Fiio X5 3rd gen || 2x AKM 4490 || Balanced Out || DSD || DXD | DTS | Android || Dual Card Slot

[KepinCemit]

  One more question since the red fiio in on its way
do i need a portable amp for this player?
I only had the X1 first gen together with th e11k2 amp
the 3 headphones i will use with it are the
shure 435
final audio heaven 2
and
beyer dt770 pro 80ohm
 
Thank you very much

 
I tried X5 iii with my DT 770/80 the other day (on low gain only btw, forgot you can switch to high gain, lol)
 
Maybe X5 can't drive the DT "perfectly", but good enough to my ears on low gain.
 
X5 iii is much more powerful than my previous AK120 for certain
 
 
So I don't think you'll need a portable amp yet, just give it a try before trying to get an amp.

 

[mandrake50]

 

 

 
 
 
I agree with most of your rant. I did find 1 manufacturer that does have "relatively" reasonable pricing  - Cowon - PM2 to be precise. Works straight out of the box - perfect, superb sound (yet to find a player to beat it and my collection is excessive), no crashes, ultrafast card scan, IPhone like snappy UCI, gorgeous body, lush Amoled screen.... No beta testing with Cowon, they update existing functionality with their fw updates, not fixing problems that should had not been there at the first place. Ibasso is definetily holding the flag for releasing initial crapware instead of workable firmware with their players, I know I have 2 of them. Anyway, other then taking about million hours to fill 2 of my cards (1 200gb, 1 128gb Sandisk U1class 10) I don't complain about any issues with my X5III.(Yet!)

 The PM2 is close to twice the price of the X5III.. Though that has little to do with having mature software/firmware in place on release of the device. I guess I have pretty simple needs when using these devices. I typically set the device to shuffle all songs and put it into my pocket. Then let it go until I turn it off.
 
Coming from 5 years of Android phones, I have at least basic knowledge of the OS. I did struggle a bit with the UI at first. I do find it to be a negative that they had no comprehensive manual for the X5III for a good while after it became available. There is one now, but I still don't find that it  is complete nor very clear and concise, especially for a new user. Overall, I am happy with the X5III. Could FIIO have done better, well maybe. It is difficult to test every usage scenario, or even think of every way that the device may be used once several hundred/thousand of them are in the wild. It is even more difficult to forecast every feature and function that people will want. At least they seem to be responding to problems and requests fairly quickly... so far.
 
I have been using mine with the 1More triple driver IEMs. It is quite good. A metric for me is that I don't constantly wish for something "better"! It is nice to just be able to listen to music and be happy with the result.

 

[x RELIC x]

Meant to include this instead of the 10.3 comment: for some reason can't get the Mojo to work with either the coax or USB OTG +UAPP out on the X5. Is there a special setting for the mojo? More of an experiment than a need to alter the X5 output.

For coaxial make sure you have the multifunctional output set to coaxial in the pull down menu. Make sure you are using the proper 3.5mm TRRS adaptor supplied with the X5-3, or a custom 3.5mm TRRS to 3.5mm TS cable with the proper wiring for the FiiO DAPs. Also be aware that currently FiiO only allows up to 24/96 output through coaxial and anything higher won't output sound. DSD is converted to 88.2 PCM through coaxial currently.

For USB audio output FiiO has not implemented this advertised feature yet. They say it works with some devices but I haven't read any feedback saying it works with anything, and I haven't been able to get it to work either. Regarding UAPP, the last I've read is that FiiO bypasses Android SRC so UAPP is not necessary for bitperfect playback. Of course there is no way to test this currently.

A huge reason I purchased the X5-3 was to be used as a transport when not on the go, so I'm quite disappointed with the digital outputs currently. Hopefully FiiO will quickly address the coaxial output format limitations and the USB audio output soon.

 

[HyperDuel]

Getting my X5 tomorrow.  I was thinking of getting the A5 and down the road a LCD-2.  Something really different from my years on Grados.  Good idea? 

 

[enragedlemon]

Getting my X5 tomorrow.  I was thinking of getting the A5 and down the road a LCD-2.  Something really different from my years on Grados.  Good idea? 

I've tried the X5iii with the K5 and LCD-2s and it sounded amazing. Given that the K5 had plenty of headroom, the A5 should be able to drive them too, even if gain is required.

 

[rawrster]

I've owned these for around a week and this dap will most likely stay with Mr for a while. I only use poweramp so my uses are simpler than others. There's no need for Bluetooth, usb dac, etc for me. The only annoyance is that poweramp asks me for purchase verification however I get that with my phone as well so that's no fault of the dap.

Im using my Andromeda and today I heard just how good the pairing was. Both are new to me so I'm not sure which it was but I felt that everything came together for a very good listening session. I really can't ask for more (well I can but it will cost over 1k). The only thing I need to do is to buy a balanced cable (I'm looking at my options now) and another micro sd card since I only have one right now.

 

[Starblood]

Has anyone had any luck with the audible app on the X5iii?

For various reasons I want to migrate all my audio from my phone to the X5iii. Audible is the only app I can't get to work properly.

'Playback failed, please try again'

I've tried streaming, downloading to the internal and external cards, tried SQ & HQ settings - all the same.

Any ideas, clues or hints?

 

[ctruth]

   
Hi. Does the 'smooth' sound disappear when using X5 III with the A5? I'm assuming the smooth sound (everyone is unanimous about) is due to using the internal amp. I'm hoping the Lineout into the A5 then gives a much clearer crisper enhanced natural pro sound on par with top tier players. Warm, smooth blah blah does not appeal to me, I just want high end natural and accuarte from top to bottom, representative of the source song, not the inbuilt amp, which obviously wouldn't match an external dedicated amp.

 

What I like about the X5-3 is that the musical selections sound like stage performances.
Not like a bunch of perfectly coordinated digi-zombie, flat  “sound” bytes.
 
The X5-3 is “natural and accuarte [accurate] from top to bottom, [and truly] representative of the source”
 
Voices sound like Voices.
Pianos sound like Pianos
Vibraphones sound like Vibraphones
Bongos, Drums, Congas, Cow Bells, Timbales, Cymbals, Guitars, etc, sound like the natural instruments.
 
As for the listener (me), I’m sitting front row center – or sometimes right there on stage.

 

[HyperDuel]

I can't wait for the X5 tomorrow from UPS.  Meanwhile I decided on the Grado GH2to be my upper-tier Grado than my SR225e.  I hope the X5 can really drive the Grados when I get them.  While the A5 amps looks good, I prefer a simple single path as possible.

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Getting my X5 tomorrow.  I was thinking of getting the A5 and down the road a LCD-2.  Something really different from my years on Grados.  Good idea? 

Not to be harsh to Grado, I started with that sound as well, but yes there is a world of excellent sound signatures outside of the Grado sound. Now I haven't tried the really expensive Grado, here in Canada they are far too expensive due to no competition so I would never take a chance spending big money on Grado's. Bummer as I would love to try a darker Grado sound to see what I thought of it. The LCD 2F I really enjoyed by the way.

 

[MinnieOne]

  In the X5iii the real battery consumer is the hardware itself. FiiO says that "Because of the chip limitation, our X5III may have bigger stanby current than some phones".
In "standby mode" has a sustained consumption of approximately 10/12% every 8 hours. Nothing to do with that.
 
Apart from that, everything related to Google Services always consumes many resources and as Google updates versions is consuming more and more.
If you really want to "free" resources on the X5iii there are many things that can be disabled, but others are blocked and you can not.
 
Once I installed the apps I wanted (Spotify basically), I have disabled/unistalled all that:
 

1. Android Live Wallpapers
2. Android System WebView
3. Basic Daydreams
4. Black Hole
5. Bubbles
6. Clock
7. Com.android.smspush
8. Com.android.wallpaper.holospiral
9. Exchange Services
10. ES Explorer
11. HTML Viewer
12. Music Visualization Wallpapers
13. MusicFX
14. One Time Init
15. OpenWnn
16. Phase Beam
17. Photo Screensaver
18. And something a chinesse ...

 
In a second round, i remove (disable) all Google related services. Obviously, you lose the app store, but I actually install apps directly as apk, and of course you lose the link to the google account.
 

1. Google Account Manager
2. Google Play services
3. Google Play Store
4. Google Services Framework

 
Another thing you can do is uninstall ES Explorer (which is rubbish) and install a good and light browser like MiXplorer
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/hootanparsa/mixplorer-hootanparsa/mixplorer-hootanparsa-6-13-1-beta-release/mixplorer-6-13-1-beta-android-apk-download/
 
The system is now as clean and fluid as it can be with the original ROM and everything I use works fine. In any case you can always re-enable everything

​Thanks for this excellent post and information. Going to do some serious tweaking with this.

 

[ctruth]

  Getting my X5 tomorrow.  I was thinking of getting the A5 and down the road a LCD-2.  Something really different from my years on Grados.  Good idea? 

 

I came from Grado SR60i several years ago (when they were all the rage).
I now have Sony MDR1R..I never looked back.
 
Not a recommendation, Just a comment.
 
I may try the LCD-2 if I get a chance, but the word out is they have poor build/comfort quality – but hey, here we are beta testing the X5-3 because of the superb sound….
 
Old School sorta cheapskate

 

[rmillerx]

For coaxial make sure you have the multifunctional output set to coaxial in the pull down menu. Make sure you are using the proper 3.5mm TRRS adaptor supplied with the X5-3, or a custom 3.5mm TRRS to 3.5mm TS cable with the proper wiring for the FiiO DAPs. Also be aware that currently FiiO only allows up to 24/96 output through coaxial and anything higher won't output sound. DSD is converted to 88.2 PCM through coaxial currently.

For USB audio output FiiO has not implemented this advertised feature yet. They say it works with some devices but I haven't read any feedback saying it works with anything, and I haven't been able to get it to work either. Regarding UAPP, the last I've read is that FiiO bypasses Android SRC so UAPP is not necessary for bitperfect playback. Of course there is no way to test this currently.

A huge reason I purchased the X5-3 was to be used as a transport when not on the go, so I'm quite disappointed with the digital outputs currently. Hopefully FiiO will quickly address the coaxial output format limitations and the USB audio output soon.

Thank-you very much.  First off, I was using the wrong coax cable, and after switching I was able to start comparing the Mojo contribution. Thanks to the other information you provided I see it is not a real comparison as the downsampling/limitations on coax output means such a comparison handicaps the digital second stage device.
 
I do like to believe that all of this will be resolved in time by FiiO and I just need to wait.  For now, I have a use model that works with the FiiO  and will use the DP-X1 for other times.
 
Regards. 

 

[Dobrescu George]

  I can't wait for the X5 tomorrow from UPS.  Meanwhile I decided on the Grado GH2to be my upper-tier Grado than my SR225e.  I hope the X5 can really drive the Grados when I get them.  While the A5 amps looks good, I prefer a simple single path as possible.

 
 
I like grado signature in itself. 
 
Dislike lack of soundstage, lack of sub bass, and a somewhat distorted sound. All of those on their cheap models. I'm sure their expensive models aren't affected by those problems. The grado you're buying should sound really nice! 
 
From Audeze, I really like LCD - X and LCD - 4 sound wise. Not a big fan of LCD-2, too dark and smooth for me. They all have very good technical sound. Test before buying, and also test if you can live with the weight. 

 

[enragedlemon]

   
 
I like grado signature in itself. 
 
Dislike lack of soundstage, lack of sub bass, and a somewhat distorted sound. All of those on their cheap models. I'm sure their expensive models aren't affected by those problems. The grado you're buying should sound really nice! 
 
From Audeze, I really like LCD - X and LCD - 4 sound wise. Not a big fan of LCD-2, too dark and smooth for me. They all have very good technical sound. Test before buying, and also test if you can live with the weight. 

 
Ooooh LCD-4. How much effort I have spent avoiding giving her a listen. A like the LCD-2 but I ADORED the LCD-3, and if the 4 is a further refinement, my wallet just couldn't take that kind of beating.
 
On topic again, I would be happy to give the LCD-2 + X5 stack a go. I have Alo's Green Line cable with a few termination options, including 2.5mm TRRS if anyone was interested in a comparison with the balanced output?