[headwhacker]

effects and DSP usually is frowned upon by audio purist. Which make sense if you want to reproduce the exact recording.
 
If you are into DSP, I believe the iPods and the Sony players already got it covered. 

 

[Dobrescu George]

cowon are the best in effects...
 
ui is a gimmick... well... i hate the ideea of waiting for the library to be scanned , like the ibasso does, that is not a gimmick, but for the ui to look nice it is a gimmick... 

 

[TheoS53]

  cowon are the best in effects...
 
ui is a gimmick... well... i hate the ideea of waiting for the library to be scanned , like the ibasso does, that is not a gimmick, but for the ui to look nice it is a gimmick... 

I agree with this to some extent. But the reality is that often the UI can make or break a device. 

 

[VXAce]

  I agree with this to some extent. But the reality is that often the UI can make or break a device. 

I agree, UI and UI usability can kill a device and often times is a deciding factor on its ability to sell. If a UI feels gimmicky there might be a problem. But this is something that Android wouldn't have a problem with, not stock Android that is, can't vouch for anything else.

 

[Ripvanlink]

  I agree with this to some extent. But the reality is that often the UI can make or break a device. 

I agree with you Theo. Looking at the UI of the 901 with that sickening blue color is enough to turn me off to the albeit unbeaten sound quality of that unit. To me the 901 is an incomplete dap, but the AK240 and its siblings are complete b/c of their usable and nice looking UIs.

 

[Dobrescu George]

901...i liked the ui of that one... it is the build quality i cannot get through... hifiman as a brand does not put a great deal on build quality....
 
 
this made me think, build quality is not a gimmick....
 
it seems that there are very few linux users.. sometimes you can actually have the hope that someone will release an uglier ui player that is very very fast, and can do music very very well... 
 
ak240 is much too expensive.. it would be more expensive than my future buy laptop, and it is not worth it,.. as x7 could beat it sound quality wise... 
 
ak240 is a good example of a gimmick. the ui is not necesarry, the look was not necesarry, some of it's functions were not necesarry... those added to the price... i understand the head-fi founder's view, and i respect it, sometimes it is nice to see a complete player, that has all those, but i do not want it... i don't have the money to pay for these...
 
i would get myself a hifiman, but it is expensive, very expensive, has less batterry than fiio x5, and it has less memory capacity, not to speak that the build quality is lacking a LOT...

 

[Ripvanlink]

  I agree with this to some extent. But the reality is that often the UI can make or break a device. 

Say Theo, the work you have done on the appearance of the ui in X5 is very enjoyable to me. Would it be difficult, if you had the 801 or 901, to change the appearance of their UI. I just happen to not like the blue they use as their theme. It would be nice if they had your color scheme instead.

 

[TheoS53]

Say Theo, the work you have done on the appearance of the ui in X5 is very enjoyable to me. Would it be difficult, if you had the 801 or 901, to change the appearance of their UI. I just happen to not like the blue they use as their theme. It would be nice if they had your color scheme instead.

Anything is possible, proved that you have the right tools.

So if I am given a way to unpack the firmware then I'm sure ill be able to change the look of things

 

[D3Seeker]

  I am sure they could design a slot to properly hold a mSATA card.  I might purchase 240gb; you might purchase 128gb, somebody else might purchase 1TB.  That is why I suggest it be user installed.
 
Look at how much activity there is on the ipod mod threads related to mSATA adapters. 
 
I could easily fill a high end unit above the 128gb limit of SDXC.

SD goes up to 512gigs now
 
Quote:

  This is probably too late but I think there's a significant unexploited market for a sleek, user friendly hi fi dap in the 500 dollar range.
 
In the past there were plenty of people into hi fi who were audiophile dorks. Now that audio has gone portable, those people are willing to spend money for a good sound player but want it to look good and work easily too.
 
The DAP wouldn't cater to audiophile nerds with features like USB OTG or DAC function. It wouldn't need to power huge cans either. I think manufacturers are limiting their market by including those features at the expense of a better looking and functioning DAP. 
 
It would simply be small, good looking with good build, work flawlessly, have enough storage,  have good battery life and of course have excellent, excellent sound quality. For me personally, I'd be willing to pay 500 dollars for a DAP meeting that description.
 
You see non-audiophiles spending good money on headphones but I don't think think most of them have a source that takes advantage the headphones. That's the market DAP makers should be aiming at.

I've been mentioning this over the last year and not a nod was given. We're here too (although I'm somewhere between this an full blown audiophileness. A beefed up Walkman Z still on my list 

 )
 

  the most and absolutley most important feature is the sound quality... everyone who bought x5 has done so for the sound quality... i would be willing to pay for sound quality... this and more space... i cannot get enought space... like adding 4 microsd slots, or internal memory... did i mention sound quality?.... i can get e12 for more power, but the only DAC that sounds way better than x5 at the moment is AK240, which is way more expensive... you fiio would fill the gap with a player that sounds better than ak240... that would be the most important thing...
 
also, a nice feature would be more batterry...
 
 
my point of view, it can get bigger, thicker, and even uglyer. As much as you want as long as
-it sounds the best on the market
-it has the most memory
-it has the most batterry

no. You and a few others, but NO! Proper amping is as important at the DAC chip that gets faaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrr too much attention, just to be bi*&# slapped for a subpar amp stage (which is why many of the players ARE so big in the first place, so yeah) BTW the E12 is not that special.
 

  storage is a gimmick onne good example, apple iphones and ipads without expansion slots to make u pay more for storage and cloud lol

He gets it
 

  are you kidding? Are we even speaking the same language? Just what are you trying to say, or is there a joke I'm not getting?

He doesn't get it
 
Quote:

  i just hope that x7 beats the ak240 as far as audio quality goes...
 
if x7 would have
better sq
better batterry
better memory
 
that would absolutley kill every other player on the market....
 
we must all agree that besides these three things, the rest are gimmicks....

You need your head examined. You want a digital transport talking like that and well, that aint what this is. 
 
Not all of us want stacks in case you haven't noticed. Simply not how this works..........

 

[Ekul61]

Is the x7 going to sound better than the x5 or just have more features?

 

[x RELIC x]

Is the x7 going to sound better than the x5 or just have more features?

The intent is to sound better. I sure hope it sounds better. :blink:

 

[originalsnuffy]

In my mind a high end unit has to go beyond sound quality. Certainly a more powerful internal amp than other units is a given. Beyond that, besides the user interface, it boils down to features.

To me, the key feature is lots of potential storage. Which implies mSATA.

But certainly the competition seems to offer wireless features as a key option. That would imply wifi, bluetooth, and all that goes with it.

 

[Dobrescu George]

wireless, 4 microsd cards, or on board 256gb or at least 128 gb of flash memory, sound quality... this would make most people buy it more than other things...
 
the ability to drive doesn't have to be that high, as mostly what can be driven by x5 is ok, and there is fiio e12 as a dedicated amplifier... so, at least the same power as x5 would be enough, as long as sq would be better...
 
also, as far as the design goes, it has to have very very strong build... most people might drop it once or twice, or worse drop it in water, or keep it in high humidity, or keep it in heat... it is better for any device to be more resistant to these things than any other thing....

 

[D3Seeker]

  wireless, 4 microsd cards, or on board 256gb or at least 128 gb of flash memory, sound quality... this would make most people buy it more than other things...
 
the ability to drive doesn't have to be that high, as mostly what can be driven by x5 is ok, and there is fiio e12 as a dedicated amplifier... so, at least the same power as x5 would be enough, as long as sq would be better...
 
also, as far as the design goes, it has to have very very strong build... most people might drop it once or twice, or worse drop it in water, or keep it in high humidity, or keep it in heat... it is better for any device to be more resistant to these things than any other thing....

Now that is a must

 

[zinzoeker]

Forgive my bad and simple English...
 
I will summarize later my wishlist, but I just found out a missing item in my new X1.
 
The X1 has just one possibility for custom Equalizer. You can choose between rock, classic, ...., custom. But only 1 customize setting.
When you use different headphones, earplugs, ..., all have a different tonal quality and it would be nice to have multiple custom EQ-settings, so you can switch easily your EQ-settings, depending on the headphone you are using.
 
If you rip your CD's, every CD has it own volume, so when you shuffle your music, every song sounds not equally loud or soft. So it would be nice if every song has the same volume when shuffle playing.