FIIO has released a new flagship player – FIIO X7

Early January was marked by a bright event: the official launch of the flagship Hi-Fi player FiiO X7 on the American market. FiiO brand has long been loved by our countrymen for its high-class sound, laconic design and quality of performance. All this for a very reasonable price by the standards of Hi-Fi equipment.

We should note right away that the new player has a more impressive price than its predecessors. Of course, largely due to the high and volatile exchange rate of the dollar, as well as the use of advanced technology that has raised the level of sound to unreachable heights.

The retail price of the player today is 58 390 Dollars. But the paradox is that it is still the lowest price for a device of this class, for which, of course, a huge respect to the manufacturer.

The player design is very sleek, and the metal enclosure and a large, smartphone-like display makes the player very impressive. It is also noteworthy that the device is quite elegant and slim body is a rarity among the portable hi-fi.

FiiO X7 is stuffed with all sorts of technical know-how, which makes it one of the most interesting devices of the year.

First of all it is a Rockchip RK3188 processor with four Cortex-A9 cores, made using 28nm processor technology. Each is 35% faster than the A7 core, 40% faster than the Tegra3, and 55% faster than 45nm processors, ensuring long-lasting performance with ultra-low current leakage.

The second is that the X7 is one of the first portable devices to use the ESS ES9018S DAC. Its eight output channels can be wired together four-by-four to achieve an astounding 135dB for signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range, while the distortion factor is just 120dB. For comparison this DAC provides 6 dB higher SNR than the often used ES9018K2M.

Third is the patented system of combining a portable player and a removable headphone amplifier module, which allows the device to remain compact while taking advantage of a separate amplifier.

So you no longer need a complicated “sandwich” design to get the sound and high power output you want.

Again, to avoid any complaints about the high cost of the gadget, we note that this kind of integration of the amplifier with the player’s body requires very complex and high-precision machining.

Last but not least is the location and reassignment of the buttons for right and left hand. How it works? We all have individual preferences as to which hand to operate the player, do it with your thumb or the other.

X7 has 6 mechanical buttons, 3 buttons on each side of the body, located symmetrically: volume +/- , next previous track, power, play pause.

The functions, assigned to specific buttons, can be changed in accordance with the way you prefer to control the player.

It’s hard to argue that FiiO X7 is an interesting and unusual player, which you want to listen to and try all its features on yourself and evaluate the sound.