[FiiO]

Chapter 1 Background​

Lately, some funny thoughts hit me. Since there are always some users who keep asking us for the speakers, which were also our pioneer products, I would like to know if you are really interested in it. Even though we may not make it come true due to our limited R&D resources, we can make some plans for it- to confirm the market demands, the styling, specification, performance as well as the price.

In addition, the whole story of the FiiO X3 project, from the initial idea to the suspension during the process and to the mass production and final release, was recorded on the internet (head-fi forum). Though we do not know what will happen to this idea, it would make significant sense.

Therefore, I would love to record the whole process by writing these thoughts down.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter 2 Use Scenarios​

This set of devices is mainly designed for indoor environments.

If we consider the use scenarios, some issues would occur listed as follows.
1. Appropriate size. If it is too big, it would take up too much space when being put on the desk. One reason that we use laptops is that we want our desks to be neat and clean. This is a picture of my desk (from the advertisement) with the size of 1400X600mm. I like to put the laptop, the cables and mouse inside the little drawer when done using them.

2. Appropriate weight. If it is too heavy, it would be hard to move. It strikes me that we can design a handle for it (as the Picture 2 showing), which will be more convenient to carry it anywhere.

3. Two of them can be used together as a stereo system while one can work as a Bluetooth speaker. By the way, if it works individually as a Bluetooth speaker, the sound stage will be limited due to physical reasons. Even with more speaker units in an open environment, it will still be hard for the wall to reflect sound signals and create stereo sound stage.

4. Built-in battery. It normally uses an AC power supply, but uses the battery when being carried. But I sense that it may diverge from the first and second points. If it cannot be achieved, we would give it up. After all, it is not designed for outdoor environments.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter 3 A Comprehensive Scheme with Both Earphones and Speakers in One​

For more than 30 years since I became an audiophile, I have been focusing on the typical HiFi combination, i.e. CD+power amp+speaker. However, things have changed 10 years ago when I started to develop headphone amplifiers. After that, I spent most of my time with earphones.

Therefore, I need a system of speaker+earphones out of hobbies and work. Of course, most of you may have different requirements. You can choose one of them, the speaker or the earphones.

Frankly speaking, there are many amazing and even perfect desktop speakers in the market, and multiple desktop amp systems. A set of systems with speakers and DAC/Amps will also be a good choice. But I prefer speakers with built-in amps, which will be more clean and neat with better space utilization when being put on the desk.

I did some research and found out none of them had shown up in the market. It has two possibilities. One is that no one has ever thought about this kind of product. Those who are making speakers and earphones would be stuck in the stereotype that consumers tend to choose either the speaker or the earphones. The other is that the market demand is too small. From my personal point of view, the first possibility may take the lead. After all, no such kind of product has ever entered the market, so there will be questions about whether it has small needs.

In conclusion, this can be sort of an innovatively new product type in the market. I have roughly figured out its design. There will be two speakers. One is responsible for operations such as volume control and input selection. (the volume knob must be put on the front side to make it more convenient to use). The other will feature 3 headphone ports, the XLR balanced, 4.4mm and 6.3mm. If the internal space is too small, we will rule out the XLR port. When using over-the-ear headphones through the XLR port, we can use an adapter cable for connection. And we can use an adapter when connecting through the 3.5mm port.

 

[FiiO]

Chapter 4 Inputs​

As mentioned above, active speakers from traditional speaker manufacturers seem to support old formats only, probably because the competition is not fierce. So this is kind of an opportunity.

Here, I would like to list our planned input ports and formats supported.

1. Digital inputs: supports coaxial/optical/USB input. While the IIS and AES digital inputs are too technical to be equipped with. The digital inputs support up to 768K/32B, DSD512, and the MQA will also be added.

Some of you may have a question that should a speaker support such high specifications of 768K and DSD512 in terms of sound performance. It still needs to be considered. The higher formats/sampling rates, the greater adaptability.

2. Analog input: supports both RCA and 3.5mm inputs. As for the balanced input, we may give it up since the connected source devices are mainly single-ended.

3. Wireless input: supports Bluetooth receiving. The WiFi function will be left behind to cut down costs and shorten the R&D period.

By the way, it is probably the product that integrates the current proven technologies, as an all-in-one desktop HiFi audio solution with high efficiency.

And I have already thought about the name of it, MS1, the abbreviation form of Music Station 1.