[henwell]

For many of us gapless is more important than all three. Without it, classical, live recordings, concept albums, etc. are intolerable.

Problems with gapless are all the more frustrating for us when you consider that:

1) FLAC is a gapless format, so one would expect it to work without issue. It is not a "feature," but the way the music was recorded and mastered.
2) Too many manufacturers are advertising their DAPs as "supports gapless," when in fact it does not function.

I'm sure FiiO will get it working as they did with the X3, but putting players into the marketplace with non-operating functions is not something most would forgive if we were discussing a Sony or Apple product.

Give it up already The player is not out on the market yet, It is out on a tour of users to try and work the bugs out everybody on this post knows how important gapless play is to you!

 

[gelocks]

  I must admit I had not thought of Classical music, however this debate detracts
from what must be the most important aspects of a DAP, being
 
1) Sound Quality
2) Build and Reliability
3) User Interface
 
 
for me at least, battery life,on board memory, size, look, style, gapless, and rockbox or not
are way below the above three.

 
Based on this above, the X5
 
1) Excellent, bit of warm tinge, extended, very good sound stage!
2) Feels durable (not sure about the scroll wheel yet though, feels good, but not sure about durability), very well build, love the material as it feels sturdy but looks "classy" in an old-school way and I have to reiterate, THIS HAS BEEN THE ONLY DAP IN THE PAST YEAR THAT HASN'T FROZEN ON ME WHILE PLAYING MUSIC!!!!!! Yes, even my trusty Cowon C2 froze sometimes when playing FLACs! The AK100 MK2 has needed reset, as well as the crappy HiSound Studio V, even the X3. So I'm definitely surprised. Unit has only frozen when doing the library thingie as I mentioned before.
3) The UI is a HUGE upgrade over the X3 and definitely prefer it over the C2, AK100 MK2, Studio V, etc. etc. Can find things quickly, is responsive enough (I wish sensitivity for the scroll wheel could be optimized), it has a lot of features, I am definitely impressed.
 
Battery life: 10+ hours, not the best but not bad either
On board memory:  meh! Just fill out the 2 card slots with a total of 128GBs!!!
Size: Looks huge, but if you are one of those with a DAP+DAC/AMP/etc, then you will see this as compact as heck.
Look/Style (as well as size) will be subjective I guess. I like it though!
Gapless: meh! It doesn't irk me listening to "pauses" so if it irks you to have a tiny transition then DON'T FREAKING BUY IT! Anyway, it's probably an easy software fix and this is a pre-production unit as far as I'm aware (i.e. firmware wise).
Rockbox: meh! Never really liked it with my Sansa and the X5 UI is so well executed that it is not needed (at least not to me!)

 

[henwell]

   
Based on this above, the X5
 
1) Excellent, bit of warm tinge, extended, very good sound stage!
2) Feels durable (not sure about the scroll wheel yet though, feels good, but not sure about durability), very well build, love the material as it feels sturdy but looks "classy" in an old-school way and I have to reiterate, THIS HAS BEEN THE ONLY DAP IN THE PAST YEAR THAT HASN'T FROZEN ON ME WHILE PLAYING MUSIC!!!!!! Yes, even my trusty Cowon C2 froze sometimes when playing FLACs! The AK100 MK2 has needed reset, as well as the crappy HiSound Studio V, even the X3. So I'm definitely surprised. Unit has only frozen when doing the library thingie as I mentioned before.
3) The UI is a HUGE upgrade over the X3 and definitely prefer it over the C2, AK100 MK2, Studio V, etc. etc. Can find things quickly, is responsive enough (I wish sensitivity for the scroll wheel could be optimized), it has a lot of features, I am definitely impressed.
 
Battery life: 10+ hours, not the best but not bad either
On board memory:  meh! Just fill out the 2 card slots with a total of 128GBs!!!
Size: Looks huge, but if you are one of those with a DAP+DAC/AMP/etc, then you will see this as compact as heck.
Look/Style (as well as size) will be subjective I guess. I like it though!
Gapless: meh! It doesn't irk me listening to "pauses" so if it irks you to have a tiny transition then DON'T FREAKING BUY IT! Anyway, it's probably an easy software fix and this is a pre-production unit as far as I'm aware (i.e. firmware wise).
Rockbox: meh! Never really liked it with my Sansa and the X5 UI is so well executed that it is not needed (at least not to me!)

nice work gelocks

 

[Andykong]

   
Hi Andy
 
The wall-wart I have is 5V===1a.  Unfortunately don't have a 2a charger.
 
From Fiio's website:
 
So I guess my time was pretty consistent with what Fiio was expecting.

 
Thanks for the detail explanation, lets hope Fiio will optimise the firmware and extend the battery run time in near future, 10 is good, but 16 is better 

 

[karion]

The main question: Sound X5 is better than AK100?

 

[fleasbaby]

...bit of a noob question...will I be able to use a standard iPod/iPhone charger to charge this unit from the wall? (I know, the Apple cable won't work, but I was thinking of sticking the X5 USB cable into the Apple wall plug).

 

[themad]

...bit of a noob question...will I be able to use a standard iPod/iPhone charger to charge this unit from the wall? (I know, the Apple cable won't work, but I was thinking of sticking the X5 USB cable into the Apple wall plug).

Yes, any cable will work.
I have a bag full of USB cables from various devices and just use one or two for everything.

 

[alan_g]

how is the player for drag and drop then play, do the files need edited like on the ibasso dx50?

 

[fleasbaby]

Yes, any cable will work.
I have a bag full of USB cables from various devices and just use one or two for everything.

Great, I meant the wall plug though, not the USB cable. The wall plug will be fine?

 

[themad]

Great, I meant the wall plug though, not the USB cable. The wall plug will be fine?

Ops,sorry.

Any wall plug should work as well. Just pick the one which outputs more current (A). It is usually 1A or 2A. It will change your device faster.

 

[fleasbaby]

Thanks! Back to drooling over the X5

 

[karion]

 
2) Feels durable (not sure about the scroll wheel yet though, feels good, but not sure about durability), very well build, love the material as it feels sturdy but looks "classy" in an old-school way and I have to reiterate, THIS HAS BEEN THE ONLY DAP IN THE PAST YEAR THAT HASN'T FROZEN ON ME WHILE PLAYING MUSIC!!!!!! Yes, even my trusty Cowon C2 froze sometimes when playing FLACs! The AK100 MK2 has needed reset, as well as the crappy HiSound Studio V, even the X3. So I'm definitely surprised. Unit has only frozen when doing the library thingie as I mentioned before.
 

You have AK100. If you must choose. Which sound was better AK100 or X5?

 

[gelocks]

  You have AK100. If you must choose. Which sound was better AK100 or X5?

 
Thought I already answered this somewhere... how many X5 threads am I subscribed to?!?!
X5!
No hype, just the plain truth.

 

[bowei006]

Just got the X5 in

 
So far so good, the scroll wheel is a bit inaccurate and jiggly at times though 

 I'll obviously use it for another few weeks before making a decision on the scroll wheel and other functions.

 

[henwell]

For many of us gapless is more important than all three. Without it, classical, live recordings, concept albums, etc. are intolerable.

Problems with gapless are all the more frustrating for us when you consider that:

1) FLAC is a gapless format, so one would expect it to work without issue. It is not a "feature," but the way the music was recorded and mastered.
2) Too many manufacturers are advertising their DAPs as "supports gapless," when in fact it does not function.

I'm sure FiiO will get it working as they did with the X3, but putting players into the marketplace with non-operating functions is not something most would forgive if we were discussing a Sony or Apple product.

Flac is not necessarily a gapless format, it is a lossless compression codec. Music is not mastered and recorded in Flac, but after recording and mastering are encoded to be made into flac files as a way to save storage space.
Flac is somewhat like a zip file but when decoded is bit perfect to the original so looses no fidelity