[FiiO]

Chapter One: X7

Five years ago, I wrote a series of reviews for our 8 years of products. In the blink of an eye, 5 years passed and FiiO has come to the world for 13 years. From today, I would like to continue the review writing for the left 5 years starting from the X7 model.

I remembered a while ago, there was a hot topic in the HIFI field that whether players should be Androidized or not. This is kind of an interesting topic for audiophiles to talk about. But as manufacturers, our point of view is not that important. Because even if you predict that Androidization is a trend, you can still do just the opposite. This is up to different choices by manufacturers themselves. It doesn't matter whether it is right or wrong, which is just strategy matters. Certainly, following the era trend is also a strategy. But the point is that you have to be clear about your target customers and their flavors.

Therefore, the Androidization of FiiO's HIFI music player is self-evident. For a large-screen music player equipped with the Android system, not only the operating experience is much more convenient than non-Android, but also it would be a huge step in music downloading and managing with the help of WIFI and Bluetooth function within.

Since the day we released the first player X3, we had started the X7 project. After two years of research and development, we eventually managed to do it. At the Guangzhou Headphone Exposition in September 2015, we held a press conference and solemnly released FiiO's first Android-based portable HIFI music player, X7.

The release of X7 has great significance for FiiO.

1) The X7 is FiiO's first player more than 500 USD. If we view it today it is not at such a high price. However, in 2015, there were rarely a few players more than 500 USD in China. If the X7 model could successfully go into the market, the FiiO brand would move forward a big step.

2) The X7 is FiiO's first Android player. At that time, Android-based players were fairly uncommon. Unlike today, as long as you do it well, you have nothing to worry about. So the X7 was somewhat of a product to test the market. If it failed, I believe that the general Androidization of FiiO Player may be delayed for a long time.

3) The X7 is FiiO's first product with the design of an interchangeable amp module, which was designed for both personalization and playability for audiophiles. In addition, it was equipped with the high-end ES9018S DAC chip, supporting a series of designs such as the dock function. Anyway, all was for audiophiles.

It can be said that the X7 was born at the right time, which was popular among audiophiles once released and became a hit in the year of 2015 of FiiO. It had caught up with the trend of player Androidization and satisfied the restless heart of audiophiles. Besides, it was also one of the few high-end Chinese players available at the time, coming with our advantages on workmanship, music experience as well as product quality. In the end, it has obtained double honors both in the market and brand awareness.

Even today, I feel that the simple design of the X7 is still very eye-catching. The design pattern of the X7 has also laid a good foundation for our latter products. Even the FiiO Music App has acquired great benefits from it. Why FiiO could become FiiO today, the X7 could totally be a pioneer.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Two: Q1

In 2019, we released the portable DAC headphone amplifier. If we focus on FiiO's product history, we would know that the predecessor for Q1 should be E7, E07K, E17, E17K, etc. Because there were too many product models before, we decide to name it as Q series ever after. This was the background when Q1 came to the world.
Compared with the previous products, the most obvious characteristic of the Q1 is that it had canceled the little OLED display screen, the volume adjustment had transformed from physical button to volume knob, and the supporting specifications had been improved. As for the outer appearance, it looked like a wine pot. As a whole, the Q1 came with a big look transformation with small inner upgrades. The battery life prolonged benefiting from a larger battery size. Also, with consideration of the shrunk headphone amplifier market, we lowered its price to survive the amp market.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Three: K5

Old users familiar with FiiO know that FiiO's first product is a digital dock-type speaker designed for Meizu M6. Therefore, the dock-type products are somewhat of FiiO's historical tradition and "initial intention". After transforming into portable HiFi products, FiiO has always been attaching great importance to the extensibility and playability of the product. The early E7, E07K, E17, E17K were all equipped with a docked port. We had also researched and developed the E9 and E09K, the desktop dock-type headphone amplifier which were used for connection to USB DAC/Amps. However, the early dock port we used was an 11PIN old-feature phone charging port. It was eliminated for the large size and poor compatibility.

When we were designing the later music players, we also took advantage of the hidden feature of Micro USB. Except for the four pins using for USB data transmission and charging, the extra one had been designed for the LO signal transmission of L/R, as well as recognition and control.

The K5 uses the TPA6120A amp chip with high driven capacity which has also been used in the E9 and E09K. Our hardware engineers have fully dedicated to the innovation of this chip based on the experience of the original technology secrets. Eventually, they managed to do it.

In addition, we have also redesigned the K5's appearance style, parts of which have continually been extended to many subsequent products such as the Q1MKII and M15. The gain has been adjusted to three levels of high, medium and low to accommodate as much headphones as possible.

Overall, the performance of the K5 is still impressive. It has outstandingly completed the mission of matching with FiiO players, enhancing the driven capacity when connecting to headphones to satisfy users' needs. This has contributed a lot to the hot sale of FiiO players.

But it is a little bit embarrassing that there is actually a USB interface behind the K5, which is mainly used when the player is plugged into the K5, so that it can be connected to computers. But the K5 itself has no decoding function. We are often asked by users whether the K5 can be connected to a computer for decoding. And this has created another beautiful story behind.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Four: K1

In recent years, as mobile phones have gradually canceled the 3.5 headphone jack, various mobile phone headphone accessories have become more and more popular. This raised a lot of inquiries from users that why FiiO does not do it? In fact, it's not that we don't do it. We have the i1 for Apple, and the K1 similar for Android-based phones.

The K1 was FiiO's first DAC/Amp without a built-in battery. At that time, Android phones generally had a 3.5mm headphone port. So the K1 was actually designed for those laptop and tablet users.

We have to take the power supply of the device into consideration. Formally, for devices that are powered through TYPE C, their power consumption design matters a lot, otherwise, it would raise a lot of compatibility problems. For example, according to our tests, if the BTR5 is connected to mobile phones through a wired method, its compatibility and stability will be much better than that of those hot-selling accessories. It is because the BTR5 has a built-in battery. If the accessory consumes high power, the mobile phone system will actively stop the external power supply to save power, which would cause various problems. Therefore, the design of the K1 was not in high specifications. But there is no doubt that it was completely designed based on professional HiFi audio standards.

Like high-end HiFi players, the K1 is composed of USB port chip + independent DAC + independent amp chip. We did not promote it with a proper narrative. If it was announced as a professional HiFi player structure, it would be more easily for consumers to understand.

In conclusion, the K1 can also be connected to mobile phones as a little potsticker. It's just because it was not born in the right time, and its supported formats were not good enough. Meanwhile, the driven capacity of the power consumption was too low, and there was no balanced output. Otherwise, you might be able to take advantage of it. Or at least we could also design a K1Pro.

Now, those who have been urging us to make relevant accessories may get to know the truth.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Five: M3

Today, our focus will be put on FiiO's last product in 2015, but those accessories and the cable will not be included.

After all, the player field is still our business core. In 2015, we released the X7 which was priced more than 500 USD. This had brought us to the high-end market in one fell swoop. Because in 2015, there were a few players that were more than 500 USD in the market. At the same time, we released an affordable entry-level player M3. Generally, we would call the M3 series, including the M3, M3K, M3Pro student HIFI players.

The above explanation is aimed at the Chinese market. It is different from foreign markets. According to our more than ten years of sales experience, the consumption capacity of HIFI products of Chinese is far more than that of foreign fans. Therefore, for markets such as Russia, India, and even the United States, MP3s with good sound quality yet affordable prize actually have a large market.

Therefore, we set up a project to develop the M3 at the end of 2014, and also did some researches on this market. Finally, we decided that the design goals of this product would be these.

1) Having a good sound. Although the M3 is not so expensive, it is still different from those ordinary cheap MP3s. Because it has featured with an SoC plus an independent DAC architecture.

2) The battery life needs to be as long as possible. This is to consider users like students. If the battery life is unsatisfying, it would bring bad experience to users.

3) The SoC chip is from Actions Technology. Generally speaking, MP3 players with the chip of Actions or Rockchip will choose the ready-made UI or just make some little modifies. However, we have designed a brand new UI interaction and visual system from scratch.

4) Considered the target users, the style design should be as concise and stylish as possible.

In addition, the M3 was FiiO's only player coming with an included earbuds in FiiO history. We specially designed an open earbuds for it. Because it was popular for its good sound quality, we later made some improvements and sold it independently. Enthusiasts loved it so much and many of them kept several of it. This was our open earbuds, EM3.

The emergence of the M3 reflects FiiO's principle of being close and sincere to users. From a commercial point of view, for low-priced products, such as the M3, D03K, EM3, K1, i1, because the profit is too low, and the R & D investment cannot be reduced too much, the economic benefits would stay at a relatively low level. From another point of view, we have walked more and more people through these products on FiiO brand and our HiFi products, cultivating them as our loyal users.

I figure that this should be the most valuable reward for products like the M3 that would bring to us FiiOers.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Six: A1

We have finished all the products in 2015. Today we are going to embark on a new journey. Let's move to the product story in 2016.

The A1 is a mini portable headphone amplifier. When it comes to the ancestors of it, we could not miss FiiO's first headphone amplifier, E3. In fact, it should be traced back to the time sequence of E3-E5-E6-A1. The reason why we did not continue the name with the first letter as E is because it caused name puzzles when more and more products of the E series were born.

Like the E3, E5 and E6, the A1 is a headphone amplifier excluding the decoding function. It is compact, with EQ and a removable transparent back clip. It seems that the E3, E5, E6 and A1 are very simple products, but they all well meet the needs of foreign users who use mobile phones and MP3 with some high-impedance yet low-sensitivity headphones. They can effectively increase the driven capacity, and also help to improve the sound quality. Therefore, in overseas markets such as Europe, America, Japan, they are very popular with users including audiophiles. It is roughly estimated that the global sales of these several models were in a total of millions.

However, the Chinese market is different. Those ordinary users were not interested in such products, while audiophiles prefer better and more expensive products. This is actually an interesting phenomenon.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Seven: EM3

Today's story is our second product in 2016, which is a niche product of FiiO and HiFi industry, the open earbuds EM3.

The prototype of the EM3 is the included earbuds we developed for the M3 player. Because many people prefer the loose sound performance and wide sound field of open earbuds. Mainly because its structure had caused such sound characteristics. So many people who had bought the M3 suggested us to separately sell the EM3.

Therefore, we made some optimization for its sound performance, mainly focusing on the voice coil improvement based on user needs on the HiFi market. Correspondingly, the impedance has been increased and the sensitivity has been reduced. What this means is improved resolution ability as a result of reduced distortion, so the sound performance has been significantly improved.

By the way, we think that the open earbuds have both pros and cons. The pros of it include:

1. It is comfortable to wear. It does not need silicone ear tips to enter into the ear canal. So as long as the auricle is not too small, it will be more comfortable to wear open earbuds than in-ear monitors. Therefore, many people like to listen to music with open earbuds while sleeping.

2. The sound field is large. Because open earbuds, unlike in-ear monitors, is not as close to the eardrum. Therefore, the sound field will be relatively larger. In addition, it is not sealed, so the sound performs half-openly. There is little tension from the air vibration caused by sound transmission. What this means for actual listening is a more relaxed sound performance.

3. Once the open earbuds are put on, the ear canal is not sealed. So the low-frequency energy will leak and thus cause weaker bass performance. And for the high frequency, since the open earbuds generally use a single dynamic driver, it is difficult to achieve very good resolution and extension. Instead, these characteristics highlight the mid frequency. So it would be more suitable to use open earbuds for vocals and pop music listening.

The cons of the open earbuds include:

1. The tightness is worse, which results in weaker bass performance.

2. The size of the open earbuds is fixed, unlike in-ear monitors which can use different sizes of silicone ear tips to suit different ears. So for some people, it would cause discomfort to wear the open earbuds.

3. Since it is not soundproof, external noise will be introduced into the ear, resulting in a decrease in definition, SNR and sound density. Especially when it is outdoors. In other words, in-ear monitors are able to catch more details than open earbuds for a same track.

In consequence, with the development of modern technology, the whole process from recording to playback is pursuing higher resolution, separation, and wider frequency response. Under this circumstance, the market for open earbuds is getting smaller. The overseas market even gives it up gradually.

But for us, we did not give up. Because there are always old users urging us for the new open earbuds EM5. And we have been working on it. You can look forward to this interesting and personalized product.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Eight: X5III

From the previous writing we knew that there were not many new products in 2016, but each of them was outstanding and hit. At the end of 2016, after careful preparations, we held the grandest product launch event in Beijing, of which we first built an ultra-large 500-inch LED electronic screen. Before the event, we even did the rehearsal five times.

Actually before the event, we had already completed the mass production of the X5III. At this time, the first batch of fresh X5III thingy was waiting for their new master.

I personally think that the X5III launch event was the second successful one, just after the M15's. Included the presentation, venue construction, media invitation, video broadcast, press conference report, new product warm-up, new product confidentiality, product preparation, reservation, and the announcement were all amazing.

Finally, the first batch of the X5III being on the market had won the biggest success in the history of FiiO.

After finishing the discussion about the launch event, now let's go back to the product itself. I had summarized a few points for the success of the X5III.

1. Optimal configuration. The X5III is actually an upgraded version of the X5II. So its price had increased just a little bit. But its configuration and function are much ahead of the X5II. The display screen is upgraded from 2.4 inches to 4 inches of a full touch screen. The processor was upgraded from the 4760 to the 4-core RK3188, and the RAM from 768K to 2G, the built-in storage from 0 to 32G.

2. Powerful sound performance. The 2.5 balanced headphone output first appeared on the FiiO player, supporting native DSD decoding and using dual DAC and dual crystal oscillator.

3. The overall design gave us an impression of transformation from function phones to smart phones. The addition of wireless 2.4G/5GWIFI, Bluetooth, quick charge equipping for the first time in players industry, etc. expressed our thoughtfulness.

4. Powerful driven capacity. Due to the introduction of the balanced output, the output power of the X5III has become very large. The balanced output under 32 ohms reaches more than 800mW. What is more unexpected is that we have kept a secret that the power supply voltage actually has 2 levels. Later in the firmware upgrade, we would release this hidden skill, so that under the balanced output, the output power would be close to 1000mW by increasing the working voltage and entering turbo mode. Frankly speaking, under 32-ohm output power, few players could beat the X5III even today.

5. Easy-to-use system and app. For the X5III, we have equipped with FiiO's own highly customized Android operating system and self-developed FiiO Music App. This continues the excellent user experience of which FiiO has always been praised.

In terms of sales performance, the X5III is the model that has the best saleroom in FiiO's history. In terms of awards winning, it has won dozens of different awards around the world, such as the iF, Red Dot Award European EISA, Japanese VGP, etc. Although its sound quality is not as good as the X7, and the sales volume is not as good as the X1, the X5III must be the well-deserved one if we pick out a representative from the X series.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Night: F9

We have finished the product story of 2016. So today we would move to the year of 2017. The pioneer in 2017 was the DD+BA hybrid earphones, F9, released in July.

From the F1/F3/EM3, FiiO formally started the earphone segment. I still remember that earlier we have set up our strategies as follows.

1. Start from the entry-level/low-end products for experience accumulation. First, we need to figure out how this industry works, and introduce us to consumers. If we blindly release high-end products and fail to do that, it would be hard to do it again. However, consumers are more generous to low-end products. This is FiiO's principle all the time, getting it real and moving forward step by step.

2. Earphones made of metal materials are excluded. This is based on our understandings of user experience. Because for metal earphones, one con is that it is too heavy. The other is that it would be too cold in winter, which would put more coldness on the ears. However, the reality and practice told us that we have overly thought about this. The value of HiFi earphones is high yet it would be hard for plastic materials to contribute that.

3. Taking over-the-ear as the main design. This aims at reducing the cable microphonics and making it more comfortable to wear.

Based on our previous practices, plus the violent dynamic earphone market and the current market environment, we took our first step with the DD and BA hybrid earphone as our sword to enter the mid-to-high-end market. This was the background that the F9 was born.

In order to acquire better sound quality, as well as consider audiophiles' preference for metal components, we decided to choose the complicated metal shell from Five Axis Machining Center.

In terms of the driver configuration, the F9 has adopted the relatively popular and mature structure-1 Dynamic Driver and 2 Balanced Armature. Frankly speaking, it was influenced by the hybrid earphones, K3003 from AKG which can be somewhat regarded as the most successful DD and BA Hybrid Earphones even today.

In terms of the style design, the F9 has laid the design foundation for FiiO's future earphones. For the limitation of ergonomics, the main shape of the over-the-ear earphones can be divided into two types. One is similar to a football, whose typical representative was Shur and Weston. The other is the similar male mold which has a higher cost. Therefore, under the circumstance that the shape and material were unable to get a breakthrough, we decided to apply the stereo texture starting from the BTR1 and K1 to the F9. This has achieved a special characteristic for FiiO earphones. The FH5, FH7, FA1, FA5J, FA7, FA9 have all continued the same design language as it.

After being released, the F9 became a hit. It was sort of the masterpiece of FiiO in the HiFi earphone market. Thanks for its excellent sound quality and friendly price, it was popular among audiophiles at home and abroad. I remembered there was a whole year when we were busy with improving the production capacity and final passed yield in order to meet the market needs. Among the F9 series, including the latter F9SE and F9PRO, the F9 is not the best all around. However, from a historical angle, it is our most important earphones. What's more, its derived earphone F9PRO coming a few months later, has still taken space in today's market. From this point, we can see the vigor and power of it.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Ten: Q1MKII

Today we would come to the second new product in 2017, i.e. the Q1 Mark II (Q1MKII). Our old users may know that although our first product was a speaker, it is actually the portable amps that help us make money. This is the reason we have never stopped the introduction of new amp products.

The Q1MKII is somewhat of a pioneer in terms of the ID design in 2017. The one who has watched the Launch Event and series stories of the M15 may notice that the flagship M15 has inherited the exterior style of the Q1MKII, especially details of the top and bottom part which has a similarity of 90%.

From the name, Q1MKII, we can easily get that the Q1MKII is the upgraded version of the Q1. But what are the other differences apart from the obviously similar looks?

The most important thing is that the Q1MKII supports iPhones by wining the MFi certification. In fact, we had announced our product strategy at the 2016 Guangzhou Headphone Expo, one of which was the MFi strategy. In short, we wanted to develop a series of audio accessories for iPhones. By the way, for iPhones which build connection through the Lightning port, be sure to check the MFi certification. Otherwise, connections may fail once the iOS is upgraded.

Secondly, the Q1MKII is equipped with a 2.5mm balanced output which you might be more familiar than ever before. In fact, the balanced output on the player/amplifier/headphone has not been introduced very long, but the popularization is quite fast. So our Q1MKII would not go far behind.

Furthermore, most of the amplifier products like the headphone amplifier, uses a potentiometer to control the volume, which is efficient combining with the volume indication itself, and easy to grip. However, it also has quite a few shortcomings. One is that the channel imbalance at low volume because it is difficult to do well. The second is that problems due to long-time using such as noise and other credibilities when adjusting the volume may happen to it. Therefore, for the Q1MKII, we have adopted a new type of ADC volume adjustment technology, on which the audio signal does not go through the volume knob, so there will be no problems such as noise and channel imbalance yet meanwhile the advantages of the volume knob can be kept. Later, this kind of technology is widely applied to many FiiO products which has formed a characteristic of FiiO audio products.

Last but not least, FiiO's DAC/Amps had always been using the USB decoding chip that is with relatively bad poor extensibility and lower supporting formats. However, starting from the Q1MKII, we have adopted the XMOS scheme with the best performance and function ability recognized in the industry. Therefore, the supporting music format of the Q1MKII has soared to 384K/32B, and it also supports native DSD256. This was a great progress based on the Q1.

As for other aspects that were developed and optimized on the basis of the Q1, I would like to rule them out. I believe that from the introduction of the Q1MKII, you can see some of the designs began on the Q1MKII, including the ID design, function, and exterior style, have been continuously applied to FiiO's subsequent new products. This also fully proves the success of the Q1MKII on designs.

To conclude, the Q1MKII is not only a pioneer in technology, but also in the market. Since its listing in 2017, it has continued to sell well in domestic and overseas markets, creating good economic benefits for us.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Eleven: i1

Back to FiiO's product strategy announced in the 2016 Headphone Expo, i.e. we would put our attention on Bluetooth and MFi products. Nowadays we are accustomed to mobile phones without the 3.5mm headphone output, but before the launch of the iPhone X, no one would ever believe the 3.5mm port would be canceled. FiiO as one of the manufacturers with the MFi certified, had already known while cooperating to research and develop an adapter featured with the Lightning port.

The i1 is actually very simple in functions with one end the Lightning port connecting to iPhone and the other the 3.5mm female end. The circuit canceled by iPhone came as an independent product.

The i1 itself has nothing worth discussing, which was built in with an encrypted chip and a DAC chip. However, through this kind of product, we have known more about the design philosophy of the iPhone.

1. There is a limitation of the external power supply under 100mA for the Lightning port. While Android devices are a mess due to a lack of standards. Products with the MFi certification have to strictly follow the rules. If they exceed the current limitation, they would fail to be certificated. Therefore, those products manufactured or authorized by Apple Inc have great compatibility. While Android systems would meet many compatibility issues and cause manufacturers to be blamed.

2. The reason why Apple would set a 100mA current limitation is to eliminate influences to the battery life of the iPhone. I personally think that in Apple's design philosophy, experiences weigh more than functions. They would rather give up some functions than sacrificing experiences. If the current limitation is smaller, the chip can come with stronger driven capacity and higher performance.

All in all, Apple has managed to establish a new world of high maturity, strong compatibility and good experience via its own iOS system, chips, hardware, and strict accessory controlling standards. This might be one of the reasons that it can be so successful.

After the i1 being released, it did not meet our expectations. The main reason was not on the i1 itself. It was mainly because that although the iPhone has canceled the 3.5mm headphone output, it has included a 3.5mm port audio cable. More importantly, a majority of users has started to choose Bluetooth earphones instead of a wired one.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Twelve: F3

Today we are going to focus on the F3, which should have been called as F1. Because in my original plan, the FiiO F1, F3 and F5 were respectively representing the single, double and triple dynamic driver earphones.

However, due to the limitation of design resources earlier, and it was the first time for us to develop and research earphones, we asked for a specialized design company to help us design its ID.

Unfortunately, the design company did not follow our requirements who had designed a straight-down look for the earphones, as in the ID design of the F1). In considerations of the cooperation relationship with them, we decided to develop an extra earphone model, i.e. the F1. After all, they had spent a lot of effort and time on it. If we totally rejected it, they would earn nothing.

Actually, the F3 has conformed to our concept of earphones design earlier which was a non-metal shell + lightweight components+over-the-ear wearing type, for extreme wearing comfort. Acoustically, for the single dynamic driver, we have chosen the graphene diaphragm. It was somewhat of a worthy selling point.

The typical characteristic of the F3 was that it was swappable for its faceplate, included with black, red and blue faceplates which were available for users to choose for their preferences and thus meeting their demand for personalization.

What's more, the sound performance of the F3 is still impressive. As in the F1 and F5, I personally think they were doing great in this aspect. However, these models did not become so popular, mainly because they were relatively average. In the complicated market of earphones, there must be an overwhelming property for an earphone model to defeat the others.

But FiiO has always been obeying the principle of moving forward steadily. When entering a new market, we seek for nothing but experience accumulation.

Furthermore, gold will shine eventually. Later, the F3 became popular in the US market for its good sound quality and friendly price, plus the high recommendation by some of the YouTube celebrities. Therefore, the F3 has not only helped us accumulate valuable experiences, but has also brought good reputations and profits.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Thirteen: F5

Today's leading actor is the 2017's dynamic earphones, F5. The F5 uses the titanium-plated diaphragm driver that was quite popular back then. I believe many users have noticed that in recent years, the diaphragm of the dynamic driver earphones is very popular with metal plating, and the reason is simple. The advantages and disadvantages of a single material are obvious, especially in terms of the frequency response which is not easy to achieve all-frequency coverage. So multi-driver scheme is one solution, while the other is to make progress on the diaphragm.

And for the dynamic driver, it is relatively easy to handle the low frequency, but for the extension of the highs, it would be difficult. Normally, the better the low frequency, the larger the driver diameter. The larger the driver diameter, the heavier the vibration system. So it would be hard to raise the vibration speed. It is a natural contradiction.

To solve this problem, it is necessary to make the diaphragm light. However, when the diaphragm is light, it may cause problems such as split vibration and deformation if there is not enough rigidity.

Therefore, one of the solutions is to specially plate the polymer diaphragm with metal materials, common metals including aluminum, titanium, gold, beryllium. Different metal materials have different physical characteristics, which also create different sound performance.

Additionally, the wearing design of the F5 is traditional non-over-the-ear which I personally prefer. Although it is not as firm as the over-the-ear way, it is much more convenient to take off and put on.

For other details, the metal shell, MMCX connector, standard single-ended and balanced cable, and other abundant accessories, I will not explain one by one. The F5 sold not bad after being released, but it did not meet our expectations. So for several years, we have left the single dynamic driver earphones behind. Reasons can be analyzed as follows.

1. In the market, there are too many single dynamic earphones of various brands and models. But for the hybrid and multi-driver earphones, the competition is much smaller.

2. Features of the F5 are not outstanding enough. In other words, everything is good but not particularly good which is a lack of hits and marketing hot spots. It acts averagely and cannot leave an impressive impression on the first acquaintance.

3. Many consumers are not just simple music lovers. They are somewhat of audiophiles. So am I. So for a product that has no new ideas in technology and no innovation in design, it is difficult to attract us.

However, the sound performance of the F5 is excellent. Especially when coupled with players or amplifiers having lightly strong driven capacity, the F5's sound is very loose and balanced, and the treble is clear and soft. Some of those experienced audiophiles often express their preference to me for the sound performance of the F5.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Fourteen: BTR1

There are so many products in 2017, so I was not writing in the order of their releasing date. Today, I would like to share the story of the BTR series, our first Bluetooth DAC/Amp, BTR1 in the past three years.
Earlier in the 2016 Guangzhou Headphone Expo, the BTR1 which was still a pendant design was first introduced to the public. However, when we started to develop it, we had to make it back to a common design style due to limitations of battery life, battery, antenna, and connection mode. But we had continued the stereo wave texture of the K1 to the BTR1.

The development of the BTR1 is actually driven by two factors. The first factor was that the wireless trend of digital electronic products has entered a climax. The last stubborn bastion, headphones, has gradually begun to be completely wireless for the cancellation of the 3.5mm port on mobile phones. The second was that with the popularity of the Bluetooth codec, aptX and the development of Bluetooth chips, it become possible for the Bluetooth audio protocol and Bluetooth chips to transmit lossless-level audio signals in software and hardware.

It was in this background that the BTR1 came to the world. In fact, the structure of the BTR1 is not complicated which is mainly composed of a Qualcomm Bluetooth receiving chip coupled with an independent DAC/Amp integrated chip. Although Qualcomm 8645 itself is an integrated chip with all functions including DAC and amplifier, it is often an extra more DAC/Amp chip with better performance and stronger driven capacity that differentiates a HiFi product from a common consuming digital electronic one.

Thanks to the AK4376, the sound quality of the BTR1 has basically reached an entry-level HIFI player. If we simply connect it to a mobile phone via Bluetooth, it has smooth operation and performance experience as a mobile phone yet with obviously improved sound quality. Combined with excellent sound performance, compact size and very friendly price, the BTR1 immediately became a hit once it entered the market. It was popular among consumers in both the domestic and foreign markets.

Besides, in just two years since the birth of the BTR1, FiiO has quickly launched 3 generations, 6 versions of products, consisting of the uBTR, BTR3, BTR1K, BTR3K, BTR5 which have helped to get support and good reputations from a majority of users.

We are very relieved. The reason why we named the BTR series Bluetooth DAC/Amp is that we want to continue the life of the A series of headphone amplifiers. After being feature with new souls, it can accompany and support FiiO all along the way in another form.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter Fifteen: F1

The earlier earbuds of FiiO was kind of an accident, including the F1. So it was a typical straight-down design instead of an over-the-ear one following our assumptions at that time.

However, from another perspective, FiiO has always been willing to invest in research and development in order to acquire better earphone quality. Back to the F1 and F3, we had spent a lot on plastic molding, the in-line control and cable designs.

In a word, we take every product seriously all the time. Compared to the F3, the F1 was with less innovation and selling points. But its more affordability and considerate non-over-ear design made it popular among the Indian and Russian markets.

All in all, we did not enter the mid-to-high-end earphone market blindly. On the contrary, through the research and development of the F1 and F3, we had accumulated enough experiences. In this way, one brand could possibly succeed as long as there were no big bugs in its products.

From this angle, the F1 and F3 have perfectly completed their missions and thus paved the way for FiiO in the mid-to-high-end market later.