Thought I'd post some impressions of the X5III, been using it for a couple of weeks and mostly loving it.
First tested with my office cans, Senn HD25-1 II, great sound overall, a little pain with the interface but similar funkiness with X5/X5II.
Next was testing with my main daily IEMs, Shure SE846 (using the Logitech inline remote cable) and was rather disappointed.
The inline remote wasn't very responsive for starters, although the volume controls now worked so a plus over the X5II, mostly the click speed was awkward to time and completely different from the X5II or iPhone. On top of that the sound was really muddy compared to the HD25s or previous X5s.
Lucky for me my X5III (red
) order took forever to arrive and I'd ended up ordering the Fiio balanced shure cable and RM1 remote while waiting.
Switched the cable over and.... WOW!
That was the biggest difference I've ever heard from a cable change but the first time I've tested a balanced headphone output.
It is just the nicest real sounding thing I've heard and still giving me grins from random tracks.
As mentioned I've previously used the X5 and X5II so just moved the mSD card over, mostly FLACs from CD but a few HD tracks, Only about 5000 tracks so no issues with library scans and started with the 1.1.4 fw.
Had a couple of app crashes but mostly stable, only used the FIIO app so far.
RM1 remote is something I've been wanting for a while, no more compromise with cables to get inline. On the whole it works well, needs waking to use after a while but does occasionally not connect/work. Getting the X5III out and playing with controls and RM1 tends to sort it though.
I've noticed the 2.5mm jack is a lot more loose compared to a 3.5mm one, had issues while carrying the X5III in my backpack as the balanced cable would pop out with the slightest tug when moving. It's fine in my pocket but may try to tie the cable to the case before putting in my bag again.
The Shures are fairly sensitive so I have picked up noise from the X5III when no music playing, switching off the Wifi helps a bit. I was expecting this from a Wifi/BT enabled DAP, I've had to separate X5s and phones in the past (i.e. not in the same pocket/side). Need to play more with this but I typically use the Shures while traveling so road/bus/people noise covers it up most the time.
I've liked the sound of the X5s so far and each gen has sounded better, first gen I added an A5 to get a sound I liked, 2nd gen didn't need the A5 so much and the inline remote was great as I listen to shuffle all most of the time and 3rd gen (with balanced cable) has made my SE846s even more super awesome and such live/real tone sounding.
PS One other issue I found was with USB, on my main server PC, with all the music, the X5III woundn't connected to the normal port I use for previous X5s however trying another port worked fine. This is with Win10, I think the non working one might be on an Asmedia addon chip and the working one on the main Intel chipset. So there is certainly compatibility issues with some USB chips when in storage mode (not tried DAC mode yet).
