[New2hifi]

Hello,
First or second time posting. My current set up is iphone 6s & google pixel with dragonfly red, Shure Se846 switched out with the ATH- LS400 or ibasso IT03.
I am wondering if getting Fiio x5 3rd gen is upgrade to the dragonfly red/ phone combo. I only use Hifi Masters Tidal, Google Music and amazon music.
the only isue i have with my current set up is limited space on both devices. I stream alot but i like to have the ability to download music for off line listening.
Should i get the x5 3rd gen or will it not make a difference and I would just be wasting my money?


Thanks,
Chris

 

[Ian Robb Forgie]

The only information I can give you that you might find a deal maker is the 2.5 balanced input if you change the sure se846 to a 2.5 balanced cable and have a listen I definitely can tell the difference. That said I have been using my ie80 with Fiio A1 and a bluetooth receiver for wireless lessening as the Dac drivers were giving me problems. The new firmware update solved that problem so I will probably purchase a 2.5 to 3.5 attachment for the cable for easy switching for bluetooth.

 

[buonassi]

Android will needlesly updample your tidal stream to 48k within Android, then again at the USB audio output. It's horrible and I'd not recommend using any external dac with Android unless you replace the audio drivers with a program like USB audio player plus. However this has its disadvantages as well because you cannot listen to tidal offline, rather you can only stream tidal.

This is why I personally went with fiio x5iii because it avoids the sample rate conversion and allows for tidal offline playback. It sounds really really good but it does not come without its challenges either when using it with tidal.

Although the software updates have come out I still experience issues after about 20 minutes if I don't manually change tracks before that time has elapsed. If I just let it play for 20 minutes without adjusting anything, during a track change the track will begin to skip and must be reset. This is easy to do because you just skip forward a track and then back a track and you are all good. It is a little inconvenient but it is worth it for the sound quality in my opinion.... Oh and the ability to use tidal in offline form at this quality is superb.