I would like to start my thanking Fiio the chance to try these products, I brought these demo units to the last Long Island head fi meet and was given the chance to demo them for an extended period of time. I love the idea of a dedicated DAP in the past but decided to not use DAP and favoring smartphones back when the Astell and Kern 100 was new and me relying more on tidal. Fast forward to today, many DAP’s are capable of supporting streaming now and I have thought about getting back into the DAP game. I will also be giving my thoughts on a few other products by Fiio as well here.
Fiio X5 Gen 3:
-pros: Very good value for feature set, Great build quality all around, software wise and navigation I had no problems with it, great staging
-cons: I wished it had USB-C instead of micro not a big deal for now, abit bright for my taste and it was not a great pairing with all my IEMs, abit to relaxed sound I perfer something with a bit more bite on transitions.
For a DAP this was bright in comparison to my axon 7 and my mojo. The X5 gen 3 does much better with IEMS that do not tend to be so extended and in the treble as it adds up to be excessive such was the case with my andromedia, however I did like the overall balance it provided my K10UA giving it a less somewhat overly lush sound and provided a easier time to hear some of the details in the treble area that are at times are slightly hidden with such lush mids. It also lent a hand in staging ability with my K10 as well. Similarly my Fitear TG334 also had roughly the same kind of improvements although not as big. It might be the fact the TG334 need less power than the K10?
Overall I think this is a great dap with plenty of features and great build and battery. For me this work really will with K10 but for more treble focused iems I would definitely demo this before getting this if you are sensitive to treble. I want to stress this is my preference and your milage may vary.
Fiio X1 Gen 2:
-pros: Very nice size and feel in the hand, again great sturdy build quality
-cons: the UI has noticeable lag even during basic navigation, I wished it had USB-C instead of micro usb not a big deal for now.
Many years ago I had left the world of DAPs in favor of smartphones due to limited streaming abilities, and for me, this X1 gen 2 had the same limitations for me personally. I suppose I did not depend so much on tidal and need something very affordable this would be a good option. The sound to me was not bad for the price but I found the SQ less pleasurable for me compared to X5 gen 3. This sounded much less dynamic and lacked the same air to the sound. It's really hard for me to describe it but it sounds very safe in a way that was boring. On a positive note, I found it to not so treble boosted and worked very nicely with all my iems. So this x1 is a good value that does not really offend but does not have any big drawbacks aside from lack of feature set if you need them and more importantly the UI lag is an issue still.
Fiio i1:
-pros: A great option for those who are stuck with Apple devices that have no headphone jack and want to use nonlighting cables/better dac+amp (frankly there are not many products like this currently),
-cons: I think the cable is very long and does makes this a bit more cumbersome than I like for portable use, the app had some strange connectivity issues
Honestly, this is a great product! I can't really think of any other alternatives to apple's adapter that work as well. If you're stuck with a headphone less phone from apple this is a very cost effective way of using your iems without getting a specific lighting cable for each iem if you have many. About the sound, this did not change the sound signature much for my iems, the most noticeable effect was a tighter bass and with the F5 it really helped out a lot with some issues I had with the F5. Also important to note on some apps my wife uses the app would not work thus not able to get this to work, however, these apps where karaoke apps while nearly all other apps like foobar, youtube etc were fine. Id also like to say I really wished the cable was not so long, it would have been much more portable.
Fiio F5:
-pros: great build quality and fit at least for me, balance option, cheap price
-cons: sounds too boomy amplification helped a lot and tightened the bass up.
As a disclaimer, I don't have much experience with dynamic iems and will not be able to compare it with some of today's other popular choices such as offerings from 1more etc. For me these had a very V shaped sound if that's what you're after with plenty of bass although it was fairly loose compared to my other iems given the price difference…. The last dynamic earbud/iem was the Yuin PK1 and Ok1 both where amazing with amping and like those the F5 is no different. Without amping the F5 is congested, bass heavy that is fairly uncontrolled and leads to bleeding into the mids making it less resolving and recessed from the v shaped sound sig. But with amping this all changed and really provided a much more balanced sound and excellent tight bass. I would say even with amping these easily provide not only accurate and controlled bass but also a feel of an impact that I lack from even my K10. The amps I used was the combo amp/dac i1, pico power, pico slim and mojo all did a great job. When driving out of my zte aton 7 or ipad it definitely needed more juice the zte or ipad can provide, but out of the x5 gen3 it was able to deliver plenty of power by itself.
Fiio X5 Gen 3:
-pros: Very good value for feature set, Great build quality all around, software wise and navigation I had no problems with it, great staging
-cons: I wished it had USB-C instead of micro not a big deal for now, abit bright for my taste and it was not a great pairing with all my IEMs, abit to relaxed sound I perfer something with a bit more bite on transitions.
For a DAP this was bright in comparison to my axon 7 and my mojo. The X5 gen 3 does much better with IEMS that do not tend to be so extended and in the treble as it adds up to be excessive such was the case with my andromedia, however I did like the overall balance it provided my K10UA giving it a less somewhat overly lush sound and provided a easier time to hear some of the details in the treble area that are at times are slightly hidden with such lush mids. It also lent a hand in staging ability with my K10 as well. Similarly my Fitear TG334 also had roughly the same kind of improvements although not as big. It might be the fact the TG334 need less power than the K10?
Overall I think this is a great dap with plenty of features and great build and battery. For me this work really will with K10 but for more treble focused iems I would definitely demo this before getting this if you are sensitive to treble. I want to stress this is my preference and your milage may vary.
Fiio X1 Gen 2:
-pros: Very nice size and feel in the hand, again great sturdy build quality
-cons: the UI has noticeable lag even during basic navigation, I wished it had USB-C instead of micro usb not a big deal for now.
Many years ago I had left the world of DAPs in favor of smartphones due to limited streaming abilities, and for me, this X1 gen 2 had the same limitations for me personally. I suppose I did not depend so much on tidal and need something very affordable this would be a good option. The sound to me was not bad for the price but I found the SQ less pleasurable for me compared to X5 gen 3. This sounded much less dynamic and lacked the same air to the sound. It's really hard for me to describe it but it sounds very safe in a way that was boring. On a positive note, I found it to not so treble boosted and worked very nicely with all my iems. So this x1 is a good value that does not really offend but does not have any big drawbacks aside from lack of feature set if you need them and more importantly the UI lag is an issue still.
Fiio i1:
-pros: A great option for those who are stuck with Apple devices that have no headphone jack and want to use nonlighting cables/better dac+amp (frankly there are not many products like this currently),
-cons: I think the cable is very long and does makes this a bit more cumbersome than I like for portable use, the app had some strange connectivity issues
Honestly, this is a great product! I can't really think of any other alternatives to apple's adapter that work as well. If you're stuck with a headphone less phone from apple this is a very cost effective way of using your iems without getting a specific lighting cable for each iem if you have many. About the sound, this did not change the sound signature much for my iems, the most noticeable effect was a tighter bass and with the F5 it really helped out a lot with some issues I had with the F5. Also important to note on some apps my wife uses the app would not work thus not able to get this to work, however, these apps where karaoke apps while nearly all other apps like foobar, youtube etc were fine. Id also like to say I really wished the cable was not so long, it would have been much more portable.
Fiio F5:
-pros: great build quality and fit at least for me, balance option, cheap price
-cons: sounds too boomy amplification helped a lot and tightened the bass up.
As a disclaimer, I don't have much experience with dynamic iems and will not be able to compare it with some of today's other popular choices such as offerings from 1more etc. For me these had a very V shaped sound if that's what you're after with plenty of bass although it was fairly loose compared to my other iems given the price difference…. The last dynamic earbud/iem was the Yuin PK1 and Ok1 both where amazing with amping and like those the F5 is no different. Without amping the F5 is congested, bass heavy that is fairly uncontrolled and leads to bleeding into the mids making it less resolving and recessed from the v shaped sound sig. But with amping this all changed and really provided a much more balanced sound and excellent tight bass. I would say even with amping these easily provide not only accurate and controlled bass but also a feel of an impact that I lack from even my K10. The amps I used was the combo amp/dac i1, pico power, pico slim and mojo all did a great job. When driving out of my zte aton 7 or ipad it definitely needed more juice the zte or ipad can provide, but out of the x5 gen3 it was able to deliver plenty of power by itself.
