The Fiio X5 Thread

[bowei006]

Quote:

 
HiSound makes some of the most fragile devices on the market. They come with a very limited amount of disk memory and don't play many formats. They also NEED an amplifier for most full sized headphones, and even some IEMs. They are decent DAPs, but far from what they (Audiobreeder) wants according to his qualities.  

I wasn't too sure about fragile-ness but there we go I guess.

 

[Greed]

Quote:

I wasn't too sure about fragile-ness but there we go I guess.

 
I mean it has a full body aluminum case, but the back is high gloss (much like the back of the older ipods - looks like a mirror). It is very fingerprint, scratch, scuff, dent, etc. prone. Not only that, some users gave reported dropping it on carpet and it stopped working. It is a good sounding DAP and has a good battery life, but other than that... it could stand some major improvements.

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

 
I mean it has a full body aluminum case, but the back is high gloss (much like the back of the older ipods - looks like a mirror). It is very fingerprint, scratch, scuff, dent, etc. prone. Not only that, some users have reported dropping it on carpet and it stopped working. It is a good sounding DAP and has a good battery life, but other than that... it could stand some major improvements.

I've heard it had some noise problems and power like you said.
 
I won't be doing a drop test with the X3 any time soon though.
 

---

I have the solution for a digital to analog player that he was looking for.

Spoiler: solution

 
 ($200 used for an old early version)
 
+
 

 
+
 
 ($70 used)
 
+
3 of
 ($20 each on ebay)
 
 
 

Would suit all of his requirements. 
 
It's rugged, has a battery life of what he wants. Ample amping power, and has a 500GB storage space and sub $400

 

[CH23]

Qualities for an audiophile DAP.

1. Needs to be below $400 US
2. Battery life needs to be at least $15-18 hrs (would be nice to be replaceable too)
3. Sound quality should be good & Volume should be loud enough.
4. DOES NOT NEED AN AMPLIFIER. (I find it absurd paying so high for a DAP & then pairing it with an amp)
    Never ever did cassette players & discman needed an amp for so called 'sound quality' .
5. Must be able to take a fall without damage. After all we are humans and nothing stays put in our hands.
6. MOST IMPORTANT - Must have built in storage of 500GB or more.
    I dont remember when MP3 came out, but I do know that somewhere around the years 1998-2000, I had MP3 of at least 5-8GB. It's past 12 years since and we are still having DAP giving us paltry storage. For me SD/Micro-SD are not what I like to use for accessing media. All DAPs take a processing time to scan them. The higher the storage of these cards, the more time it's going to take load. 

If one player provides this, my quest will be over.

Point 1: it's 2013. That's really unrealistic.
2: same as first. That technology is only recently discovered (graphene)
3: yes obviously.
4:well, it really depends on the headphones you want to use if you need one.(and cassette had terrible sound quality)
5: never dropped my iPhone 4, or my 2nd gen iPod Touch. I agree that it should be able to withstand a bit of falling.
6: this conflicts with point 1, or point 5, as HDD is cheap, but can't take a fall easily, and SSD/flash isn't cheap.
in the year 2000 5GB of portable space was an enormous amount, are you sure you had it back then?

what you're looking for came to you in a dream, possibly a sight of a future, but i wouldn't expect this to come any time soon.

Sorry to disappoint you.

-CH23

 

[Hutnicks]

Quote:

Point 1: it's 2013. That's really unrealistic.
2: same as first. That technology is only recently discovered (graphene)
3: yes obviously.
4:well, it really depends on the headphones you want to use if you need one.(and cassette had terrible sound quality)
5: never dropped my iPhone 4, or my 2nd gen iPod Touch. I agree that it should be able to withstand a bit of falling.
6: this conflicts with point 1, or point 5, as HDD is cheap, but can't take a fall easily, and SSD/flash isn't cheap.
in the year 2000 5GB of portable space was an enormous amount, are you sure you had it back then?

what you're looking for came to you in a dream, possibly a sight of a future, but i wouldn't expect this to come any time soon.

Sorry to disappoint you.

-CH23

1 Why is that? If Apple can knock out iPads for 100 dollars cost and audio player should actually be cheaper. That leaves 300 for markup.
 
2 nonesense. The last generation Sony MD players got 40 hours out of a single AA cell, and that was driving a motor as well as playback
 
3 of course.
 
4 Need some sort of impedence matching kit for that and I think it falls more on the shoulders of the headphone makers to take the onus here.
 
5 Or have a factory approved or option case that is shock resistant.
 
6 It actually conflicts with point 2. Memory eats battery life. I'd be lean toward having USB support to attach an SSD if I needed it.

 

[cyberalpha11]

If X5 can have battery life 10 - 12 hrs, it would be very nice.
Besides great SQ and battery life, X5 must free of heat issue and build quality issue like what HM-901 is facing during mass production now.
Heat is bad because it degrade the life of components on PCA.

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

1 Why is that? If Apple can knock out iPads for 100 dollars cost and audio player should actually be cheaper. That leaves 300 for markup.
 
 

Just the parts cost of the new iPad are about $325 at the least
 
The new iPad past the iPad 2 estimate in the link above should put cost at around $340+ considering Retina screen addition, and getting everything somehow smaller, yet faster and what not.

 

[Hutnicks]

Quote:

Just the parts cost of the new iPad are about $325 at the least
 
The new iPad past the iPad 2 estimate in the link above should put cost at around $340+ considering Retina screen addition, and getting everything somehow smaller, yet faster and what not.

Fair enough, now start subtracting all the extraneous stuff out and see what remains.

 

[Greed]

Quote:

1 Why is that? If Apple can knock out iPads for 100 dollars cost and audio player should actually be cheaper. That leaves 300 for markup.
 
2 nonesense. The last generation Sony MD players got 40 hours out of a single AA cell, and that was driving a motor as well as playback
 
3 of course.
 
4 Need some sort of impedence matching kit for that and I think it falls more on the shoulders of the headphone makers to take the onus here.
 
5 Or have a factory approved or option case that is shock resistant.
 
6 It actually conflicts with point 2. Memory eats battery life. I'd be lean toward having USB support to attach an SSD if I needed it.

 
An iPad is $500, not $400 (yes, you can find them for $400, but we are talking MSRP... not street price). Another point you didn't mention is that an iPad is huge compared to any audiophile DAP on the market. Number 2 is a good example, but can you give 5-6 more? There are obviously exceptions to most things, you found one, but that doesn't mean someone is going to use that as a template for a DAP. Again, you failed to mention that a MD player has no internal memory, meaning battery life can be extended much longer than if you would have to power a HD inside a device. Your fourth point is stretching the bounds even further than Audiobreeder's qualities. Headphone companies aren't going to drop what they are doing and implement new technology that could potentially create more problems such as noise and distortion. Your fifth point, I totally agree. An included case (durable and shock resistant) should be mandatory. Number 6 is a good idea, although that would defeat the purpose of a "portable" solution. No one wants to lug around a SSD or USB drive along with the proper interconnects. 

 

[Mython]

And don't forget, Apple sell millions of devices. A small company like Fiio only sell a few thousand of each device. That makes a massive difference in terms of component costs and in terms of component sourceability/obtainability (screens, for example).
 
Basically, it's an entirely unrealistic comparison to mention Apple productions costs with production costs for any small vendor like iBasso, Fiio, etc.

 

[OK-Guy]

you guys should really think of building your own, you can design in all the features you want, get someone to make you a nice case on one of those printer-thiingy's... bingo you're sorted.

 

[OK-Guy]

Quote:

Basically, it's an entirely unrealistic comparison to mention Apple productions costs with production costs for any small vendor like iBasso, Fiio, etc.

 
+1

 

[Levanter]

If X5 can have battery life 10 - 12 hrs, it would be very nice.
Besides great SQ and battery life, X5 must free of heat issue and build quality issue like what HM-901 is facing during mass production now.
Heat is bad because it degrade the life of components on PCA.

Speaking of which the X3 has some heat issues too. It gets pretty warm quite fast.

 

[Greed]

Quote:

Speaking of which the X3 has some heat issues too. It gets pretty warm quite fast.

 
Can you feel it through the rubber case that was provided? Or is this naked?

 

[Hutnicks]

Quote:

 
An iPad is $500, not $400 (yes, you can find them for $400, but we are talking MSRP... not street price). Another point you didn't mention is that an iPad is huge compared to any audiophile DAP on the market. Number 2 is a good example, but can you give 5-6 more? There are obviously exceptions to most things, you found one, but that doesn't mean someone is going to use that as a template for a DAP. Again, you failed to mention that a MD player has no internal memory, meaning battery life can be extended much longer than if you would have to power a HD inside a device. Your fourth point is stretching the bounds even further than Audiobreeder's qualities. Headphone companies aren't going to drop what they are doing and implement new technology that could potentially create more problems such as noise and distortion. Your fifth point, I totally agree. An included case (durable and shock resistant) should be mandatory. Number 6 is a good idea, although that would defeat the purpose of a "portable" solution. No one wants to lug around a SSD or USB drive along with the proper interconnects. 

Impedance matching is not rocket science . Speaker builders have had a handle on it for decades. There is no reason that an ER4P to S type converter cannot be included with any headphone.
 
The MD player had a massive read ahead buffer, and running a motor is more power intensive than maintaining memory any day. As for an HD in the DAP who in there right mind would want one after the Microdrive fiasco. They all got replaced with CF cards.
 
The external connectivity simply opens up options. I carry a camera bag most of the time so a Dap with an SSD attached (depending on the size of the SSD) is no big thing. If I had to fit it into a Tux pocket that would be a different thing,
 
 
Well at least no ones mentioned inertia charging options