[ramaka]

Has anyone used Etymotic HF2 IEMs with X3/X5? Is it a good pairing?

 

[Muenchener]

   
You made the original statement, so the burden of proof is on you, not on everyone else to disprove it. If you can't, you can't complain if people dismiss your statement.
 
If one of their vendors is seeing a large amount of returns, that sounds to me like the kind of thing FiiO would know about. I work in web sales, and I can tell you right now that when we have abnormal quality issues with a product, the first thing we do is to contact the manufacturer and try to work out a solution, since it doesn't help them, us, or especially our customers to go on knowingly selling unsatisfactory products.
 
And why would the X3 suddenly start getting large amounts of returns, a year after release?
 
Lastly, if you really do have a friend at B&H, and this friend really does see a lot of returns of FiiO DAPs, but they let you buy an X5 anyway without warning you what you were probably getting in for, they sure didn't do their job as a friend.

You are right on the burden of proof, but is a moot point on a tech-related public forum. Does everyone have to provide proof for any statement made on a public forum? Really? In any case, I don't care.

The X3 or the X5 both have a very different (and lesser) UI than an iPod. It's irrelevant if it was released a year ago. Some buyers, that never had this type of DAP, expect a better UI, they don't get it, they return the DAP. No hard feelings, just business as usual on a consumer retail store. And FiiO wouldn't necessary know about it, because B&H sells all open box items on their used store. B&H gets thousands of returns each month, they just have the system to get rid of them easily and fast.

I said several times that I love my X5, and the few bugs remaining won't change that. I am not the type of costumer that returns a DAP like the X3 or the X5. And you know that what you are saying regarding this is an ad hominem fallacy. Besides, the person you are referring to works at the RETURNS AREA, he can't nor won't advice against buying any item.

 

[Age8E]

  You are right on the burden of proof, but is a moot point on a tech-related public forum. Does everyone have to provide proof for any statement made on a public forum? Really? In any case, I don't care.

The X3 or the X5 both have a very different (and lesser) UI than an iPod. It's irrelevant if it was released a year ago. Some buyers, that never had this type of DAP, expect a better UI, they don't get it, they return the DAP. No hard feelings, just business as usual on a consumer retail store. And FiiO wouldn't necessary know about it, because B&H sells all open box items on their used store. B&H gets thousands of returns each month, they just have the system to get rid of them easily and fast.

I said several times that I love my X5, and the few bugs remaining won't change that. I am not the type of costumer that returns a DAP like the X3 or the X5. And you know that what you are saying regarding this is an ad hominem fallacy. Besides, the person you are referring to works at the RETURNS AREA, he can't nor won't advice against buying any item.

 
No, this isn't a courtroom, but as free as you are to toss out statements like "these devices are getting returned a lot", others are free (and right) to question your source of information, particularly since that info doesn't jibe with what the company itself is seeing. I was just pointing out that daring everyone else to disprove you isn't a good way to answer such a challenge.
 
The Apple products and the FiiO products are competing in the same retail space. With the former, you have a product with the benefit of over a decade on the market and all the refinement that comes with it. With the latter, you have a product that's still early and evolving, and may have kinks to work out, but that delivers many things the iPods don't: high fidelity audio, FLAC and DSD support, swappable memory, and USB DAC functionality. Both products have strong and weak points.
 
You know all this, but the reason I reiterate it is because it is the job of a B&H salesperson (or webpage product listing) to identify a customer's needs and to steer them to the product that better fits those needs, based on the criteria above. And it is the customer's job to research a product before purchasing. If all of that fails, and a product sees a high number of returns, then as I said in my last post, it's the retailer's job to contact the manufacturer and work with them on their quality issues. If -- and I emphasize the "if" -- B&H is getting a lot of returns and hasn't contacted FiiO about it, that means that none of those steps above have taken place, and that would be the fault of B&H.
 
As for my responses to you being ad hominem, I have never attacked you personally. I've only addressed your criticisms of the product -- which, despite your protestations to the contrary, have been numerous -- and the circumstances surrounding them. A lot of us take umbrage at the constant criticism of FiiO for releasing a product with a handful of bugs and shortcomings; that shouldn't come as any surprise.

 

[Chris J]

+1 for Headphone Bar! Got mine there as well, and most of my other gear.

Very cool.
This was the first time I purchased gear from the Headphone Bar.
I've also had great customer service from The Headfone Shop.

 

[Chris J]

Gonna love the silly 'this happened X years ago, so why not now?' argument. Why are smartphone's battery life not on 1000+hrs per charge when I had a whole week of battery life in my dumbphone 10 years ago? Why are we not colonizing the moon when we already sent people up there some 45 years ago?

The fact, FiiO is only in the DAP market for just one years. Who-did-what some X time ago might sound nice, but it does nothing to help a company on building a business from the ground up. I don't see Sony, Apple, Microsoft or Sandisk sending their senior engineer to help FiiO anytime soon, nor is FiiO going to be able to afford those engineer anyway. It is not an excuse that FiiO's DAP isn't as good as it can be, but at least have some perspective about it.

p/s: 5800 files limitation has nothing to do with the Chinese. Lets don't blame them for everything happened everywhere. It has to do with the limited RAM available to the SoC, which isn't exactly your TOTL SoC to begin with.

Personally, 5,800 songs is more than enough for me.
I don't need to load all those second rate songs that I own onto my X5.

 

[Chris J]

I have that same setup Chris, but I find that the X5 amp does not drive my AKG Q701's efficiently but sound awesome with the E12 amp.

Hmmm..... I also have the E12 and the HS6 stacking kit.
I'm going to have to try some comparisons this weekend to compare the X5 headphone jack with the E12 headphone jack.
Guaranteed it will be interesting!

So far I've found that the X5 works very well with my Senn PX 100-II phones too.

 

[Chris J]

I have a little different opinion on FiiO. They have their niche. While I do agree at times some things don't make sense for the most part the product they have turned out is an incredible bang for the buck. So FiiO decides to bring on huge salaries for software engineers etc... and pushing their product line that means the price also increases and opens up a whole new list of bitches. I can hear it now folks here saying I remember when FiiO was affordable. You can't win with some people.

For those that think Apple is great I will not use one of their products, I loathe iTunes. I don't bitch on their forums and continue to try to coach Apple on how to build or run their business, nor does Apple care what I think.

I will say that anytime I have had an issue Fiio has hooked me up. I am not fanboy but enjoy portable equipment that has good quality sound. Apple has limited issues,now, with things not working because they control and limit the types of files and only use their hardware etc...the X5 is a broad based product. It is amazing that while some folks have issues others don't. I have had issues, frustrating... Yes. Overall things work.

X5 is not only file dependant but hardware dependant. There are many micro SD manufacturers. The flexibility of the FiiO X5 user to create the amount of storage they choose ie...you are not limited by a fixed storage amount, is a huge selling point to me. But it would be an insurmountable task to test with each SD card manufacturer. People buy and return products everyday, this is not one size fits all world.

My wife has an older iPad.
Apple no longer supports it.
Need I say more?

 

[Tom1206]

I put some big APE files in my X5, with CUE to specify the artist (with PERFORMER), album (with TITLE) and tracks. But when I use my X5 in "play by category", the artist name is recognized, as the tracks, but not the album name (indicating "Unknown album"). It's very annoying, and I don't know how to fix it... I need some help (NB: I am in 2.04Beta firmware and it's the first time I use CUE files on my X5)

 

[Loquah]

  I put some big APE files in my X5, with CUE to specify the artist (with PERFORMER), album (with TITLE) and tracks. But when I use my X5 in "play by category", the artist name is recognized, as the tracks, but not the album name (indicating "Unknown album"). It's very annoying, and I don't know how to fix it... I need some help (NB: I am in 2.04Beta firmware and it's the first time I use CUE files on my X5)

 
If I read the release notes correctly (I haven't paid close attention to the CUE section because I don't use CUE files) then they are still building the full CUE functionality through the various betas released over the last 1-2 weeks. Hopefully what your seeing is a piece of the puzzle that will come in the next 1-2 betas...

 

[Tom1206]

   
If I read the release notes correctly (I haven't paid close attention to the CUE section because I don't use CUE files) then they are still building the full CUE functionality through the various betas released over the last 1-2 weeks. Hopefully what your seeing is a piece of the puzzle that will come in the next 1-2 betas...

Thank you! I just have to wait now ^^

 

[aangen]

I just checked the B&H website for the X5 and found it has 8 customer reviews averaging 4.5 out of 5 stars, with the worst rating at 3 out of 5. If they are getting "a lot of returns" people seem quiet about it. I also checked their online used section and there was not a single used Fiio X3 or X5 listed. (There were iPods and one AK240) I could not find anything to support the claim Muenchener has made. Just sayin.....

 

[subguy812]

The device works as intended. FiiO always works on evolving their f/w but the X3 is a great device as is the X5. I also have a clip zip, smartphone etc...it is ok to have other things. I plug in my headphones or amp/headphones and turn on the X5 and out comes good sound. I think the reason I purchased this device was accomplished. If you tag your files oddly expect odd things. Just sayin'

 

[JoshuaA]

I don't see why returns matter based on UI.
I bought it for the portable audio experience and if people can't get used to the X5's UI, that's their problem.
 
I went into it knowing what to expect after reading reviews and watching vids.
Those ignorantly coming from their finely tuned 6th gen smartphones expecting the same fluidity, and perhaps diving into high quality listening for the first time are probably setting themselves up for disappointment.
 
It's these same people who have the option to easily return, much like the Costco mentality, the ability to trial them rather than buying with the full intention to keep, whether this is a subconscious decision or not.

 

[chengsta]

To me the UI is not bad at all.  I don't see what the complaint is really.  The x5 ui is so much better than the x3 which I upgraded from, no complaints here.  Sadly, all the satisfied customers are the quiet ones which make the minoritys complaints sound like everyones complaint.

 

[silversurfer616]

Also upgraded from X3 and very happy .Couldn't care less about UI as all that matters to me is the music/sound quality.