[Anthony Campbell]

I believe FiiO wrote, when the M3 came out, that M is "consumer line" whereas X is "audiophile line" or "enthusiast line".

Is that why there's no radio on £100+ daps? Until now that is.... Oh forgot about the Sony A35, but that doesn't go loud enough for me

 

[FiiO]

Wait, so it doesn't have line out?

Dear friend,

The M7 have the lineout which is the same port for the headphone out.

Best regards

 

[seanwee]

Is that why there's no radio on £100+ daps? Until now that is.... Oh forgot about the Sony A35, but that doesn't go loud enough for me

Hahaha, that was one of the things I missed most when I went from the Sansa fuze to the X1. That and the superb rockbox equaliser.

 

[audiophilefan]

R3 is not android.
Bottom line for me is that no amount of customer support can compensate for a bad product. It could either be the sound or the UI or a mix of both maladies. I am not talking about the M7 in particular but in a more general sense.

Got it, man. Thanks! Agree. If it's very bad in the interim and non-fixable, then generally support can't do anything about it anymore, unless they release a new/improved product.

 

[audiophilefan]

When I consider buying DAPs, 90% of my concern is on sound quality so unless the software really is glaringly bad, I'll always get the best sounding one in the price range.

A good example I like to use is the Xduoo X3. It had a playback rate error where it played 44.1khz tracks a bit slower (at 99.6% rate or something). Contacting Xduoo yeilded no reply, and no firmware fix was ever released. But damn, it sounded really really good for the price. I'd say it has 85% of the Opus 1's sound at just 100 bucks. Good enough for people to make an effort to port rockbox over to it just to resolve the playback rate issue apparently.

Heard/read the same stories about Xduoo's support. That's something I'm not willing to risk. On the other hand, also heard/read about Xduoo's fantastic sound quality for the price. I guess I'm looking for the ultimate customer experience. I can't say that in terms of sound, Fiio is lacking since they are industry leaders for a very long time but other manufacturer's pose a definite threat now. We'll all see how it plays out. This is what's great about this hobby, or being a Head-fier in particular. We get the chance to be at the middle of every evolution.

 

[seanwee]

Heard/read the same stories about Xduoo's support. That's something I'm not willing to risk. On the other hand, also heard/read about Xduoo's fantastic sound quality for the price. I guess I'm looking for the ultimate customer experience. I can't say that in terms of sound, Fiio is lacking since they are industry leaders for a very long time but other manufacturer's pose a definite threat now. We'll all see how it plays out. This is what's great about this hobby, or being a Head-fier in particular. We get the chance to be at the middle of every evolution.

I'm actually quite disappointed by their X5iii. It sounds just OK for the price. That means it sounds bad next to DAPs like the Opus 1S and N5ii which sound very very good for the price.

I think I'm only satisfied by two of their current players : X1ii and X7ii

The X3iii is edged out by both the N3 and Xduoo X20(firmware is good since they hired HiBy)

I think their "infinite sound" marketing is the problem. They focused on making both balanced and unbalanced available on their players just for the sake of marketing instead of focusing purely on the unbalanced output. And the result? The unbalanced output is just OK and the balanced output is actually worse in the case of the X5iii (noisy/hissier than unbalanced)

I genuinely believe that FiiO can do better if they get their priorities right. I really like FiiO and really would have gone for the X5iii if they made it sound like the Q5 instead of making it more consmer oriented instead of audiophile sounding. It also looks great and I really like the red version of the X5iii. Its really damn sexy.

 

[audiophilefan]

I'm actually quite disappointed by their X5iii. It sounds just OK for the price. That means it sounds bad next to DAPs like the Opus 1S and N5ii which sound very very good for the price.

I think I'm only satisfied by two of their current players : X1ii and X7ii

The X3iii is edged out by both the N3 and Xduoo X20(firmware is good since they hired HiBy)

I think their "infinite sound" marketing is the problem. They focused on making both balanced and unbalanced available on their players just for the sake of marketing instead of focusing purely on the unbalanced output. And the result? The unbalanced output is just OK and the balanced output is actually worse in the case of the X5iii (noisy/hissier than unbalanced)

I genuinely believe that FiiO can do better if they get their priorities right. I really like FiiO and really would have gone for the X5iii if they made it sound like the Q5 instead of making it more consmer oriented instead of audiophile sounding. It also looks great and I really like the red version of the X5iii. Its really damn sexy.

Haven't heard the X5iii, man. By consumer oriented you mean too warm? That's usually the case. Low frequencies could be too far north of neutral. Maybe that's their target market, a little of bit of the common consumer. I agree, it's a great looking DAP!

 

[seanwee]

Haven't heard the X5iii, man. By consumer oriented you mean too warm? That's usually the case. Low frequencies could be too far north of neutral. Maybe that's their target market, a little of bit of the common consumer. I agree, it's a great looking DAP!

Yeah, I found it warm but my metal opus is warmer so that's not the problem. However, the Metal Opus sounds more realistic, the X5iii was very smoothed out so it lacked the proper articulation to notes and while the Opus was warmer, it was more revealing and had a more realistic timbre.

 

[Ted Presley]

Haven't heard the X5iii, man. By consumer oriented you mean too warm? That's usually the case. Low frequencies could be too far north of neutral. Maybe that's their target market, a little of bit of the common consumer. I agree, it's a great looking DAP!

The main complain of X5 iii by most unhappy users comes from its smoothness. It sound slightly too smooth compare with other DAPs which makes it less reveal and kind of not very separate.

But IMHO, it's not a bad sounding DAP, just not a DAP that detail sound oriented users like . Sometimes I found it's quite musical thanks to its smoothness , but if I need something more detail, more technical, I'll grab X7 ii instead.

 

[seanwee]

The main complain of X5 iii by most unhappy users comes from its smoothness. It sound slightly too smooth compare with other DAPs which makes it less reveal and kind of not very separate.

But IMHO, it's not a bad sounding DAP, just not a DAP that detail sound oriented users like . Sometimes I found it's quite musical thanks to its smoothness , but if I need something more detail, more technical, I'll grab X7 ii instead.

Exactly, it doesn't sound very Hi-Fi. A good DAP should be able to sound warm and smooth while retaining all the details. The soft treble causes some instruments to sound unnatural imo. Some tracks that need the attack lose dynamics as a result of the smoothing. This is especially prominent on fast piano tracks where the notes seem smudged together due to the slower decay.

Its not as bad as the Sony NW-WM1A on complicated tracks though. That thing sounds superb on normal songs but is just a train wreck on faster and more complicated music. THAT really smudges the music.

 

[Sven2015]

Does the M7 offer EQ / balance via BT (LDAC)?
The latest Sony's do not offer any sound control via BT anymore.

 

[seanwee]

Does the M7 offer EQ / balance via BT (LDAC)?
The latest Sony's do not offer any sound control via BT anymore.

I don't EQ is supposed to work on Bluetooth in the first place. What do you mean by balance?

 

[FiiO]

Does the M7 offer EQ / balance via BT (LDAC)?
The latest Sony's do not offer any sound control via BT anymore.

Dear friend,

The EQ is available for Bluetooth while balance not.

Best regards

 

[hqssui]

Spanish review of M7.

 

[Sven2015]

Dear friend,

The EQ is available for Bluetooth while balance not.

Best regards

Very interesting note for me. Thanks for answering (especially the EQ information).