[jugglingsoot]

  HI everyone. 
I picked up the Fiio x5 about a week ago after returning the x1. As part of a general SQ upgrade I also got a new Beyer DT 990 pro 250 ohm after spending weeks doing research  and  hours auditioning  different kinds of open-back and closed headphones. I felt I needed a big change in SQ after years of frustration with my Senn HD 595s which I had found sounding dull, dry and somewhat  lacking sparkle in the highs, general dynamics and proper full bass response. THis is probly why I decided to pick up the Beyers which in most ways sounded  the opposite of the Senns.
Now to the point. While I didnt notice anything wrong with the sound coming from the Fiio  using a LO through an amp  while auditioning the Beyers in the shop , I got literally horrified when I got to do some proper listening in the quiet of my home. After listening  to the Fiio without an amp through my new DT 990s I started registering an annoyingly high degree of sibilance on many tracks. Other than that I was pretty excited about the SQ, especially the bass and highs as such. After listening to some more songs  I got so frustrated and disgusted  with the harsh ear-piercing sss´s that I in fact decided to return the Beyers.  
Now, putting the sibilance issue solely  down  to the Byers, especially after reading a whole thread  about this on here , I didnt even bother to give my old Senns a listen and set about putting the Beyers back in its retail package.
The next day I decided to listen to my Fiio , got hold of my Senns,  V-shaped the EQ , and, and to my horror and disbelief, the sibilance was there again, on the same tracks, maybe not as much, but It was definately there. Now the paradox is,  I cannot remember hearing any sibilance on the much cheaper X1.
Sorry for this longish write-up, but I am extremely frustrated and unhappy, dont know what to do. Shoud I  return the Beyers or the Fiio, or both ? Do they just need a much longer burn-in ? Might an external amp I have  just ordered  help sort this out ? I am desperate.
Anyone having similar problem? Any advice ? Any explanation ? Please, help!

 

 
I can certainly sympathize with all of that: personally, I found the X5 to be completely unlistenable.
 
The sibilance was ever-present, but for me the ear piercing part came from about where the mids meet the treble, making a sound unpleasantly like there was an angry man in my head hurling tin trays of crystal champagne flutes directly at my eardrums. After trying four various head/earphones and different tips, it was obvious the problem lay with the Fiio.
 
Hooking it up to an E12A amp ameliorated the problem somewhat, but in no way provided what might be termed a pleasurable listening experience. A shame, since the bits that weren't physically painful sounded excellent.
 
Fortunately, the X5 has stopped working, and is going back tomorrow. The replacement DX90 finished charging three hours ago, and even with a pair of Dunu 2000s with less than 30 hours on the clock, it makes a sound that isn't at all fatiguing. Or makes your eyes water.

 

[M-83]

  Hi and thanks for the response. The music on my Fiio is all in flac and I  heard  most of the highly unpleasant sounding sibilant consonants in  Paul Simon 's
vocals on his Graceland, There goes Rhymin Simon, and others, but also on many other albums by Yes, CSN and others. It is likely that some singers´ voices pitched higher
than others, typically Paul Simons, Neil Youngs, are more prone to sibilance, but I heard it more or less pronounced on lots of different kinds of music. if I should, however, pick some of the worst examples, they would be, as much as I can remember,  those two above-mentioned albums.
I  have ordered a desktop amp Pro-Ject Head Box S. I wonder if using the LO and the amp will change anything.
Cheers

Graceland is one of my all time favourite albums. I'll give a listen on my x5 & cayin C5 tomorrow for first time and see if I can hear what you did. I listened to concert in the park 1991 a bit earlier sounded great using my nfb15 & alpha primes.

 

[Chris J]

   Especially 24/96 rips of Vinyl records......

Vinyl rules, dude!

 

[Lifted Andreas]

Vinyl rules, dude!

Vinyl is the love child of music!

 

[mandrake50]

   
I can certainly sympathize with all of that: personally, I found the X5 to be completely unlistenable.
 
The sibilance was ever-present, but for me the ear piercing part came from about where the mids meet the treble, making a sound unpleasantly like there was an angry man in my head hurling tin trays of crystal champagne flutes directly at my eardrums. After trying four various head/earphones and different tips, it was obvious the problem lay with the Fiio.
 
Hooking it up to an E12A amp ameliorated the problem somewhat, but in no way provided what might be termed a pleasurable listening experience. A shame, since the bits that weren't physically painful sounded excellent.
 
Fortunately, the X5 has stopped working, and is going back tomorrow. The replacement DX90 finished charging three hours ago, and even with a pair of Dunu 2000s with less than 30 hours on the clock, it makes a sound that isn't at all fatiguing. Or makes your eyes water.

 Can't and will not argue with you... but I just flat don't hear it. Having listened with a dozen different IEMS and half a dozen headphones... and specifically the Paul Simon album, which also is one of my favorites... that I have listened to a few thousand times since buying it when new.. and a few dozen times on my X5.
 
Of course, I can't worry much about what  are hearing... hearing is a very personal thing. I only care how the device works for me...
Fortunately for me, I do not hear what you say that you are hearing... I have never thought the X5 was unlistenable.... quite the contrary, I very much like listening to mine!
 
Just curious, why is it important to convince people who enjoy listening to the X5 , that it is a lousy, unlistenable device?

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

/

 

[howdy]

I can certainly sympathize with all of that: personally, I found the X5 to be completely unlistenable.

The sibilance was ever-present, but for me the ear piercing part came from about where the mids meet the treble, making a sound unpleasantly like there was an angry man in my head hurling tin trays of crystal champagne flutes directly at my eardrums. After trying four various head/earphones and different tips, it was obvious the problem lay with the Fiio.

Hooking it up to an E12A amp ameliorated the problem somewhat, but in no way provided what might be termed a pleasurable listening experience. A shame, since the bits that weren't physically painful sounded excellent.

Fortunately, the X5 has stopped working, and is going back tomorrow. The replacement DX90 finished charging three hours ago, and even with a pair of Dunu 2000s with less than 30 hours on the clock, it makes a sound that isn't at all fatiguing. Or makes your eyes water.

I have booth the X5 and DX90 and if I had a choice the X5 would be my go to, I do like my DX90 a lot but there is something about the X5. I do not share your thoughts but I do have it paired with my E12 always and to my Hifiman HE 400i and this is the only way I listen to it. So maybe you are just using the wrong phones as most daps are dependent or have better synergy with certain phones.

 

[x RELIC x]

Synergy......... Audio chain........... Headphones/IEMs................. Poor quality files.............. Individual tastes................

Pick one

 

[Joe Bloggs]

HI everyone. 
I picked up the Fiio x5 about a week ago after returning the x1. As part of a general SQ upgrade I also got a new Beyer DT 990 pro 250 ohm after spending weeks doing research  and  hours auditioning  different kinds of open-back and closed headphones. I felt I needed a big change in SQ after years of frustration with my Senn HD 595s which I had found sounding dull, dry and somewhat  lacking sparkle in the highs, general dynamics and proper full bass response. THis is probly why I decided to pick up the Beyers which in most ways sounded  the opposite of the Senns.
Now to the point. While I didnt notice anything wrong with the sound coming from the Fiio  using a LO through an amp  while auditioning the Beyers in the shop , I got literally horrified when I got to do some proper listening in the quiet of my home. After listening  to the Fiio without an amp through my new DT 990s I started registering an annoyingly high degree of sibilance on many tracks. Other than that I was pretty excited about the SQ, especially the bass and highs as such. After listening to some more songs  I got so frustrated and disgusted  with the harsh ear-piercing sss´s that I in fact decided to return the Beyers.  
Now, putting the sibilance issue solely  down  to the Byers, especially after reading a whole thread  about this on here , I didnt even bother to give my old Senns a listen and set about putting the Beyers back in its retail package.
The next day I decided to listen to my Fiio , got hold of my Senns,  V-shaped the EQ , and, and to my horror and disbelief, the sibilance was there again, on the same tracks, maybe not as much, but It was definately there. Now the paradox is,  I cannot remember hearing any sibilance on the much cheaper X1.
Sorry for this longish write-up, but I am extremely frustrated and unhappy, dont know what to do. Shoud I  return the Beyers or the Fiio, or both ? Do they just need a much longer burn-in ? Might an external amp I have  just ordered  help sort this out ? I am desperate.
Anyone having similar problem? Any advice ? Any explanation ? Please, help!:confused_face(1):  

Isn't what you're hearing pretty much to be expected if you made your EQ "V-shaped"?

No offense to EQ (I use it all the time), but do try with the EQ:OFF setting first before laying the blame on the X5

 

[Ulmisch]

Hi Guys,
 
today i jumped on the X5 train and received my first Fiio unit.
I am looking forward to compare it to my AK100 and my DX90.
The first impression are really good. It came with Firmware 2.3.
I have updated the device to 2.4 and started with two prepared sd cards.
Scanning is much, much faster than with the DX90.
So far so good.
Sadly i have to wait to get my first sound impression, i have none of my cans with me in the office......
 
Maybe you can answer two initial question:
1. while charging the player will not power up (long press on power button). Is this correct?
2. when playing pressing the volume buttons longer will not change the volume constantly, but skip to the next or previous song.
I wonder if this is the intended behavior?!
 
thanks a lot

 

[Kerouac]

Isn't what you're hearing pretty much to be expected if you made your EQ "V-shaped"?

No offense to EQ (I use it all the time), but do try with the EQ:OFF setting first before laying the blame on the X5

And all this time I thought, why don't I hear the sibilance in that same music? Have my ears gone that bad over the years?
 
Well, I have another issue in the same category...everytime I listen with my iems straight out of the LO I think the volume is a bit loud.
Can this please be fixed?

 
 

 

[uzi2]

  Hi Guys,
 
today i jumped on the X5 train and received my first Fiio unit.
I am looking forward to compare it to my AK100 and my DX90.
The first impression are really good. It came with Firmware 2.3.
I have updated the device to 2.4 and started with two prepared sd cards.
Scanning is much, much faster than with the DX90.
So far so good.
Sadly i have to wait to get my first sound impression, i have none of my cans with me in the office......
 
Maybe you can answer two initial question:
1. while charging the player will not power up (long press on power button). Is this correct?
2. when playing pressing the volume buttons longer will not change the volume constantly, but skip to the next or previous song.
I wonder if this is the intended behavior?!
 
thanks a lot

Maybe you should look to your own advice befre jumping in here...

 

[Ulmisch]

 
Maybe you should look to your own advice befre jumping in here...

Problems solved, thanks for your help, your are my hero ... NOT

 

[Dobrescu George]

  And all this time I thought, why don't I hear the sibilance in that same music? Have my ears gone that bad over the years?
 
Well, I have another issue in the same category...everytime I listen with my iems straight out of the LO I think the volume is a bit loud.
Can this please be fixed?

 
 

line out outputs full volume all the time. it does not pass through amp section, so it should be loud... at what would you need it different?

 

[Kerouac]

 

  And all this time I thought, why don't I hear the sibilance in that same music? Have my ears gone that bad over the years?
 
Well, I have another issue in the same category...everytime I listen with my iems straight out of the LO I think the volume is a bit loud.
Can this please be fixed?

 
 

line out outputs full volume all the time. it does not pass through amp section, so it should be loud... at what would you need it different?

Yes I know. It was a (maybe bad) joke, therefor I put a smiley with a wink behind the question.
Btw, to all headfi-ers who think ''Hey, let's try this'': Please don't! I did it once by mistake and almost lost my iem/hearing over it...
 
And concerning full volume on LO: I like it as it is, using a Cayin C5 on it almost all the time...