Deano reviews the FiiO X5 Gen3 DAP

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Deano reviews the FiiO X5 Gen3 DAP. I am an audiophile. You could say I’m a very intense listener. The audio encapsulation of my life is not just a hobby it’s my life literally: I eat, sleep and dream audio, and as I work in an audio-visual environment you can say I have the dream job. Yes, you can be jealous now.

Apart from my home reference system, a lot of the listening happens on headphones and my everyday journey to and from work provides the ideal opportunity for me to listen intently to portable music players, portable amplifiers, Digital to analog converters and of course headphones

So, when FiiO announced their new X5 3rd Gen and released info of the product launch I was interested.

What got me (together with the rest of the AV community) excited was this: ……FiiO Listened…. Yes, that’s correct: before starting production of the X5 3rd Gen FiiO engineers asked their devoted fans what do you want? It was not just a question about functionality but a questing pertaining to the whole design process.

Eventually D-Day came around and the hype was huge, many, many fans were literally drooling with anticipation (you can’t really blame them). I mean, these are guys that listen to music via headphones for a minimum of 4-5 hours a day so a product that is being released with the promise of making all your audio dreams come true is a hard promise to ignore

6 Weeks later ‘Christmas morning’ arrived for me and the X5 3rd Gen landed on my desk and oh baby she looks good!

The question is: does she hold the key to audio nirvana? We went on a mission to find out…. The X5 3rd Gen is a positive quantum leap in DAP design for the mid-fi market place. Comparing their brand new $649.00 3rd Gen X5 with the older 2nd gen X5 is a bit like comparing the Jumbo jet with the Concord. There is nothing left in the 3rd gen that links with the 2nd Gen technology or the design, the only similarity is in the name and this is a good thing.

But let’s break it down…

THE DESIGN AND TECH STUFF…

The 3rd Gen received a 2017 design award from The International Forum Design GmbH just a month ago. Something we wholeheartedly agree with. We recon it is the finest looking DAP at this price point.

The 3rd Gen is oozing beautiful design aesthetics and form. It’s one of the products that you can’t help but pick up: stunning lines of industrial metal and glass, and a feel in your hand of quality; the kind of quality that you would associate with master craftsman’s bespoke watch. What I love is that there are no seams and the level of finish is almost equal to that of the lotto paw gold or the flagship Sony NW-WM1Z N.

I personally like the 4″ IPS touchscreen on the front. It needed replacement to the 2nd Gens old school click wheel design and they have done well.

Another smart thing is he power button that doubles as the screen on and off and charge indicator. Inputs and outputs are now all on the bottom panel, making things that much more functional. I find it extremely clean, well laid out: the four ports look far more spacious in their layout than previously on the X5ii. The ports are all tight and hold connection reliably.

The 3400mAh High-voltage quick charging Li-polymer battery will give around 8-10 hours’ battery life depending on whether you go balanced or unbalanced for listening directly from the player. We recon this is average, especially if you decide to spend time on 3rd party apps shortening that time.

On the plus side, we should note the new support for a rapid 9/12v battery charging system on top of the regular USB design. This means you can charge your 3rd Gen in about 1.5 hours rather than the more standard 4 hours. Nice!

Anyone already using a smartphone, we believe, should be able to relate quickly and easily to the 3rd Gens key features and stylistic talking points: the dual sim card style memory slots, touchscreen, aptX BlueTooth, Wifi and android downloadable apps. It is as thoroughly modern as a modern digital audio player (DAP) can be without a phone module.

The 3rd Gen comes packed with 32Gb of onboard memory with 26Gb available for use. For light users, this is plenty to start with for both Operating System and app requirements as well as small selection of lossy and lossless music files to get you going. If you want more than that, a microSD card adds up to 512GB.

The X5 3rd Gen will run almost any headphones including planars or in ear monitors. I’m running Beyerdynamic DT1770 Pros (impedance of 250 Ohms) and they pair beautifully. But then again, once you drop down the impedance scale you will get a fuller more confident sound, even though the 3rd gen is fully capable of powering 250-600 Ohm headphones. Personally, I like adding an additional portable amplifier and my flavor of the month is the awesome capable Topping NX5 portable amplifier.

So…what makes the 3rd Gen so good? FiiO’s big tech pitch with the X5 is the use of not one DAC chip, but two AK4490EN DAC chips in a dual channel configuration. Audio engineers love the AK chipset as they are easily tweaked, and musically the sound is very accurate and clean. Fair to say it shows.

BALANCED!

Just like with the X5ii, the 3rd gen has a 3.5mm stereo unbalanced headphone output and a 3.5mm fixed line-out/coaxial output. FiiO has also opted to retain the micro-USB charging and data transfer interface.

The big news is that for the first time FiiO has included balanced headphone output in the form of an additional 2.5mm TRRS output. This brings FiiO’s DAPs right up to speed with modern audiophile demands and the fast-growing balanced in ear monitor cable market. It is not a sure-fire guarantee for better audio quality but as an option on a DAP, it is almost mandatory in 2017.

SOUND IMPRESSIONS

So how did it sound? While a bit lean in the beginning, the 3rd Gen sounded really good after somewhat less than one week. To start off, tape hiss via in-ears was emphasized and sounded tilted up. That completely disappeared in 24 hours and it sounded properly balanced or even warm but lost some of the openness. Another 24 hours later and it sounds more extended, finesse and open, with the bass again very well defined. It’s now competitive with anything I’ve heard and still getting better, And I have heard most Mid to High end players.

Finesse-wise there is an emphasis on musicality and a very, very good level of resolution. Whilst it is not ‘in your face’ it does not lack anything in terms of very detailed presentation. Soundstage is not the biggest I have ever heard, but it is very precise which is more important to me.

I would like to point out that the staging does have excellent depth and very good top-end extension. That said, it doesn’t quite touch the Sabre DAC width of soundstage.

The bass is very good and is adjustable via the Viper mods settings. Using my Beyerdynamics headphones, the bass is full and very tight. It has a slightly softer, more lush sounding attack that I find suitable for most music.

The midrange of 3rd Gen is another really nice surprise: it has abilities well beyond those of its predecessors. The midrange has a generally sweet tone to it, while staying extremely true to the recording. The midrange can recover sounds that I barely noticed in the past (like short notes or nuances in complex songs). For example, Bob Marley’s Jammin was presented with a whole new level of layering and the vocals literally blew me away. The growl and velvetiness of Bob’s voice was something that I had never heard before. There is a bass drop line in the track that dropped with so much depth that it gave me a smile that lasted through the remainder of the track. I know, I’m getting carried away here.

The 3rd Gen is able to point the smallest differences in the sound. On Chris Botti’s track Obvilion, violins now have a complex texture and it’s easier to recall the tension and surface of the strings while they are played. The biggest difference I felt however, was in Elvis Presley’s “in the getto”: the double bass was amazing with a depth that I have never ever heard. Of coarse I knew it was there but, man oh man! To hear it for yourself….

ACCESSORIES & PACKAGING

As ever FiiO’s packaging is professional and well thought out. The 3rd Gen adds a leather stitched case which fits fantastically on the 3rd Gen with no slippage issues as well as a silicone gel back case.

The leather case doesn’t feel cheap and does a great job of protecting the 3rd Gen whilst at the same time giving complete access to all the main physical buttons and touchscreen. It looks especially good on the black version of the 3rd Gen, I think.

Apart from the leather case you get a nice clear silicone gel back case also included you get the standard FiiO DAP accessory package and for a Player at $649 it’s reasonable.
The screen protectors are a tempered glass protector and is already installed on the screen

CONCLUSION

Loving the X5-3 is unavoidable once you hear it. Once you get enough one on one play-time you will not want to let it go. It provides a lot of fun and amazing listening sessions, with solid deep timbres, unique soundstage, smooth and analogue feel, powerful balanced out and Native DSD.

The 3rd Gen is priced perfectly, making it affordable for the everyday commuter and audiophile. Considering all the technology available in this device, its design and its functionality I say the 3rd Gen honestly is a steal at this price point.

Honestly what more could you ever ask for? For me, she is now a part of my life and in the words of a famous artist “Ain’t ever gonna give you up”. Well, not for a very long time anyway…

PRICE 649.00nzd
TONALITY 8.8
BUILD & FUNCTIONALITY 8.7
COMPATABILITY 8.5
VALUE FOR MONEY9.6
RAPALLO SCORE 9.1