Can X7 Set The World On FiiO-R?-FIIO---BORN FOR MUSIC

Before I start my review, I would like to Thank FiiO for providing me with a review sample in exchange for my honest opinion.

Manufacturer website: http://www.fiio.net/en/products/45

Looking back at the last few years and the amount of audio players I have reviewed and compared, ranging from $20 to $2k, I still hold the original X5 in high regard because it was my stepping stone into the world of DAPs. Though I skipped their original X3, there was no turning back afterwards with X5, X1, X3ii, and X5ii - all of which I had a privilege to test and to review. While DAP market got saturated with a lot of new releases, I still consider FiiO to be one of the trendsetters pushing the envelope of price/performance ratio, regardless if they are outperforming the competition or being outperformed by the competition.

Going back to the original X5, in my review I compared its performance to a smartphone stack w/E18, and in conclusion mentioned that "... when you are relaxing and enjoying the music, you don't want to be interrupted by email or text message or social media update... smartphone is a jack of all trades, while X5 is a master of one - the music..." The touch screen interface of a smartphone offered a great convenience, but the baggage of everything else it comes with loaded and running in the background was a turn off, not to mention a sub-par sound quality (back when I had my Note 2).

Realizing challenges and benefits of Android based audio player, and considering that FiiO was overdue for flagship summit-fi level DAP, they shifted their design focus to a touchscreen based DAP supercharged with special audio enhancement features to set it apart from a typical smartphone and/or other android based DAPs. The discussion about this DAP has been circulating for a year, with a lot of people waiting in anticipation the release. Now with X7 out in the open, the big question is if it lived up to expectations? Let’s find out!

Unboxing and Accessories.

The unboxing experience of X7 is nothing short of a typical smartphone. You start with a cover picture of the DAP on the packaging sleeve which looks exactly like a smartphonewithout even a hint of being a dedicated audio player and a display shot of a typical Android screen with audio widget of FiiO Music app. On the back of the box you will find a spec which could also be easily mistaken for a smartphone, except when you come across a support of 384kHz/32bit decoding. Not everybody aware of this, but in Android OS you are facing a Sample Rate Conversion (SRC) limitation which keeps audio downsampled to a common denominator in order to ensure compatibility with different apps.  FiiOwas able to overcome this limitation which I'm going to discuss later in my review.

With a sleeve cover off, you will be greeted with a sturdy gift box construction and X7 sitting securely inside of a form fitted foam cutout. If you find the cover sleeve picture to be deceiving, looking at X7 in person and holding this 220g touch screen gadget in your hand still won't convince you this is not a smartphone.





With my X7 being a review unit, I'm not sure if I received all the accessories that going to be bundled with a retail version. Included were 2 sets of screen protectors where the 3rd one was already applied to the display. Keep in mind, screen protector will give you just a minimum protection from scratches. Considering X7 design has a display which is not flush mounted, until you get a proper "smartphone" case with a corner protection and the front lip to keep the screen off the surface - you have to exercise extreme caution handling this DAP.

Also included is a short coaxial cable with 3.5mm TRRS style connector due to a shared LO/Coax port. Furthermore, you will find a quality usb to micro-usb cable for charging/power and data transfer, a quick start guide, and a torx screwdriver w/4 extra torx screws. If you paid close attention to the spec on the back of the packaging box, screwdriver will explain a reference to a swappable headphone amplifier module which is located right below the glowing led light underneath of the display.



Design.

X7 design is camouflaged to look exactly like a smartphone, with only a few DAP hints when you take a closer look. Just like with any smartphone, the focal point of the design is a touchscreen display, 3.97" IPS (178deg viewing angle) TFT supporting 16.7mil colors with resolution of 480x800 and pixel density of 233 PPI. Is this the highest resolution or the best pixel density or the most accurate color reproduction? Absolutely not, which is quite ok considering the intent of X7 is not for playing video games or watching hi-res movies and videos. 4" touch screen is convenient for one handed operation, the experience I forgot all about after 3+ years of using various Galaxy Note smartphones. I found touchscreen to be adequate for audio application, use of other audio apps, and some occasional browsing. The screen is responsive, though not exactly on the same level as I'm used to with my Galaxy phones.

With dimensions of 130mm (H) x 64mm (W) x 16mm (D), the screen occupies close to edge-to-edge space and about 105mm in height, which leaves 25mm below it for removableamp module. There are 2 torx screws on each side of the module, holding it securely in place with absolutely no wiggle once properly connected. One unique feature of this DAP is a glowing soft blue light, radiating from led in the middle under the screen through a light pipe which dims the glow toward the edges. The light is always on, can't be disabled. I personally like it because it gives me a visual indicator of power being on, but I think it would have been a good idea to provide an option to disable it in order to save battery or if you don’t want a “nightlight”. Also, I would have loved to see it being customized to change colors to indicate low power or when charging.

The bottom of the DAP, where amp module is located, has HO 3.5mm port and a standard micro-usb connector – by default X7 comes with IEM low power module. These ports will vary between different amp modules, depending on functionality. For example, one of the upcoming replacement amp modules should have 2.5mm TRRS balanced port and 4-pin kobiconn balanced connector. With Line Out being common to X7 main frame as part of DAC output, this 3.5mm port (shared with Coax) is accessible from the top of the unit. Left side at the bottom of the frame also hosts micro-SD card slot which supports 128GB card and most likely the latest 200GB. The only other controls you will find on X7 are 6 buttons, placed symmetrically in groups of three on each side.

By default, on the right side you have transport control with a separate Play/Pause button and double buttons for Skip/Next/Fwd and Skip/Prev/Rev functionality. In the opposite spot symmetrically on the left side with an exactly the same look and feel, you have Power on/off button and double buttons for Volume up/down. The whole idea of such design was to be able to accommodate left/right handed operation where you can map Power/Volume and Play/Skip functionality to either side. I do appreciate the thought behind it and find it quite clever, but personally after a month of playing with X7 I still find it a bit inconvenient. Perhaps I got spoiled by DAPs with dedicated analog volume knob, or used to other DAPs where volume/power is on one side and transport controls are part of multi-function front/side buttons, but I'm not too crazy about this symmetrical button arrangement. Part of the problem is that X7 is a bit on a heavy side, and without a protective case I feel like its slick body, CNC machined out of a solid block of 6061 aluminum (polished, sandblasted, brushed, and color anodized), will slip out of my hand. As a result, my grip usually tighter around the sides, and when pushing the volume sometime I press a track skip button on the opposite side of X7, or turning the screen on with a power button sometime triggers me pressing play/pause on the opposite side. Is this a showstopper? Not really if you get a quality case with buttons that take a little more effort to press (even recessed cutout for buttons should work).

Overall, exterior design is smartphone vanilla-plain which I find polarizing. Without any extra knobs and a uniform bar shape this is a very slick and comfortable unit to handle, to pocket, and to operate with one hand. But it loses personality of a flagship status by looking plain and "boring". I don't mind a bulge on the back (extra space for the battery), and the resulting slimmer part toward the top which makes a nice resting spot for my index finger. It also enhances the grip and helps to id front/back of X7 when in my pocket. But the screen sitting on top of the X7 body exposes the edges of the glass, making it vulnerable to break/chip if you drop it. The protective case is definitely a must for X7, and creating one could be a challenge to keep the design slim while still providing an adequate protection.





Under the hood.

If this would have been a smartphone, a processor would be the crown of the design to go against the competition. But since we are dealing with an audio DAP, all eyes are on the DAC selection. Here FiiO decided to pull out all the stops and go for a knock out with TOTL desktop quality ESS 9018 8-channel DAC with channels bridged 4-a-side for the highest dynamic range. Also, a "classic" OPA1612 buffer was used. I don't know exactly the guts of IEM amp module, but it's speced at >100mW (32 ohm load) with output impedance of less than 0.5 ohm. Don't jump into conclusion about the power and max headphone impedance it can drive until you read my sound analysis further in the review.

When it comes to the actual processor, FiiO selected Rockchip RK3188T SoC with quad-core Cortex A9 and 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM (w/1.4GHz clock speed, reduced from the original RK3188 w/1.6GHz), and also 32GB of internal memory in addition to microSD expansion. This SoC is not sufficient enough for playing cpu intense games or watching high def videos (as a matter of fact, I noticed on YT sometime colors get messed up). It’s typically used in a budget tablets and Android TV boxes where you don't need to support integrated cellular radio basebands. It ensures a low power consumption to maximize battery life. And speaking of that, the battery is non-replaceable and with a capacity of 3500 mAh, which I have tested to provide about 8-8.5hrs of playback time with screen off. For a standby time, it all depends on which mode you are in. In a regularAndroid mode you can last a day due to all system processes running in the background. When booting up X7 in a Pure Music mode, I found X7 to idle for over 2 days.

Also, typical for Android based system, you have a support of 802.11 b/g/n wireless connection and Bluetooth v4.0. WiFi support is a huge plus enabling wireless internet connection so you can stream audio from on-line services in addition to being able to access the internet. But I'm not too happy that aptX codec support is not available. With some of the advanced wireless speakers that utilize its own decoding and DSP/DAC processing this is irrelevant, like in case of B&W Zeppelin Wireless I recently tested. But with a number of other wireless headphones supporting aptX codec, there was a level of improvement comparing my Note 4 (BT4.0 w/aptX) vs X7 (BT4.0 w/o aptX). But nevertheless, I was more than happy to use X7 as a source to drive my BT wireless devices without a need to drain my smartphone battery. Also, X7 BT wireless performance is much better than AK120ii where signal strength is rather poor.

With so much electronics under the hood and a support of WiFi/BT, naturally you might be wondering if X7 is prone to EMI or any other related interference. I tested it sandwiched between our smartphones and next to the tablet - no interference causing problems with audio was detected.



Amp modules.

To wrap up hardware overview, next I would like to talk about replaceable amp modules. The design architecture of X7 allows you to replace the amp module based on your power requirements and wiring needs. By default it comes with IEM module, a single 3.5mm TRS connection with low power output designed to drive efficient headphones and sensitive IEMs, though in my pair up test I found X7 to be capable of driving some higher impedance and planar magnetic headphones without a problem.  Amp module plugs into the main frame of the DAP and gets secured by two torx screws on the sides. Attached together it feels like one solid unit. Also, apparently this module should be plug'n'play where I was able to power up X7 without amp module being attached. I wouldn't recommend doing that because it will expose the connector and you can short contacts.

Other optional amp modules will be available to buy separately, and FiiO promises they will be reasonably priced. In addition to IEM module, FiiO going to make available Standard, High-Power, and Balanced (2.5mm TRRS and 4-pin kobiccon) modules. There is also a talk about releasing connector spec and making housing available for 3rd party amp modules. In my opinion, this is a much better idea than the one implemented in HiFiMAN HM901 with replacement amp cards. At the same time, it becomes inconvenient where you have to physically swap modules when you are switching between different headphones. It makes sense with efficient vs demanding (high impedance, low sensitivity) headphones, but for many who use IEMs/CIEMs with either standard or balanced cables - this will be a headache. Personally, I would have loved to see a universal amp module based on the currently planned balanced module with an addition of 3.5mm TRS connection and maybe a hardware high/low gain switch.




Dual-mode operation.

I already mentioned that FiiO found a way to overcome Sample Rate Conversion (SRC) enforced by Android OS. As a result, their Music app utilizes its own driver to communicate with ESS9018 DAC without SRC handicap. But you still have to deal with a burden of Android OS system running in the background and all the corresponding processes and apps, some of which are not easy to disable manually. This will contribute to excessive battery drain and taking away CPU resources, especially when dealing with decoding of hi-res lossless audio formats.

To mitigate this problem, FiiO came up with a dual mode operation where you can boot up X7 into a regular Android Mode with everything loaded at the startup or a Pure Music mode where FiiO Music app is loaded as a default Launcher and you can't exit into a regular Android interface. This Pure Music mode is highly optimized to load only specific drivers/processes required to run their native music app and nothing else besides it. This dual boot switch could be accessed from notification bar or in a setting menu, just keep in mind after making a selection - you will need to reboot X7. Also, if you want to upgrade firmware, you need to boot up into Android Mode. In summary, Pure Music mode turns X7 into a touch screen DAP running one specific FiiO Music app without access to internet, streaming, or anything else associated with it, though you can still enable BT forwireless listening.

Android mode is you typical full mode where you can install and run different apps and widgets. But, there is a limitation to that as well. X7 doesn't support Google Play store and as a result you will have to side load apps (apk files) except for those which do require Google Play for registration. To make things a little easier, FiiO included a folder with "whitelisted" apps to download directly to X7. The list is limited, so you better off Googling for some of your favorite apk install files. One thing to keep in mind, the performance of X7 is optimized in Pure Music mode with their native Music app. In Android mode this optimization is out of the window. It's convenient to run your streaming apps, like Spotify, Tidal, Pandora, etc., but battery drain is rather noticeable. One thing for sure, I wouldn't recommend putting FiiO Music audio widget on the screen because it drains battery like crazy.

I think implementation of Pure Music mode was a great idea, though FiiO music app is still work in progress. In Android mode – you’re faced with a typical Android "smartphone" performance where battery drain will be a quick reminder that you are no longer dealing with a dedicated DAP. But now you can run streaming services or load another audioplayer app. Luckily, you can gain back the performance by switching to Pure Music mode where I was able to keep X7 in idle for 2 days and 3 hours.





With Spotify / HibyMusic



FiiO Music app.

I'm sure by now you realized the importance of FiiO Music player app - it's your gateway to an optimized X7 performance and to get the best of ESS9018 DAC. Yes, you can boot up in Android mode and use any of your favorite music app and I guarantee it will sound great with your 320kbps mp3 or FLACs, but for a true audio purist who demands the best - FiiO native Music player app is the way to go.

Unlike a number of other people, I don't have a huge library of hi-res music with numerous albums collected over the years. I'm still a certified EDM-head who listens to a lot of separate tracks. Also, I have a collection of carefully selected tracks from various genres I use to analyze performance of audio equipment I review. That is a reason I usually don't lose my sleep over improperly tagged files which is a must for those who rely on a proper sorting of the songs/albums.   As a result of my listening habit, I have a lot of loose songs and often organize them by partitioning into folders. Thus, I usually focus on the usability of the app in terms of a general song/folder navigation and playback.

With all that in mind, my personal opinion about FiiO Music app is actually not that bad, though it's not as intuitive and requires some learning curve. Upon start up you have the first screen with a last played track in the upper 1/3rd of the partitioned screen - you can flicker to skip the song or use hardware transport control to hit play button to start playback. Underneath, you have a selection to access Favorite playlist, Folders, or DLNA streaming. Right below it you can access either Recently Played or Most Played songs. Clicking on artwork of the track thumbnail at the top will bring up the main Playback screen.

Going into Folders link brings up another screen with Local Music list where you have more choices to scroll through All the songs, sort by Artist, sort by Album, sort by Genre, and access Local folders. While making a selection through these choices, you have a narrow playback bar at the bottom with a thumbnail artwork of the currently playing song, scrolling name, and Play/Pause and Skip buttons. Clicking on that playback bar opens up the main Playback screen as well. I found going through All the songs and Folders to be more useful for my style of song browsing. But it gets a little confusing now between the first start up screen and this second navigation screen, where in my opinion they have to be combined - list of Favorite songs should be part of the sorting choices. Also, in the Folder view, I don't want to see every single Android OS folder, but would prefer to select and to display only the folder where I store my music locally and on micro-SD card.

The main Playback screen is where things start to shape up to my liking! In top half of the screen you have area to view artwork of the song or a default image if artwork is not available. Tapping it once shows embedded lyrics (if available, and a new setup icon where you can scroll or change the font size), tapping second time brings up info about the song. This part of the screen also has in the upper left corner an icon to bring you back to the first original screen of the app (why?) and in the upper right corner a search icon. In the middle you have a playback progress bar with a scrolling song name and at the left edge of it index number of a song and a total number of songs in the current playback folder. Swiping screen left-to-right brings out a list of all the songs in the currently playing folder, and swiping playback progress bar will fast forward through the song.

Lower part of the screen has Playback and other Control buttons. In the middle you have Play/Pause with a current playback time above it. To the left of it you have icon to access Graphic EQ, turn BT on/off, change playback loop mode, and Skip back. To the right of it you have Heart icon to tag song as Favorite, an icon to access more option to provide a detailed info about the song or to delete the song, icon to add the song to your Playlist, and Skip forward button. By holding a finger along the right edge of the screen brings up a volume slider menu to adjust the volume. In EQ screen, you have access to 10-band equalizer, actually with a very nice graphic representation in the upper part of the screen. Lower part of the screen has access to 5 band sliders with +/- 12dB adjustment, but there is no frequency label to indicate which band you are adjusting - this has to be fixed because it gets confusing when you flip to the next 5-bands and don't know which band you are adjusting. You can see the graphical representation of the adjustment, but you doing it blindly because sliders don't have a frequency indicator. Sliding finger up brings up 8 EQ presents (genre related) and 1 custom preset. All 8 pre-defined presets could be adjusted further. Also, on the main playback screen there is no indicator of EQ selection, something I would like to see being implemented in future updates.

In my opinion, FiiO Music app has a lot of potentials and considering it's still a work in progress - I will continue to look forward to more updates. Flexibility of Android interface opens up a door to shape this music app to perfection where sky is the limit. Yes, it is still work in progress, but I have a hope that progress will pick up soon, the way how I have seen it with sound tuning improvement.




Sound Analysis.

Often people get a dedicated DAP because they are not happy with audio performance of their smartphones, and then they realize they miss streaming capability and touch control of their phone and decide to look for usb DAC stack. With X7 you have a chance for a dedicated DAP with touch controls and streaming capability and different ampmodules – all integrated in one compact design.  FiiO is known for their budget oriented products where their DAPs usually considered having mid-fi performance. X7 is a big step up, nearly doubling the price of their previous X5ii flagship with high expectations to determine if FiiO was able to finally cross the threshold of summit-fi performance.

When I received X7 with its initial beta FW release, I was a little bit disappointed. Not necessary because it sounded so bad, but rather because I set my expectations very high. I didn't feel that sound was on a level of summit-fi performance. I quickly attributed that to a beta firmware and a default IEM module, assuming that fw is still work in progress andamp module will be updated with different versions. Following that, a few more fw updates were released and I started to notice an improvement. But not until the last FW 1.1 update I realized that FiiO means serious business and finally started to unlock a true potential of the ESS9018 DAC paired up with their IEM amp module.

Based on the latest FW 1.1, I'm hearing X7 to have a neutral and slightly warmish signature with a very clear and detailed sound. It doesn't necessary strike you with analytical micro-detailing, but it definitely leans more toward a more revealing sound signature. The layering and separation is pretty good (improvement over the initial fw release), sound never gets congested, but the transparency is not at the highest reference level and I actually hear a little thickness in a sound, thus my reference to a slightly warmish signature contributed by a fuller body of lower mids and some noticeable impact of lower end. Soundstage width/depth/height is slightly above the average where sound has a more intimate feeling, yet placement of instruments is still very convincing.

Based on what I hear across different headphones, I find X7 to have an excellent impact and speed at the lower end and a decent extension. Bass is well controlled and that is one of the reasons why I hear such a high level of clarity and details because bass is confined without spilling into mids. Lower mids give some nice thickness to a body of the sound, but they are not too thick. Upper mids are full of details, but not too analytical, treble is clear and has a nice definition without contributing to sibilance.

Describing a DAP by itself is not always helpful, thus I prefer to include a relative comparison to some of my other DAPs to give an idea how it stacks up against the competition.



X7 vs PAW Gold - LPG is more neutral, soundstage wider/deeper, I hear more transparency in the sound, while layering and separation is similar.

X7 vs L5Pro - similar neutral-warmish sig, L5P soundstage is a little wider, other than that sound is very similar in layering/separation, even matching the dynamics. But overall L5P sound is tighter and a little faster.

X7 vs AK120ii – AK has a very similar neutral-warmish sig, soundstage is a little wider, bass has a touch more impact, but everything else is very close in performance.

X7 vs QA360 - 360 is slightly brighter (leaner lower mids), soundstage is wider/deeper, mid-bass has slightly more impact; overall sound of 360 is a little smoother.

X7 vs LP5 Gold – similar sound signature, LP5G has a little wider/deeper soundstage, more transparency and faster speed, and slightly better layering and separation, but the gap is not that wide.

X7 vs N6 - N6 is a little brighter (neutral-bright), soundstage is a little wider, very similar dynamic sound and separation/layering. The bigger difference is that N6 sounds a little leaner in comparison. X7 has more body and sounds more musical.

X7 vs X5ii - X7 has a fuller sound with more body, also more natural tonality. Soundstage is rather similar. X7 sound is a little more dynamic, and has a slightly better separation/layering of a sound.

To test the DAC output of X7, I connected LO to different external amps.

w/E12A - a great pair up where the sound is very close to HO of X7, but w/E12A you get a little more transparency. Makes me wish FiiO would have used MUSE02 amp in their IEM module.

w/VE Runabout - excellent pair up, improves dynamics, improves width/depth, sound becomes more transparent, layering/separation is also improved.

w/HA-2 - nice pair up, improves soundstage depth, also makes sound a little bit warmer (adds more body to lower mids).

w/C5 - nice pair up, improves soundstage width/depth, also makes sound a little bit warmer.

X7 next to Galaxy S5 and Note 4

For those who are wondering if they should get X7 or external USB DAC to pair up with their smartphone, I tested N4 with HA-2 to find:

X7 vs Note 4 w/HA-2 - X7 sound has a little more transparency and sounds a little tighter, otherwise a very similar performance.

Pair up with different headphones.

Though you have option to select high/low gain, I found the sound in high gain to have more energy and to be more dynamic. Thus all my headphone testing was done with X7 set in high gain, and I also indicated a volume level for each. Not every pair up turned out as I expected.

ES60 (35/120) - some hissing, nice clean detailed sound, good low end expansion, good transparency.

ZEN (83/120) - high gain is the way to go with these 320 ohm earbuds, though X7 doesn't drive them to a full potential, especially when it comes to bass which lost a little bit of weight/body and sound is a little mellow (not as fast or tight).

Savant (49/120) - very clear detailed smooth sound, modest sub-bass quantity (sub-bass rumble is there), excellent soundstage expansion, nice transparency.

W60 (45/120) - smooth warm detailed sound, a bit more on a laidback side, missing a little bit of speed.

UM Pro 50 (42/120) - deep bass impact, nice smooth detailed sound, good dynamics, missing a bit of sparkle at the top.

DN2kJ (52/120) – not the best pair up with these 8 ohm IEMs; bass missing some sub-bass texture and upper mids/treble a bit too revealing/harsh.

MSR7 (56/120) - excellent pair up, clear detailed sound, good soundstage expansion, nice transparency and great retrieval of details.

PM-3 (70/120) – excellent pair up, drives them with authority! nice punchy bass, good soundstage depth, clear detailed sound.

EL-8C (80/120) - doesn't drive it to full potential, bass is not as tight and missing sub-bass texture and treble has a little bit of metallic sheen, sound is a bit thin.

R70x (95/120) - excellent pair up with these open back 470 ohm cans, clear detailed sound, excellent transparency, but pushing it closer to X7 max driving limit.

Conclusion.

It’s hard to evaluate X7 as a finished product because I didn’t get a chance to test different amp modules and the firmware is still work in progress, but so far it shows a lot of potential. As a matter of fact I was very impressed with the progress of sound improvement from the day I received X7 to the latest FW1.1 update. At $650 it still represents a great value considering high performance desktop quality DAC, wireless connection with access to streaming services, modular amp design, and touch screen interface. More work needs to be done to finish their Music app and probably to optimize DAC performance with new amp modules, as well as a desperate need for a good case. But if you take into consideration this is their first Android-based release, I think it turned out pretty good! Just like with a classic X5 and their mechanical wheel introduced and later improved throughout X1/X3ii/X5ii releases, FiiO is breaking their own new grounds with X7 release which I’m sure will get only better moving forward toward their ultimate goal of setting the World on FiiO-R!