[Layman1]

I am one of the unfortunate owners of Fiio X5iii. This player is extremely unreliable, the quality control of the products are terrible and my X5 suffers many manufacturing defects, including touchscreen failure and faulty memory. The Fiio stock music player cannot scan the music library properly. The twin operating mode is a joke. There are serious compatibiity problem with third party streaming and music playing app. The internal storage for installing apps is restricted to less than 1GB despite it advertising 32GB. There battery drains like a monster and after half hour of turning on (not playing music because it won't) and it becomes very hot.

Hmm... joined 2005, or so it says.
Completely empty profile.
1 post ever (this one above).
No coming on here to ask for help or advice on any of the many reported problems, which are extremely unlikely to have happened all at the same time..
Plus reports from several others, including highly regarded Head-Fi members about how the X5iii is mostly working fine and suffering approximately none of the problems you're referring to.
I generally like to give the benefit of the doubt, but this sounds rather suspicious to me..

 

 

[MusicFan]

I own X5 1st Gen so I proceed to purchase the very first batch from China.
 
Mine suffers a touch screen problem right out of the box.  The seller offers to exchange or refund.  I chose to exchange as I think there are significant improvement on vocal over my iPod and old X5.
 
I can provide my views below and you can ask other reviewers to confirm whether my views are correct.  I am running Firmware 1.04.
 
The feel is a cheap entry level mobile, though with solid build.
Only about 1GB is set aside for installing apps, typical lower end entry level mobile phone configuration.
I have a library of about 7,000 songs and am using 2 x 200GB cards.  The Fiio cannot scan the library properly and I noticed this has been a common complaint from other users in China.
The touch screen operates without me touching it.
There are "Di Di" noise when start playing songs or change songs.
Very significant background noise.
The only up side is the sound quality (using Onkyo player app), significant improvement over the 1st generation, in particularly for vocal, but how can you enjoy the music when it won't even operate properly?
 
Mine is on its way back to the seller for an exchange. I bought a Pioneer XDP-300R from Japan two days ago for US$290 (incl shipping).  They are having new year special by Amazon JP at about JPY39,000 plus a further discount coupon of JPY5000.
 
You are welcome to proceed to get an X5 III and get into the same troubles as mine.

 

 

[Layman1]

  I own X5 1st Gen so I proceed to purchase the very first batch from China.
 
Mine suffers a touch screen problem right out of the box.  The seller offers to exchange or refund.  I chose to exchange as I think there are significant improvement on vocal over my iPod and old X5.
 
I can provide my views below and you can ask other reviewers to confirm whether my views are correct.  I am running Firmware 1.04.
 
The feel is a cheap entry level mobile, though with solid build.
Only about 1GB is set aside for installing apps, typical lower end entry level mobile phone configuration.
I have a library of about 7,000 songs and am using 2 x 200GB cards.  The Fiio cannot scan the library properly and I noticed this has been a common complaint from other users in China.
The touch screen operates without me touching it.
There are "Di Di" noise when start playing songs or change songs.
Very significant background noise.
The only up side is the sound quality (using Onkyo player app), significant improvement over the 1st generation, in particularly for vocal, but how can you enjoy the music when it won't even operate properly?
 
Mine is on its way back to the seller for an exchange. I bought a Pioneer XDP-300R from Japan two days ago for US$290 (incl shipping).  They are having new year special by Amazon JP at about JPY39,000 plus a further discount coupon of JPY5000.
 
You are welcome to proceed to get an X5 III and get into the same troubles as mine.

 

I'm actually an Onkyo fan; I was just wanting to see how this measured up.. I figured you were too

 

[Layman1]

 
I'm actually an Onkyo fan; I was just wanting to see how this measured up.. I figured you were too

That was just a joke by the way, haha..
Well, I'd be interested to hear what other actual users make of all this..
Pretty depressing reading if it turns out to be true and/or it wasn't just an isolated incident or 1st batch QC problem..
On the other hand, at least there's plenty of room for improvement

 

[fezzyness]

Guys, this was only released in China for a reason, and it's because it's not a complete product yet (software-wise). So when you buy it from a foreign retailer and you're surprised stuff doesn't work... well what did you expect?

 

[fourrobert13]

Once the tour units are out, then we'll hear some different opinions instead of handful we are getting now. The above poster could have got a dud, but we are not him so you have to take his experience in stride and wait for more reports. I'd like to see the X5III do well and eventually upgrade to it because I've been happy with my second gen model. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but the market isn't as small as it once was. There are plenty of good options in this price range and a poorly released product with a bunch of bugs and not all features working properly won't sit well with me and others like me. If i intend to drop $400 on something, it better be able to do everything they say it can out of the box without issue. I know firmware updates are a necessity, and that's fine, but at the same time, the device shouldn't be so buggy out of the box like other FiiO devices have been is all I'm saying. Others feel differently and that's ok, but im not a fan of spending my money to be a beta tester. I really hope for everything to work out with this DAP because it fits what I'm looking for.

 

[MusicFan]

If there has not been the annoying touch screen issue I would have chosen to keep the player, mainly for its sound quality and dual SD support.  However, I will probably change my exchange decision to a refund decision and use the XDP-300R that is on its way to my office and waiting to see if there is any improvement over next few firmware update.
 
The library scan problem may be due to the significant difference in the transmitting speed of the two SD card slots.
 
The Touch screen is clearly a hardware failure issue.  I consulted Fiio Tech support, so far no meaningful or constructive response.

 

[Dobrescu George]

Once the tour units are out, then we'll hear some different opinions instead of handful we are getting now. The above poster could have got a dud, but we are not him so you have to take his experience in stride and wait for more reports. I'd like to see the X5III do well and eventually upgrade to it because I've been happy with my second gen model. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but the market isn't as small as it once was. There are plenty of good options in this price range and a poorly released product with a bunch of bugs and not all features working properly won't sit well with me and others like me. If i intend to drop $400 on something, it better be able to do everything they say it can out of the box without issue. I know firmware updates are a necessity, and that's fine, but at the same time, the device shouldn't be so buggy out of the box like other FiiO devices have been is all I'm saying. Others feel differently and that's ok, but im not a fan of spending my money to be a beta tester. I really hope for everything to work out with this DAP because it fits what I'm looking for.

 
Let's hope for the better though! 
X5-3 could be the next best thing. 
 
After I tested X7+AM3 and heard how it sounds like and played with it enough, X7 is quite stable at this moment. At least whatever version was on the one I played with was quite stable. 
 
I'm sure FiiO ca pull a stable X5-3 

 

[funkforfood]

X7 is quite stable at this moment

 
X7 is still full of problems, after 10 days of testing, considering the sound quality a bit disappointing for me, I have initiated the procedure for the return.
I will also try X5III, hoping this convinces me more ...

 

[Dobrescu George]

   
X7 is still full of problems, after 10 days of testing, considering the sound quality a bit disappointing for me, I have initiated the procedure for the return.
I will also try X5III, hoping this convinces me more ...

 
Are you on AM1 or AM3 or AM5? 

 

[funkforfood]

   
Are you on AM1 or AM3 or AM5? 

 
AM0, i'm listening via line out through A5 and E12DIY (OPA1611+LME49600) because i'm a full size headphone user and I need a good output swing to drive 150-250 ohm loads...

 

[Dobrescu George]

   
AM0, i'm listening via line out through A5 and E12DIY (OPA1611+LME49600) because i'm a full size headphone user and I need a good output swing to drive 150-250 ohm loads...

 
I'm pretty sure AM3 can drive almost anything and AM5 can drive well anything tho... 
 
You aren't experiencing major sonic improvements if using something as a DAC only or as a transport. 
 
I've been testing over .... all DAPs I could find today. the AMP stage colors the sound a little usually but the DAC is the same. 
 
Filters - yes . Those do change the sound, even an awful lot sometimes. 
 
DSP changes the sound. Anything changes it. But DACs change it the very very least amount and after volume matching as @Brooko said before. 

Of course, there a sonic improvement when using X7+AM3 vs X3ii, but testing both X7 and X3ii inside K5, the differences while they exist, are not as big for DAC only stages. 

 

[funkforfood]

E12DIY and A5 sounds either really good for the price, I doubt seriously that AM3 and AM5 can do better driving my headphones...
Anyway, my old AK100Mk2, amped with E12DIY, to my ears sounds better than X7 + E12DIY/A5.
Amp and HP are the same, the difference is only in the source.
In saying this I do not mean that X7 sounds bad, I just say that I hoped sounded better.
But we're going OT, sorry for that ...

 

[funkforfood]

   
Not just in theory, in practice as well:
 

With UAPP, you need to enable USB Tweak 1 and 2.

 
Have you tryied DSD playback in DOP?

 

[superuser1]

@ClieOS Quick question: Can apks be sideloaded or can apks from unknown sources be installed?