Here is my appreciation of the FIIO X5 3rd generation that i had the opportunity of trying for 10 days.
This opportunity have been offered by FIIO for free in exchange for an honest review, and i did not received any payment or any other advantage for it from them.
My objective is, while giving you my impression of this unit to help you decide if it is of interest to you, to investigate if i would invest in one of those units myself, wich would be an upgrade from my FIIO X3 2e generation.
About me
I am near 50, and have been interested in music for a long time. I am a semi-professional guitar player, have a small home studio for more than 30 years (in and out) where i produced and mixed some CD’S of my music(composition or covers) in many styles. I think i can say that my ears have a decent training in frequency listening, but still they aren’t ’’golden’’, as i can’t consistently differ a 128 MP3 from his flac counterpart in blind testing using Foobar 2000 and abx testing plug-in. But i’m practicing and one day i will!
My most used headphones are Shure SE846, Fostex TH-x00 and AKG K601. I listen mostly to them through Grace Design M9xx at home and FIIO X3 2e generation on the run. I fact, i do listen to a lot more music outside then at home. Walking is for me the best time to appreciate music.
Esthetics
At this point, many review offered you a lot of pictures and description, so i will only offer you my personal impression : it does look good. I find it to have style, and while i recognize i should not judge a book by his cover, i would not buy an audio player that would look like a toy, or would bring too much attention (in a bad way) to it. I may look superficial but i would not feel good having ,let’s say, an orange and yellow (sorry if you like it!) audio player in my hands in public. This X5 is classy, and i like it.
Ergonomics
The X5 is a little bigger and heavier than the X3, letting him maybe less ideal for jogging or sports. Still, it can enter most of my coat pockets so it is not a problem, but still an inconvenience in regard to X3.
The bigger size of the X5 come with a plus : a bigger and more easy to read screen.
I really did appreciate the addition of physical buttons, although they could be better placed in my opinion, and more robust (they felled a little slack and cheap). I did miss those buttons a lot getting back to the X3 after the trial.
User interface
The navigation is acceptable, but could, in my opinion, get better. Icons are not, from my perspective, easy to understand. In a perfect world, i could be able to play a song the first time using the unit without reading the manual, and in the case of the X6 i couldn't. Also, the X5 takes more time to be ready than the X3 when the on button is press, but it is understandable due to it having more software to load for the extra features. A ‘load only the music player but fast’ button could be a nice add-on to the phone.
Features
This is where the X5 outshine the X3 a lot. While you can easily find info about those features online(dual memory, dual sound chip, balanced output, etc) i want to focus on the ability to connect to the net for online service, which is an enormous bonus . While still in his infancy, online music is the way of the future, as it offers the possibility to expand our song library almost infinitely. I say almost, because my personal preferred music right now is Japanese, and the offer on western online service is still reduced to what is already exported in our CD music stores.
Sound
This point, for me, is the most important one.
First, a warning : i believe that while hearing is an objective action, listening is a subjective one, and is conditioned by what we expect to hear. My observations may vary from yours.
To me, the X5 3rd generation is a little brighter, and have more details and overall clarity than the X3 2nd. But it is not big difference, i would say around 5 %. If i listen to them back to back, i can easily discern them one from the other, but if i would not listen to music for a day, and then would listen to one of the device in a blind way, without comparing one to the other i could probably not tell which one it is. I personally consider those extra details and brightness to be a better sound, so the X5 do get my preference, but not by a large difference.
The X5 sound real close to the Grace Design M9xx, the difference, to my hear is minimal, Grace Design may get better defined bass and maybe the X5 is just little more clearer in the highs. I find they do sound really close.
I should point out that both X3,X5 and M9xx did manage to push my Shure, AKG and Fostex headphones to a decent level with good sound.
Conclusion
For me a good buy is one where you took time to precisely define your needs. What i need is a a portable unit that sound clearly better than phones, affordable for my budget and reliable.
The X3 already have all those aspects. The superiority in sound of the X5 over the X3 is not enough to justify to bought it while my X3 is still working. Upgrading from my Samsung S5 phone to the X3 was a way bigger improvement in sound than going from the X3 to the X5.
Nonetheless, if the online music service provider where to offer more Japanese music, i would probably get an X5 and subscribe to the service. For now, i must continue with Youtube to discover the latest songs of my favorite Japanese artist, and then wait many weeks for the CD’s to ship home when bought. Hopefully, the interest in Japanese music will grow and change that.
If you don’t already have a music player, and are happy with online music service offering, i would suggest you to buy directly the X5 and skip the X3 if your budget can afford it. But if you just want to listen to you current library of music, in my opinion, the difference in sound quality don’t justify by himself the price difference between the two units.
This opportunity have been offered by FIIO for free in exchange for an honest review, and i did not received any payment or any other advantage for it from them.
My objective is, while giving you my impression of this unit to help you decide if it is of interest to you, to investigate if i would invest in one of those units myself, wich would be an upgrade from my FIIO X3 2e generation.
About me
I am near 50, and have been interested in music for a long time. I am a semi-professional guitar player, have a small home studio for more than 30 years (in and out) where i produced and mixed some CD’S of my music(composition or covers) in many styles. I think i can say that my ears have a decent training in frequency listening, but still they aren’t ’’golden’’, as i can’t consistently differ a 128 MP3 from his flac counterpart in blind testing using Foobar 2000 and abx testing plug-in. But i’m practicing and one day i will!
My most used headphones are Shure SE846, Fostex TH-x00 and AKG K601. I listen mostly to them through Grace Design M9xx at home and FIIO X3 2e generation on the run. I fact, i do listen to a lot more music outside then at home. Walking is for me the best time to appreciate music.
Esthetics
At this point, many review offered you a lot of pictures and description, so i will only offer you my personal impression : it does look good. I find it to have style, and while i recognize i should not judge a book by his cover, i would not buy an audio player that would look like a toy, or would bring too much attention (in a bad way) to it. I may look superficial but i would not feel good having ,let’s say, an orange and yellow (sorry if you like it!) audio player in my hands in public. This X5 is classy, and i like it.
Ergonomics
The X5 is a little bigger and heavier than the X3, letting him maybe less ideal for jogging or sports. Still, it can enter most of my coat pockets so it is not a problem, but still an inconvenience in regard to X3.
The bigger size of the X5 come with a plus : a bigger and more easy to read screen.
I really did appreciate the addition of physical buttons, although they could be better placed in my opinion, and more robust (they felled a little slack and cheap). I did miss those buttons a lot getting back to the X3 after the trial.
User interface
The navigation is acceptable, but could, in my opinion, get better. Icons are not, from my perspective, easy to understand. In a perfect world, i could be able to play a song the first time using the unit without reading the manual, and in the case of the X6 i couldn't. Also, the X5 takes more time to be ready than the X3 when the on button is press, but it is understandable due to it having more software to load for the extra features. A ‘load only the music player but fast’ button could be a nice add-on to the phone.
Features
This is where the X5 outshine the X3 a lot. While you can easily find info about those features online(dual memory, dual sound chip, balanced output, etc) i want to focus on the ability to connect to the net for online service, which is an enormous bonus . While still in his infancy, online music is the way of the future, as it offers the possibility to expand our song library almost infinitely. I say almost, because my personal preferred music right now is Japanese, and the offer on western online service is still reduced to what is already exported in our CD music stores.
Sound
This point, for me, is the most important one.
First, a warning : i believe that while hearing is an objective action, listening is a subjective one, and is conditioned by what we expect to hear. My observations may vary from yours.
To me, the X5 3rd generation is a little brighter, and have more details and overall clarity than the X3 2nd. But it is not big difference, i would say around 5 %. If i listen to them back to back, i can easily discern them one from the other, but if i would not listen to music for a day, and then would listen to one of the device in a blind way, without comparing one to the other i could probably not tell which one it is. I personally consider those extra details and brightness to be a better sound, so the X5 do get my preference, but not by a large difference.
The X5 sound real close to the Grace Design M9xx, the difference, to my hear is minimal, Grace Design may get better defined bass and maybe the X5 is just little more clearer in the highs. I find they do sound really close.
I should point out that both X3,X5 and M9xx did manage to push my Shure, AKG and Fostex headphones to a decent level with good sound.
Conclusion
For me a good buy is one where you took time to precisely define your needs. What i need is a a portable unit that sound clearly better than phones, affordable for my budget and reliable.
The X3 already have all those aspects. The superiority in sound of the X5 over the X3 is not enough to justify to bought it while my X3 is still working. Upgrading from my Samsung S5 phone to the X3 was a way bigger improvement in sound than going from the X3 to the X5.
Nonetheless, if the online music service provider where to offer more Japanese music, i would probably get an X5 and subscribe to the service. For now, i must continue with Youtube to discover the latest songs of my favorite Japanese artist, and then wait many weeks for the CD’s to ship home when bought. Hopefully, the interest in Japanese music will grow and change that.
If you don’t already have a music player, and are happy with online music service offering, i would suggest you to buy directly the X5 and skip the X3 if your budget can afford it. But if you just want to listen to you current library of music, in my opinion, the difference in sound quality don’t justify by himself the price difference between the two units.
