FiiO X7 Android Smart Portable Music Player, 3.97" Touchscreen, 32GB ROM, 1GB RAM, Body Only

Update (1/7/2017): FiiO has now released FW3.1.2beta. Gapless playback and USB DAC functionality on MACs is now working properly for me :-)Update (10/6/2016): FiiO released FW3.0 today, which was basically an update to Android 5.1.1. This has fixed the issue of the initially low volume via the FiiO music app, and also added several more features, such as continuous volume control with the screen locked and direct switching from Pure Music Mode to Android Mode without rebooting. It's still not perfect (for example, USB DAC functionality on a Mac and gapless playback are now completely broken), but this is a beta release and hopefully things will improve!...Update (9/20/2016): After a couple of months with the X7, I need to upgrade my rating on this product. It's still buggy. I have not found work-arounds to the initial low-volume bug (each time you plug in headphones, it plays quieter for about the first 10 seconds) and I have not found a work-around for the intermittent gapless playback bug - sometimes gapless works; sometimes it doesn't. But, on balance, the X7 has so many features and capabilities, that I can forgive a couple of bugs in the UI. A full Android experience and the ability to install additional apps and services from the Google play store makes the X7 outstanding value for money. I find I'm using it all the time - playing my own lossless files from a 200 Gb microSD card, or streaming from Tidal or Google Play Music, using either amp-out direct to headphones, or LO to drive other amps. It's a very awesome device!Some of the other nasty bugs, like the unfortunate, "Unfortunately Google Play Services has stopped" message, I was able to fix via rooting (which FiiO are completely ok with!) and the failure-to-play in the FiiO music app bug by re-formatting the microSD in FAT32 and removing any .* or ._* hidden files from all directories and sub-directories that can get copied across from a Mac. So, just be aware - because of the bugs, you might need to be prepared to spend a little time with it.Original review below...-------------------------------The FiiO X7 is a high-quality music player that can be run either in pure music mode, where you have access only to the FiiO music app, or full Android mode, where you have (almost) a full, working Android 4 device, including wifi and BT radios. The X7 is a great device, which you will probably love if you can get past its numerous faults and software bugs.I found its sound quality (using the am2 amp module) to be very good; it is not quite as good as that of my QP1R, but it does have a quieter noise floor. It sounds better than my Galaxy S7 Edge and with the am2 module it plays MUCH louder, so be careful with your hearing. All its amp modules (including the am3 balanced amp) have standard 3.5 mm sockets, which should be particularly useful to those poor suckers that end up with an iPhone 7 ;-) I like the touchscreen UI and I love being able to transfer files onto a 200 Gb microSD card via wifi!But there are some problems I encountered.System issues:As others have noted, you will spend your life dismissing pop-ups saying "Google play services has stopped". Over and over again. I found that removing any hidden (.*) files from the system root directory has reduced the frequency of these messages, but nothing has completely eliminated them. FiiO's website recommends restoring and clearing caches, but that has done nothing to fix this issue.The power-off timer doesn't work.Video/audio playback doesn't sync.The X7 has particularly bad EMI/RFI, especially from its own wifi radio, which lowers the overall sound quality when streaming. To avoid this, I recommend downloading files for offline playback, and then disabling the wifi radio before listening.FiiO music app:This is FiiO's own music player, which by-passes some of the audio playback limitations of the Android OS. I'm torn on this, because I like its UI (I love the volume up/down control by swiping up/down on the right side of the now-playing screen), I find its SQ slightly better than any other music player and it's your only option when booting the X7 in pure music mode. However, it is absolutely riddled with bugs. Specifically: it has a bug that causes the volume to jump up 10 s after plugging in headphones; gapless playback doesn't work most of the time: it's very fussy about file and directory formats; it fails to play files when navigating by folder view if Mac OS X hidden .* files are present in the folders; it won't display track names that contain a period. Also, its UI isn't intuitive. For example, when navigating by artist, you're presented with a long, randomly-ordered list of all tracks by that artist. How is that useful?!In summary, the X7 is so buggy, if it were any other device, I'd probably be giving it only 1 star. However, the fact that you essentially have a full Android device here means you can find workarounds to many of these issues. For example, you can install your favorite Android music player - Rocket Player and Google Play Music are both working flawlessly for me.I'm hoping that one day FiiO fixes the issues in their own music app, because I'd prefer to use that, given the small boost in sound quality. If they do, I might come back here one day and change my rating to five stars.P.S. If you're going to get a case for your X7, I'd recommend the one made by Dignis. FiiO's own case is much cheaper, but doesn't fit as well, isn't as good quality and blocks the view of the LED power/charging light on the front. One oddity of both cases - the player goes in through the bottom of the case - leaving it with the potential of falling out through the bottom. I guess the idea here is that the amp module will remain exposed, no matter what connections or sockets are added in future amp modules. I would have preferred a case where the opening were at the top, even if it meant me having to take my drill to the bottom of the case later on...

I never entered the Hifi player before. Used to 'enjoy' music with my Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di. Then I knew what is called fake sound after switching to X7. The sound is crystal clear and authentic, somehow reveal the defects of the music too. Literally I can hear all details of the symphony (provided you have a nice headphone like HD700 or IE800 able to clearly separate all the instruments).At this level, I am not sure how much gain I could further get if I switch to higher end DAC, but I do know that thousands of bucks are needed to kick it off. Considering sound quality-money spending is like a log curve, I would halt for a while. This one should be more than satisfying.Per the comments from other users, particular the UI, I am not trying to defend myself, but the UI looks OK, no major bugs I currently found, only one bug is that when X7 is connected to computer as USB DAC, I can't hear any thing if I plug in another headphone after I unplugged the first headphone (I did a few comparison between different ones), it needs reboot.Conclusion: I support this player, its price–performance ratio is decent.

I purchased the X7 from Amazon - not sure from which seller. I really wanted to love it. I bought into the stratetic use of a desktop type 8-core DAC and the abillity to mount FiiO's AM5 Amp Module to the unit; so I could power my full size headphones. The sound is very good; make sure though that you read forums about some noise while streaming via WiFi; not too bad of an issue but Fiio states that they don't touch it out of respect to leave the full fidelity in place. Works well when streaming in the car also. Here is the one big problem that no one is talking about. The X7 only has 1 microsd slot - okay - not great but okay. They rate it at 128gb and say that 'some users have had success with 200gb cards but they don't officially support them - okay I knew that too. However the X7 sold me by having the Tidal (and others) Music App meaning I could download higher quality tracks and albums to use on the go. The problem is that none of the expert review, forums - etc. tell you a nasty secret. The X7 only permit Tidal Offline (and other services) to download to its internal 32gb card; which only has 27gb the moment you first power it on and download the Tidal App. So any other downloads reduce the 27gb further. If you have a 128gb or 256gb cell phone you can download a lot of Tidal HiFi Content; I was doing it but wanted better sound. But why was it kept a secret that I could only use 27gb of the 160gb (32gb internal card + the 128gb microsd card inserted)? One quickly realizes that higher quality files need more storage and that only permitting access to the 27gb equals less than 17% of storage will store Tidal Content. **I tried the 200gb card and it works but then I could only use 27gb of the 232gb OR LESS than 12% of the storage to download Tidal to walk around with or use in my car!!!! I'm reading that the Pioneer and Onkyo will permit at least 200gb (one of their 2 SD Slots) for Tidal; I also read that A&K will stream Tidal but not permit 'Offline Mode'. My advice don't purchase the X7 with high hopes for Tidal - you can't really use Tidal the way it was meant on this device; it's more like a watered-down trial version if you ask me. I wasted a lot of time and it will be sent back.

The unit arrived with no way to charge it. The accompanying cables did not fit any ports; there was no charging port on the unit that was described by the user manual. I sent all back the same day it arrived. EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED! I never got a chance to use it at all! Charge on unit was at 14 minutes and a few seconds. I looked to see if I could get help from the unit on how to charge, so to possible diagnose the issue. BAD, BAD Experience!

Never buy China expensive device. If it will be broken you have no chance to repair this. Even support tried to help you.

return 4 times and finally get one can be used as well. ok.. ....totally depends on excellent amazon service