Then again a product that offers the exact same user experience regardless of the quantity produced is the hallmark of a great manufacturer.
Something that many may have overlooked as a trivial convenience.
Have shared my concerns before on using the mechanical wheel as a navigator in the Hifiman HM-901 thread.
And having gone through 4 different sets of HM-901, i can tell you without a doubt, each of them felt different when spinning the navigation wheel or volume pot.
Each navigation wheel had different levels of smoothness, fit and tactility which changes the user experience on each unit.
Each volume pot had different accuracy in volume control, some springy, some smooth, some grainy to the touch.
While we have different opinions on the matter, in the real world, the design path taken for X5's navigation wheel does offer a cause for concern.
It is the single most used part of the player and everyday, the wheel will undergo thousands of scrolls (more with 2 x 64GB worth of music, less on high res, more with mp3).
Say each scroll, the user moves from the start to the end of the file list and back and forth, for just one track. Multiply that action across up to a 100 tracks per day or commute.
You get the picture.
While am sure Fiio's QC is top notch, the nature of such a mechanical design is, and will definitely fail over the course of use. The question is when.
Believe, the when is a calculated risk that users of the product by then, would move on to their next product, the X7, which in the picture shared earlier in this thread is a full touch design.
And it is perhaps the reason why Apple has moved on from a scroll based navigation to a full touch based navigation, to reduce if not eliminate this design flaw.
Of course after saying all that, am still trying to find ways and means to get an X5 myself to use.
Oh well, am hopelessly lost to this hobby regardless.
