[sstyle]

I love it with the FiiO E12a.

I agree, but it is not a compact variant. So I will try to change an amp in the player.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  haha. Sure it is not true. I hear more treble than it should be. I think that X5-II needs to upgrade an amp to the "composite" and a power scheme should be change. (I hope that I will do this upgrade next week). Because it sounds great with external amp!

really?
 
Maybe you need to change headphones!
 
I want even more treble, cannot get enough of it!

 

[DaRon]

1) As long as the Equalizer setting is "OFF", firmware speed remains impressive. As soon as any other Equalizer setting is chosen however, the entire firmware slows down. Switch back to "OFF" and the software is snappy and responsive again.

Hi there,

Just got my first fiio - a x5ii - and i have to say I'm impressed...

Nevertheless I have the same issue as Romani.

Once the EQ is on (doesn't matter which preset - even custom with every slider set to 0db) the GUI slows down.
Back to off and speed gets back to normal.
Funny thing is: When the EQ is on and you pause the playback, firmware speed is normal. You start playback again, it slows down immediately...
HM.
Hope this is only a firmware issue... Bought my x5 on a business trip to Australia and it might get tricky to go back to AUS from europe just for replacement

DaRon

 

[Sujay Rao]

DON'T BUY THE FiiO X5 2nd GEN
 
​Don't buy the 2nd Gen X5, unless you need an expensive paperweight!
 
I found out about the X5 quite by accident. I have been a happy and admiring user for a long time now. My whole kit (X5, headphones, stacked amp) was stolen from my car. The X5 2nd Gen was released just then and I may have been one of the first people in India to have got one.
 
Loved the look.
Loved the shape and feel.
Loved the sound.
 
Bought another 1st Gen X5 a month later. Strange? Here's why.
 
I have about 18,000 songs split into folders between two 128 GB cards (Class 10). None of the music is Hi-res.
When I had done updating the media library, I clicked on the "Play by Category" icon. Nothing happened. I thought the click hadn't connected and clicked again. Still nothing. After a long time, the next menu came on. I clicked on artist. Again, nothing. After a long wait, I got the list under Artist. That was the beginning of what became an intensely frustrating experience.
 
I clocked the activity:
- System menu to Play by category - 25 secs
- Opening Artist list - 31 secs
- Back to System menu - 32 secs
- Click on an Artist's Name - 40 secs to open 
- Click on a song - 16 secs to start playing
- Back button from a song - 42 secs
 
I re-installed firmware, repeatedly updated media library, changed Micro SD cards. Nothing worked.
 
If I were to go backwards from a currently playing song, search through albums, genres, artists to find and play just one more song, I would need nearly 4 minutes! For someone who is constantly listening to music every free moment I get, the frustration was impossible to describe.
 
I mailed the FiiO support guys. I must admit, they have always been prompt and friendly, and as helpful as they could be. No complaints there. They replied admitting that it was slow because it "wasted more RAM" than the 1st Gen, suggesting that I should perhaps have fewer songs on it. Essentially, what they said was "this is the way it's going to be. Do the best you can with it".
 
While charmingly candid, the advice is strange to say the least. The X5 allows the usage of 256 GB of storage. If it cannot handle it, why recommend so much memory? Wasn't this ever tested? Why not restrict it to 128 GB instead? Will speed up even then, or will it still be slow?
 
I am astounded that no one, absolutely no one, seems to have reported on this. Is this just my problem, am I doing something wrong, is there something wrong with my machine? I don't think so. I think the 2nd Gen X5 was poorly thought through. If the engineers knew that the upgraded hardware and capabilities of the 2nd Gen needed more juice to run, why did they let it out into the market in such woefully underpowered state? 
 
FiiO provides products with great sound, good build,  good production qualities and very affordable prices. I can also sense more that just business acumen with this company. I think there is some passion here. I don't think I will leave the FiiO platform easily. So, I went and bought another 1st gen X5 because the 2nd Gen machine is simply unusable.
 
But, the extra expense did hurt.

 

[JaZZ]

You're a bit premature with your accusation, my friend!
 

I am astounded that no one, absolutely no one, seems to have reported on this. Is this just my problem, am I doing something wrong, is there something wrong with my machine? I don't think so. I think the 2nd Gen X5 was poorly thought through.

 
The reason why no one has reported this issue is that nobody else has it.

 

[KLJTech]

Unusable? Haven't seen anyone claim that the X5 II is unusable, that's probably the reason you haven't seen the complaint. The X5 II has a lot of technology under the hood for only $350 (and great quality parts) but it's not always going to function instantaneously. 
 
Are you certain of your 18000 songs are tagged properly?
 
I'm using two 128Gb cards in my X5 II and it currently has around 260 full albums (FLAC 16 and 24-bit) loaded on it (cover art for each album) with plenty of room to spare and I have zero issues with music loading, tracking forward or backward. If I click on Browse files I have access to my folders in about a second or so.
 
Good luck...

 

[jbmbkb]

.

 

[IpodHappy]

I have similar delays with a library of over 28000 tracks. I gave up on trying to navigate with anything but folders. For example, selecting a genre takes over a minute, getting out of genres takes a minute per push, etc. I divided up my library by artists, into 8 different folders, ABC, DEF, etc., with four upper level folders on each memory card. It's quick and easy, though you give up the ability to search. And try to find a single track out of 28000 with a scroll wheel. Some ballistics need to be added to sense the user is trying to go faster.

Fiio didn't put enough RAM into the design to keep the library database in RAM, so they're buffering back and forth to the SD card, which is slow. The X5 III needs more RAM.

 

[Brooko]

@Sujay Rao / @IpodHappy
 
Just to put a bit of perspective on it - and I think IpodHappy has hit the nail on the head - putting that many tracks on the X5ii is not probably something Fiio thought would happen.
 
The X5ii is marketed as an audiophile device.  It has specialist hardware to get the most possible out of the sonics. It has capability to play hi-res FLAC and DSD.  I don't think they ever thought anyone would throw 256 Gb of storage and fill it up with mainly MP3s.
 
To give you some perspective - I have 192 Gb on board, and at last count just under 6000 tracks (around 500 full albums I think) - all FLAC. At most I might get a second or two lag - but overall it's pretty snappy.  Given the quality (and power) of the output, I'm pretty happy with it.
 
With large libraries, I'm pretty sure the X5ii is having to write from RAM to the card and back again.  It was never designed to do what you're (Sujao Ray) asking it to do.  It's a bit like having a Maserati, using it for day to day driving, and wondering why the mpg fuel performance is lousy.  It's not the X5ii's fault either (IMO), and that is why you don't see many people complaining - not many would be using it like you are and expecting a snappy response.
 
Now I'm not saying you're wrong in your expectations - I'm just saying the X5ii simply isn't the player for you.  What you need is an iPod Classic - it has enough onboard RAM and was designed for extremely large MP3 libraries.
 
I'd also be curious as to how your files are tagged, and what folder structure you use?  If you organise your folders properly, then folder browsing should solve most of your issues.

 

[pcalv]

  DON'T BUY THE FiiO X5 2nd GEN
 
​Don't buy the 2nd Gen X5, unless you need an expensive paperweight!
 
I found out about the X5 quite by accident. I have been a happy and admiring user for a long time now. My whole kit (X5, headphones, stacked amp) was stolen from my car. The X5 2nd Gen was released just then and I may have been one of the first people in India to have got one.
 
Loved the look.
Loved the shape and feel.
Loved the sound.
 
Bought another 1st Gen X5 a month later. Strange? Here's why.
 
I have about 18,000 songs split into folders between two 128 GB cards (Class 10). None of the music is Hi-res.
When I had done updating the media library, I clicked on the "Play by Category" icon. Nothing happened. I thought the click hadn't connected and clicked again. Still nothing. After a long time, the next menu came on. I clicked on artist. Again, nothing. After a long wait, I got the list under Artist. That was the beginning of what became an intensely frustrating experience.
 
I clocked the activity:
- System menu to Play by category - 25 secs
- Opening Artist list - 31 secs
- Back to System menu - 32 secs
- Click on an Artist's Name - 40 secs to open 
- Click on a song - 16 secs to start playing
- Back button from a song - 42 secs
 
I re-installed firmware, repeatedly updated media library, changed Micro SD cards. Nothing worked.
 
If I were to go backwards from a currently playing song, search through albums, genres, artists to find and play just one more song, I would need nearly 4 minutes! For someone who is constantly listening to music every free moment I get, the frustration was impossible to describe.
 
I mailed the FiiO support guys. I must admit, they have always been prompt and friendly, and as helpful as they could be. No complaints there. They replied admitting that it was slow because it "wasted more RAM" than the 1st Gen, suggesting that I should perhaps have fewer songs on it. Essentially, what they said was "this is the way it's going to be. Do the best you can with it".
 
While charmingly candid, the advice is strange to say the least. The X5 allows the usage of 256 GB of storage. If it cannot handle it, why recommend so much memory? Wasn't this ever tested? Why not restrict it to 128 GB instead? Will speed up even then, or will it still be slow?
 
I am astounded that no one, absolutely no one, seems to have reported on this. Is this just my problem, am I doing something wrong, is there something wrong with my machine? I don't think so. I think the 2nd Gen X5 was poorly thought through. If the engineers knew that the upgraded hardware and capabilities of the 2nd Gen needed more juice to run, why did they let it out into the market in such woefully underpowered state? 
 
FiiO provides products with great sound, good build,  good production qualities and very affordable prices. I can also sense more that just business acumen with this company. I think there is some passion here. I don't think I will leave the FiiO platform easily. So, I went and bought another 1st gen X5 because the 2nd Gen machine is simply unusable.
 
But, the extra expense did hurt.

I have had the same issues and in fact brought it up on this thread a few weeks ago. I have about 13,000 files split over 2 128GB cards. I eventually gave using 'Play By Category' and use 'Browse Files'. I have organised my files into folders i.e AB, CD, EF etc to get to the album i want quicker. Far from ideal but the only option I have until 'Play By Category' works the way it was intended.

 

[pcalv]

  @Sujay Rao / @IpodHappy
 
Just to put a bit of perspective on it - and I think IpodHappy has hit the nail on the head - putting that many tracks on the X5ii is not probably something Fiio thought would happen.
 
The X5ii is marketed as an audiophile device.  It has specialist hardware to get the most possible out of the sonics. It has capability to play hi-res FLAC and DSD.  I don't think they ever thought anyone would throw 256 Gb of storage and fill it up with mainly MP3s.
 
To give you some perspective - I have 192 Gb on board, and at last count just under 6000 tracks (around 500 full albums I think) - all FLAC. At most I might get a second or two lag - but overall it's pretty snappy.  Given the quality (and power) of the output, I'm pretty happy with it.
 
With large libraries, I'm pretty sure the X5ii is having to write from RAM to the card and back again.  It was never designed to do what you're (Sujao Ray) asking it to do.  It's a bit like having a Maserati, using it for day to day driving, and wondering why the mpg fuel performance is lousy.  It's not the X5ii's fault either (IMO), and that is why you don't see many people complaining - not many would be using it like you are and expecting a snappy response.
 
Now I'm not saying you're wrong in your expectations - I'm just saying the X5ii simply isn't the player for you.  What you need is an iPod Classic - it has enough onboard RAM and was designed for extremely large MP3 libraries.
 
I'd also be curious as to how your files are tagged, and what folder structure you use?  If you organise your folders properly, then folder browsing should solve most of your issues.

Understand your points Brooko but the Fiio X5 II is sold with the guarantee it works with various different file formats such as mp3 and supports 2 128GB cards. It should therefore work as sold. I have the same issues as a few others and with 13,000 mp3 files 'Play By Category' is unusuable. Although i am enjoying the audio quality of the Fiio X5II, personally the main reason i bought this DAP is the quantity of music i could carry with me. My ipod classic has a capacity of 160Gb which isn't enough for my needs whereas the Fiio XII has 256GB with the promise of support of larger cards in the future.

 

[x RELIC x]

Play by Category works as intended. Initially FiiO intended it to only to use a 5800 track limit. As Brooko mentioned FiiO opened up a can of worms allowing users to choke the system by adding so many files. That's like overclocking a cheap media PC and expecting workstation performance with no issues. FiiO basically over clocked their DAPs by allowing more tracks so caution should be taken when pushing the limits of the hardware. A little perspective is required here.

 

[Brooko]

  Understand your points Brooko but the Fiio X5 II is sold with the guarantee it works with various different file formats such as mp3 and supports 2 128GB cards. It should therefore work as sold. I have the same issues as a few others and with 13,000 mp3 files 'Play By Category' is unusuable. Although i am enjoying the audio quality of the Fiio X5II, personally the main reason i bought this DAP is the quantity of music i could carry with me. My ipod classic has a capacity of 160Gb which isn't enough for my needs whereas the Fiio XII has 256GB with the promise of support of larger cards in the future.

 
Hey I understand yours too 

.  Different people different needs.
 
I just find this to be unjustified - it is anything but an extremely expensive paperweight.

  DON'T BUY THE FiiO X5 2nd GEN
 
​Don't buy the 2nd Gen X5, unless you need an expensive paperweight!

 
Imagine for example if I send this in a high end car forum:
 
"Don't buy the Ferrari F10 - it has terrible fuel economy and it's cramped in the interior!"
 
I'd be laughed off the site 

 
All I'm saying is that the number of files in extremely large libraries is probably something the Fiio never considered for the X5ii.

 

[Dobrescu George]

  DON'T BUY THE FiiO X5 2nd GEN
 
​Don't buy the 2nd Gen X5, unless you need an expensive paperweight!
 
I found out about the X5 quite by accident. I have been a happy and admiring user for a long time now. My whole kit (X5, headphones, stacked amp) was stolen from my car. The X5 2nd Gen was released just then and I may have been one of the first people in India to have got one.
 
Loved the look.
Loved the shape and feel.
Loved the sound.
 
Bought another 1st Gen X5 a month later. Strange? Here's why.
 
I have about 18,000 songs split into folders between two 128 GB cards (Class 10). None of the music is Hi-res.
When I had done updating the media library, I clicked on the "Play by Category" icon. Nothing happened. I thought the click hadn't connected and clicked again. Still nothing. After a long time, the next menu came on. I clicked on artist. Again, nothing. After a long wait, I got the list under Artist. That was the beginning of what became an intensely frustrating experience.
 
I clocked the activity:
- System menu to Play by category - 25 secs
- Opening Artist list - 31 secs
- Back to System menu - 32 secs
- Click on an Artist's Name - 40 secs to open 
- Click on a song - 16 secs to start playing
- Back button from a song - 42 secs
 
I re-installed firmware, repeatedly updated media library, changed Micro SD cards. Nothing worked.
 
If I were to go backwards from a currently playing song, search through albums, genres, artists to find and play just one more song, I would need nearly 4 minutes! For someone who is constantly listening to music every free moment I get, the frustration was impossible to describe.
 
I mailed the FiiO support guys. I must admit, they have always been prompt and friendly, and as helpful as they could be. No complaints there. They replied admitting that it was slow because it "wasted more RAM" than the 1st Gen, suggesting that I should perhaps have fewer songs on it. Essentially, what they said was "this is the way it's going to be. Do the best you can with it".
 
While charmingly candid, the advice is strange to say the least. The X5 allows the usage of 256 GB of storage. If it cannot handle it, why recommend so much memory? Wasn't this ever tested? Why not restrict it to 128 GB instead? Will speed up even then, or will it still be slow?
 
I am astounded that no one, absolutely no one, seems to have reported on this. Is this just my problem, am I doing something wrong, is there something wrong with my machine? I don't think so. I think the 2nd Gen X5 was poorly thought through. If the engineers knew that the upgraded hardware and capabilities of the 2nd Gen needed more juice to run, why did they let it out into the market in such woefully underpowered state? 
 
FiiO provides products with great sound, good build,  good production qualities and very affordable prices. I can also sense more that just business acumen with this company. I think there is some passion here. I don't think I will leave the FiiO platform easily. So, I went and bought another 1st gen X5 because the 2nd Gen machine is simply unusable.
 
But, the extra expense did hurt.

Look, man, you are having 72.000 minutes of music there, if you consider an 4 minute song average. 
 
This is 1200 hours of continous music.
 
I bet that the chances of you knowing every single track are low as I have 6000 songs, and I barely know half of my library. Just take less files, or even better, take lossless versions of your favourite songs. In general I can make the differences between lossless and lossy, and lossless sounds much better. 
 
X5II is designed very nicely to actually support these cards, and to let you folder browse through them. Using artist and tagged browsing is useless IMO for so many files. I mean, in 18000 files, you have at least 500 artists, and wheeling through them is way slower than if you would come up with a smart folder tree method. And folder browsing is not slowed down from what I know. 

 

[Luvdac]

  DON'T BUY THE FiiO X5 2nd GEN
 
​Don't buy the 2nd Gen X5, unless you need an expensive paperweight!
 
I found out about the X5 quite by accident. I have been a happy and admiring user for a long time now. My whole kit (X5, headphones, stacked amp) was stolen from my car. The X5 2nd Gen was released just then and I may have been one of the first people in India to have got one.
 
Loved the look.
Loved the shape and feel.
Loved the sound.
 
Bought another 1st Gen X5 a month later. Strange? Here's why.
 
I have about 18,000 songs split into folders between two 128 GB cards (Class 10). None of the music is Hi-res.
When I had done updating the media library, I clicked on the "Play by Category" icon. Nothing happened. I thought the click hadn't connected and clicked again. Still nothing. After a long time, the next menu came on. I clicked on artist. Again, nothing. After a long wait, I got the list under Artist. That was the beginning of what became an intensely frustrating experience.
 
I clocked the activity:
- System menu to Play by category - 25 secs
- Opening Artist list - 31 secs
- Back to System menu - 32 secs
- Click on an Artist's Name - 40 secs to open 
- Click on a song - 16 secs to start playing
- Back button from a song - 42 secs
 
I re-installed firmware, repeatedly updated media library, changed Micro SD cards. Nothing worked.
 
If I were to go backwards from a currently playing song, search through albums, genres, artists to find and play just one more song, I would need nearly 4 minutes! For someone who is constantly listening to music every free moment I get, the frustration was impossible to describe.
 
I mailed the FiiO support guys. I must admit, they have always been prompt and friendly, and as helpful as they could be. No complaints there. They replied admitting that it was slow because it "wasted more RAM" than the 1st Gen, suggesting that I should perhaps have fewer songs on it. Essentially, what they said was "this is the way it's going to be. Do the best you can with it".
 
While charmingly candid, the advice is strange to say the least. The X5 allows the usage of 256 GB of storage. If it cannot handle it, why recommend so much memory? Wasn't this ever tested? Why not restrict it to 128 GB instead? Will speed up even then, or will it still be slow?
 
I am astounded that no one, absolutely no one, seems to have reported on this. Is this just my problem, am I doing something wrong, is there something wrong with my machine? I don't think so. I think the 2nd Gen X5 was poorly thought through. If the engineers knew that the upgraded hardware and capabilities of the 2nd Gen needed more juice to run, why did they let it out into the market in such woefully underpowered state? 
 
FiiO provides products with great sound, good build,  good production qualities and very affordable prices. I can also sense more that just business acumen with this company. I think there is some passion here. I don't think I will leave the FiiO platform easily. So, I went and bought another 1st gen X5 because the 2nd Gen machine is simply unusable.
 
But, the extra expense did hurt.

Hi Sujay,  Just want to say that using the Fiio to play back mp3 files is like using a Ferrari as a garbage truck. No offense, but the Fiio has been made specifically with lossless and hi-res music in mind. I do have issues with my x5ii, such as a scroll wheel that is very obviously broken (and Fiio WONT replace it without me having to send it back to them first thus robbing me of my music for weeks to come). I suggest you reduce the number of files on the sd cards and try again. If the problem persists with lesser number of files then there could be a software or hardware problem with the player and you could ask for a replacement. BTW, seriously recommend you get into Hi-Res. You won't regret it.