...Guys, if you're this unhappy with Fiio, why don't you just stop thinking about them and move on? I mean yes, leaving your feedback so others can make as an informed of a decision as possible is always helpful, but it feels like this thread has kind of derailed lately. You could always sell or give away whatever Fiio you have and just try something else. This hobby is full of risks, sometimes because you don't know if you'll like something every else seems to like, sometimes because you don't know how things are going to go. If those risks are too much for you, then I don't know what to tell you.
Sorry if my posts create some irritation. It was not my intention. The thread is called "The Fiio X5 Thread" and I supposed that was open to all kinds of feedback and not only to the positive ones. If I was wrong I apologize. As I said, I already acknowledged the situation and I don't expect to see any improvement on this. Anyhow, if the hardware issues are not fixable anymore the FW ones are. For instance if you think that when you engage a controller clockwise the interface elements are rotating counterclockwise is normal then I have no more arguments to add.
As you said, the best is to be able to find all information about a product features/functionality/quality and brand customer support etc so that you can make an educated decision. I'm now in process to update/complete my HiFi system and I'm living in a place where auditioning the equipment is not possible (at least at reasonable prices since it imply taking day off from job, travel, hotel ....). As a consequence I 'm mostly relying on Internet information. The only possibility is to read the reviews on the specialty sites and forums posts for user opinions. Then reading equipment reviews for a real research and not just for the sake of the hobby info I've noted that actually there are only positive reviews ! (very small exceptions). Everybody in the industry is doing only at least very good equipment. Everywhere they "never hear before such...", "unmatched sound.....", etc. Off course everybody realize that most of the sites are run through advertising and some of them will review only products from brands that buy ad place on the site. Off course they have strong policies related to that but from the policy to reality there are a lot of compromises to be done and then the objectivity border line became fuzzy. The only chance for users to balance this are the forums hopping to find there all sides of the story good or bad. Then the risk is minimized and you don't need to waste money and time until you find something that is satisfying.
The portable audio world moves much faster than mainstream scenario's like Apple, Sony etc. This is niche market where 2 year life span of a player is normal. If FiiO don't move on then they'll get left behind as all the other companies follow the routine.
I think the main problem is, as portable audio is now becoming more popular we're also reaching the mainstream consumer faster than ever. And the outcome of this is surprise, shock disappointment when they find out a products no longer supported etc.
Let's not foul ourselves. The portable audio devices are true targeted to a niche audience, but almost no maker is actually invented something new or promoting any new technology. These are coming from the mainstream products and all of them were available more than two years back. They are using DAC chips that are already on the market for long time (only AK 4490 was introduced last year). The control DSP and CPU are there for long time, The interface being touch screen otr not is there for long time, the OS used being Android or other is there also long time before. Other than putting these together and having a good engineering department to make the various system integration is nothing extraordinary. There was no any breakthrough technologies in the last two years that stopped them (and I'm not speaking only about Fiio) to do what they do now. Fiio X7 or A&K 320, A&K380 (excepting the DAC chip) etc could been as well developed two years ago. Anyhow I don't want to say that X7 was supposed to be lunched two years ago. I just pointed out that releasing products in a fast pace without big differences between then (e.g. X5, X5 II gen), or totally abandon a product concept in less than two years from the initial release, show that the respective brand has no any medium or long term strategy in developing a product line starting from a concept, going through the first implementation and steadily improving and refining tit. Instead they prefer to put the parts together and release a new product just because the time was come or because others did it too. From this point of view Fiio and A&K are very similar. The only thing that separate them is the marketing strategy. Fiio choose to sell more at a lower price and A&K took the path of luxury and exclusivity targeting smaller market with extreme prices. Just for fun I must mention that I'm living since several years in Korea and there is no Askell and no Kern here, they are only Kim, Park, Lee, Shin... but for sure, no matter how good will be the sound, you will not sell to many Kim&Park players
. I don't see how somebody could convince me that AK380=10xFiio off course excluding real gold cases and eventualy diamond inserts. Finally is a player using a mainstream DAC chip (true that is new but still mainstream chip that is and will be used in many other products) and maybe better tuned analog signal processing.
Regarding these players going mainstream I doubt that it will happens. I don't see many people spending ~400USD on a music player not to mention paying additional good money on quality ear/headphones plus tinkering with unusual files (for them), other media players to handle them and upgraded storage to store them. Is similar with photo cameras/watces or similar, majority of people see no reason to pay more than ~200USD for a camera or watch.
Nevertheless I must say again I didn't want to offend or irritate any of you. I know that owning a device is making someone more sensitive to the eventual critics related to it but I think that we must to make an effort to be objective and look again. If we can do it we will be closer to the real thing and if currently nothing could be improved, at least we will be better prepared next time!
PS. For the native English people I must to apologize for the eventual spelling or weird expressions. I hope that in the end what I was willing to say was intelligible.
