High end DAPs: Fiio X1, X3, and X5--Anyone own these or something like it?

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I have been searching for a new MP-3 player or a dedicated portable digital audio player, scavenging through the dregs of the remaining iPods and such online, when I saw the light and looked at the www.head-fi.org site posted on the headphone thread. I have also been considering buying a used or NOS ($$$) Sony Discman, but now there appears to be a bit of a renaissance in DAPs that support multiple formats--including, importantly--lossless formats such as FLAC. Thes Fiio players are reasonably priced ($100-500) and seem to have very high quality components, great build quality (aluminum or titanium case), and are not limited by internal memory, taking up to a 128GB card (or two if you buy the X5). According to what I see on my HD, a 128GB card would hold about 500 CDs worth in FLAC format.

This product would satisfy and exceed my need/desire for an MP-3 player and a Discman. Does anyone own one of these? What about the competition? Pono? Cowen? ?

http://www.fiio.net/en/products

http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-x1-ultraportable-hi-res-dap

http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-x3-2nd-gen-ultraportable-hi-res-dap

[Green Destiny]

Hello XB-70 Valkyrie - I have owned a FiiOX1 for a few months now.
I am very pleased with it - I have a 128GB Micro-SD Card in it and im not sure how many albums it holds but I have about 1000 on it (I am using files at 256 though).
The product build is excellent - it is a very durable player. The battery life isn't as good as an iPod but I can still get 8 or 9 hours out of it before I have to recharge.
One thing I noticed is that the FiiOX1's software only can handle 5800 tracks so if you have more than that on the device the software wont recognize all the albums but you can still play them if you just use the browse files option (which is a bit slower and clumsier).

[Gurn Blanston]

Thanks for pointing all this out!   Based on the Head-Fi, Conor's comments, and a bunch of web surfing since reading your post, I just put one of these (X3 2nd gen 2015 model) and a 128gig micro-SD in the cart at Amazon. I have lots of flacs which I use for archiving, but my little old Sony (a nice player) only plays MP3's, so I convert everything. Looks like I will soon be able to quit that out.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Flash memory and cards for digital cameras are becoming so cheap, I sometimes wonder whether it is even worth the trouble of reformatting cards, or just leaving the full ones lying around as yet another backup. However, I am advised by others in my field that these cards are not great for long term archiving, and currently nothing beats a HD (or tape if you're some kind of fanatic).

Also, yes, this saves a great amount of time and trouble transcoding stuff from FLAC to MP-3. Really, the only thing I will need MP-3 for is listening in the car.

[Green Destiny]

Thanks for pointing all this out!   Based on the Head-Fi, Conor's comments, and a bunch of web surfing since reading your post, I just put one of these (X3 2nd gen 2015 model) and a 128gig micro-SD in the cart at Amazon. I have lots of flacs which I use for archiving, but my little old Sony (a nice player) only plays MP3's, so I convert everything. Looks like I will soon be able to quit that out.

Excellent Gurn! - you will be really pleased with that player im sure

[Rinaldo]

Cool, I was circling the lower end Fiio's for quite some time now. While I'm comfortable with my super-portable Philips GoGear that endured years of abuse, seems to never run out of batteries and has a surprisingly solid sound for such a small & cheap player, using it with my Sennheiser Momentums is a crime against fidelity.

(Also, big up for Merriweather Post Pavilion!)

[Green Destiny]

Cool, I was circling the lower end Fiio's for quite some time now. While I'm comfortable with my super-portable Philips GoGear that endured years of abuse, seems to never run out of batteries and has a surprisingly solid sound for such a small & cheap player, using it with my Sennheiser Momentums is a crime against fidelity.

(Also, big up for Merriweather Post Pavilion!)

The FiiO is a really nice player if you ever need one in future - it sounds like you got a lot of life out of your current player which is excellent
I think I only got about 4 years out of my first iPod classic - I still have another working iPod classic and iPod touch (as well as the FiiO) which I hope will give a few more years use before I have to switch to using a mobile phone!

[Purusha]

I bought a Fiio X3 to replace my dead iPod Classic. Sound quality is good. Slightly less "meaty" then the classic but with better sound stage and detail. Software is decent enough, not as polished as that of the classic but the fact i can just drag and drop my files into the device without having to bother with iTunes or a surrogate makes up for everything else. That was possibly my single greatest pet peeve about the classic. One thing i like is that the unit can also serve both as external sound card and DAC, all though i must point out that the battery remains active even when the DAC function is turned on, which means that even when device is plugged directly on a computer you are still cutting on the durability of the battery, which is something of a design design oversight for me. Manually changing the battery isn't a huge deal since you just have to solder two wires but i still hate the fact that i have to perform some kind of surgery at all (or simply send the unit back, which is always fun). Then again, by the time the battery dies something much better may be out in the market so maybe this is a minor concern. The lesser known counterpart to Fiio is iBasso, and you can easily replace the battery on their devices without performing any type of surgery, and the battery itself is the same as that of a Galaxy S3, which i thought was a very smart solution.

[Purusha]

My X3 can drive my Sennheiser HD 600 pretty well, certainly better then the classic. Of course, i have a desktop amplifier at home which is what i use with the Sennheiser. The X3 is strictly for portable use, where power isn't much of a concern and amplifiers are used mostly to change the sound signature.

The Sony looks interesting but the limited capacity is a deal breaker for me. Lack of a micro sd slot is inexcusable in this day and age, and i have a feeling they do it purely so they can sell you different "models" of the same device, each with an increased capacity (and cost!). Hell, i had a mind of upgrading to an X5 so i could stick two micro sd cards into it. 64gb max capacity on the Sony? Forget about it.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

THanks to all for the replies.

The Sony A15 with 64GB internal memory and expansion slot (Accepting up to a 128 GB card) looks very nice for around $300.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OCJRX8C/ref=psdc_1264866011_t1_B00N3WWU5K

I just wonder about the difference in sound quality (vs the Fiio) and the need to use iTunes. I use Sennheiser HD 25 Sp phones which I bought in 1998 for about $100. I don't see any compelling reason to upgrade any time soon. So, it's not as if I need output for really high end, hard to drive 'phones.

Previously I have used an iPod Touch (8GB), which was given to me as a gift. It was a nice device for the most part, except that I hate iTunes and haven't even dowloaded it onto my latest PC or laptops. The idea that one needs a media player to manage a portable device is irritating to me in any case--I would much prefer to just drag and drop files onto a card and let it go a that. The description for the Sony however says "Drag and drop from iTunes for Mac or Windows". Having to use iTunes would be a deal-killer for me on this one.

[Purusha]

The techno-blurb on Amazon UK for the Sony A15 they sell there says it comes with 16Gb internal memory and an expansion slot for micro-SD cards.  One of the guys in the "answers" claims to have fitted a 128Gb card with no problems, though frankly I imagine 64 would be plenty for me whichever device I got.  I don't try to keep a whole library on my portable, just those recordings I'm interested in at the moment, so there's a fair bit of turnover, but when the PC sees it as like a normal disk drive then that's just a matter of drag & drop or cut & paste or whatever.  My current player has only 8Gb and I've never filled that.  There's always stuff on there that I've listened to and am now happy to replace with something else.

I stand corrected. Great to know Sony didn't pull an Apple after all.

[Gurn Blanston]

....The idea that one needs a media player to manage a portable device is irritating to me in any case--I would much prefer to just drag and drop files onto a card and let it go a that. The description for the Sony however says "Drag and drop from iTunes for Mac or Windows". Having to use iTunes would be a deal-killer for me on this one.

No, I'm sure you have already figured out that they are merely suggesting iTunes as one of the ways you can load music. I use (daily) a Sony Walkman MP3 player, about which they said exactly the same thing. I plug it in to my Win 7 PC via USB and drag and drop from my file manager software. I did, however, have to go to the driver setup via device manager and change the default to the mode which sets up a drive letter (I can never remember the names of these damned things!) rather than the default mode which 'syncs' through whatever software you use for that. I can't imagine a situation where I would want to do that, let alone a default mode! 

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Just ordered an X1 with 64 GB card. It was a tough decision between the Fiio and Sony lines. The gist of all the reviews I read is that the Sony is overall a more polished, sleeker product with much better UI, file browsing, and battery life, but is also weaker on output and sound quality. This included complaints about low volume and even background hiss.

I figure for about $100 I can try this out, and if it drives me nuts I will probably get the Sony. If not, I'll probably go for an X3 or X5. Some people apparently own both brands and use them for different purposes.

[PaulR]

Sorry to bump and hijack the post, but I got a question.  I just got an X5 and the one thing I am having trouble with is keeping the SD card inside the player.  It doesn't latch in, and the only thing that allows me to play music/transfer music on is by physically holding it in.  Is this a defect in this specific player or am I doing something wrong?

[Holden]

Sounds very much like a problem with the player. Return it and ask for a replacement.

That said,

some players require a very firm insertion of an SD card.

From the X5 manual

The X5 supports TF cards (also known as micro SD cards), including SDHC and SDXC.

Q:Is the X5 picky about cards?
A:The X5 has been tested to support major brands such as Sandisk and Kingston very well.  It is beyond our ability ,but any genuine card from a semireputable brand should work with the X5.  To prevent slow card speeds causing the X5 to stall while playing or be unable to play high bitrate lossless tracks (such as 192k/24bit APE files), please use TF cards of Class 6 or above.

[PaulR]

Sounds very much like a problem with the player. Return it and ask for a replacement.

That said,

some players require a very firm insertion of an SD card.

From the X5 manual

The X5 supports TF cards (also known as micro SD cards), including SDHC and SDXC.

Q:Is the X5 picky about cards?
A:The X5 has been tested to support major brands such as Sandisk and Kingston very well.  It is beyond our ability ,but any genuine card from a semireputable brand should work with the X5.  To prevent slow card speeds causing the X5 to stall while playing or be unable to play high bitrate lossless tracks (such as 192k/24bit APE files), please use TF cards of Class 6 or above.

Damn, I hope they would replace it as I got it through a seller on Amazon.  (And I am using a Sandisk brand card).  I sent them an e-mail, perhaps there is something I can do without sending it back.  I dont know

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I have owned the X1 for a couple months now and love it! Best $100 I've ever spent. I am still on the 64 GB card, which holds about 250 CDs worth in FLAC format. (I have over 1000, but will get a 128 GB card eventually) Build quality is great. External hard buttons for volume, pause, track advance are very nice. Sound quality would nuke the iPod, and browsing by folders is very fast and easy. It has more than enough power to drive my Sennheiser HD 25 SPs, and in line out mode, it is very good for driving a powered speaker like my Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss radio.

As for the card, I only inserted it once, but I did have to use a good deal of force to get it to latch into place.

Any questions about the products can also be directed to "Joe Bloggs" at the Fiio forum on HeadFi.org: http://www.head-fi.org/f/180/fiio

[PaulR]

Well, this is embarrassing.....

I just didn't press down hard enough....

[PaulR]

XB-70,

Do you know if you can use media players such as Media Monkey to sync FiiO?  or is it just drag and drop?  (Or did you not care to try, as you dislike using media players for such tasks)

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I use drag and drop exclusively because I have used my folder system for years and it serves my needs extremely well; I very rarely have trouble finding things. And, I almost never use tags. So I can't offer advice on sync-ing. Sorry--but yes, I do believe it is possible to sync if you are so inclined. Because the card is such a PITA to take out and insert, I just leave it in the Fiio and connect via the USB cable, even though this is a bit slower. I do recommend you get a wall charger for charging however, as this is much faster.

If you do decide to go the drag and drop route, keep in mind that--due to the small size of the screen--it will not be as easy to navigate through your folders as on a PC monitor. I think that maybe 100 or so folders (i.e., each representing a single CD in my system) within a folder (category) is about the limit, unless you want to scroll that scroll wheel endlessly. When I get my 128GB card (am in no hurry actually), I am going to aim for approx 10 folders, each with approx 100 CDs in each. As such I'll have to set up at least three different folders for Bach.

Fiio has a discussion forum that may interest you as well: http://fiio.me/forum.php