[electricbuddhas]

Picked up an X7 mk1 for a reasonable price. It came with firmware 3.0.1. I thought it sounded nice and was a slight upgrade from the iBasso DX90. I found the OS to be irritatingly sluggish. I upgraded to the newest firmware and noticed a marked decrease in sound quality. It was darker and more congested with a narrowed soundstage. After some research, I downgraded the firmware to 1.91. Holy Crap! What a difference! OS was much more responsive and the sound quality was drastically improved. The sound was smoother, less fatiguing and the soundstage was massive. It literally sounded like a different player. It now sounded much better than the DX90. Now I know there are bugs present and options not available in old firmwares but if you're looking for a good bang for your buck player, the X7 original with this old firmware sounds simply awesome. I've not tried the Fidelizer custom firmwares, but I'm so pleased with 1.91, I'm sticking with it for now. I'm flabbergasted a DAP would sound worse as firmware matured. It's almost as if Fiio did it on purpose to sell newer models.