FiiO X5 3rd Gen (FiiO X5iii): Stream of Consciousness Impressions & Review

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by Torq, Mar 21, 2017.

  1. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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  2. TheBarnard

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    Just wanna say this DAP has been driving the LCD2c pretty well for me so far. I've been using it SE for now, until I can make or buy a 4ft 2.5 trrs balanced cable for turbo mode.

    I'm sure it speaks more to the 2C than the X5, but this is a more enjoyable combo to me than an LCD3 fazor on my Mjol2 back when I owned either of them. As always, headphones are the most important part of the chain. I normally listen on high gain anywhere from low 70s to upper 90s depending on how I'm feeling and if it's spotify vs. local.

    I have to say, the thoroughly awesome performance I'm getting with this dap makes me want to forget about full-sized rigs all together. Desktop setups are great, but whats even more great is sticking the fiio in my pocket and continuing whatever experience I'm having as I go get water, go to the bathroom, clean up the kitchen some, walk outside for a study break, etc. For me full-sized listening suddenly has some common ground with the benefits of IEMs or speakers in the home setting.
     
  3. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    The last post before this one was from March. Torq has moved on to much better things since 2017. Hell, I'm close to having the X5 3rd Gen for almost two years.

    The original post explains more in detail. Yes, it's an Android DAP that was already outdated hardware wise at time of release. Yes, the dual AKM DACs will make the sound nice and warm with the stereotype AKM sound. Yes, software bugs are plenty.

    Getting closer to owning it for two years, I learned pretty quickly what to avoid on this unit:

    * The Fiio Music App Itself.
    * Coax Out (I thought it sounded terrible with different cables, but that's just me)
    * Fiio's regular Firmware (use Fidelizer Customer Firmware which gets rid of the software bloat, improves speed and more here: http://www.fidelizer-audio.com/tag/x5iii/)
    * LOL paying new for it (the software bugs makes it a meh value new, but hell getting it used makes it a great deal)

    The Wi-Fi Part of the unit (2.5Ghz band only) isn't too bad, but not great. Wi-Fi is great if I'm closer to the router, but take a few steps away and I lose the connection. Minor differences between SE and Balanced (Balance does add a little more noise, so be aware). Build quality is nice. USB DAC part of the unit works as intended, but I prefer using my Modi 2 Uber as a DAC.

    Dual Micro SD Cards are nice, but playing music from the second Micro SD Card slot does a hardware issue that Fiio will not fix. The hardware of the X5 was based on only having one external Micro SD Card slot, not two. When you pause a track from the second Micro SD Card slot for a while, the whole music app (doesn't matter what it is) crashes. That's due to the hardware "shutting off" the second Micro SD Card slot. Fun Fun.....

    And I did say the hardware Android wise was outdated at time of release? 1 GB of RAM for a 2017 DAP is uber LOL at this point. You can only run one major program before the DAP starts to have problems loading anything else. Keep it as a DAP and nothing else IMO.

    Even with all of this crap, there's still ways to make it "Smart." If you want to make the X5 worth it, please buy and install USB Audio Player Pro. This app was the lifesaver for me. Not only it's leagues better than the Fiio Music App, but it has full streaming ability from Tidal/Qobuz/DNLA-UPnp, Folder Support, USB Support, UPnP Render, and more. This is the only music program that I need for the X5. I got rid of all other apps and just have this running on it. App doesn't support Tidal offline, but I don't care for it since I hotspot my phone's unlimited data for the X5 when I'm not near a Wi-Fi spots. This mostly works for Tidal Hi-Rez streaming.

    For the longest time when it comes to DAPs I only use local store via SD Cards. Just a the last few months I finally got on the streaming bandwagon. It isn't due to I think streaming is the future, but it helped me discover new music from Tidal (and Qobuz once it's out in the US). I can't tell you how many albums that I listen on Tidal, then I went ahead and brought it on CD. Now when I'm home on my home's Wi-Fi, all the streaming I want form Tidal, then from my music server via DNLA in FLAC and gapless. USB Audio Player Pro will also run any music Bit Perfect, and it does detect the hardware in the X5 for Hi-Rez mode (their way of calling the process of not routing the audio within the Android OS). Very powerful program for this DAP.

    Did I also say how small and not heavy this unit is? It's quite traveling friendly. Going back to the two SD Card slots, Fiio did state that each slot can support 256 GB cards. However, on that other forum someone confirmed that this unit can support two 400 GB cards with no problems.

    So if you install the Fidelizer firmware (I always recommend to factory reset after flashing the firmware, no root is needed), install USB Audio Player Pro, only use it for music, and take advantage of the dual Micro SD Card slot, you have an amazing little device can works well enough that's great for the office or traveling. The streaming part is just icing on the cake, and I hope you are on a data plan for your cell phone provider that offers unlimited data so you can hotspot when needed.

    Yes, other DAPs in the higher level models will beast out the sound quality of this unit. I think for my needs at this time the unit does more than enough for me. I'm running balanced input to another Fiio product, the Fiio FH5 IEM which performs well for $260. I do love warm sounds in general, and this DAP delivers on that. Brightheads avoid this product please.

    But what's the point of picking up this unit now? Fiio doing what they do best is releasing their "M" series DAPs, which are the successor of the X series DAPs (not even two years after the X series DAPs came out). Also, the M series DAPs are not using Android (which at least give them better battery life then than 7-8 hours that I'm currently getting on the X5).

    Best way in getting the X5, get one used. Honestly the new price for one isn't worth it. I wouldn't be surprised if Fiio is going to discount the X5 due to making room for the M series DAPs. If you want to silly you can make the X5 a DLNA-Upnp Render via USB Audio Player Pro, then send music to the device within the WI-Fi network and it outputs via Coax if you want (not saying that you should, I think Coax Out sucks).

    Me paying $399 was too much back in 2017, but in 2019 getting one used for $200 or less, it's a steal if it works and you are willing to do the minor adjustments on it to make it sing.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2018
  4. TheBarnard

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    Does USB Audio Player Pro support Spotify? Tidal is great, but Spotify music discovery is a bit better for me, and will work better if Hotspot signal drops or gets throttled. Ideally I'd have both but can't right now. I'd like to stretch this player as far as it'll go
     
  5. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Yes, Spotify is supported it's an option in UAPP.
     

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