May i know which IEM did you tried with?

@Snowball0906  Only Sennheiser ie800 as far as IEMs go. 

Does it hiss?

@Snowball0906  Not a single bit ^^! But ie800 is not that hissy by default either. 

Can you please recommend more IEM? It seems interesting, I would like to try. Thanks

Nice review

@HungryPanda  Thank you! 

@JingY I own ie800, Shozy Zero and FiiO EM3 as IEMs. You can check out my reviews on them for more deails. 

well done

- 10/10 from reviewer who gives all products in his reviews 9.5-10/10 doesn't say much to me. classic problem of hi-fi reviews and especially here on headfi
- highs on this player could sound quite like highs on astell jr from how you describe it - i love that!
- please all stop saying this product is great value, above it's price range or mid tier and such a things. it is music device only, wich costs more than iphone 6s, htc 10 or lg v10 smartphones... it costs twice as playstation 4, it costs 4 times as much as Xiaomi redmi 3s smartphone.... this is high end luxury product for audio enthusiasts, which is expected to sound and work top notch. nothing else. audio players with price tag over $1000 are not high end. they are ********.
thanks for review

@vincik I see what you mean with review scores being universally too high, leaving no room for truly outstanding products. Perhaps it is because technology is moving so quickly, the X5 II was a 10/10 two years ago but would only score a 7 or 8 today where the X5 III has become the new benchmark for quality. In all fairness, now that the X5 III runs android, it can do the majority of tasks that a smart device can, I went into plenty of detail on the shortcomings and advantages of Fiio's solution in my own review. Of course, it definitely does not provide flagship level performance, but matches a $300 DAC/AMP combo in sound quality and matches a $100 smartphone in functionality (what a HTC One X or GS3 would go for today). All in all, not bad, not 10/10, but not useless either, I can totally see this as an iPod Touch (64GB touch costs just as much) alternative or something like that. 

Thank you for the great review!

Another great review, thanks

@vincik  I like x5-3. It is exactly like @ryanjsoo  said, a product like X5-2 was a 10/10 back then and for me it is even now now. If you find the signature of X5-3 what you were looking for, it is a 10/10. I try to review things I like and enjoy.

Good very comprehensive review George. Rolled off smooth treble unfortunately is not my idea of musical, but sure many will like it.

Great, informative review, George! I'm curious how i'll find the treble reproduction myself. I'm not a fan of a velvety sound, so we'll see. Smooth is good, though.

Thank you, @AndrewH13 , If you get a chance to test it, I'm really curious about your thoughts. 

@JaZZ Really curious to know how you feel about it as well! 

George, we have a local UK Head-fi meet in four weeks, hoping someone there will have one.

@AndrewH13 Curious if you've heard and and how you feel about it! 

How does the X5iii compare sonically with Cayin N5II?