[RedJohn456]

The first time I tried switching between android and pure music mode I was surprised by its speed. I was like wait what?? Much better than before the beta

 

[CH23]

  The first time I tried switching between android and pure music mode I was surprised by its speed. I was like wait what?? Much better than before the beta

i'll tell you a secret and what i think is happening:

the secret: previously, the device rebooted to set the other launcher
what i think is happening now: by tapping the 'pure music' button, it launches and sets the FiiO app as launcher.
not to say that that's pretty clever, because it is. not sure if it actually exits all non-essential processes.

I have yet to upgrade to the new firmware, i'd rather wait a bit, as i have no secondary device and am barely ever near a windows machine(to up/downgrade).

 

 

[harpo1]

@FiiO Is apx now supported in the new firmware?

 

[CH23]

Can i make a suggestion regarding beta firmware?

There is a thread specifically for the beta firmware, let's talk in there about this, and this thread about non-beta firmware.

As beta firmware is usually buggy, it can overrun this thread, or put people off of getting this device.
 
 
-CH23

 

[harpo1]

  Can i make a suggestion regarding beta firmware?

There is a thread specifically for the beta firmware, let's talk in there about this, and this thread about non-beta firmware.

As beta firmware is usually buggy, it can overrun this thread, or put people off of getting this device.
 
 
-CH23

It is related.  Since FiiO is talking about it in this thread I see no reason why we can't or shouldn't since it's the next step in the X7's journey.

 

[csglinux]

Since there's no longer any sample-rate conversion in third party apps, there's presumably no longer any theoretical SQ advantage of the FiiO music app, correct? Also, if @CH23's assumption is correct about the loader, presumably there's no theoretical SQ advantage in using pure music mode either? So what would be the reason for using pure music mode?

 

[Paulo Abreu]

It is related.  Since FiiO is talking about it in this thread I see no reason why we can't or shouldn't since it's the next step in the X7's journey.

CH23 has a point, easier to track issues in a single place, several duplicated posts already.
For me its last post here concerning beta FW.

My 2 cents

 

[haloxt]

I have listened to the X7+AM3 balanced for about 40 hours, and just today I got the beta 3.0 firmware and listened for 4 hours. I pretty much only use the X7 as a USB audio device (It's about saving the environment from my 200W desktop setup), so can't comment on sound except when using the X7 as a USB device, other than that when I did a few short tests in the past I felt X7 2.0 as music player sounded better than X7 2.0 as USB dac.
 
My observations:
 
1. The sound in 3.0 USB audio in comparison to 2.0 USB audio seems to have a bit less instrument congestion, softer/more organic attack with smoother and longer decay/sustain, and more ambient detail.
 
About how significant I believe the change might be, I would say it seems to be more than what I notice in different players/asio drivers/revisions (extremely little difference usually), but less than what I notice in upgrading headphone cables from stock. I'm skeptical about my own observations because I can't A/B, didn't get much listening, and don't recall ever hearing this much sound difference due to software changes before. But maybe the reduced power drain is the cause?
 
About whether or not bassheads will like the change, I don't really notice less bass, but some may not like the slightly softer attack I hear. About whether there is more treble, it seems to me there is more clean shimmery ambient detail, but since attack seems softer/more diffuse, it overall seems easier on my ears.
 
2. The battery is draining slower as they said 3.0 would, which is great because I am always losing battery when using X7+AM3 as a USB dac.
 
3. The new method of enabling USB audio mode requires having the X7 already connected by USB, manually pulling down the pull-down menu TWICE, and then clicking the icon named "storage". It used to be, I could just turn on the X7 or connect it to the computer and it would automatically be in USB audio mode, which is what I would prefer being someone who uses the X7 almost exclusively for USB audio. I will gladly put up with this because I like the perceived change in sound signature, but I see no benefit in the change except to avoid confusing people who don't know how to escape USB audio mode.
 
4. The USB audio latency is greatly improved and has just a negligible delay. I can't use "Minimum latency" setting anymore, but "Low latency" setting is what I use now and it is much faster than the old "minimum latency". I can safely do 64 sample buffer size. Note to people changing frequency and latency inside Fiio Control Panel on their computer, if your sound disappears after changing those settings, you can get your sound back by temporarily changing the frequency/bit in Sound>Playback>Speakers FiiO X7>Advanced>Default Format. If that doesn't work, reconnect the X7 to get sound back.
 
Keep up the good work, Fiio. Better sound and better battery life are greatly appreciated, and I think people who like to play computer games or watch videos on their computers will also appreciate the latency becoming much less than before.

 

[RebeccaSugar]

I'd love to be proven wrong though! You were using V4A before weren't you? Here's the latest developments on V4A (including a new V4A version by Jason and a new set of IRS for speaker simulation on headphones by yours truly):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=68473076#post68473076

Yeah, funny thing is, Neutron sounds better than ever. I'll be sure to try this out though.
 

  I find that I'm having better success using the X7 in Android mode/Neutron. 90% of the time I used pure music mode prior to the update. I listened to a few albums last night with my EL-8 (balanced) with the AM3 and it sounds as good, if not better prior to 3.0.

Right!?!?! I thought I was going insane, Neutron sounds amazing now! It just sounds so...clean.
I hated how it sounded so muddled sometimes, but this feels nice. It really goes knuckle deep.
 
 
 
Also, for those recommending KingRoot. I don't recommend it, because it is most likely spyware.
Use SuperSUME to remove KingRoot and replace it with Super User. It'll speed up your FiiO while still having it rooted.
I might have to edit Joe's tutorial to make the best tutorial.

 

[Dobrescu George]

After discovering the sound of poweramp, I gotta ask.. Please make all X gen players android based and let us use poweramp. 
 
EQ was rock solid on X5ii and X3ii and all X players so far, poweramp would only make things better! 

 
Of course, if possible and if within reach, but it's something to consider... 

 

[RebeccaSugar]

Joe,  sadly, your V4A doesn't work. None of them do, yet. :/
 
Real shame, but on the upside, and I've said this before, Neutron sounds pimpin'
 
 

  After discovering the sound of poweramp, I gotta ask.. Please make all X gen players android based and let us use poweramp.
 
Of course, if possible and if within reach, but it's something to consider... 

That would be nice, but I doubt that would happen, having anything lower end than the X7 would just sound like almost any other phone out there.

 

[chef8489]

I am contemplating purchasing a x7 to do a comparason to my pioneer xdp-100r. I am just wondering if the am2 module would be the best to get. I use mostly customs, but have a few pairs of full sized cans. Nothing too hard to drive.

 

[ReizeiMako]

I am contemplating purchasing a x7 to do a comparason to my pioneer xdp-100r. I am just wondering if the am2 module would be the best to get. I use mostly customs, but have a few pairs of full sized cans. Nothing too hard to drive.

Fiio X7 + am2 is really a solid DAP at its price range. I prefer the sound of this combo much more than Onkyo DP-X1 (never try Pioneer) AM2 is reported almost hiss free even with sensitive IEM. AM3 SE is as good as AM2 but I heard its balance offter a better sound than AM2.

 

[FiiO]

Something about the X7 firmware update  - by James
 

Firstly, please understand this Android 5.1 firmware is not an official version. If you just want to have a taste, you’d better not upgrade, because we’ve made a new start in FW3.0 from system to Apps (and it's still not perfect enough). It is a tough task with much criticism, but the X7 will always stay on 4.4 if we dare not take a step.


And you may criticize us more intensely when finding out our new model is using Android 5.1.

Here I’d like talk about the background of this update as answers to some of your questions.
 
 
1, Why release this firmware despite so many bugs?

We’ve tested the firmware numerous times by ourselves and also asked for the help of many beta testers, but not all the bugs can be covered. So we released it just as a beta version.

 
2, Why not revise the original FW2.1 based on Android 4.4?
 
This is because the original firmware is still less than satisfactory. As is known to us, the Android system can be customized, but still it’s limited by the original framework from Google. So only ascending to the newer Android 5.1 can fix some of the existing issues, such as:

A. SRC problems of third-party Apps
B, Power consumption
C, Fluency
and etc. 
Trust us, were there any better way, we wouldn’t take the trouble.

 
3, Any changes in sound from the new firmware?
 
Definitely. And positive feedback are in majority.
We’ve rewritten all the audio architecture, underlying driver, upper-level app,as well as decoding algorithm of the media lib.So the sound has changed.
 
The firmware update will not change the sound, as I put it before, is on the premise that the decoding algorithm is not changed.

 
4, How soon can we get to use the official version?
 
The software developing restrictions are less now, so we can speed up the update frequency, basically one new version every week or 10 days.
 
I believe we won’t keep you waiting for too long.

 

[1wyseman]

  Something about the X7 firmware update  - by James
 
 
4, How soon can we get to use the official version?
 
The software developing restrictions are less now, so we can speed up the update frequency, basically one new version every week or 10 days.
 
I believe we won’t keep you waiting for too long.

 
If we choose to wait for an official future version, can we skip directly to a later version starting from FW 2.1, or will we have to work our way up to a future version by going through each of the FW steps incrementally?