Anyone have a Fiio X1 Player? Thoughts?

[RabbitTroop]

Hi folks,

Bit of a long shot, but it's time to replace my trusty Sansa with Rockbox, as my portable FLAC player and I was thinking of upgrading to something a little nicer. I know the X1 is nowhere near the quality of a X5 or Pono, but as a gym companion and a portable player I don't have to worry about killing, the under $100 price tag is just killer for this tech.

Reviews mix from crazy good to slow and not worth your time. I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with the X1, and if they could recommend it. I see no point in the X3, even with the dual crystals being slightly better, and jumping to $350 or so for the X5 just... doesn't... seem worth it for my application, as I have a great media PC with a killer sound card in my living room to serve up audio there.

I completely expect this thread to sink off the front page in a day, but in the slight chance someone here has one of these... What do you think?

 

[Cylotron]

I used to be into those weird off brand mp3 players. Got fed up of carrying around my phone + a separate mp3 player. These days I just stick with Android phones that have microSD support. The HTC brand phones usually have the best quality sound output & you could always use whatever player you want from the Market. Personally, I use a player called "Clean Music". It does .mp3 & .flac and has a simplistic folder view.

If you're on Verizon & want something cheap... those old "Rezound" phones were pretty good(and very cheap now).

 

[NeoSneth]

I'm not personally interested, but it is a gift idea for my older brother. He is a lossless snob and carries around classic ipods just due to their capacity.

 

[GohanX]

This thread is relevant to my interests. I've been eyeballing one of these myself but haven't found anyone with first-hand knowledge of it, and it's a little too expensive for impulse buying.

 

[RabbitTroop]

I used to be into those weird off brand mp3 players. Got fed up of carrying around my phone + a separate mp3 player. These days I just stick with Android phones that have microSD support. The HTC brand phones usually have the best quality sound output & you could always use whatever player you want from the Market. Personally, I use a player called "Clean Music". It does .mp3 & .flac and has a simplistic folder view.

If you're on Verizon & want something cheap... those old "Rezound" phones were pretty good(and very cheap now).

Not really what I'm after. I'm looking for something with a dedicated set of chips to support 24bit FLAC, and higher bitrate audio files, as a lot more of my current snags and rips are in higher bitrate FLAC then ever before. Having a dedicated DAP is what I'm after. I have a ton of killer portable electronics that can play FLAC, but for this price point, and the tech, it's way beyond anything a phone could do.

 

[ki_atsushi]

I can't comment on the X1 directly, but I own the 1st gen X3 and it's awesome. Sound quality is top notch, it has a good amount of output for cans with high impedance (not sure how well the X1 will stack up in this regard) and it plays mp3/wma/wav/flac/alac/dsd. Everything sounds great on it, even mp3's of average bitrate.

From what I hear, the X1 is just a notch under in sound quality but it's still excellent. And for the price, that's an amazing deal.

 

[RabbitTroop]

I can't comment on the X1 directly, but I own the 1st gen X3 and it's awesome. Sound quality is top notch, it has a good amount of output for cans with high impedance (not sure how well the X1 will stack up in this regard) and it plays mp3/wma/wav/flac/alac/dsd. Everything sounds great on it, even mp3's of average bitrate.

From what I hear, the X1 is just a notch under in sound quality but it's still excellent. And for the price, that's an amazing deal.

Awesome. Good to hear. I'd totally get the X3 if this was going to be anything more than a tag-along, beat up and beat on portable player. I am sure it sounds better than the X1, but not sure if it's $80 better for my application. If I was using it more on a desk, or in the car, as the primary, I'd totally splurge for the better internals.

Glad to hear the X3 is working well for you. I'll probably snag the X1 this week. I'll report back how it goes. I have a pretty extensive 24bit FLAC library now I'm dying to try on this thing.

 

[ki_atsushi]

Pretty sure you won't be disappointed either way.

The Fiio's only weakness is it's interface, which for me is easily overlooked because of the sound quality.

Of course, the new versions are supposed to be better in this regard too because of the redesign.

 

[Andy Is A Bastard]

Got an X1 about a month ago to replace an aging Sansa Clip+. I don't think I could ever go back.

For the money, it's about as good as it gets. It drives phones VERY well, the line-out option is a neat feature I feel like I could get more out of with some experimentation, and the sound improvement (as a source) is more than noticeable.

Unless you really want to drop a ton of money on another, more feature-intensive DAP, I can't recommend it enough. Like others have said, the only real knock against it is the interface, but even that is perfectly serviceable as it stands now (firmware 1.6).

 

[GohanX]

What kind of issues do you have with the interface? I hate terrible UI's...

Also, how much space does an average lossless album take up? I'm just about ready to order one, but I don't want to get too small of a SD card.

 

[RabbitTroop]

What kind of issues do you have with the interface? I hate terrible UI's...

Also, how much space does an average lossless album take up? I'm just about ready to order one, but I don't want to get too small of a SD card.

16bit, 44.1kHz albums, standard CD rips, are about 200 meg to 500 meg, depending on length and bit rate required (FLAC is a variable bit rate). They go up from there. 24bit, 44.1kHz, which are becoming more common are around 400-800 meg an a album, and 24bit, 96kHz, which are pretty standard vinyl rips are 1 gig or so and up.

It really depends on album length, complexity of the music to encode, and quality of file. So, depending on what you want to carry with you, think bigger is better. I gave 32g in my Sansa and carried enough music to satiate. Lossless is considerably bigger than MP3, but not so much so a 32 or 64 g card wouldn't do the trick.

 

[Andy Is A Bastard]

@ GohanX

It's just a lil' clumsy to navigate at first. The tactile click-wheel Does help a lot with the navigation and control, though. God I forgot how much I loved those things.

Also, like RabbitTroop (Nick?) said, it can vary quite a bit but the X1 supports up to 128gb. I grabbed a 64gb Micro XD when I bought mine, and it's more than enough room to carry what I'm in the mood for at any given time. Maybe not an entire collection, but plenty.

 

[GohanX]

Cool, thanks. I don't actually plan to dump my entire collection on the thing, but will probably go with a 64 GB card since they are what, $22 on Amazon?

Reripping my cds into FLAC though. Oy vey!

 

[RabbitTroop]

Reripping my cds into FLAC though. Oy vey!

Been there... Good news is, ripping to FLAC is way faster than mp3 ever was for me. I can rip a CD in EAC to FLAC in about two minutes.

I still have tons of CDs in storage that I only have an mp3 copy of on my hard drive, and truth be told, I probably won't revisit many of them ever again. I figure when I get in the mood, I'll fish through my boxes and grab a CD to rip really quick. Or... You know... What happens more times than not, I just download a FLAC rip of the same CD someone else already did (or score and find a vinyl rip that's higher quality than my CDs).

 

[ki_atsushi]

What kind of issues do you have with the interface? I hate terrible UI's...

Also, how much space does an average lossless album take up? I'm just about ready to order one, but I don't want to get too small of a SD card.

Yeah, the UI is just very basic. Nothing wrong with it, just not polished like other brands.

The good thing is, Fiio cares more about every other feature first (i.e. sound quality) so I don't give a shit about the UI as long as it works.

By the way, Fiio's headphone amps are very good too, I had an E11 and it had very neutral colored output and introduced ZERO noise. The bass boost was super clean and didn't bleed into the mid frequencies like software EQ sometimes does. Super impressed. I never should have sold it.

I now have it's successor, the A3 on the way.

Like RabbitToop said, expect 16/44.1 albums to take up 200 to 500 MB, and 24/96 albums to take up around a gig (800 MB to 1.2 GB usually). A 64 GB card is recommended, although 128's are only $49 on Amazon. I spent $70 on one just a few months ago, and that was a steal at the time, so now I'm thinking of getting card #2...

 

[GohanX]

Okay, you guys have talked me into it. Just ordered the player and a 64GB card. Thanks for your help!

 

[GohanX]

Lol, I just read that my old player can play flac just fine with Rockbox and a bigass micro sd card. I found out when a review directly compared it to a X1, and although the X1 won in sound quality it was fairly close.

 

[Andy Is A Bastard]

Lol, I just read that my old player can play flac just fine with Rockbox and a bigass micro sd card. I found out when a review directly compared it to a X1, and although the X1 won in sound quality it was fairly close.

That sucks, but I honestly think the increase in sound quality alone is worth the price of admission. I do believe that you'll be very pleased.

 

[ki_atsushi]

That sucks, but I honestly think the increase in sound quality alone is worth the price of admission. I do believe that you'll be very pleased.

Not to mention build quality. I believe the entire X line has an aluminum case. I know my X3 does. They're built like a tank.

 

[GohanX]

Well, a big difference is that the Fiio has an actual line level output for going into my stereo amp. My other players and phone are all amped headphone jacks.

 

[GohanX]

Got the bigass memory card today, but the Fiio isn't supposed to come in till tomorrow. Grrr. I decided to go ahead and setup the SD card and just for shits and giggles I put it in my old player I mentioned above, the humble Sansa Clip + I picked up long ago for use as a gym player from Best Buy. I had no idea this thing could take such large cards or read flac files, I think the max the box said was a 4GB micro sd card. I also changed the stock firmware to Rockbox and I must say, holy shit this transformed my player. The biggest problem with this thing was always that every EQ setting sucked, Rockbox has a nice flat curve which works great with my Sennheiser cans. Impressive, if I had done this before I'm not sure I would have ordered the X1. I suppose I'll see how much of an improvement it is tomorrow!

 

[RabbitTroop]

Got the bigass memory card today, but the Fiio isn't supposed to come in till tomorrow. Grrr. I decided to go ahead and setup the SD card and just for shits and giggles I put it in my old player I mentioned above, the humble Sansa Clip + I picked up long ago for use as a gym player from Best Buy. I had no idea this thing could take such large cards or read flac files, I think the max the box said was a 4GB micro sd card. I also changed the stock firmware to Rockbox and I must say, holy shit this transformed my player. The biggest problem with this thing was always that every EQ setting sucked, Rockbox has a nice flat curve which works great with my Sennheiser cans. Impressive, if I had done this before I'm not sure I would have ordered the X1. I suppose I'll see how much of an improvement it is tomorrow!

I've had three Sansas. Every one, first thing I did, was put Rockbox on it It will definitely amp up your old player, and my Sansa has been my trusty FLAC player for years, but yeah, it's not a serious DAP like the Fiio sets out to be. Probably get you some more life out of the Sansa, but I have a feeling you, like I, will be placing the Sansa in the drawer when the X1 arrives.

 

[GohanX]

I have a feeling you, like I, will be placing the Sansa in the drawer when the X1 arrives.

Um...yeah. Got the Fiio today.

First thing I noticed when I pulled it out, this thing feels expensive. It's really not, but it reminds me a lot of when Ipods and Zens and stuff were in the $300 range, it feels like a smaller version of those types of players, and makes most modern players feel like kids toys by comparison. They give you some nice extras in the box, like some screen protectors (with one already applied to the unit,) a silicone cover, and a variety of different sticker skins if that's your thing. The carbon fiber one looks kinda cool, but I don't think I'm going to use it.

I only messed with it a bit on my lunch break, so I've only used it in the car (through a tape adapter with the stock stereo, lol) and my Sennheiser headphones that I brought with me. Yeah, these things kick the shit out of any other player I've had or my phone. First of all, it has plenty of power driving whatever. Line out mode was actually too strong for the tape adapter, so I had to switch it to headphone mode and adjust the volume accordingly. With the volume set to about 70 (out of 100) the thing was already louder than anything I've used as a player in this car, and it was very clean. With everything else I've had to have the volume of the device cranked to max and the car stereo's volume turned up just under the point of distortion just to get decent volume. Not so now! The speakers in that car suck, so I couldn't judge quality.

So after stopping by McDonalds to get a cheeseburger I parked the car and put on the headphones. This is a midrange over the ear set, and a lot of small devices have trouble driving the speakers to their full potential. The Sansas after the Rockbox mod did a pretty good job but the volume had to be turned to near maximum. The X1, I couldn't turn much past 70 before it was too loud to stand, and it had absolutely no distortion yet. I have no idea what the volume level of 100 is like, I couldn't get close. As far as quality goes, I left the EQ off, and the sound is outstanding. The only times I've heard these headphones sound better is when hooked directly up to a receiver or stereo amp. One thing that gets me is that every MP3 player I've ever used has a certain color to the sound, good or bad. This one, not so much, everything is pretty flat, it doesn't color the audio much at all. That's exactly what I want!

The firmware on this is 1.4, which I don't think is the latest. I don't have any issues with the UI, it's pretty simple and straightforward. I use players mostly in two modes: either I play albums in order, or I play all of the songs on the player set to random. It's easy to get to either playback mode without having to dig through a lot of menus. On playback the background on the screen shows the cover of the CD, which EAC was kind enough to put in the directories of most of the CDs I ripped, which is a nice touch from both the player and EAC.

So yeah, I'm really digging this thing. I can't wait to hook it up to my stereo at home and see how it does when I crank it.

 

[RabbitTroop]

Um...yeah. Got the Fiio today.

First thing I noticed when I pulled it out, this thing feels expensive. It's really not, but it reminds me a lot of when Ipods and Zens and stuff were in the $300 range, it feels like a smaller version of those types of players, and makes most modern players feel like kids toys by comparison. They give you some nice extras in the box, like some screen protectors (with one already applied to the unit,) a silicone cover, and a variety of different sticker skins if that's your thing. The carbon fiber one looks kinda cool, but I don't think I'm going to use it.

I only messed with it a bit on my lunch break, so I've only used it in the car (through a tape adapter with the stock stereo, lol) and my Sennheiser headphones that I brought with me. Yeah, these things kick the shit out of any other player I've had or my phone. First of all, it has plenty of power driving whatever. Line out mode was actually too strong for the tape adapter, so I had to switch it to headphone mode and adjust the volume accordingly. With the volume set to about 70 (out of 100) the thing was already louder than anything I've used as a player in this car, and it was very clean. With everything else I've had to have the volume of the device cranked to max and the car stereo's volume turned up just under the point of distortion just to get decent volume. Not so now! The speakers in that car suck, so I couldn't judge quality.

So after stopping by McDonalds to get a cheeseburger I parked the car and put on the headphones. This is a midrange over the ear set, and a lot of small devices have trouble driving the speakers to their full potential. The Sansas after the Rockbox mod did a pretty good job but the volume had to be turned to near maximum. The X1, I couldn't turn much past 70 before it was too loud to stand, and it had absolutely no distortion yet. I have no idea what the volume level of 100 is like, I couldn't get close. As far as quality goes, I left the EQ off, and the sound is outstanding. The only times I've heard these headphones sound better is when hooked directly up to a receiver or stereo amp. One thing that gets me is that every MP3 player I've ever used has a certain color to the sound, good or bad. This one, not so much, everything is pretty flat, it doesn't color the audio much at all. That's exactly what I want!

The firmware on this is 1.4, which I don't think is the latest. I don't have any issues with the UI, it's pretty simple and straightforward. I use players mostly in two modes: either I play albums in order, or I play all of the songs on the player set to random. It's easy to get to either playback mode without having to dig through a lot of menus. On playback the background on the screen shows the cover of the CD, which EAC was kind enough to put in the directories of most of the CDs I ripped, which is a nice touch from both the player and EAC.

So yeah, I'm really digging this thing. I can't wait to hook it up to my stereo at home and see how it does when I crank it.

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Can't wait until I get mine.

 

[ki_atsushi]

Glad to see you're enjoying the X1! If firmware 1.4 is working fine for you, I recommend NOT upgrading it.

When I first got my X3, the firmware was in 2.X. A few months later they came out with firmware 3.0 and it actually broke some functionality until 3.1 came out. Fortunately until then I was able to downgrade it (something you're not always able to do depending on the device) and I kept 2.X for a long time.