Finally found the fan club for FiiO here......

this is a post I put up just a few days earlier, hope FiiO fans here can shed more lights to me:

Dear all forummers:

3 years ago i bought a used Fiio X3 (1st gen) from another very nice forummer yang2910, it was my first DAP and I was blown away by the SQ! Sadly, last week I lost it during travel. So I am in the hunt for a replacement, and I need some recommendations before making a new purchase. Before that let me give you more info about my use cases so that you can give me more focused suggestions.

My age: 51

My main diet composed of :
Jazz (vocal, instrumental) (50% of the time)
Pop (Hong Kong, Chinese, Brit pop) (20%)
Mainstream Rock (like Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac) (10%)
Classical (20%)
Heavy Metal - no no no

My headphone: Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro
* I have auditioned and compared Custom One Pro with Audio-Technica ATH-M50x using the Fiio X3, found that M50x sounded too bright and too forward and I got tired soon, but Custom One Pro is just nice and non fatiguing to my ears for prolonged listening. I have also tried the Final Audio Design Pandora Hope just for fun, and-it blew me out of the solar system! I have never heard anything like it before and wished to take it home right away, but the price of RM3k+ was too much to justify!

Besides using the headphones, lately I have started to use the Fiio X3 as my main source to feed my home hifi system consist of a vintage Marantz 1060 integrated amplifier and a pair of also vintage Rotel speakers with 12 inch bass drivers. The result is fantastic - X3 feeds music signals directly into the amp from the lineout port, without going through any extra DAC or preamp, the sound is marvelous.

With this background, I need your ideas to help me get another DAP to replace my much beloved X3, below are some of my main requirements:

1. Price: Ideally below RM800-1200.
I have read that some better players from A&K and Onkyo do sound like heaven but again I can't justify their high cost. Unless the player that you are suggesting sounds so much better than a RM800 player but the price is just a bit higher, then I don't mind trying them out.

2. Brand: Fiio is preferred, I would really hope to read real owners' words on comparison between X3, X3ii, X5, and X5ii. Other brands I'm open to suggestion, as I have no experience with other brands, there might be some gems out there that I might have missed. Example: Shanling M2, and Cayin N5 are getting quite good reviews online.

3. Sound Quality: Good vocal, wide sound stage, and good as a home hi-fi source.

4. DAC: best if the internal DAC is as good as the X3, so that I don't need to spend on extra DAC.

Any suggestion is welcome and is much appreciated. Thank you.