[seanwee]

Well... I had an X5-II... sold it and bought the X5-III. After all the hub-bub about the Onkyo DP-X1A, I sold the X5-III and bought the Onkyo. Was really looking forward to the new player based on the reviews. WHAT A MISTAKE!. i was initially a bit leery in that I always thought the ESS DAC's were a bit too bright and digital sounding - the Onkyo really proves that point. The AKM DAC's and OpAmps just are more musical with a lot less of a digital footprint and flavor.

I actually thought I may have a defective unit so I took the Onkyo to a friends house who also owned the one... the same sound. We went so far at to download some of his WAV files (I use all FLAC) to the Fiio for him to audition. He went back and forth and transferred more files to the Fiio. His conclusion - the Fiio was much more natural and musical. In fact, while I was there, he logged onto Amazon and ordered a Fiio on the spot.

I have since returned the Onkyo and bought another X5-III.

I'm using two Samsung 256GB cards (both full) and have had no issues reading files or album art. All of my album art is 400x400 and resides in the folder of the album as "Folder.jpg". The only issue I had was if I run a defragger on the card - the Album art gets funky - it shows when you are playing the album but no art shows when you list by Artist. No defragging - all is ok. I also use a USB3.0 adapter and just copy the files from the computer straight to the card. A lot faster than transferring with card in the Fiio itself. My preferred format is NTFS - and has worked flawlessly.

Viper effects lend a really nice touch to the unit. The "Tube Sound" selection and a few others - when tuned right - really make this a nice unit. I'm not a big spender on IEM's and use 1 More Triple Drivers as unbalanced (the quad drivers just don't sound as good) and Fiio X9 Pro's as balanced. The 9's are a really good match for the X5-III and seem to built to last and are very comfortable with the right ear tip. Experiment with different tips till you get it right. I chose the Fiio memory foam tips available on Alibaba. The Dock is also a very nice accessory if you just want to use it as a quick plug in and play to your music system.

I also prefer the Fiio UI over the Onkyo which I found difficult to navigate.

My two biggest items on a "wish list" would be for the Fiio to have USB3.0 and AC5 Wi-Fi. And that the headphone jacks should be on the top of the unit. The Onkyo does not even include a case and the factory "leather" case leaves alot to be desired as far as fit and feel. The Fiio is also smaller than the Onkyo and just has a better build feel, The flush covered card slots are also a big plus. I'm using the Tuff-Love foldover case - very nicely done and protects the unit on all sides - especially the screen.

A time consuming lesson, but well worth the experience - and considering the price as compared to the Onkyo - a great overall value for a portable DAP.

Enough rambling....

Enjoy the music!

Oh, it works with ntfs? Didn't know that

Anyways, enjoy your X5iii

 

[MinnieOne]

Music Apps:

FIIO MUSIC good except for sorting and handling artist/compilation albums.

HIBY very good, can't seem to get to a simple way to view Artist, then album. Seems to default to Artist, song and then have to select the album in the menu to get all the songs. Cumbersome, maybe I just don't know how to get to it. HELP?

FOOBAR want to love it but it works for short time and then goes nutso and fails in several ways.

MEDIAMONKEY nice interface and works well but loses the album art and doesn't seem to be a simple way if you are not synching to computer to get the art back. Too much work for me.

NEUTRON interface too crowded and small for me. Crashed several times for me so I got rid of it.

Tried various other apps including Video Lan, etc. Nothing worked particularly well for me.

Any other winners I've missed?

 

[Thx1326]

Oh, it works with ntfs? Didn't know that

Anyways, enjoy your X5iii

Yep 28,000+ tracks and working fine!

 

[Thx1326]

Music Apps:

FIIO MUSIC good except for sorting and handling artist/compilation albums.

HIBY very good, can't seem to get to a simple way to view Artist, then album. Seems to default to Artist, song and then have to select the album in the menu to get all the songs. Cumbersome, maybe I just don't know how to get to it. HELP?

FOOBAR want to love it but it works for short time and then goes nutso and fails in several ways.

MEDIAMONKEY nice interface and works well but loses the album art and doesn't seem to be a simple way if you are not synching to computer to get the art back. Too much work for me.

NEUTRON interface too crowded and small for me. Crashed several times for me so I got rid of it.

Tried various other apps including Video Lan, etc. Nothing worked particularly well for me.

Any other winners I've missed?

What problems are you having with the Fiio App and Compilation Albums? I like the Fiio app for its simplicity and the fact that it doesn't have all the other Android crap running in the background. If you can provide some details - that might help with a solution.

 

[WitzyZed]

Music Apps:

FIIO MUSIC good except for sorting and handling artist/compilation albums.

HIBY very good, can't seem to get to a simple way to view Artist, then album. Seems to default to Artist, song and then have to select the album in the menu to get all the songs. Cumbersome, maybe I just don't know how to get to it. HELP?

FOOBAR want to love it but it works for short time and then goes nutso and fails in several ways.

MEDIAMONKEY nice interface and works well but loses the album art and doesn't seem to be a simple way if you are not synching to computer to get the art back. Too much work for me.

NEUTRON interface too crowded and small for me. Crashed several times for me so I got rid of it.

Tried various other apps including Video Lan, etc. Nothing worked particularly well for me.

Any other winners I've missed?

"Goes nutso and fails in several ways" are you sure you're not confusing Foobar with Poweramp? Foobar seems in my use to be the most stable, even if it's not the most feature rich player.

 

[MinnieOne]

What problems are you having with the Fiio App and Compilation Albums? I like the Fiio app for its simplicity and the fact that it doesn't have all the other Android crap running in the background. If you can provide some details - that might help with a solution.

This has been talked about a lot on here. A multi artist/compilation album will appear as separate entries in the Artist view, which clogs everything up. I've got a 4 CD set of a Bob Dylan Chimes of Freedom, I'd have lots of 1 song artists populating my app. I have to go in manually with a tagger and change all the artists to Bob Dylan.

"Goes nutso and fails in several ways" are you sure you're not confusing Foobar with Poweramp? Foobar seems in my use to be the most stable, even if it's not the most feature rich player.

When I first installed Foobar it worked great, then after a few weeks it started to lose album art on a random basis. Some album art never appeared although it shows up in FIIO or other apps. It's also crashed a few times.

 

[ngs428]

I am considering the X5 Gen 3. I currently have a x3 gen 2 paired with a E12a. What should I expect from the X5 musically vs my current rig?

Also, I would like to run The Plex app off this. I understand it will install, but not sure how smooth it will run. Any thoughts?

 

[antz123]

@javre76 @Thx1326

as a device i am fond of my Fiio, i think it hisses a bit. lot of good recorded 24 bit flac also have the hiss, with A5 amp along i feel it gets pronounced further. I too use 2x200 GB cards, and yeah USB3 adapter gets all done faster, i too prefer that.

Stacking kit, was a disappointment and wish they do something about it. I liked the rubber crossing as a concept, however way they made other DAC plus Phone leather pouch that feels most ideal for X5 too. Atleast make the face plate compatible with a case.

FIIO Music App is improving it needs to get intuitive and I hope they keep working on it. , However I do find Neutron tiny bit better with its tweaks and interface, though it still looks less polished cosmetically.

@FiiO

I faced lot of crashing issues earlier. post 6-7 songs app would suddenly crash and I need to restart the app. This was happening to both Fiio & Neutron. I just was living with the issue. However, day before I removed all the other players I had downloaded, PI Player, AIMP, VLC, Poweramp, Onkyo etc, also deleted the last zip Update. Basically cleaned up the internal memory, since then app has not crashed even once.

My assumption is with few apps installed, there is hardly ANY memory left and that causes crashes as OS relied only on Internal Storage. Fiio please, if in next update you could make a "lite" version so that there is little more empty space and may be that improves the stability, especially on higher bit-rate Flac files.

Or may be its a wrong assumption, anyways if anyone else faces crash do try n clean internal memory and check.

 

[LightBlue77]

If you read some of fiio's messages on these thread, you'll find that almost none of suggestions were implemented. Still, on a regular basis, there are new posts claiming it's working great while it is actually not. I really think they just advertise fiio while they willl never admit it. Interface is buggy, slow and there are features that basically do not work. As for example equalizer of fiio music app. Not viper but own eq. And the list is endless. As for sound, the main concern for me, it is good enough only on usb dac mode. I did not yet find a good explaination why it's like this. Why sound quality is lower on dap mode.

 

[aangen]

I think you are confused.

I have been running Foobar for a month now and it is rock solid. No strangeness whatsoever.
Just sayin.

 

[seanwee]

Yep 28,000+ tracks and working fine!

That's a really impressive library

Mind timing how long the scanning takes?

 

[MinnieOne]

I think you are confused.

I have been running Foobar for a month now and it is rock solid. No strangeness whatsoever.
Just sayin.

Since you've had no issues that makes me "confused" or is it just possible that not every installation of every software product operates in it's own protected environment. Your files and artwork are different than mine. Your other app installations vs. mine are different.

"Just sayin" -oh so clever
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=just sayin'

 

[aangen]

I meant the previous poster was confused.
Can I assume you are the person having poor luck with Foobar?
I commented on Foobar with the idea of giving whoever is having problems with it hope.
Clever? Here? Hmmm.

 

[seanwee]

I am considering the X5 Gen 3. I currently have a x3 gen 2 paired with a E12a. What should I expect from the X5 musically vs my current rig?

Also, I would like to run The Plex app off this. I understand it will install, but not sure how smooth it will run. Any thoughts?

It would most likely be an upgrade and definitely so if you stack it with the E12A.

May I suggest considering the N5ii or the Opus 1s as potential upgrade options?

The X5iii was a good mid-fi player when it first came out but now its outclassed by both the N5ii and Opus 1s which punch way above their price (N5ii@$369) (Opus 1s@$399) in terms of sound. The Opus can't run android apps though and lacks Bluetooth and WiFi.

(BTW, don't confuse the Opus 1 with the Opus 1s. The 1s is an upgraded version with better DACs)

 

[FiiO]

@javre76 @Thx1326


@FiiO

I faced lot of crashing issues earlier. post 6-7 songs app would suddenly crash and I need to restart the app. This was happening to both Fiio & Neutron. I just was living with the issue. However, day before I removed all the other players I had downloaded, PI Player, AIMP, VLC, Poweramp, Onkyo etc, also deleted the last zip Update. Basically cleaned up the internal memory, since then app has not crashed even once.

My assumption is with few apps installed, there is hardly ANY memory left and that causes crashes as OS relied only on Internal Storage. Fiio please, if in next update you could make a "lite" version so that there is little more empty space and may be that improves the stability, especially on higher bit-rate Flac files.

Or may be its a wrong assumption, anyways if anyone else faces crash do try n clean internal memory and check.

Dear friend,

We are not sure what lead to the crash. But if you meet that next time, you could send the folder from internal_sd\FiiOMusic\crash to us. We will ask the engineers for check the issue. Sorry for bringing inconvenience to you.

Best regards