn't addressed in the next firmware update, I'll be selling it or possibly even returning it to the store I bought it from on the grounds of false advertising by Fiio regarding gapless playback.

I'll bet that your tagging isn't as good as you may think it is. All of my files are tagged, 700px art - both in the files and folder, and my PNY 200GB is just as fast as a 64GB Extreme or 256 Ultra in the player. I don't format the card in the player, I format on the computer using exFAT.
 
The important metadata seems to be Artist, AlbumArtist (all of mine match Artist), Year, Genre, Track#, DiscTotal, and Title. I have noticed that anything originating in iTunes seems to screw with the metadata. I strip out all ITUNES_* metadata. If you have anything touched by iTunes, I'd suggest dumping the metadata and tagging it to standard with MP3Tag. You can use the Discogs or Amazon lookup to get the general data loaded. I also have ReplayGain data attached to each file for both Track and Album mode - mostly because the files are used on the desktop too, and for when Cayin gets RG working on the N3.
 
You could also use TagScanner to automatically embed and resize the art to the smallest size and best resolution. It can also "defrag" the metadata of your files to make it easier for the player to read.

 

[ASpencer]

 
You could also use TagScanner to automatically embed and resize the art to the smallest size and best resolution. It can also "defrag" the metadata of your files to make it easier for the player to read.

 
I review everything in Mp3tag, doing final edits, corrections and adding reduced artwork in that.  I use a photo program to reduce artwork to the same size for every folder and most wind up being around 30K.  I've also run error checking on the card before placing it into the DAP.
 
It's important to double check the info and particularly the spelling in metadata as irregularities can causes hiccups, especially with compilation recordings.
 
Some of the problems being described by other users in regards to lagging does sound card related.  I haven't experienced it.
 
 

 

[Aetheora]

  I don't have major any lag as well. And I have a pile of cards, including a "slow" 256GB Sandisk Ultra, filled to the brim with about 5GB free remaining of 16/44 flac, 24/96 flac, and DSD64 files. Average files on the cards 4600-6500 songs. All ripped myself, with album art at 700x700, reduced via Photoshop to JPEG 8, size < 100K. Each file has full metadata including catalogID, UPC, ASIN, albumartist, artist, artistsort, and year. I rip using dbPoweramp Reference as well for 16/44 flacs, foobar2000 convert DVD-A, and use iso2dsd for DSD files.
 
The most "lag" I get is a second or so when I first start to browse a category. And the most I get at all is about 1 second. Boot time is minimal at around 3-4 seconds.
 
My library scan takes about 2 mins for the 256GB cards on the X1-II. The same cards on the N3 take at most 60s to scan.

 

   
I’m using a Samsung 256GB EVO card and it’s filled to the brim with less than ten megabytes free.  I’ve ripped most of my library using dBpoweramp and have reduced the size of album art for everything stored.  The lag time is only a few seconds for me.  I’m particularly enamored of the additional alphabetical search function that FiiO has added to all their players.

 
Whaaaaaaaaaaat? That's crazy! How? I have my music tags broken down into the bare level of Album artist, Artist itself, track #, disc #, and nothing else. No art, no genres, nothing. Is it maybe just a bad card? Should I try reformatting it? Remember, it is set in FAT32 format because that's the only format my car USB device recognizes. Maybe it's that?
 
Edit: It's a Sandisk Ultra Plus UHS-1 64GB class 10 card with an 80MB read speed, if that makes a difference

 

[ASpencer]

There’ve been so many posts with speculations about this player, usually with semantics such as “I’ve heard...” this and that, so it’s refreshing how docholliday is offering direct comparisons and experiences.  I’ve not experienced any lag with the X1 II and find it admirable for the inexpensive price.  I’m happy with the build, sound and will look forward to more updates.

 

[docholliday]

   
 
Whaaaaaaaaaaat? That's crazy! How? I have my music tags broken down into the bare level of Album artist, Artist itself, track #, disc #, and nothing else. No art, no genres, nothing. Is it maybe just a bad card? Should I try reformatting it? Remember, it is set in FAT32 format because that's the only format my car USB device recognizes. Maybe it's that?
 
Edit: It's a Sandisk Ultra Plus UHS-1 64GB class 10 card with an 80MB read speed, if that makes a difference

There's just so many things that can result in media files doing stupid things. It may or may not be the card's format. It may be card fragmentation. It could be that your encoding software places the metadata at the end of the file instead of beginning. It could be that you're copying the files via the player and not a card reader. There's just so many things that can be "off".
 
I had tried both FAT32 and exFAT on my first 256GB card to see if there was a difference. I noticed that with FAT32, repeated copying and deletions slowed the card down a bit as it neared full (allocation table fragmentation was probably the cause). exFAT did not exhibit this. So I stuck with exFAT.
 
I've never formatted the card in the players, always in the computer. I use a Lexar USB 3.0 card to take full advantage of the card's speed.
 
When it comes to file tagging, some encoders/taggers/editors don't support standards completely. If you have MP3s, be sure that they are tagged with the older IDv2 2.3, not the newer 2.4 which has issues with a LOT of players. Also, I'll strip out APE format tags. FLAC uses the Vorbis tagging system, which has quirks too in some implementations. All of my files have between 500px - 700px covers. All file sizes are less than 100K, mostly closer to 40-50K. The cover images are optimized in Photoshop using "Export for Web". They are all saved with JPEG Quality around 70%. The same cover image also is placed as a "folder.jpg" in each folder - note that I don't use the new standard "cover.jpg".
 
I also have the habit of clearing all tags from a file, then re-inserting the tags myself if I didn't directly rip the files from disc or ISO. I've never had a single file touch an Apple product - so none of iTunes' whacky non-standard tagging crap. And, yes, Apple products have a lot of non-standard "standards". As a photographer, I've had to deal with some idiots sending me Apple exported JPGs that are whacky because they couldn't export it in sRGB and was encoded poorly, but couldn't understand why the image "didn't look like it that on their screen". Of course, they didn't calibrate their monitors either "because it's a Mac and doesn't need that". 
 
I have a Kenwood Eschelon player in the truck. It uses a USB FAT32 format. I have MediaMonkey convert to MP3/320 for it on export when I do a device sync, specifically for the truck. I don't "share" files between my FLAC player and my car's head unit. It has it's own 128GB Sandisk Extreme that never gets re-imported into the system (one-way data path).
 
I also be sure when tagging to remove any UTF characters from tags (even though Vorbis supports it, doesn't mean that the player may have the character set). I also manually rename the file in MP3Tag to match my metadata. I use a script to check for non-ASCII characters in both and convert them to underscores. Each one of my file names match the metadata exactly and are in the same format (Track#. Title - Artist.extension).
 
All of my FLACS are converted using the newest FLAC lib to Level 6. Any MP3s are 320K CBR joint stereo. DSD files are in SonyDSF format. 
 
So, it's really hard for me to guess what is causing yours to update the library and function slow. My suggestion is that you copy your card off to your computer (or if you are syncing, just format the card). Then, copy over about 250-300 files and test them on your player. Time your library update. Then, start eliminating variables and find the cause of your slowness. I'll tell you that it's not the card speed, as I have a half dozen cards from 256GB to 64GB (Sandisk Ultra/Extreme, PNY, Samsung) that all work smoothly on read via the player. The only difference is the copy speed TO the card, which only makes a difference if you are utilizing the full potential of the card by having a fast card reader (I dump 256GB CF UDMA7 cards from my camera all the time, so that's a requirement) using USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 has a 16-18MB/s limit), and a fast computer (my files are coming from a 8 disc SAS15K cluster in RAID6 with a 2GB cache to take full advantage of the pci-e bus speed to a Startech PEXUSB3S44V dedicated port USB controller) to keep up with the card.
 
Yes, the player can have some lag, but never more than a second or so. And that is usually when it's opening a 24/96 FLAC file.

 

[OldRoadToad]

More and more I am thinking this is just the price one pays for a wimpy processor.  Too bad.  I had looked forward to getting one and as I have all ready stated, gave my 1st generation X1 to my son.
 
And so I just keep using my phone.  There is zero difference between my old X1 and my cell phone in sound quality and unlike the X1 -II,  the BlooToof works great as does the WiFi and every thing else the phone was advertised as doing. 
 
ORT

 

[docholliday]

  More and more I am thinking this is just the price one pays for a wimpy processor.  Too bad.  I had looked forward to getting one and as I have all ready stated, gave my 1st generation X1 to my son.
 
And so I just keep using my phone.  There is zero difference between my old X1 and my cell phone in sound quality and unlike the X1 -II,  the BlooToof works great as does the WiFi and every thing else the phone was advertised as doing. 
 
ORT

There's a huge difference between the X1-II and a phone. First of all, a phone has a full OS running with much more processor power. The trade off is that most phones have mediocre audio processors. It's up to the software to process the audio and push that tweaked stream to the audio chip. 
 
For a lot of people, there isn't a noticable difference between their phone and any DAP - mostly because they don't have files that are high enough resolution, have headphones that can't reproduce the resolution, or have hearing that has dropped off the high end and don't notice the details.
 
If you're using BT, you're probably not looking for any hi-res audio. Even Apt-X HD still suffers audio quality-wise and can't reproduce what a good set of IEMs can in detail. And if you're feeding it from WiFi, you probably are streaming - again, not high-res enough. I use my phone for just that - a phone - and it does exactly what it was advertised as doing, taking calls and sending short messages. Sending emails? not the optimal tool, needs an actual keyboard so I can type > 120wpm instead of 30wpm with my thumb. Camera? not the optimal tool, as it needs a real sensor and better glass (yes, all phones do, even the Nokia 808). Music player? not the optimal tool, as it need a less noisy signal path and for those i-product users, a real headphone jack.
 
But, sit on your phone or roll over on it and see how your day goes...if I broke my X1-II or Cayin N3, I'd not care much. But if I smashed my phone, I'd be kinda dead in the water at times. And that's before I look at the replacment cost. If your phone provides your "good enough" for audio, then stick with it and save the money.

 

[OldRoadToad]

  There's a huge difference between the X1-II and a phone. First of all, a phone has a full OS running with much more processor power. The trade off is that most phones have mediocre audio processors. It's up to the software to process the audio and push that tweaked stream to the audio chip. 
 
For a lot of people, there isn't a noticable difference between their phone and any DAP - mostly because they don't have files that are high enough resolution, have headphones that can't reproduce the resolution, or have hearing that has dropped off the high end and don't notice the details.
 
If you're using BT, you're probably not looking for any hi-res audio. Even Apt-X HD still suffers audio quality-wise and can't reproduce what a good set of IEMs can in detail. And if you're feeding it from WiFi, you probably are streaming - again, not high-res enough. I use my phone for just that - a phone - and it does exactly what it was advertised as doing, taking calls and sending short messages. Sending emails? not the optimal tool, needs an actual keyboard so I can type > 120wpm instead of 30wpm with my thumb. Camera? not the optimal tool, as it needs a real sensor and better glass (yes, all phones do, even the Nokia 808). Music player? not the optimal tool, as it need a less noisy signal path and for those i-product users, a real headphone jack.
 
But, sit on your phone or roll over on it and see how your day goes...if I broke my X1-II or Cayin N3, I'd not care much. But if I smashed my phone, I'd be kinda dead in the water at times. And that's before I look at the replacment cost. If your phone provides your "good enough" for audio, then stick with it and save the money.

 
I am (for now) sticking with my phone because FiiO appears to have stuck it to their customers with the X1-II.  As I said, I was ready but apparently FiiO was not. And still they sold it to people...
 
ORT

 

[ASpencer]

   
I am (for now) sticking with my phone because FiiO appears to have stuck it to their customers with the X1-II.  As I said, I was ready but apparently FiiO was not. And still they sold it to people...

 
And there are many satisfied customers and good reviews for this budget item.  To each his own, some people watch "2001: A Space Odyssey" in 70mm six track stereo, others view it on an iPad.  While both are seeing the same film, the experience simply isn't the same.

 

[tjl5709]

   
And there are many satisfied customers and good reviews for this budget item.  To each his own, some people watch "2001: A Space Odyssey" in 70mm six track stereo, others view it on an iPad.  While both are seeing the same film, the experience simply isn't the same.

 
It does what it needs to do for me. If you have your library in pretty good shape and organized, it is not too laggy. It's no iPOD classic, but if you run it from folders, it gets the job done.
 
My primary mobile set is with an x5ii running FLAC files driving IEM's. It does real good.
 
This was purchased to play MP3's and drive some small bluetooth speakers for the beach/golfing and such. 
 
My take on Fiio is to wait 2 - 3 months on any new release. Early adopters turn out to be beta testers.
 
Pluses for me:
Price point
Bluetooth
Form factor
Capacity versus iPOD
Thumb wheel idea
 
Negatives:
Thumb wheel implementation: It's a little quirky yet. But its a move towards an iPOD.
Bluetooth when you have the leatheret cover on it. The range goes down from what I can see.
U.I. compared to an iPOD. Them apple boys knew what they were doing.

 

[docholliday]

   
And there are many satisfied customers and good reviews for this budget item.  To each his own, some people watch "2001: A Space Odyssey" in 70mm six track stereo, others view it on an iPad.  While both are seeing the same film, the experience simply isn't the same.

I agree. And with the film, each person perceives it as "good enough" quality for them.

 

[docholliday]

  There’ve been so many posts with speculations about this player, usually with semantics such as “I’ve heard...” this and that, so it’s refreshing how docholliday is offering direct comparisons and experiences.  I’ve not experienced any lag with the X1 II and find it admirable for the inexpensive price.  I’m happy with the build, sound and will look forward to more updates.

 
Yeah, it's like in the photo industry where "armchair photographers" and even worse "armchair reviewers", talk about a camera when either have not touched one or only had one for review. They need to actually use the camera on a daily basis before they should comment about it!
 
As a test, I dumped a bunch of random files that I hadn't tagged (mostly because I have higher resolution versions) onto a 64GB card, about 100 files. I tried it in the X1 and the N3 to see library and read times. Then, I went through my procedure to clean/tag/organize them. They were a mix of ALAC, FLAC, MP3 VBR0, MP3 VBR2, and MP3 320 files. I'll say that after cleaning and organizing, the operation time on the X1 halved. The N3 was a bit quicker also, but it was really fast to begin with. It took about 30 seconds before and was around 16 seconds after. Track to track operation wasn't noticably different, maybe 1/4 - 1/2 second at most.
 
The card was some white label Sandisk industrial/OEM card that wasn't a speed demon and was formatted FAT32 with 16K clusters in Windows.