Fiio X5II and E12A - Mont Blanc Edition

The E12A headphone amplifier is specially marketed for the low impedance and low sensitivity of in ear monitors.  While usable with any portable device that uses a 3.5mm stereo jack, the special X5II stacking kit makes it a breeze to attach your X5II semi-permanently. The amp itself comes with a number of Livestrong-like bands that help attach it to most portable devices.

As noted elsewhere, the biggest failing of the X5II seems to be the built in headphone amplifier. If it was just weak across the board it would still be useful.  Unfortunately by itself it sounds hard and gutless. As if only a tweeter was playing.  This is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it helps illustrate the problem with sound quality. Neither of my headphones played nicely with it despite having a broad (20 and 60 Ohm) variation in impedance.

The E12A, like the K5, really opens up the sound. You get much more spacious and neutral sounding playback. Also, and one other reviewer mentioned this, the X5II seems to break in.  Yes, I know it's nuts, but if you absolutely can't stand it at first, put it in a drawer and let it play for 4-5 hours before you listen again, then tell me I'm nuts.

Anyway, with either add-on amplifier the X5II is a much much better sounding DAP. However, even at sales prices I'm now out $471  ($299 + $160 + $16) in total and I don't have the slim profile of the iPod classic, and I dare say the Tobleron shaped Pono may actually fit my pockets better.

Issues

Oddly, the dual SD cards in the X5II are seen as 2 separate cards by my Windows 7 PC and Media Monkey. To keep from going completely crazy I ended up moving all of my classical collection to SD 2, and keeping all the Pop, modern and world on SD1.  I guess that's fine, but in the 21st century it's surprising to find a digital device that doesn't take care of stuff like this for you.

Another issue is that each device charges independently.

Lastly, un-strapping the X5II to place in the K5 is kind of a bother. It seems you need to commit to using the X5 as either your commuter player, or your desktop player with easy to drive headphones. This combination is not going to be able to do all things for you. Not that any other solution would either.

Conclusion

Overall, the X5II/E12A is a much better sounding solution than the X5II alone. It's much clearer and warmer than my 160 GBbyte iPod classic (currently snuggled into the glove box of my car) but it's still not as good as the $399 Pono. The Pono still sounds warmer and sweeter without any loss of detail, but the X5II/E12A is a really good combination and credible good sounding alternative.