Years ago when recorded music on vinyl was first available, music fans would dress up as if going to a concert in order to listen. It seems daft now, but with their limited frame of reference and their respect for musicianship, we can understand.
And the same has happened many times since; with developments in technology over the past century or so, our relationship with music changes again and again. The development of such things as amplification in the 1920s, magnetic tape, and the famous Sony Walkman all affected our lives in one way or another. It brought more options when listening, and it brought more lifelike and better-recorded music to us. So much so, that we can now take it for granted to the point of listening to our musical heroes in our underpants.
Apple created its own musical revolution years ago with the iPod; although these little players tended to cost big bucks, it was another Walkman-like effect on how we consume music with the iPod’s (then) huge capacity of 20 or 40 gigabytes. Since then we’ve had micro SD cards which increase capacity, but the lasting perception since the iPod is that decent mobile audio is expensive. Step forward, Shanling!
The M0 achieves the mobile audio holy trinity; it’s small, can accept Micro SD cards of up to 512Gb, and costs only £99. Added to that, the M0 has features such as Bluetooth Hi-Res transmission, a touch screen and build quality you can bang nails in with.
Don’t believe us? Give the M0 a try and if your relationship with music doesn’t change within 30 days, we’ll give your money back!
FiiO X5 Lossless Portable Digital Audio Player & DAC
Summary
The FiiO X5 is the new contribution from this great brand; the company which is making a huge name for itself by bringing high quality budget-priced items to the market. Almost a year ago we were all taken aback by the arrival of the X3 which has certainly shaken up the digital audio player (DAP) market, but now FiiO has X-ceeded itself with the X5.
After coming to know the FiiO X3‘s sound quality, it was a little difficult to imagine how it could be bettered; both in terms of sound quality and power. The X5 creates a certain expectation as it’s larger. It is still pocket-sized, but it certainly makes for a pocket which is full.
Unlike the X3, the X5 has no internal storage so a micro SD card is required to get started. However it has 2 slots for these cards, so there’s a potential 128Gb storage capacity with current firmware/size limits.
Appearance takes priority over usability for perhaps the first 30 minutes of use; the buttons are not marked and the user can feel a little helpless initially. This soon passes, but the wheel remains a point of contention; its build does not appear to sit well with the rest of the device. It’s very light and wobbly, with a rubber touch wheel to select options or tracks on the screen. Notches or slight clicks are encountered as the wheel goes round, but these tend not to be linked so much with what is happening on the screen. A ‘two click’ turn of the wheel may not necessarily move you along by two options so watch the screen. It can be frustrating if the required option is just one ‘click’ away; it seems that a gentle turn of the wheel can turn into a few gentle turns, as the selected option doesn’t change, or changes too far. Fortunately the lower two buttons on the front of the X5 can be used to scroll through these items, so it’s not something we’re stuck with using.
Sticking with the wheel, the centre acts as a ‘select’ button for the X5; however it is machined and is uncomfortable to touch with the thick skin on my thumb. It’s worth it though. Also I was a little concerned that there appears not to be a space where I can throw a band over and have it strapped to my FiiO E12 – the X5 is full of buttons, screen and wheel, but I have found that a band can be placed over the wheel area and operation is not affected. Maybe the addition of an E12 is overkill however; having tried the X5 now, my demanding 600 Ohm AKG K240 DF headphones sound fantastic straight out of the headphone socket.
There is no ‘hold’ button on the X5, there is a simple timer function (from 30s to 120s, or off) which renders the screen blank and most of the buttons inoperable, until the power button is pressed. I noticed that the volume buttons turn into ‘track skip’ buttons in this state.
The screen shows a little more of the track titles than the X3 when browsing, for example I am able to read the full title of Duran Duran’s ‘Is There Something I Should Know’ but no band name is present in the filename. Compilations may still require guesswork as to the track title, or you might want to encode your files with the ‘Track Artist’ after the ‘Track Title’ so song names can be read with no problem. Also the screen is less square than that of the X3; it’s wider, but only the top half of any cover art is visible when tracks are playing as it gets stretched to fit across the screen. Not a real issue, but Sweet’s ‘Desolation Boulevard’ cover isn’t the same!
Sound Quality
I tried the X5 against the X3 with the HiFiMAN HE-400; despite their 35 ohm impedance, these are thirsty headphones and can really take some power to get them up to their full potential. The X5 felt a little more relaxed, more analoguish, more controlled. It appeared to go a little louder as well, although the two models are evenly matched. Both the X3 and X5 powered the HE-400 adequately, although a little more headroom (on both players) might be nice with quieter tracks.
Next, a high quality dynamic headphone was tried – the Beyerdynamic T1. With this headphone the differences were harder to spot between the two Fiio players but the X5 appeared to give a slightly wider and more spacious presentation; the X3 had a little more bass impact or ‘slam’ to it.
FiiO has beefed up the bass/treble setting of the X3 with a full equaliser in the X5 model; there are now 10 bands between 31Hz and 16kHz, the frequency bands roughly double in breadth as they move up through the frequency spectrum; ie. 31Hz, 62Hz, 125Hz, etc. The steps in terms of EQ volume are very fine indeed, so this is a useful tool to anyone wanting fuller control.
Verdict
In all, the X5 is a winner if you have headphones which can reveal its audio quality. If you plan to stick with sub-£100 headphones or only have portable uses, you may as well save your money and get the X3. If you’re confident that your equipment can get the best out of the X5, then that is what I recommend – it is a clear improvement over the X3 and the extra money spent will not be in vain.
For a few years now, we have enjoyed the convenience of lossy music files as opposed to carting around a portable CD or cassette player. The drawback of course is that we can only use equipment which does not reveal the flaws within these music files. Try listening to a 128kbps music file with the headphones you received with the player and it’ll sound acceptable. Try again with some Shure 535s, and the appalling drivel you’ve been listening to is revealed in all its wishy washy glory.
These headphones are very kind to low quality audio. Any flaws are likely not noticed by the listener.
So what if you want to get rid of those compression artefacts? If you want to keep those nice headphones, you need to think about raising your game.
Perhaps the simplest solution is to raise the data rate of the music you’re buying or encoding to 320kbps – this will not require any new equipment, other than a larger memory card on your device perhaps. Your media player should not need to be changed.
Lossless formats do not include MP3. However high the settings are, a certain amount of the original information is still lost.
The first lossless format I came across was monkey’s audio (.ape) about 10 years ago. At the time it seemed to be an equivalent of .zip or .rar files; it would squash the music down to half the original size for storage, but my computer could not play it back in real time – it needed to decompress the files again before playing. Even so, after decompression the music files were identical to the original files, with no loss of information. Nowadays, my computer is up to the job and can play back Monkey’s Audio files in real time. I have some ‘Gorillaz’ playing just now.
Other lossless formats include Windows Media Audio Lossless (.wma, but not all .wma versions) and the open-source Apple format (.m4a) along with perhaps the most well-known, FLAC (.flac).
Not all portable music players can handle these filetypes, so do check before committing to a particular filetype, or player. Some are more versatile than others; for instance the Astell & Kern AK100 plays WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC and APE as well as some lossy formats, which is a large range of formats. However my humble Sony Walkman will not bother with anything but .mp3/.mp4/.wma – if I want lossless I have to carry around the full uncompressed .wav file, and with 8Gb memory this is not a great option.
The Astell&Kern AK120 is certainly no slouch when it comes to lossless quality.
Another great player is the Fiio X3, and with the forthcoming X5, Fiio is worth keeping your eye on as regards players. It supports .dsd, .ape, .flac, .alac, .wma and .wav. and can also be used as a DAC.
The HifiHeadphones team is pleased to announce the new Portable Digital Audio Player & DAC from Astell and Kern, the AK100 is now available to be purchased on our website.
Uncompromising high-fidelity music playback at your fingertips: the Astell and Kern AK100 is the pinnacle of modern portable audio playback. Capable of Studio Mastering Quality sound, this portable player offers high-definition lossless music playback well beyond the realms of standard CD quality.
With the Astell&Kern AK100 listeners can enjoy music as it was intended to be heard with all it’s details and subtleties. Equipped with high-quality Wolfson DAC chip, the AK100 offers the highest levels of signal-to-noise ratio and lowest level of harmonic distortion for a highly detailed and realistic sound experience. The Astell&Kern AK100 can also be used as an external DAC via the Optical In/Out function.
The Astell&Kern AK100 is capable of playing all lossless music files offering high-definition music playback. Lossless music files are larger than standard music files and require more storage space. Astell&Kern AK100 carries an on-board memory of 32GB with additional dual micro SD card slots, making the internal memory expandable to 96GB.
An intuitive and responsive touch screen interface combined with traditional control buttons makes using the AK100 fast and easy. The user interface of the Astell&Kern focuses on quickly searching for and listening to songs. Housed in a robust case of black-anodized aluminium with a hairline finish, the AK100 represents a deep and defined craftsmanship
Features
Portable high-fidelity audio system with Mastering Quality Sound (MQS) playback
Up to 24bit/192kHz playback of high resolution audio files
Lossless playback for WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, APE, MP3, AAC, WMA and OGG music formats
Meets 100% of Hi-Fi audio specifications
Equipped with high-performance WOLFSON DAC chip
Optical DAC function for PC and MAC
Dual Micro SD card slot supports up to 96GB of total memory
User Interface with intuitive touch screen and control buttons
Digital volume control wheel with traditional analogue feel
Solid machined aluminium casing
The HifiHeadphones team is pleased to announce the new Portable Digital Audio Player & DAC from Astell and Kern, the AK120 is now available to be purchased on our website.
The Astell and Kern AK120 plays any music format with high-fidelity Mastering Quality Sound (MQS). Lossless music files no longer need to be confined to big set-ups with this portable audio system. Feel the phenomenal realism of high-definition lossless music through 24bit/192kHz sound processing that cannot be heard through a standard CD.
The incorporated Wolfson WM8740 digital-to-analogue converter chip is the world’s best performing high resolution DAC chip. Equipped with two DAC chips the AK120 independently separates the left and right channels and offer true dual-monaural audio with wide soundstage and full-bodied audio. Astell&Kern AK120 can also be used as an external DAC via USB or Optical In function.
To playback 24bit/192kHz files, it is essential for the Astell&Kern to have high-capacity memory. Astell&Kern AK120 carries an on-board memory of 64GB with additional dual micro SD card slots supporting up to 64GB of memory in each slot , making the internal memory expandable to 192GB.
Intuitive and responsive, the touch screen interface combined with integrated hardware control buttons makes using the AK120 fast and easy. The user interface of the Astell&Kern focuses on quickly searching for and listening to songs. The curved design of the volume wheel guard provides additional protection to the volume wheel.
Features
Portable high-fidelity audio system with Mastering Quality Sound (MQS) playback
Up to 24bit/192kHz playback of high resolution audio files
Lossless playback for WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, APE, MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG and DSD music formats
Meets 100% of Hi-Fi audio specifications
Equipped two high-performance Wolfson WM8740 24bit 192kHz DACs in a dual-mono configuration
USB / Optical DAC function for PC and MAC
Dual Micro SD card slot supports up to 192GB of total memory
User Interface with intuitive touch screen and control buttons
Digital volume control wheel with traditional analogue feel
Volume wheel guard provides protection
Elegant design and sturdy build, housed in a brushed aluminium case
