Hi,
my reply comes a bit late. I have not listened to the X5 3rd gen yet.
Dear Relic, what digital filter did you use on the X5 when comparing it to the Mojo? According to the AKM specs, the Minimum delay Slow Roll-off (AKM notation: “short delay”) should sound best at least on paper, as it should eliminate pre-ringing and also incorporate slow roll-off and thus reduces post ringing as well.
From my experience with the Mojo, the treble is its weak point. The simple transparent gain stage has a treble roll-off especially when combined with balanced armature iems.
Also I find that the Mojo does too much in terms of transient sharpening - it appears to remove some echo/ decay that should be present again mostly in the higher frequencies. Bass and mids are really good with the Mojo but that is also because Rob Watts changed his transient optimized filter in the Mojo implementation compared to the Hugo to sound warmer. Hugo owners told me they have to eq the high frequencies by 2 to 3 db on the Mojo for treble to sound similar to the Hugo.
When listening to high female voices (such as Rihanna/ Loud / Complicated, CD quality) or high notes on the piano (Helen's Grimaid / Chopin / Marche Funebre / Deutsche Grammphonn CD quality) I find the high female voice and the high notes on the piano to sound weak and a bit sharp at the same time, lacking a bit detail and decay. At the moment I prefer the Pono over the Mojo and if the FiiO X5 3rd gen sounds more like the Pono (with the short delay filter which should be similar to Ayre's filter for the Pono) then I'd sell the Mojo and get an X5
Regards,
Carsten
