[TheoS53]

  Question for Theo.    How do you go from a 36MB file (2.36beta) to an 18MB file without losing something important?  I'm not a programmer but it seems something had to be lost.

Much smaller font file. It's only intended for those who use English as the system language

 

[olddude]

Chinese fonts.  If it worries you, don't use it.  I modded a 2.2 and it was a lot smaller as well.  These firmwares work perfectly.  

 

[uzi2]

  Decreased the brightness of the background by 20 points. Let me know how that works for you
 
http://www.mediafire.com/download/l85xm0mc5q1xqai/X5_Modern_Simplicity_FW2.36_Darker.zip

I prefer the original. Have you tried using grey for the central icon on the now playing screen?

 

[Romani]

Theo, thanks for your efforts with these themes. Gives the X5 a fresh new look and allows it to be more functional with the direction of the scroll wheel. I am hoping one day Fiio or someone who is creative unlike me will be able to replicate the X1 theme as I dont mind it either. 

 

[TheoS53]

  Theo, thanks for your efforts with these themes. Gives the X5 a fresh new look and allows it to be more functional with the direction of the scroll wheel. I am hoping one day Fiio or someone who is creative unlike me will be able to replicate the X1 theme as I dont mind it either. 

Honestly, what I and other modders do is no black magic. Perhaps a certain designing taste is present, but it's really not as difficult as you may imagine. It's just a matter of changing pictures, and placing elements of that picture, or the pictures themselves at appropriate coordinates within the config files. 

Replicating the X1's theme would be pretty straight forward...but I find it a bit bland and boring, so I'll let someone else do it. Copying a theme is easy, coming up with a whole new concept can be a bit more challenging.

Why don't you have a go at it? The key is just to replace images with another image of the exact same size (in pixels), and to make sure that the new image has the same file name and format as the original

 

[Romani]

I will give it a go soon, why not. I just don't have any artistic flair nor coding skills which is why I never considered trying. There was a Blue theme someone created at one point, either with 2.20 or 2.34 which was easy on the eye and also functional with all the options also on the main screen at once. If the main screen of that one was translated into your latest one (with the same fonts and latest colour scheme), that would be stunning to look at. I have only had this player for a fortnight and have updated it 5 times, so straight forward to do. Coming from an iPod Classic and being devastated at the fact it was being discontinued, this player is a massive sigh of relief.
 
A few random points I will mention though regarding the use of the player, all my opinions only:
 
1) The latest beta 2.36 does not completely fix the issue with capturing all the media files when scanning. I have close to 15000 songs across 2 x 128GB cards and it gets to 12626 songs only. Still much better than before for sure.
 
2) The sound signature has changed between 2.34 and 2.36, with more top end present by default in 2.34. Nothing I could not rectify with the equaliser but it is definitely present, irrespective of what others or Fiio are saying.
 
3) I wish they would shorten the amount of time required for a long press to register across the entire operating system.
 
4) My preference is that using the scroll wheel while on the Now Playing screen should control the volume by default rather than take you to a list of the tracks.
 
5) I wish they would introduce a longer time span for when Idle Poweroff would kick in. Being limited to 8 minutes as a maximum is a bit frustrating.
 
6) I would love to see Resume Mode offer an option of Last Song No Play, meaning the player will revert to the beginning of the last track played prior to shutdown without automatically playing it upon switching on the player.  
 
7) I would love to see a return in the ability to scroll through a song without it pausing.
 
8) I find it odd that the Custom and None equaliser options when defaulted to 0dB across the spectrum sound different.
 
9) Regarding battery, I would like to see ongoing improvements to battery life with each firmware iteration, a percentage reading for the amount of battery left and a more accurate reading of the amount of battery left.
 
10) General speed improvements across the entire operating system. Some key presses, screen updates and track changes still take time to register.

 

[TheoS53]

  I will give it a go soon, why not. I just don't have any artistic flair nor coding skills which is why I never considered trying. There was a Blue theme someone created at one point, either with 2.20 or 2.34 which was easy on the eye and also functional with all the options also on the main screen at once. If the main screen of that one was translated into your latest one (with the same fonts and latest colour scheme), that would be stunning to look at. I have only had this player for a fortnight and have updated it 5 times, so straight forward to do. Coming from an iPod Classic and being devastated at the fact it was being discontinued, this player is a massive sigh of relief.
 
A few random points I will mention though regarding the use of the player, all my opinions only:
 
1) The latest beta 2.36 does not completely fix the issue with capturing all the media files when scanning. I have close to 15000 songs across 2 x 128GB cards and it gets to 12626 songs only. Still much better than before for sure.
 
2) The sound signature has changed between 2.34 and 2.36, with more top end present by default in 2.34. Nothing I could not rectify with the equaliser but it is definitely present, irrespective of what others or Fiio are saying.
 
3) I wish they would shorten the amount of time required for a long press to register across the entire operating system.
 
4) My preference is that using the scroll wheel while on the Now Playing screen should control the volume by default rather than take you to a list of the tracks.
 
5) I wish they would introduce a longer time span for when Idle Poweroff would kick in. Being limited to 8 minutes as a maximum is a bit frustrating.
 
6) I would love to see Resume Mode offer an option of Last Song No Play, meaning the player will revert to the beginning of the last track played prior to shutdown without automatically playing it upon switching on the player.  
 
7) I would love to see a return in the ability to scroll through a song without it pausing.
 
8) I find it odd that the Custom and None equaliser options when defaulted to 0dB across the spectrum sound different.
 
9) Regarding battery, I would like to see ongoing improvements to battery life with each firmware iteration, a percentage reading for the amount of battery left and a more accurate reading of the amount of battery left.
 
10) General speed improvements across the entire operating system. Some key presses, screen updates and track changes still take time to register.

To be honest, I have pretty much zero coding skills. Once you poke around with the theme files you'll see how straight forward it is. Sometimes you need a little bit of "outta the box" thinking, but that's the most fun part...getting an idea and figuring out how to make it happen.

Regarding your comment about the change in volume when going from the None eq to any of the other eqs, that is done deliberately, and is the correct way an eq is suppose to work. If you were to set it on custom eq and move all the sliders to the top, the sound will be exactly the same as the None eq. The reason for this is because the point of an eq is to change the level of a certain frequency band in relation to the other bands.

with the None eq, and volume turned to its maximum, that is the loudest you will get the device (on its own, without an external amp). The reason this is done is because audio (somewhat) degrades as you pump more voltage through it. So at the maximum volume, the level of degradation is at a minimum acceptable value as tested by the Fiio engineers. 

If, however, the eq settings worked the way you expected them to, the level of audio degradation would increase beyond the minimum acceptable level 

 

[Romani]

Very informative Theo. Had no idea. Makes sense to me now regarding the equaliser.

 

[TheoS53]

Very informative Theo. Had no idea. Makes sense to me now regarding the equaliser.

that is at least how I understand it. so I welcome anyone to correct me.
 
just a small correction...when I said that the audio degrades with increased voltage, I meant the efficiency of the processor that is decoding it degrades..which results in a degradation of audio quality 

 

[Brooko]

You're correct Theo
 
As to some of Romani's other comments - I can address a couple ....
 
Answers in blue below
 
 
Quote:

  1) The latest beta 2.36 does not completely fix the issue with capturing all the media files when scanning. I have close to 15000 songs across 2 x 128GB cards and it gets to 12626 songs only. Still much better than before for sure.
Pretty sure others have been scanning more than that.  May come down to your tagging.  My advice is to make tags as basic as you can.  Relatively easy to do with a good tag editor, and you'd be surprised at how many eroneous tags are often left in the file metadata from the original ripping program, or other media players.  iTunes is a shocker for this. 
 
2) The sound signature has changed between 2.34 and 2.36, with more top end present by default in 2.34. Nothing I could not rectify with the equaliser but it is definitely present, irrespective of what others or Fiio are saying.
Sorry - not hearing it.
 
4) My preference is that using the scroll wheel while on the Now Playing screen should control the volume by default rather than take you to a list of the tracks.
Press and hold the scroll wheel button - volume then activated.
 
6) I would love to see Resume Mode offer an option of Last Song No Play, meaning the player will revert to the beginning of the last track played prior to shutdown without automatically playing it upon switching on the player.  
Agree - this would be good.
 
7) I would love to see a return in the ability to scroll through a song without it pausing.
You mean as in no volume while you're scrolling.  Personally I'm OK with it as-is.
 
8) I find it odd that the Custom and None equaliser options when defaulted to 0dB across the spectrum sound different.
Theo answered.
 
9) Regarding battery, I would like to see ongoing improvements to battery life with each firmware iteration, a percentage reading for the amount of battery left and a more accurate reading of the amount of battery left.
Agree - not sure how likley to happen though.
 
10) General speed improvements across the entire operating system. Some key presses, screen updates and track changes still take time to register.
Only option I can think of in interim - is use folder view, and divide base folders up alphabetically.
EG Folder \AB\ then each artist folder alphabetically, \CD\, \EF\ etc
That way you are only scrolling 13 folders at base level

 

[TheoS53]

 

Agreed with Brooko on the last point. I have my 2 cards setup in this way: card 1 contains folders A to L...so I have a folder for each letter at root level, and the same is done for card 2 for letters M to Z.

Faster scrolling is definitely needed, but this has helped me tremendously to get to various artist folders much faster

 

[nmatheis]

Since all EQs are now fully adjustable, I'd suggest spending a few minutes and just dialing them all up to +6dB. Then dial back any frequencies your like to de-emphasize. This way you will never experience the drastic volume drop, and the effect of each EQ will be more apparent.

I've got to say as much as people complain about Fiio's EQ implementation, it's much better than iPod or DX90 EQs. I was just playing with my DX90's EQ last night, and putting all sliders to the top made it sound like I was listening to my music through a seashell - yuck!!!

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

 

Regarding your comment about the change in volume when going from the None eq to any of the other eqs, that is done deliberately, and is the correct way an eq is suppose to work. If you were to set it on custom eq and move all the sliders to the top, the sound will be exactly the same as the None eq. The reason for this is because the point of an eq is to change the level of a certain frequency band in relation to the other bands.

with the None eq, and volume turned to its maximum, that is the loudest you will get the device (on its own, without an external amp). The reason this is done is because audio (somewhat) degrades as you pump more voltage through it. So at the maximum volume, the level of degradation is at a minimum acceptable value as tested by the Fiio engineers. 

If, however, the eq settings worked the way you expected them to, the level of audio degradation would increase beyond the minimum acceptable level 

 
 I do not need Fiio engineers deciding what is acceptable for equipment I buy.
 
You state the obvious, then state an opinion which is not shared by some. In car audio this would be crippling info but in headgear it's supposed to be a plus? That engineers decided acceptable? Using what genre? What cans? What exactly was determined to be the threshold before audio degradation reached an un-acceptable level? At what dB and at what input?
 
 
There are several ways to eq. I would never buy the X3 because it's band eq and the spec didn't tell me where the bass band was centered or what the Q was.
 
How about FiiO add a section to the homepage describing how the FiiO engineers have worked hard to ensure their ear and equipment safety. Why not?
I'll tell you why cuz folks do not want folks they have never met deciding for them what is acceptable. You pay and you pay again if your a moron. I was unaware of the almost useless nature of the eq until I bought it as folks here were not talking much or suggesting possible firmware updates with a little more headroom.
 
I got it to work with trial an error and an amp that takes over which I captured in a vid. You can see the dap pass and defer to the amp.  The volume is almost useless on the dap with eq engaged.
 
I have been pimping and pumping the e12 in my thread and many many folks have bought that little brick of awesome and the X5 is nice but folks ...man....acceptable?
Really?
 

 

[TheoS53]

   
 I do not need Fiio engineers deciding what is acceptable for equipment I buy.
 
You state the obvious, then state an opinion which is not shared by some. In car audio this would be crippling info but in headgear it's supposed to be a plus? That engineers decided acceptable? Using what genre? What cans? What exactly was determined to be the threshold before audio degradation reached an un-acceptable level? At what dB and at what input?
 
 
There are several ways to eq. I would never buy the X3 because it's band eq and the spec didn't tell me where the bass band was centered or what the Q was.
 
How about FiiO add a section to the homepage describing how the FiiO engineers have worked hard to ensure their ear and equipment safety. Why not?
I'll tell you why cuz folks do not want folks they have never met deciding for them what is acceptable. You pay and you pay again if your a moron. I was unaware of the almost useless nature of the eq until I bought it as folks here were not talking much or suggesting possible firmware updates with a little more headroom.
 
I got it to work with trial an error and an amp that takes over which I captured in a vid. You can see the dap pass and defer to the amp.  The volume is almost useless on the dap with eq engaged.
 
I have been pimping and pumping the e12 in my thread and many many folks have bought that little brick of awesome and the X5 is nice but folks ...man....acceptable?
Really?
 

Interesting that you should mention car audio. Ever heard of the "rule of thumb" when installing an amp and setting up the gain, you shouldn't put the volume on the headunit higher than roughly 75%? It's for the exact same reason

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

  Interesting that you should mention car audio. Ever heard of the "rule of thumb" when installing an amp and setting up the gain, you shouldn't put the volume on the headunit higher than roughly 75%? It's for the exact same reason

 We run almost the same gear besides a diff series of cans so I got no issue with you.
 
I know the rules. You know some fools blow their stuff. I used to go to and compete in IASCA events and you could count on someone getting to crazy. If they had a sponser they would switch it out if they were not they were fu____.
 
I just have allergic reactions to the term acceptable. Nothing personal.
 
I find the X5 at 40-50% and the e12 doing the rest works best
 
 
 
 
I just realized we are in theme/modding so my apologies to olddude and gang.
 
No offense fellas.
 
I am using the Aztechno gold rotated theme and loving it. Thank you.
 
/OT