[Thx1326]

Since 3-4TB of FLAC files implies a HUGE collection, why not consider buying a couple of 200GB micro SD cards, format them as NTFS, and sift through your CD collection for your top 15,000 tunes (1000+ albums) as you rip the lot to an external hard drive. Gives you a chance to think about what you really like listening to & getting your album art & tags sorted & any playlists created. Personally, I would not rip directly to 320 but first go to FLAC middle compression. That way, if you want more than +15K tunes to play via BT in the car you can always & easily create a 320 version for on-the-go where top quality can't be full appreciated over road noise.

I have 2 - 256gb cards in mine - formatted with NTFS - very stable - no issues. Most of the music on my Fiio is Flac (highest compression level 8). Those that don't need to be lossless are in WMA VBR 440kbps. They sound very good on the Fiio and take up less than half the storage of the FLAC. Try listening to the same song in both formats and if you can't tell the difference - save the space.

I also use many of the Viper effects and settings with Fiio X9Pro IEM's. Great match up.

 

[Thx1326]

How about dbpoweramp??
Pretty sure you can do large batch conversions and preserve what you wish.
I have yet to do this myself, but reading in music forums on this topic I've kind of gathered this is the case.
Worth looking into for sure because dppoweramp is useful in many ways

Been using dbPowerAmp for a long time. Does a great job of converting and editing and can utilize multiple cores if your processor has them.

 

[coolcrew23]

With the update can i now connect my X5III to an external
DAC like iFi Nano BL via USB out?

 

[Thx1326]

@FiiO

Ok... so looking for a little help.... Supposedly Fiio posted some updates recently in May??? Of course the list of updates for X5III do not have any release dates posted by them... I can't understand that reasoning.

It looks like there was an update for the Fiio Music Player and the firmware. Can anyone verify when they were posted? How does one determine the version of each of these that are currently loaded on the unit? Checking for updates with the DAP always says I have the most current version - even though it has only updated once since I've owned it.

The only "identifier" seems to be Build 1.1.4??? If I choose Online Upgrade it says the current version is X5_V7-20170323 (formal edition). Where does that number come from? How does it match up to any of the firmware updates listed?

There has to be an easier way!!!???!!!

 

[markrich]

If you take your file name example, the date of release is there in the file name. 20170323. Or if you prefer, 23/3/17 (23rd March 2017).
Easy.
As for which update was released in May, go for the latest, 1.2.1, and work backwards. The website links will download the files you want.

@FiiO

Ok... so looking for a little help.... Supposedly Fiio posted some updates recently in May??? Of course the list of updates for X5III do not have any release dates posted by them... I can't understand that reasoning.

It looks like there was an update for the Fiio Music Player and the firmware. Can anyone verify when they were posted? How does one determine the version of each of these that are currently loaded on the unit? Checking for updates with the DAP always says I have the most current version - even though it has only updated once since I've owned it.

The only "identifier" seems to be Build 1.1.4??? If I choose Online Upgrade it says the current version is X5_V7-20170323 (formal edition). Where does that number come from? How does it match up to any of the firmware updates listed?

There has to be an easier way!!!???!!!

 

[jkbuha]

Hi guys - bit of a (non-audio) technical post. In case anyone's interested in flashing the TWRP custom recovery for the Fiio X5/X7 but found that v1.2.1 has changed the mtd mapping, here's the quick solution:

1) Flash 1.2.1 normally using ota
2) Root the device using kingoroot method (only temporary)
3) Reboot, connect cable to FiiO, execute the following via windows/macos/linux:

adb push <location of twrp file> /sdcard/
adb shell
su
dd if=/sdcard/<twrp_recovery> of=/dev/block/platform/emmc/by-name/recovery
exit
exit
adb reboot recovery

4) Flash SuperSU from recovery (optional, if you want root)

The reason why I'm posting this here is that it's the only technical (software) forum for the X5 or X7. Sadly FiiO's devices aren't mainstream enough to be picked up by some of the more dedicated Android forums (fora?)

Separately am working on making a custom kernel at the moment, with what limited source files I can find, if anyone here finds it useful.

 

[FiiO]

@FiiO

Ok... so looking for a little help.... Supposedly Fiio posted some updates recently in May??? Of course the list of updates for X5III do not have any release dates posted by them... I can't understand that reasoning.

It looks like there was an update for the Fiio Music Player and the firmware. Can anyone verify when they were posted? How does one determine the version of each of these that are currently loaded on the unit? Checking for updates with the DAP always says I have the most current version - even though it has only updated once since I've owned it.

The only "identifier" seems to be Build 1.1.4??? If I choose Online Upgrade it says the current version is X5_V7-20170323 (formal edition). Where does that number come from? How does it match up to any of the firmware updates listed?

There has to be an easier way!!!???!!!

Dear friend,

We have change the server since FW1.1.9, so you could not receive Online update notice if you are using the older firmware. You could do a local update via the firmware file from our support page instead:http://www.fiio.net/en/supports/43

Best regards

 

[Thx1326]

Dear friend,

We have change the server since FW1.1.9, so you could not receive Online update notice if you are using the older firmware. You could do a local update via the firmware file from our support page instead:http://www.fiio.net/en/supports/43

Best regards

@FiiO

What is the procedure? How do you update the Fiio music software. I have the .apk file downloaded - what do I do with it?

 

[Jester0fTortuga]

Hi guys - bit of a (non-audio) technical post. In case anyone's interested in flashing the TWRP custom recovery for the Fiio X5/X7 but found that v1.2.1 has changed the mtd mapping, here's the quick solution:

1) Flash 1.2.1 normally using ota
2) Root the device using kingoroot method (only temporary)
3) Reboot, connect cable to FiiO, execute the following via windows/macos/linux:

adb push <location of twrp file> /sdcard/
adb shell
su
dd if=/sdcard/<twrp_recovery> of=/dev/block/platform/emmc/by-name/recovery
exit
exit
adb reboot recovery

4) Flash SuperSU from recovery (optional, if you want root)

The reason why I'm posting this here is that it's the only technical (software) forum for the X5 or X7. Sadly FiiO's devices aren't mainstream enough to be picked up by some of the more dedicated Android forums (fora?)

Separately am working on making a custom kernel at the moment, with what limited source files I can find, if anyone here finds it useful.

Hello everyone, lurker turning into a poster here: I've been trying to root my X5 III but no luck with recent updates. Is Kingroot working? I've tried this method but Kingroot can't find a winning root strategy. Related question: which version of TWRP are you flashing? I found version 2.8.5 tailored for the X5 III earlier in this thread, but apparently we need above version 3 to install Magisk? I'd try to install a newer TWRP but worried it might lead to catastrophic results if those versions are not tailored to X5 III. End goal was to install ARISE. Would love to hear if anyone has had luck with this.

 

[FiiO]

@FiiO

What is the procedure? How do you update the Fiio music software. I have the .apk file downloaded - what do I do with it?

Dear friend,
For updating the firmware, you could read: http://fiio.me/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=41927
For FiiiO Music app: you could read: http://fiio.me/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=43066&highlight=FiiO+Music

Best regards

 

[jkbuha]

Hello everyone, lurker turning into a poster here: I've been trying to root my X5 III but no luck with recent updates. Is Kingroot working? I've tried this method but Kingroot can't find a winning root strategy. Related question: which version of TWRP are you flashing? I found version 2.8.5 tailored for the X5 III earlier in this thread, but apparently we need above version 3 to install Magisk? I'd try to install a newer TWRP but worried it might lead to catastrophic results if those versions are not tailored to X5 III. End goal was to install ARISE. Would love to hear if anyone has had luck with this.

Ok, so a few points here:

1) Kingoroot is working (but you need to download the windows app to install via adb, local android method doesn't work)
2) If you want a cleaner (though more technical) route you could compile the rockchip rkflashtool utilities under linux (essentially their version of fastboot) and flash the recovery partition. I haven't included that here as it requires more in-depth understanding of how the RK3188 chip works (ie not really FiiO's remit or domain expertise).
3) I've tried to use ARISE (ie: V4A) but it requires the ROM to be completely rebuilt (FiiO's version of V4A is tightly coupled to the android framework so you need to pull everything apart), so I don't have any need for Magisk. This will come at a later date once I've re-built the kernel, as it will yield better performance, so am working on that atm.
4) TWRP 2.8.5.0 is the latest version I'm using, and it's working well for me. The only thing I'm unsure of is whether the system partition is properly backing up - could you check your end? If we need a higher version (3.0.2.0 and higher) it should be relatively easy to implement, will do that next. One thing that would really benefit this player is the F2FS filesystem, which I'll need to build into the kernel first, then convert using TWRP 3+.

Moderators - on a separate note I'm conscious that this sub-topic is potentially deviating from the all good info shared here regarding audio fidelity. If it's felt that the info here is too specific and not conducive to the overall FiiO topic, am happy to open a FiiO-specific android topic over at xda. Let me know what works best.

 

[Philwaters]

Thanks

I am using HiBY currently and it has been pleasingly simple and fault free.

That!!!!!!

Thanks for that - I've been trying it and it's quite nice

Having played around a bit more it seems that the Pause button actually crashes Foobar completely and then another press on it (thinking I'm un-pausing it) causes the Fiio music app to start up and start playing. As an aside, I can't find a way to stop the Fiio app from starting up, which is annoying, but the main problem is Foobar crashing. HiBY seems stable and the pause button works fine - I mostly listen at work, so have to pause often to talk, etc.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[Preachy1]

Thanks


Thanks for that - I've been trying it and it's quite nice

Having played around a bit more it seems that the Pause button actually crashes Foobar completely and then another press on it (thinking I'm un-pausing it) causes the Fiio music app to start up and start playing. As an aside, I can't find a way to stop the Fiio app from starting up, which is annoying, but the main problem is Foobar crashing. HiBY seems stable and the pause button works fine - I mostly listen at work, so have to pause often to talk, etc.

Cheers,

Phil

Same here. I have to "pause" frequently. Hiby is giving me absolutely ZERO issues. All hard buttons work as expected, the UI is as close to perfect as I could want, and it has "play through folders", which is a must-have for me.

If I could one small tweak, it would be to have an option for it start up with Line Out activated. Otherwise, perfecto!

 

[coolcrew23]

I’ve tried using the FiiO X5iii with a iFi Nano BL via OTG cable.

Works fine with FiiO Music app but doesn’t seem to work with Tidal. Any workaround for this?

 

[BobSmith8901]

I’ve tried using the FiiO X5iii with a iFi Nano BL via OTG cable.

Works fine with FiiO Music app but doesn’t seem to work with Tidal. Any workaround for this?

My comment below are all firmware 1.21:

I tried my Meridian Explorer2 DAC with the Tidal Android app on my X5III just to see what would happen and it looks like the app won't recognize a USB output as the app will play but I get no sound output.

My FiiO Music app will play through the ME2 in either Pure Music or Android mode but, even with toggling DoP on and off I get a kind of static/distortion hit every few seconds. Other DACs I guess are no problem as yours is working.

The only way for me to get Tidal via USB on the X5, with my ME2 DAC, is to use USB Audio Player Pro app. It generally plays well, with the occasional error and occasional failure of USB Audio device (ME2) to initialize but 95% of the time it's A-OK.