I have owned two Fiio MP3 (well, FLAC since you asked) players since moving on from my iPod, about five years ago. Starting with a farly basic X1 and after tiring of the terrible user interface, a much nicer X5.
These names won’t mean much to you I’m sure, unless you read hi-fi magazines. But Fiio have carved out a great reputation for “high res music” portables, mainly in the Asian market where they are big potatoes.
I think they are outstanding and better than many actual hi-fi components I’ve owned …..
Recently I became victim to gadget envy when I read that @chrisf owns a top of the range model so I set out to treat myself.
Making enquiries of a stockist, I got this email yesterday. Essentially they ain’t making them any more.
“They can’t get hold of more processors (I think it was that part) that is used in a few of their larger players so they are now needing to develop new models using different parts.
They also recently had a fire in one of their factories so lost a lot of stock and part as well, mainly for cable production I believe but it will affect them over all.”
This has been a public service announcement.
Bought an M3K last year. Forty sovs. It’s fuckin’ ace! Even MP3s sound good. Yeah, really!
I have the X1 and also dislike the user interface. How is the M7? Anybody know?
All the later model ranges are Android based and all that implies. No horrible scroll wheel required.
Ta, excellent SQ I presume? There is a model with about $100 off available on Amazon Canada.
I don’t know the SQ specs, but my ears tell me they are very good indeed.
CPU in the M7 is a Samsung Exynos 7270 (1GHz dual-core SoC).
In my day job, there has been a fire in the Fab (chip factory) which makes Xilinx chips leading to a global shortage. It is quite possibly the same factory that makes the Exynos range.
Doubtless there will be new FiiO models in future.
I used to work in a fab in NY state. When we once had a fire, in order to not frighten the customers it was declared that an “incident” had occurred.
My contacts reckon it’s a Samsung chip fire.
Put a damp tea-towel over it.
Or, as it’s known in our house, a tea-towel.
Arf @moose-the-mooche
Kioxia (Samsung) fab fire on 6th Jan. Mainly NAND Flash memory there, though.
Asahi Kasei Microsystem’s (AKM) fab in Nobeoka on Oct 20th. AKM make audio DACs. Uh-oh.
M7 and everything below should be alright as they use DACs from ESS.
M9 and above use DACs from AKM. Oh dear.
SteveF – The Mods have asked me to point out that posting random words in random order isn’t really in the spirit of our blog.
Asking for a friend ( although I have no idea what a “friend” is) – what’s a ” fab fire” ?
Fab fire Freddie told me everyone’s fly
DJs spinning I said my my
Flash is fast, Flash is cool
(French bit I’ll leave to you)
Mrs F says: “Francois se fas, Flashe’ no do”
She also says: “That’s rubbish. Is she foreign?”
She improvised that rap on the spot, you know.
I honestly don’t know why the US were scared of the Russians in 1980 when they had Debbie Harry.
A ‘fab’ is a Silicon Chip Fabrication Plant (or “IC factory”)
A ‘fire’ is a hot fing wot burns stuff.
My M11 Pro is fantastic and going very well. Hopefully it will last for a good while yet and until they have new models.
A Fiio, you say? Why has no-one mentioned this before???
Well I went ahead and ordered one, from apparently “the last batch we’re getting.” It’s a batch of ten and then – nowt, it seems. Oh the humanity.
I bought an M7 a few months ago when my iPod classic finally gave up the ghost. Only things I really miss are the lack of a shuffle facility and the iTunes sorting. To my ears, it sounds better using a pair of £15 earphones than the iPod did through a set of earbuds (also now deceased) costing 10 times that.
I appear to have inadvertently discovered a shuffle facility. I have no idea how, as the player was in my pocket at the time…
Play modes are bottom left on the main screen on any Fiio I’ve had
Maybe @fentonsteve can help. If I want to use one purely (or mainky) for hi res files and then connect to amplifier/receiver with bluetooth, is the gain in SQ negated?
There are different levels of BT. Some (aptX onwards) are CD-quality lossless, the more recent versions (aptX HD/SBC) support lossless hi-res.
Of course, both transmitter and receiver need to support the faster BT, or both fall back to whichever language “they can both speak” as it were.
Cheers
And then it’s proudly up the MI, MII, M3K
And keep your feet off the upholstery, Ronnie
(sorry, I appear to be stuck in 1980)