[Whitigir]

I understand where you are coming from but what we are talking about potentially changing is one thing which is the storage component.  If nothing else changes only the storage component this might not increase costs.

The workers will still need to perform different solder works....grab different storage chips....etc....etc....and it comes down to if you ordered 1million of 32gb you pay 1$ each...if you order 100 units you pay 10$ each....who knows....I don't know, but that is the way it is supposed to work....so even if it comes to storage, it would only increase cost/productions ratio when you customize it to each person needs. But the general consensus is that you can never have too much storage...

So to base on the same idea from you. It would only make sense to give every X7 128gb internally, and that would essentially be cheaper to mass produce then breaking them down 32/64/128....etc as the iPhone do. Apple does it so, just because each model of their iPhone can always be sold so fast, and so their mass productions actually ring in more harvest when breaking down this way. I don't see it very viable for a small niche market to do this.

So for all that Said, I would say to bring the cost up to another 50$ or so, which is not impossible, and satisfy the majority of the customer in this niche market...the audiophiles.

 

[Unfie]

Please don't make different storage versions like cell phone manufacturers do. That would make me sad. 1 TB storage would be a dream, but 128 GB would be okay too...

 

[John Milton]

Please don't make different storage versions like cell phone manufacturers do. That would make me sad. 1 TB storage would be a dream, but 128 GB would be okay too...

128 and one slot even I could live with, with larger card around the corner. But with DSD and high bitrate flac etc I would be nice to be able to have something like 300, but preferably 500 GB around.

 

[x RELIC x]

128 and one slot even I could live with, with larger card around the corner. But with DSD and high bitrate flac etc I would be nice to be able to have something like 300, but preferably 500 GB around.

That's one of the many problems with DSD. Besides sound quality not being better IMO (strictly speaking about format, not masters or recording methods) it just takes up so much space. Most DSD is converted from PCM and less than 0.1% of music is available on DSD. Though DSD and PCM can't be directly compared it's often said that DSD64 is about the same sampling rate as 96kHz PCM. The reason for DSD128 and DSD256 existing has more to do with dealing with 1bit resolution and noise (on a technical level) than anything else.

For once I'd like to see a conversation on the recording quality rather than on the format.

 

[talan7]

I think if Fiio had made this with a 64 g internal memory and 1 slot most people would say ok I can live with that. 128g? I doubt anyone would argue. 32g is like a gimee. 2 card slots and 32g internal would've been the logical step up from X5.
 
What can change things dramatically is if MQA becomes the norm and you get hires files that take up very little space. That could make ridiculous amounts of memory redundant. Maybe Fiio knew something we didn't know when they spec'ed it. If one could get hires files the size of Apple 256 alac then we wouldn't need 1t of memory. More is always better though, but at a cost.

 

[Francisk]

I'll definitely purchase the X7 if it has at least 64Gb internal Ram and 2 Micro SD card slots.

 

[Tober138]

On Fiio players to date, there have been some issues with very large libraries. There was the 5800 limit issue on some of their players (which now seems to be resolved) and I have seen a few posts regarding small lags or other issues on the X3 and X5 when a card has over 10k files.

At a certain point, libraries over a certain size may present some issues in basic functionality becuase the player has a problem managing a library with "too many" files.

 

[John Milton]

I know iTunes has this issue as well. Getting sluggish I mean. But this should be solvable, right? For Apple as well as DAP like a Fiio player.

 

[JamesFiiO]

On Fiio players to date, there have been some issues with very large libraries. There was the 5800 limit issue on some of their players (which now seems to be resolved) and I have seen a few posts regarding small lags or other issues on the X3 and X5 when a card has over 10k files.

At a certain point, libraries over a certain size may present some issues in basic functionality becuase the player has a problem managing a library with "too many" files.

 
that is the common situation in all DAP or smartphones. everything has limited. 

 

[JamesFiiO]

  I think if Fiio had made this with a 64 g internal memory and 1 slot most people would say ok I can live with that. 128g? I doubt anyone would argue. 32g is like a gimee. 2 card slots and 32g internal would've been the logical step up from X5.
 
What can change things dramatically is if MQA becomes the norm and you get hires files that take up very little space. That could make ridiculous amounts of memory redundant. Maybe Fiio knew something we didn't know when they spec'ed it. If one could get hires files the size of Apple 256 alac then we wouldn't need 1t of memory. More is always better though, but at a cost.

 
we are talking about a products which sold in many stores but not for couples users, to many people, $650 is a very high price so we need to have a target price and them control our budget in the cost. 

 

[landroni]

 
 
we are talking about a products which sold in many stores but not for couples users, too many people, $650 is a very high price so we need to have a target price and them control our budget in the cost.

I would say 650$ is an incredibly reasonable target price for a top-flight DAP, assuming that the X7 lives up to expectations (I certainly hope so!). Other flagship DACs which are also using ES9018, like the hifiman HM-901S are priced at 1500$, in AK-pricing land. The iBasso DX100 also using ES9018 was at 900$ at its time.
 
This said, I agree that 650$ is a very high price for most consumers. For me this is another instance of FiiO packing as much value as possible in a given budgetary constraint, and letting economies of scale do their magic...
 
@JamesFiiO For X7, is the ES9018 DAC implementation at 44.1 kHz of the same quality as the implementation at higher sampling rates? Since sampling rates above 96kHz are largely irrelevant for audio playback for human audience, actual implementation at 44.1 kHz and 96 kHz matters more than support for exotic sampling speeds (e.g. 384 kHz). While I understand the penchant of marketing types to hype support for 384 kHz (anyone advertising 100 MHz sampling rates any time soon?), I'm more concerned about quality of implementation at more traditional speeds, namely 44.1/48 kHz and 88.2/96 kHz...

 

[callizer]

@JamesFiiO will FiiO keep  the X7 up to date with latest Android or will it stuck with Lollipop forever?

 

[Synthyss]

650$ is cheap for a product like this.. Still need to hear it before being sure tho..

 

[JamesFiiO]

 
I would say 650$ is an incredibly reasonable target price for a top-flight DAP, assuming that the X7 lives up to expectations (I certainly hope so!). Other flagship DACs which are also using ES9018, like the hifiman HM-901S are priced at 1500$, in AK-pricing land. The iBasso DX100 also using ES9018 was at 900$ at its time.
 
This said, I agree that 650$ is a very high price for most consumers. For me this is another instance of FiiO packing as much value as possible in a given budgetary constraint, and letting economies of scale do their magic...
 
@JamesFiiO For X7, is the ES9018 DAC implementation at 44.1 kHz of the same quality as the implementation at higher sampling rates? Since sampling rates above 96kHz are largely irrelevant for audio playback for human audience, actual implementation at 44.1 kHz and 96 kHz matters more than support for exotic sampling speeds (e.g. 384 kHz). While I understand the penchant of marketing types to hype support for 384 kHz (anyone advertising 100 MHz sampling rates any time soon?), I'm more concerned about quality of implementation at more traditional speeds, namely 44.1/48 kHz and 88.2/96 kHz...

 
As our flagship model, we don't expect X7 will has a huge sales volume but I think we can expect better result now cause there are not other competitor. ( of course I known there are some new DAPs based on Android but we are target to different people). 
 
also it is good to customers when there are something you guys really need, for example, huge build in memory and 2 card slot and Android 5.0 and big sreen and volume knobs. maybe it can help us so not more people as we do same cause there are something in there so meet the market demand.
 
about the impementation of ESS9018, it just handle the sample rate of the original file format means we will not change the sample rate in any way. 

 

[JamesFiiO]

  @JamesFiiO will FiiO keep  the X7 up to date with latest Android or will it stuck with Lollipop forever?

 
sorry, we need to get SDK from the rockchip which means we can't released new version if they can't . so the answer is not.