[HiFi 1994]

As someone who likes listening at low volume, I wish the FiiO X7 to have a more precise volume adjustment steps, just like iBasso's devices.
Fixed attenuation steps (e.G. 0.5dB) would be fine, aditionally it would be nice if the current attenuation could be shown in the upper info bar of the GUI in "-dB".
On the X3, attenuation steps are sometimes not precise enough, imo.
 
Another very nice feature would be if you could finally fix the internal database sorting for "Album Artist" to be displayed correctly on albums which contain tracks with multiple artists on some track. You may have a look at the curren A&K and Apple iDevices sorting which do display them correctly (unlike the older iDevices such as the Classic 7G which had the same issues).

 

[Dobrescu George]

x7 will have to have sq, build quality, DAC function, 2microsds, and did i mention sound quality?...
 
it certainly doesn't have to make sandwiches, or cofee, it is a music player, it just has to play music at it's best. it has to not have problems, like hours of scanning the memory, or any other bugs or glitches. 
 
a glitch free, best sound quality, best batterry, best possible storage space, best for music, is all i want from an x7. if it could be a DAC for android too, it would be a plus, but i doubt it. also, if it could do everything music related at the best leves, i don't mind it having any other features, but money, and time should be spent in creating the best music player, one that will beat ak and all other hi end players!

 

[castleofargh]

  As someone who likes listening at low volume, I wish the FiiO X7 to have a more precise volume adjustment steps, just like iBasso's devices.
Fixed attenuation steps (e.G. 0.5dB) would be fine, aditionally it would be nice if the current attenuation could be shown in the upper info bar of the GUI in "-dB".
On the X3, attenuation steps are sometimes not precise enough, imo.
 
Another very nice feature would be if you could finally fix the internal database sorting for "Album Artist" to be displayed correctly on albums which contain tracks with multiple artists on some track. You may have a look at the curren A&K and Apple iDevices sorting which do display them correctly (unlike the older iDevices such as the Classic 7G which had the same issues).

the choices for volume settings are tricky stuff. because if you really want the very best specs then an analog volume control will have channel imbalance at low volume, but the very best noise value. so it's more impressive for people(on paper mostly) and that's what you get on most hifi destop amps.
then you can have digitally controlled analog volume(that's just really a chip doing the job of attenuating the analog signal so it's digital in name only, think of it as a lot of small resistors and the path changing to go into the chosen attenuation. that can get noisy, but the left/right balance and volume control are pretty much perfect unlike with a rheostat thing.
 you can also use the extra bits of the 32bit DAC chip if it offers that option. so you change the value of each sample in real time by a certain bit value. precision is great and imbalance is a non issue, but obviously you're limited to the extra bits in range, after that you would start eating up at the signal and that would rise the SNR. so this would be best to use for rather small range of volumes with a lot of steps and maybe some gain switch added to it to get a wider range? I don't know enough there to make a claim.
you can also do pretty much the same with a software and the cpu of the DAP, it would result in the equivalent of a real time replay gain. that option will be available to you if you can add apps on the X7. so precision shouldn't be too much of an issue I would guess. but that means clearly taking all the samples down and closer to the quantization noise. so not a "hifi" good looking solution, but it works just fine in practice.
 
the hm901 is special, it goes with an analog volume with fixed massive resistors, so you only have very big steps but with low noise and ok balance. it looks like the perfect choice for the guy always looking at amazing specs, but for you and me that's a 100% useless DAP. 
so I guess it's hard to please everybody ^_^. and if you come up with a 350steps volume control, someone will complain that it takes too long to set and that those steps are useless. I wouldn't like to be in the shoes of a manufacturer when the volume control question comes on the table.
 
 
for the UI, they went android mostly for that kind of reasons because they where hitting a wall with the actual stuff. so you should be happy.

 

[Mython]

It's several months since I abandoned this thread, in despair, at the lack of clear direction.
 
 
I see nothing has changed 

 

[Retrias]

you think wish threads in head fi ever have a "right"/"clear" direction?

 

[Mython]

  you think wish threads in head fi ever have a "right"/"clear" direction?

 
 
Well, there is no thread at all on Head-fi with a clear direction for the X7.
 
That's understandable (although still irritating) in the early stages of a DAP concept, but after so many months, I would have expected a little more clarity from Fiio on the X7, be it in this thread or a new one.

 

[Retrias]

   
 
Well, there is no thread at all on Head-fi with a clear direction for the X7.
 
That's understandable (although still irritating) in the early stages of a DAP concept, but after so many months, I would have expected a little more clarity from Fiio on the X7, be it in this thread or a new one.

but fiio did give us some stuff they didnt actually tell us after "many months"
1. It will have an RSA plug as a balanced out
2.It will have switchable amp cards
3. it will run a locked android based os , where you cant install stuff thats not fiio approved
 
They do inform you of the dap , it just so happen the wish and screams of the people here actually covers them up

 

[Dobrescu George]

 
but fiio did give us some stuff they didnt actually tell us after "many months"
1. It will have an RSA plug as a balanced out
2.It will have switchable amp cards
3. it will run a locked android based os , where you cant install stuff thats not fiio approved
 
They do inform you of the dap , it just so happen the wish and screams of the people here actually covers them up

also, fiio hinted that x7 might be a competitor for ak240 or chord hugo for sound quality, but it is not going to copy them. nice info to have.

 

[Mython]

FWIW, I actually have confidence in Fiio producing a very nice-sounding DAP.
 
I also like their attitude towards respecting their customers by producing good value products at fair prices.
 
My main concern with the X7 is that the Fiio team may end up making the same mistake that so many Chinese DAP makers make - placing SQ ahead of form-factor.
 
 
DX100
 
HM-901
 
Lotoo Paw Gold
 
Cayin N6
 
 
What do all these DAPs share in common?
 
They are all too much of a brick to regularly carry around in one's pocket.
 
They all sacrifice true portability at the altar of SQ (believe me, I care very, very much about SQ, but it's a wasted effort if the DAP is too bulky to put in my pocket). Even the Calyx M is quite bulky, and, looking at the preliminary specs James has posted in the Nov update in this thread, it seems the X7 will be approximately the same size. We do not yet know the weight...
 
 
 
I personally consider iRiver to be an absolutely appalling company, in the way they rip off their customers with exorbitant pricing for their A&K line of DAPs, but one thing they cannot be accused of is making DAPs that are too bulky to be fit-for-purpose (when I say 'bulky', I am referring to a combination of size+weight)
 
 
 
In the audiophile marketplace:
 
There are plenty of cheap brick DAPs on the market.
 
There are plenty of expensive brick DAPs on the market.
 
 
There are very few expensive compact DAPs on the market (basically A&K only)
 
There are almost zero cheap compact DAPs on the market (DX90 probably comes closest)      (I don't consider iPod/iPhone to be audiophile, without stacking, and NW-ZX1 falls short of true audiophile, too, IMHO)
 
 
So, it is clearly apparent to me that what the market needs is a compact and fairly-priced competitor to the A&K line. I don't expect anyone to beat A&K feature-for-feature in a compact format (that requires substantial engineering expertise), so I don't mind if it's stripped-back in terms of hardware features and firmware features, just so long as it's compact and sounds great.
 
 
The X7 looks like it may be an attempt to make an HM-901 in a Calyx-M form-factor.
 
I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing - 
 
 
(+) I'm sure it'll sound great
 
but
 
(-) I'm nervous it'll be too bulky for me to seriously consider  (it may be some time before Fiio finalise the specs and reveal the weight of the X7)
 
 
.

 

[HiFi 1994]

I'm curious about the DX7's hiss level and hope it will be at least at X3 level (barely audible).
X5 and X1 do have more hiss.
 
Let's also hope that output impedance will be low (hopefully around 0.5 Ohms or lower).

 

[Mython]

   
Let's also hope that output impedance will be low (hopefully around 0.5 Ohms or lower).

 
 
Fiio will take good care of that.

 

[Retrias]

I consider most audiophile dap to have a diamond shaped diagram , where if you pull one , another decrease
1. SQ
2. Size
3.UI
4. Price
 
I never seen ANY dap that actually manage to fill in all of this requirement

 

[Dobrescu George]

fiio hinted that x7 is not going to be a brick...
 
for me it is a letdown, because i would have liked more battery, even if it would have been bigger. but fiio said some hundred posts ago that x7 is not going to be a brick.
 
size, and weight is not a big concern for most audiophiles anyways, and x5 is not a brick by any definitions...

 

[HiFi 1994]

   
 
Fiio will take good care of that.

 
Let's hope so. The X1 has got the highest output resistance out of all X models and would be too much for most of my IEMs at my common listening environment - let's hope that it is a trend FiiO won't continue.
 
Even though, unfortunately Hidisz, Sony, HiFiMan and A&K still have got a much higher output impedance and I wouldn't use any of them without a low impedance amp, but that's not the case if you are willing to spend a rather high ammount on a portable device.
 
 

  I consider most audiophile dap to have a diamond shaped diagram , where if you pull one , another decrease
1. SQ
2. Size
3.UI
4. Price
 
I never seen ANY dap that actually manage to fill in all of this requirement

 
It may sound ridiculous, but the iPhone 4 does offer all of this. It measures very well, has got a rather low output impedance (about 0,9 Ohms), isn't that big, has got a good GUI with correct sorting by "Album Artist" and wasn't that expensive.
Still, storage is limited to 32GB at maximum.
Glad I could get my hands on a factory sealed, new iPhone 4 (black, 32GB) some time ago this year for use as pure DAP in my colection.

 

[Mython]

  I consider most audiophile dap to have a diamond shaped diagram , where if you pull one , another decrease
1. SQ
2. Size
3.UI
4. Price
 
I never seen ANY dap that actually manage to fill in all of this requirement

 
True. I don't disagree with you about that.
 
All I'm saying is that far too many audiophile DAPs treat size/weight with less respect than the other factors, that's all.
 
 
 

  fiio hinted that x7 is not going to be a brick...

 
The dimensions he has quoted are not massive, but they're not exactly tiny, either (shrugs shoulders). Guess we'll just have to wait and see what weight this thing ends up being. Anything much over 200g and it'll be pushing my limits (I listen with my DAP in my jeans pocket, during the warm summer months when I don't wear a jacket).
 
 
Quote:

 
for me it is a letdown, because i would have liked more battery, even if it would have been bigger. but fiio said some hundred posts ago that x7 is not going to be a brick.

 
I've had many exchanges with James, about DAP batteries (e.g. in the early days of the X5 threads, etc.).
I am glad that he has reined-in the size of the X7 battery, but I firmly believe that the best compromise (and I don't deny at all that it is a compromise, rather than a perfect solution) is to have a removable battery, just like iBasso did with the DX90 (I think iBasso may have partly made that decision because of not wishing to repeat the atrocious battery life of the power-guzzling DX100).
Apple are notorious for trying to make their devices 'slim&sexy' and having tiny crappy batteries to accomplish it. A quick-swappable small battery solves the problem quite well.
James has a strong opinion that it is better to have a permanent integrated battery, partly because you can squeeze in a bit more capacity for a given chassis size than you could with a removable battery+compartment. I still feel swappable is the best compromise, but James is the CEO of Fiio, not me

 
 
Quote:

   
size, and weight is not a big concern for most audiophiles anyways

 
Maybe not for can-fans, but for IEM/CIEM fans, who do not necessarily carry a rucksack, and who like to listen whilst walking around town, size and weight are quite a big concern, and the audiophile DAP marketplace repeatedly underestimates this fact.