[H20Fidelity]

Personally, I think the best thing anyone could do when sound impressions start coming in is create a new thread for "Sound Impressions & X7 Discussion X7" . Very little people will want to read through 367 pages lead up to a release dated back to 2014. Just an idea...

 

[x RELIC x]

Personally, I think the best thing anyone could do when sound impressions start coming in is create a new thread for "Sound Impressions & X7 Discussion X7" . Very little people will want to read through 367 pages lead up to a release dated back to 2014. Just an idea...

I've been waiting until they release the units for the tours to do exactly that. Expect it to be posted as soon as they are shipped.

 

[H20Fidelity]

I've been waiting until they release the units for the tours to do exactly that.

Expect it to be posted as soon as they are shipped.

 
Excellent. 

 

[goodyfresh]

I've been waiting until they release the units for the tours to do exactly that.

Expect it to be posted as soon as they are shipped.

Good going!

 

[Sonic Defender]

Some people don't like that (including myself) but can we not re-hash it again and again and again.

Fair enough, but many of us (myself included) haven't followed this entire thread so we have missed out (or avoided, depending on your perspective) much of this talk. I was shocked when I came back into the thread after loosely following it to find an IEM amp in the X7 after I clearly remembering talk about it being a DAP with a solid amp. Kind of bummed me out as I was seriously wondering if this would be the one solution. Maybe it still will be, but come on, wouldn't you say that 200Mw should be the minimum power output for a company like FiiO who make great amps? Anyway, I won't go on any longer.

 

[x RELIC x]

Fair enough, but many of us (myself included) haven't followed this entire thread so we have missed out (or avoided, depending on your perspective) much of this talk. I was shocked when I came back into the thread after loosely following it to find an IEM amp in the X7 after I clearly remembering talk about it being a DAP with a solid amp. Kind of bummed me out as I was seriously wondering if this would be the one solution. Maybe it still will be, but come on, wouldn't you say that 200Mw should be the minimum power output for a company like FiiO who make great amps? Anyway, I won't go on any longer.

Like I said, yes, but it's FiiOs choice, not mine. I'll find out how much of a hindrance it is when I get the review unit. Until then I'm reserving judgment.

 

[WitzyZed]

Fair enough, but many of us (myself included) haven't followed this entire thread so we have missed out (or avoided, depending on your perspective) much of this talk. I was shocked when I came back into the thread after loosely following it to find an IEM amp in the X7 after I clearly remembering talk about it being a DAP with a solid amp. Kind of bummed me out as I was seriously wondering if this would be the one solution. Maybe it still will be, but come on, wouldn't you say that 200Mw should be the minimum power output for a company like FiiO who make great amps? Anyway, I won't go on any longer.

It's always been modular, & the IEM module spec has always been 100mW/32 ohms, 200mW/16 ohms.
Even the E12A which I own, & use with 34 ohm headphones, I can't get much beyond 12 o clock or maybe 1 o clock before reaching a painful volume on low gain. for folks with low impedance headphones, I see this as just more fine tuning of the volume & a lesser chance for people to blow out their ears & iems with a hot amp section.

 

[goodyfresh]

It's always been modular, & the IEM module spec has always been 100mW/32 ohms, 200mW/16 ohms.
Even the E12A which I own, & use with 34 ohm headphones, I can't get much beyond 12 o clock or maybe 1 o clock before reaching a painful volume on low gain. for folks with low impedance headphones, I see this as just more fine tuning of the volume & a lesser chance for people to blow out their ears & iems with a hot amp section.

But for people with Alpha Dogs or the HD650, it means they'll have to buy a separate module

  Lol.

 

[goodyfresh]

Question to folks who already have the X7. In terms of sound-quality alone, so not including all the extra features like ability to run apps, wi-fi, bluetooth, etc., how does this compare to some of the better mid-priced DAP's without such features out there, like the Cayin N5, Cayin N6, HiFiMan 650 and HiFiMan 802U?

 

[jmills8]

CDM is actually quiet good ! I looked into it for a while....but the price is a bit of an Ouch !

You demoed it or looks means looks good on paper ?

 

[PoRidge]

I think you must have been remembering something about the PHA-2 or the PHA-3.


Anyway, some folks are saying the low output power of the X7's stock/default amp is due to them wanting to make sure it does fine with sensitive IEM's.  I call B.S. on that.  Reason why is because the X3ii in my experience, and the X5ii by all accounts, have a PERFECTLY BLACK hiss-free background with sensitive IEM's, according to many folks even with super-low-impedance ultra-sensitive ones.  They both have over twice teh power of the X7.  Meanwhile, Fiio's own E12a is supposed to be their amp which is optimized for perfomance with IEM's (as opposed to the normal E12) and outputs up to 440mW if I remember correctly.  So there's no real excuse for the "IEM Module" amp-module for the X7 being designed to only output 100mW at most.  That is, unless you're of the fanboy-type who decides you love a company so unconditionally much that you'll make excuses for them rather than admitting when they have done something which is somewhat illogical.

it is very reasonable for the iem module to be 100mw or less. i hate when all the amps have too much power and i can only use the lowest 5% of the volumn. i use volumn 5 on the zx100 which has really low power and 6 is too loud for me. not only can it have better hiss performance, a better control over sound, more refined sound tuning, longer battery life for portable all can be traded from a lower power. so the need for a low power iem amp is really there.

on the other hand, i think your point should be it not being the default. there should be modules designed for specific purposes, but the default that comes with every unit should be for general use and covers a larger range of needs, despite having an overall lower performance(there are always trade-offs assumming the same cost). if they do this, there will be complaints for fiio releasing a low quality module and forcing people to upgrade. it is all fiio's business dicision and i am not affected by it since i will be buying modules for sure.

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

it is very reasonable for the iem module to be 100 mw or less. i hate when all the amps have too much power and i can only use the lowest 5% of the volume. i use volume 5 on the zx100 which has really low power and 6 is too loud for me. not only can it have better hiss performance, a better control over sound, more refined sound tuning, longer battery life for portable all can be traded from a lower power. so the need for a low power iem amp is really there.

Finally, the voice of reasoning.
 

on the other hand, i think your point should be it not being the default. there should be modules designed for specific purposes, but the default that comes with every unit should be for general use and covers a larger range of needs, despite having an overall lower performance(there are always trade-offs assuming the same cost). there will always be complaints for fiio releasing a low quality module and forcing people to upgrade. it is all fiio's business decision and i am not affected by it since i will be buying modules for sure.

I think, it was a great decision by Fiio to include the iem module as base config. These are portable electronics, what % of people are really going to be using full-size headphones for portable use? Besides, most people with full-size headphones have a nicer desktop amp, and Fiio does offer proper line-out.

 

[goldendarko]

  Finally, the voice of reasoning.
 
I think, it was a great decision by Fiio to include the iem module as base config. These are portable electronics, what % of people are really going to be using full-size headphones for portable use? Besides, most people with full-size headphones have a nicer desktop amp, and Fiio does offer proper line-out.

I plan to use it for traveling with my Ether C's (or possibly around the house with the HE1000 and LCD-3's) and don't even own any IEM's except for cheap gym ones. So the IEM module will literally be useless for me and im sure plenty of others. That being said I may just get a seperate amp for it anyway (like the CDM) so it's a moot point for me, but I still believe a higher power module should be standard.

 

[mathi8vadhanan]

  I plan to use it for traveling with my Ether C's (or possibly around the house with the HE1000 and LCD-3's) and don't even own any IEM's except for cheap gym ones. So the IEM module will literally be useless for me and i'm sure plenty of others. That being said I may just get a seperate amp for it anyway (like the CDM) so it's a moot point for me, but I still believe a higher power module should be standard.

But, With high power, you loose the finer volume control for, at lower volumes (ala, most portable amps).
Have you seen the Chord Mojo? X7 + Mojo, you might end up spending less than CDM.

 

[WitzyZed]

I plan to use it for traveling with my Ether C's (or possibly around the house with the HE1000 and LCD-3's) and don't even own any IEM's except for cheap gym ones. So the IEM module will literally be useless for me and im sure plenty of others. That being said I may just get a seperate amp for it anyway (like the CDM) so it's a moot point for me, but I still believe a higher power module should be standard.

For use with your 2 $1500, & $3000 headphones... You're really going to complain about spending an affordable (yet TBD) price for amp modules?
Very much a moot point, because people will just buy more expensive amps anyways, at the cost of form factor.