You will be using the top right button a lot and while some people actually complained about that I can’’t see the problem with that as it is easy to access and it’s the logical way to work the UI. The X1 UI is easy and I enjoy using it, I have no issues at all. I don’t like the buttons and navigation structure and luckily for us Fiio didn’t use that in the X1. Phew! The X3 user interface isn’t the best, even after the updates. Luckily one smart guy came up with the idea of using the end of a pin (badge) to push it and then all problems were fixed. There was absolutely no way to shut it down and we had to look for a mini needle to push the reset button on the left between the power and volume buttons. I was asked to bring my X1 to Canjam Europe and when the guys from fired it up it crashed and it got stuck on the startup screen. I’ve only had the UI hang up on me once but at the most unfortunate time. It shows album art, has different play modes, offers gapless playback, an EQ with presets and screen and timer settings for sleep mode. The (6 color) UI is simple but good and you can browse folders, albums, artists, genres and favorites. I’ve been using it a lot and I have nothing to complain about. It even is reasonably pocket friendly: you get the hang of the buttons fairly quick and when the player is in locked mode the volume buttons serve to skip tracks (long push). Sure it will be hard to beat the interface of the AKs or the Apple iPods but it is getting closer and closer.
The great part of the X1 is the user interface. Coming from the exceptionally good touch screens from the Astel&Kerns and Calyx M that is quite the shock, but it does the job. The 2” TFT 320 x 240px screen is basically the same as they used in the X3. So the build quality is good but it just shows it is a $99 player and you can’t even blame Fiio for that, especially if you look at what this little player can do: a lot! The build quality of the X1 is good and it even has an aluminium frame but at the same time the player still feels very plastic like and it just looks on the cheaper side.
Ambify capture system audio portable#
It only weighs 106 grams and measures 96.6 x 57 x 14mm making it smaller than a pack of cigarettes and about the same size as the Cypherlabs Picollo portable amp.
A lovely design that is extremely easy to use. The 3.5mm headphone/Line-Out is situated on top of the player, the power and volume buttons are on the left side, the microSD slot on the other side and the main four buttons and turning wheel on the front. I really didn’t like the buttons (or lay-out) of the X3 but the X1 is great in terms of usability. The X1, the little brother of both the X3 and X5, comes in champagne or silver color and uses the Apple like spinning wheel like we saw before in the X5. Sure they might mostly sell the X1 to younger people with a smaller audio budget and yes it might maybe be tuned more so the young audiophiles like the sound but I just gdon’t get it. Don’t you find it’s a weird thing to state? Does it mean that a guy like me who’s in his 30s won’t like the X1? Is there an age limit to buy this thing? Of course there isn’t but it’s still remarkable. “High-Res DAP for the young”, that’s the slogan Fiio launched the X1 with. There is a lot of good and a lot of bad and I will tell you all about it in over 2300 words, just keep reading till the end. Only $99! Am I already saying it is excellent then? Not at all. You will see I will mention that several times in this review but it is very important to keep that small price in mind. The X1 is a High Resolution file playing DAP that only costs $99 USD. In a market where very expensive gear seems to sell like hot apple pie, Fiio decided to go the other way. Together they are worth about forty Fiio X1s. The last DAP review I did was of the top of the line Astel&Kern AK120ii and 240.
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