[JamesFiiO]

  Do you guys think that the LOD that comes with the HS6 Stacking Kit is better than the L8 LOD?

 
yes, it is better.

 

[sandalaudio]

  What is really alarming here is that no one actually expects it to work "as advertized"  The audio world has done a job worthy of Microsloth in lowering expectations.

 
Yes. People who have been in this industry for a long time know and expect nothing to work "as advertised" at least for the initial few months from product launch. Even big brands in digital audio like Linn had terrible firmware for the first 2-3 years.
 
A lot of people new to Hi-Fi believes that these companies have a multi-million dollar laboratory where there are several world-expert engineers and programmers working day and night. The reality is much less glamorous. Even Sony's home theatre devision only has around 20 active staff developing their things. Fiio is pretty good, but there are other manufacturers that only hires fresh university graduates with zero prior Hi-Fi knowledge. The programmer might only work there only part time two days a week, etc.
 
It is a niche industry, with very low expectations for perfection. It takes time and encouragement to reach maturity. Some brands continue to improve, while others collapse in that journey.

 

[thericochet]

My particular need is for true gapless, but I've even figured a way around that.  My personal listening preference is by album, from first track to last.  If worse comes to worst, I'll just re-rip my CDs that need to be gapless to a single ALAC or FLAC file.  The X5 will support .cue files in a future firmware release but, until then, I'm perfectly content just playing the album file front-to-back without being able to skip to a particular track.  That will work just fine for me, the downside is minimal, and I get the benefit of the incredible sonic qualities of the X5.

Hi, just wanted to say (aside from that gapless has possibly been fixed in 1.22), that if you already have FLACs you don't need to spend the time to re-rip as one file. You can just join the existing FLAC files and that will be hundreds of times quicker. If the original album was gapless and was correctly ripped, the result of joining the FLACs will be gapless.

 

[JamesFiiO]

1、The maximum number of songs that can be added to the library database is in the range of 5800 (with songs being all in individual files) to 6200 (with songs being grouped together with a .cue file).
With 8000 songs in the database there is higher likelihood of running out of internal memory, so the upper limit was lowered.
(Limit is not dependent on such things as length of song title or artist name)
 
2、Number of files / subdirectories under one folder is limited to:
2000 in the case of NTFS filesystem;
65536 in the case of FAT32 filesystem.
 
Note: the limitation is firmware related in the case of NTFS whereas for FAT32 65536 is the hard limit imposed by the file system.
The limitation regarding sub directory depth (imposed by the file system in both cases) is that the length of a path plus the name of a file in the innermost directory must not exceed 256 characters.

 

[ptravel]

  Do you notice any improvement in the UI lagging at all? i.e. the scroll wheel on volume or delay if skipping tracks, moving between songs/folders, etc. Thanks!

To be honest, I never really noticed a lag in the UI.  However, the UI seems quick and responsive in 1.22.

 

[Rolandcube]

Is there a place to download the 1.22 beta fw.  Perhaps it is posted already somewhere but 442 pages.

 

[Rolandcube]

I receive yesterday my x5 from hdphns.com. Erik thanks for fast delivery

The sound quality of the x5 is awesome, but there is one thing  that i miss.
and that's the treble and bass function that was on my x3.
I now there is a equalizer but it is not fine to use and with some flac files its not working I do not know why.
 
James maybe a treble bass option for a new firmware. 

 

[viet1357911]

  I receive yesterday my x5 from hdphns.com. Erik thanks for fast delivery

The sound quality of the x5 is awesome, but there is one thing  that i miss.
and that's the treble and bass function that was on my x3.
I now there is a equalizer but it is not fine to use and with some flac files its not working I do not know why.
 
James maybe a treble bass option for a new firmware. 

Ya +1 James plzzzzzz

 

[ptravel]

I've gotten some PMs asking for the link to the 1.22 beta firmware.  As I mentioned in my post, I've been working directly with Fiio customer service and it is from them that I received the link.  Unless someone from Fiio tells me that it's okay to publicly disclose the link, I don't feel comfortable doing so.  I'd suggest that, if you don't want to wait for the public release, that you email customer service and ask them if you can have it.  I should note that I'm an intellectual property lawyer -- I respect the intellectual property rights of others and, though I'd very much like to share the improvements in the 1.22 beta firmware with everyone, I don't own the rights and have no authorization to do so.
 
Sorry.

 

[JamesFiiO]

  I receive yesterday my x5 from hdphns.com. Erik thanks for fast delivery

The sound quality of the x5 is awesome, but there is one thing  that i miss.
and that's the treble and bass function that was on my x3.
I now there is a equalizer but it is not fine to use and with some flac files its not working I do not know why.
 
James maybe a treble bass option for a new firmware. 

 
 
Sorry, the treble and bass adjust is hardware feature in x3 so we can't add it in X5.

 

[rfox]

I'm watching this thread very carefully - because I am contemplating replacing my aging Cowon S9 (32GB) device - which is not expandable with either the FiiO X5 or the iBasso DX90.  After reading much of the "complaints" and observations - I have the impression that FiiO has focused on SQ more than anything else.  It seems to be a conscious design decision NOT to include internal memory (even if it was 1G or 4G) - but considering that even cheap printers have 512K or more of working memory (and it is rather inexpensive) - I fail to understand this hardware design decision made - it may be too late to change the HW designs to accommodate this without dramatic increase of end price of the X5 - can't say.
 
After recently purchasing the FiiO E17/E09K combination for desktop use - I am impressed with the price performance of their products in general.
 
All-in-all, I am still SERIOUSLY considering the X5 despite all what I have read so far.  I still own a working Cowon X5 (30GB) - and the UI and features are/were real quirky and counter intuitive - but the SQ was awesome for its time.  So willing to make compromises and remain confident that FiiO will do their best to appease the wider audience.
 
Just my 2 cents  . . .

 

[ma10]

@JamesFiiO, has there been no more shipments since the last blog update on 3rd April?

 

[JamesFiiO]

  I'm watching this thread very carefully - because I am contemplating replacing my aging Cowon S9 (32GB) device - which is not expandable with either the FiiO X5 or the iBasso DX90.  After reading much of the "complaints" and observations - I have the impression that FiiO has focused on SQ more than anything else.  It seems to be a conscious design decision NOT to include internal memory (even if it was 1G or 4G) - but considering that even cheap printers have 512K or more of working memory (and it is rather inexpensive) - I fail to understand this hardware design decision made - it may be too late to change the HW designs to accommodate this without dramatic increase of end price of the X5 - can't say.
 
After recently purchasing the FiiO E17/E09K combination for desktop use - I am impressed with the price performance of their products in general.
 
All-in-all, I am still SERIOUSLY considering the X5 despite all what I have read so far.  I still own a working Cowon X5 (30GB) - and the UI and features are/were real quirky and counter intuitive - but the SQ was awesome for its time.  So willing to make compromises and remain confident that FiiO will do their best to appease the wider audience.
 
Just my 2 cents  . . .

 
yes, I total agree and understand what you said. anyway, people have freedom to choose what will be the their best DAP.  and of course we will try to make everyone happy if we can. 
 
but the fact is that you don't have unlimited resource and ability. 

 

[JamesFiiO]

  @JamesFiiO, has there been no more shipments since the last blog update on 3rd April?

 
yes, we had have a short vocation. and the new shipment will start from tomorrow but we may not updating it daily again.. 

 

[Jobbing]

I'm watching this thread very carefully - because I am contemplating replacing my aging Cowon S9 (32GB) device - which is not expandable with either the FiiO X5 or the iBasso DX90.  After reading much of the "complaints" and observations - I have the impression that FiiO has focused on SQ more than anything else.  It seems to be a conscious design decision NOT to include internal memory (even if it was 1G or 4G) - but considering that even cheap printers have 512K or more of working memory (and it is rather inexpensive) - I fail to understand this hardware design decision made - it may be too late to change the HW designs to accommodate this without dramatic increase of end price of the X5 - can't say.

After recently purchasing the FiiO E17/E09K combination for desktop use - I am impressed with the price performance of their products in general.

All-in-all, I am still SERIOUSLY considering the X5 despite all what I have read so far.  I still own a working Cowon X5 (30GB) - and the UI and features are/were real quirky and counter intuitive - but the SQ was awesome for its time.  So willing to make compromises and remain confident that FiiO will do their best to appease the wider audience.

Just my 2 cents  . . .

Untill recently I owned a S9 + JDS Labs. Sold those to fund the X5. The X5 outperforms that combo with ease imo. You probably won't regret purchasing the X5 unless you're a basshead.