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

Haven't been listening to the Andro's for a bit actually, so didn't use them to try at that time as I wanted something I was immediately familiar with.

 

Well, I've been hesitant to write in here because I'm related to FiiO in my country (Argentina).
That's why most of the times I prefer not to speak about FiiO except when asked for.
I've got my FiiO X5 3rd when first samples for the chinese market were released.
I've been a Schiit Audio user for some years by now, but switch to the FiiO X5 3rd recently.
I've done extensive comparison between my Schiit Bifrost 4490 / Asgard 2 setup and my FiiO X5 3rd and preferred the FiiO by a slight margin, add its portability and the filter/sound tweaking options into the mix, it was a simple choice for me. The Schiit combo was probably just a tad wider in terms of soundstaging but more diffuse, treble on the Schiit combo sounds slightly sharper with a hint more micro-detail to my ears, but otherwise I've found the FiiO to be cleaner, smoother, better in terms of macro-detail / instrument separation, bass layering in particular. There was some kind of glare in the upper mids that I've always heard on my Schiit combo, especially with my T1 which has a slight bump in the 2kHz region, that's not there on the FiiO. The music sounds simpler, tidier and more effortless on the X5 3rd to my ears.
I normally use it with most of my headphones including HD800, T1, K812, K712, K702, DT880, HD650 in low gain but that's just me, I normally listen to music at moderate levels. With some very shy choral recordings I've had the need of switching to high gain. For someone listening to music at moderate levels I think it has a good ampunt of power, for those who enjoy concert levels and use hard to drive headphones then an external amp might be a nice addition.
Can't talk for the features sine I only use it on Pure Music mode with WiFi off. I don't normally play much with its features.
The button configuration could be better, I tend to accidentally press one or the other changing the song or pausing when not wanting to.
Built quality is top notch in my view.

Something that should be noted is that I've found that the Schiit combo was USB and AC quality dependant so there's always a chance there was some room for optimization with the Bifrost 4490 / Asgard 2 setup. With the FiiO I don't have to deal with those things. I might get a higher end Schiit combo as a complement in the future.

 

Missed this as I was viewing the mobile site on my phone just before going to bed.

Would be interested to know how the Andros sound out of the single and balanced outputs with their different Zouts. Looks like the 3Ω of the balanced out might provide the more neutral bass response provided by the NW-ZX2.

 

Great impressions!

@Torq it would be quite interesting if you ever managed to get hands on an X7 and compare that to the X5iii (especially as the former packs an ES9018). I personally have both the X7 and the X5iii on hand, and while I personally like the X7 better (due to it having a slightly more neutral sound) I do agree that the X5 3rd gen sounds quite good.

 

Heard it.

Didn't care for it at all.

Single card slot made it a deal-killer - I'm only making that concession for players on the level of the WM1A/Z (which the FiiO units are not, even though I am definitely enjoying the X5iii).

Software was a real mess.

...

FiiO should take the guts (and Android build complete with custom audio subsystem) of the X5iii, put it in a flashier chassis (not that the current one is bad), add the removable amp section to that, and call it the X7ii.

 

So it sounds like you had a DP-X1 that was unfortunately one of the first batch units with many issues (I had one of those at first too). If you ever got around to listening to the DP-X1 enough to remember how would you say this compares?

 

Yes, it was definitely one of the early units - I picked it up pretty much as soon as they hit the US market officially.

Sound wise, using the built-in music player app, I thought it was generally better than the AK units - provided you weren't getting mangled by the stock Android SRC nonsense (this has no place in a supposedly high-end DAP in my opinion, unless it's something user selectable). Unfortunately this wasn't often since Onkyo half-arsed the software.

Things like the nasty, unmissable, distortion with every third-party audio application (e.g. TIDAL, Spotify etc.) during fade-in/fade-out or other similarly quiet passages, which went unfixed for months after release, did not help at all. And then there were other issues, like the unpredictable-yet-always-shitty battery life, totally fucked Bluetooth and wobbly-socket silliness.

Since Onkyo had been so slow to respond to major issues like the third-party player distortion issues, I got rid of the thing before I was stuck with it, as i had no faith it was going to get sorted. Which is a shame because at the time it was "the great hope" for those of us looking for a dual-slot player that was streaming capable.

But, again, based purely on the sound, when it was working optimally, I'd stack it up as:

Sony WM1A >= WM1Z >= Lotoo PAW Gold* > FiiO X5iii > Chord Mojo > Onkyo DP-X1 > AK380** > X7*** > AK2XX & 2nd gen 1XX

That's a bit coarse and unnuanced of course. And personal preferences could easily shift things around - for example I personally prefer the WM1A over the Z though that's not to say I necessarily think it's technically better. And the Lotoo is technically excellent but not really my thing.

Hope that helps!

--

*Shockingly primitive UX, nice sound, lots of drive authority.
**Standard and Cu versions (with and without a case****).
***AM1 & AM3 modules (AM1 was preferable to me)
****This is a dig at the Head-Fi nutters that were case-rolling the f'ing thing and claiming night and day sound differences.

 

The Lotoo PAW Gold is pretty nice sounding with that basic UI, but it's indeed closer to the romantic side along with the 1Z instead of how 1A sounds. The ZX2 with Sound thingy disabled is even more 'neutral' IMO.

 

If I was a folder-browsing user, the Lotoo would have been quite compelling. At the time I also wanted a player that could drive an external DAC as a transport, which, beyond the UI, was also a problem. Using full-size SD cards was good though.

Again, it sounded very good indeed, and didn't have much issue even with demanding headphones (I've driven Abyss with it), just not for me.

I am stil contemplating pickup up a ZX2 for comparison. Just a case of finding a non-EU version for a sensible price (i.e. one I know I can unload it for if I elect not to keep it).

 

In playing around with the X5iii as a transport (not my personal use case, as I'm done with "stacking" on the go for the foreseeable future), it seems there's an issue where it won't do 24/192 or DoP over it's COAX output. Not sure if that's a hardware limitation (doubtful, the earlier players can do it just fine) or of it's just a software/optimzation or feature-priority thing.

I guess we'll see.

 

I am very interested in this unit as a successor for my X3ii. Unfortunately, the Andromedas are on my shortlist as well.

Is it even possible to fix the hissing issue with a firmware update?

 

Doubtful, though it's not something I find personally intrusive - at least with the SE846 (a hiss monster) or EE Zeus R.

A simple inline attenuator (they're about $10) would likely kill the hiss entirely, as does using an iFi iEMatch, though they can, situationally, cause other issues. For me, in some cases, I've found the iEMatch to rob the music of "life" despite eliminating both hiss and some FR/OI interaction-based anomalies.

In normal use I have nothing between the player or my IEMs and I find it entirely fine.

 

I have decided that the X5iii will be kept ... until it dies or I find something better.

So with that, I've pulled the silly Hi-Res sticker off the front (it's a tension/electrostatic thing, so it comes off cleanly, easily, and without damaging the factory-installed screen protector) and the big protective one on the back. And this has made no difference at all to the sensitivity/responsiveness of the touch-screen - which is about what I get with most Android devices anyway and I only really notice it because my primary portable devices are iPhone/iPad.

Anyway, there's still lots to play with and explore for the purposes of this thread, detailed notes about the sound in particular, and there are lots of silly, niggly, but not-very-important minor software issues to address (which seem to be coming along quite well), and right now it wouldn't be a candidate for use as a pure transport (the 24/192 and DoP issues via COAX), but my days of stacking stuff up for portable use are behind me.

 

Well, I guess I could say you should listen to the X7 with the AM2 or AM5 amp modules (which do have a different, warmer sound signature from the AM1 and AM5), but I gather you probably aren't interested at this point. I don't want to take this thread too off-topic, but what about the sound of the X7 did you not like and why do you think the X5iii is better-suited for your tastes?

The good thing is that the X5iii and the X7 do pretty much share the same software now (now that both are on the same Fiio-customized version of Android 5.1), so I would guess that at least the software will be to your liking for next version of the X7 (and probably all of Fiio's Android-based players from now on).

 

Why do you want me to like the X7 more than the X5iii?

From your first comment I'm of the assumption that you're in the ESS 9018S = desirable camp. I'm generally not unless it's implemented unusually well. Typically it isn't. In this case I found that the implementation was pretty typical (or was rendered so by other factors).

It got fatiguing very quickly and I was not happy with the presentation of the upper registers.

How much of this was down to the ESS DAC/implementation and how much was due to forced-SRC I don't know. While the newer firmwares may have fixed being subject to Android's forced-SRC they didn't exist at the time and there was no mention, much less promise (not that I buy on "futures") from FiiO that this would be addressed.

I don't think it is ... it IS better suited.

Beyond preferring the sound, then, as stated in my initial response ... the X7 only has a single card slot. That's a deal killer. Even my trimmed down "travel library" won't fit on a single card. I've heard precisely three DAPs that I'm willing to make a concession on how much storage I can have mounted on. Those are the WM1A, WM1Z and Lotoo PAW Gold. The Lotoo means using folder-browsing mode, which I'm not willing to do, which leaves the two Sony's.

If the WM1A did everything else the same but added streaming I'd not have looked at the X5iii at all. If it had dual card slots and streaming I'd consider it perfect. However, since there are many situations in which streaming isn't relevant to me (or is only minimally so), having one balls-out memory-only player is easily justifiable, especially when it's as good as the WM1A/Z. I can use my phone, in a pinch to fill in the streaming needs in those situations.

Sometimes I want to travel as light as possible, in which case just the phone comes along. The nature of my trip and how light I need to pack then determines if the WM1A comes along or the X5iii.

Possibly, perhaps even probably, but as long as it's a single-slot player it's not going to get as much as a second look unless it beats out the WM1A on at least sound, battery life, and software stability. And it's STILL going to have to at least match the Sony in terms of mountable storage.

 

I need to swing by once you're settled in and let you hear the ZX2.

 

That would be fun!

Though the new place does not have multiple permanent guest bedrooms ... it's just one now ... affectionately referred to as "out on the deck"

 

If it hangs over water should have called it "The Plank".

 

I can take the Bolt Bus in for a day and be back home in the evening!

 

That works!

We'll try and make it a sunny day so we can hang on "The Plank" while listening.